Chapter 13 -The Reminder
1500 Words
Nikita
The next morning, Niki walked down and found Cassius in the kitchen preparing breakfast.
“Good Morning.”
He jumped and turned around. She liked what she saw. He was wearing a blue t-shirt and gray sweats. The early morning sun shining through the windows turned his messy hair golden. Cassius looked like a perfect summer's day. He wasn’t as broad as Killian, but he definitely looked like he worked out. Since he wasn’t wearing a suit, she could make out the defined lines of muscles in his arms and shoulders.
She saw his eyes looking over her with a pleased look. She tugged on Cassius's t-shirt she was wearing. "Sorry, I borrowed your shirt. I didn't have anything."
He shook his head.
"And your socks." She lifted her foot up a little to show him the long black socks she was wearing.
Cassius laughed. "I don't mind, Nikita. You look beautiful."
He spoke the last words so low and genuine, like he truly believed she was beautiful as a person, not just her looks. Her breath hitched and she looked away, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“I was attempting to make pancakes… but I am not much of a cook.”
Niki walked over to his side, he had a bowl of batter and on the counter was a pile of burnt and destroyed pancakes.
She smiled. “Turn down your heat. It doesn’t need to be on high. Your batter is sticking to your pan. Do you have butter?”
He turned and opened the fridge, grabbing butter. She put a little in the pan, letting it melt before she poured the batter.
Cassius stood right behind her as she stood at the stove. She could feel the cotton fabric from his shirt rubbing against her arm and his breath tickling the small hairs on her neck. She flipped the pancake over. Her stomach seemed to have flipped with the pancake at his proximity.
She grabbed his plate and set the golden pancake on top.
“Wow, Nikita. That looks perfect.”
She turned and looked slightly up at him. “Thank you.”
Cassius watched her for a moment before whispering, “You have a beautiful smile.”
She froze and felt even more aware of his closeness.
She looked back as she poured more batter into the pan.
“You have a beautiful home, Cassius.”
He looked around. “Thanks, it was my dad’s graduation present for me. Not what I would have chosen.”
“What would you choose?”
Cassius thought for a moment, and Niki flipped the food over.
“I would have chosen a beautiful and rustic farmhouse in the country with lots of land.”
Niki turned to him surprised. “Really?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“And what would you do with this land?”
He leaned up against the counter right next to her, facing her. “Lots. I would get ATVs, motorcycles…”
“You know how to ride a motorcycle?”
Cassius nodded. “Oh yeah. Who do you think taught Killian?”
Niki smiled, liking this new information. She poured more batter onto the pan.
Cassius said, “And cows.”
“What would you do with cows?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, watch them wander, eat grass. You have to get a few cows if you’re going to live in the country.”
She felt herself lighten with his conversation. “Oh, is that a requirement?”
He nodded seriously. “Got to be.”
“What will you name them?”
He grinned as he grabbed an apple and began tossing it from hand to hand. “Jeff… Bill…”
Niki started laughing. “Cows are female. You can name your bulls Jeff and Bill.”
Niki noticed the tips of Cassius’s ears turn a dark red. She laughed harder, finding it cute.
“Okay, okay. Wilma… Fildora…”
“Fildora?”
“Why not?”
She shrugged. “Okay, it’s your cows.”
“What would you name a cow then?”
She thought for a moment. “Dorkus.”
“Really? You’re making fun of me for Fildora and you say Dorkus?”
“It’s a real name. Look it up.”
“No. That’s ridiculous.”
She looked at him. “It is not.”
“Yes it is.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Take it back.”
He narrowed his eyes, offering her a challenge. “No.”
Quickly, Nikita dipped her finger in the batter and smeared it across his face.
He looked at her with shock and amusement.
“You did not just do that.”
He dipped his own finger into the batter and Nikita quickly dodged his attempt and ran around the island. Cassius tried to catch her, but she quickly and easily out maneuvered him. He picked up his pace. As Nikita rounded the corner, her socks slipped on the tile floor and she fell backwards onto Cassius, sending them both to the floor.
She laid on top of Cassius laughing. Her head bounced on his stomach as he burst into laughter.
She rolled over to look into his face, his blue eyes were so full of light and happiness. She noticed a tiny scar across the bottom of his chin. When he smiled, she noticed his dimples, and she wondered why she hadn’t noticed them before.
Cassius looked at her with happiness, as if her just being there made him happier. She wished she had that, and radiated it like he did. She wondered, if given time, if it would rub off on her. How she could use the sun in her life. His continued laughing made her slightly bounce on his stomach and chest, which made her laugh.
“Cassius.” She laughed.
He stifled his laugh and looked at her with a sudden tender expression.
Nikita said, “What?”
“I like hearing you say my name.”
“Something smells like it’s burning.”
She quickly scrambled to her feet at the sound of Killian’s voice. As he entered, she took the burnt pancake off the pan.
Killian looked at the two of them, offering a hello before grabbing one of her golden pancakes from the pile. He placed a piece into his mouth. After a few bites, he turned and spit them out into the trash can.
“Cassius, those are awful.”
Again, Cassius’s ears turned red.
“Sorry, we can go out for breakfast. My treat.”
As much as she wanted to stay in this world of sunshine and laughter. She had not come home last night. There were going to be consequences, which she found a bit ridiculous since she was twenty-one.
She shook her head. “Sorry. I need to go.”
“I can take you home,” Cassius offered.
“No, I’m good.”
Killian spoke, “I need to leave too. I have a meeting at nine. I’ll drop you off wherever you want.”
She nodded her thanks and went back upstairs to get changed.
Twenty minutes later, she walked into her house where her brother Orsino stopped her.
“Where have you been, sorella?”
“I got drunk last night and slept at Cassius’s house.”
“Drunk?” Her brother looked concerned. “You’ve never been drunk.” He looked closer at her, then his face turned into one of sympathy. “Is it because of last night with J?”
All the underbosses had one-letter names.
Niki looked away.
“Chin up, sorella. You know. Steel yourself. Nothing penetrates, nothing gets in. It was a job, you know he deserved it.”
She thought about the wife and son. “But did his family need to die too?”
Orsino slapped her face, not enough to cause a sting, but enough to jerk her awake.
“Don’t go soft, sorella. That is how you end up dead. You are a Gallacini, you do what you must for the family. J betrayed the family, so his family betrayed us. Steel yourself. If spending time with golden boy is making you soft, then you had better stop unless you want to get killed.”
She nodded her head. Stealing her mind and body against the darkness of her world, and reminding herself, this was who she was, a Crimson Spider.
“That’s right. Come on, Padre has a new job for you.”
She lifted her head and followed Orsino into Padre’s office. But despite her best attempts at trying to feel nothing, her heart seemed to pound a little harder and a little louder as the memories of that morning penetrated her mind. But as she walked into her father’s office, seeing the grim look on his face, she was reminded of how her world and Cassius’s could never mix. She was meant to be alone.
- Writer
