Burning Desire

Hard to choose

She found herself stretching in between the sheets at 6:30 am. She normally woke up early but since it was the weekend and she had nothing to do, she'd expected to wake up a little later than before.

She yawned and stretched once more before getting out of bed, blaming it on her alarm. She went into the bathroom and washed her face, feeling like she had forgotten something important.

" What is it? What did I forget?" She asked herself as she took her toothbrush and started to brush her teeth.

" Holy…." She gasped as she finally remembered " the date with Devin!". Hurriedly brushing her teeth, she rushed down the stairs.

" You're up early," she said as she walked into the kitchen and saw her mother frying bacon.

" So are you" Sophie replied, looking surprised to see her, " You don't wake up this early on weekends".

" Right," she said while yawning, " I forgot to turn off the alarm clock".

Taking a bite of the toast on a plate, she went to the refrigerator and opened it.

" You didn't happen to change your mind about your date with Mr.womanizer, did you?" Her mother asked expectantly.

Still glancing into the refrigerator, she sighed and rolled her eyes. Her mother never seems to forget things. Putting her head out, she said "Mom, you know how I like to see things myself before judging, right? Let me go on this date first, then I'll decide if he's a womanizer like they say he is or not. Experience, they say, is the best teacher."

" But sometimes it's good if one doesn't experience some things so that we won't suffer from a wound that you be so hard to heal", Sophie replied, looking glassy-eyed at the bacon she was frying.

Noticing her mom's change of mood, Cassie took out the orange juice from the fridge and quickly changed the topic.

"So, Mrs. Sophie, what about you? What are you going to do with your day?" She asked, teasing and smiling at her.

" Nothing, my day is going to be pretty boring," She said. still moody. "Unlike yours" she added,

'gosh, can she ever let things go?' Cassie thought to herself before asking, ignoring her mom's last statement " Don't you have anywhere to go to?"

"Not that I can remember," she said, then added with a spark in her eyes " Oh...I might draw some things today. I had the weirdest inspiration last night while I was sleeping".

'here we go again' she muttered, rolling her eyes. " Oh, and what would you draw?" She said with feigned interest, anything to get her out of her nasty mood. Her mother tends to talk a lot when it comes to her weird arts. Last time, she'd drawn a painting of a leg which looked beautiful other than the fact that wings were growing inbetween the perfectly beautiful legs.

She would never forget the day she received the painting. She was sitting in the living room with her grandmother watching her favorite TV show when the doorbell rang and the deliveryman gave them a present that had arrived from the prison. She had ripped off the brown paper wrappings with high expectations of what her mom had sent and when she was done unwrapping, she and her grandma both stared at the painting dumbfounded.

It was one of her mother's art therapy paintings. In a clear blue sky amongst neatly organized clouds, a woman's leg was floating. On the foot was a red high-heeled shoe and from the thigh, grew a bird's wings, of a size that can be considered excessive. She had taken one look at that painting and knew immediately that her mom was sick.

" Would be fun, wouldn't it?"

Brought back to the present by her mom's voice, she looked at her mother and said " Huh?"

" I was asking if it wouldn't be fun if we could sell one of my paintings at the auction coming up next month."

" Oh….yes it would be" she replied and drank a glass of orange juice with some toast.

" Let me go have my bath," she said, retreating quickly before her mother could continue her chatting.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She considered wearing a silk blouse and matching pencil-slim wool skirt but opted against Ii. In a moment of impulsiveness, she finally decided on a sweatshirt, sneakers, and jeans, determined to look as casual as possible. She took one look at herself in the mirror and hurried downstairs to avoid meeting her mom.

She got into her car and drove off, following the directions sent to her by Devin.

Driving into the large compound, Cassie was awed by the splendor of the long tree-lined drive and majestic huge Georgian colonial mansion. She whistled under her breath when she saw the latest Lexus parked in the driveway.

She was greeted in the front hall by a butler who introduced himself as Duncan. " Hello, Miss Donovan?"

" Yeah, how do you do?"

" I'm good, ma'am".

" Devin is expecting me, right?"

"Yes, he is in the library at the moment," he said as they walked through the large hallway towards the sitting room " If you could just wait a bit here, I'll go inform him of your arrival," he said, motioning to the sofa, and walked out.

She sat down on the white, probably animal fur-designed sofa and thought to herself how amazing his house was. " He sure is a billionaire, that's a given", she muttered, glancing around the sitting room.

"Hey" a voice from the left side of where she was seated called out to her. She turned to look at the person and was stunned.

She didn't believe he could look so good. No, she hadn't expected him to look so good in casual clothes. He was wearing faded denim jeans and

A muscle-hugging t-shirt that was opened at the neck. His legs appeared longer and his shoulders were broader and his dark hair appeared darker as he stepped under the lights. He walked with a steady grace that she hadn't noticed the first time they met.

" Hey Devin" she replied, as standing up, noting that he used a more friendly tone than he did when they met at the park.

" How are you doing? " he asked, moving towards her and enveloping her in a bear hug.

" I've never been better" she replied confused but enjoying his embrace and the smell of his cologne. He might have been tight-lipped and unfriendly at the park because he doesn't trust people and she understands that.

" Have you been waiting for a long time?" he asked, pulling her back and looking at her face.

" No, I haven't. I just got here not quite long" she replied, still confused. " You have a nice house here," she said

" Yeah thanks" he replied, staring into her eyes and smiling a perfectly charming smile that made her hold her breath. Gosh….he looks ready hot when he smiles. She smiled back at him and followed when he pointed to the sofa.

He asked her how her morning was and she replied to him, noting once again that it felt more comfortable to talk to him today than it was yesterday. It almost seemed as if he had become another person.

She was about to ask him why he had behaved the way he had yesterday when a voice called out harshly

" Dustin quit playing your games over there"

She whirled at the sound of the voice, only to see another "Devin" walking toward them. She stood from the sofa shocked at the sight and shifted backward slightly.

The 'Devin' she had been talking to, stood up and grinned, " What's wrong brother? Can't a guy keep a lady company anymore? The poor girl was looking so bored so I decided to keep her company until you arrived. Did I make a mistake?"

She stood still dumbfounded as the other 'Devin' moved closer and she got a good look at him. Though he was not in his uniform, she could still recognize him as the 'Devin' of yesterday. He wore brown slacks with a white shirt and he had the same wary look when he glanced at his second self.

"You were not just keeping her company and you know it. Besides, if you were keeping her company, you wouldn't have pretended to be me" He said glaring at his brother.

Noticing her discomfort and shock, Dustin told Devin " Why don't we just leave our disagreement for later and handle the lady. She looks shocked in seeing your double. You didn't tell her about me, did you" he said throwing a disapproving glance to Devin before turning to Cassie and smiling warmly.

" Sorry about our manners, I understand that you are shocked. Let me introduce myself, my name is Dustin Evans, twin brother of this boring fag". He said pointing to Devin and emphasizing the word 'Boring'.

Looking from one brother to the other, Cassie gradually overcomes her shock as she notices little details of differences between them.

For one, she noticed that Devin's dark hair looks a tiny bit lighter than Dustin's and their eye color was different, depending on the lighting, for example, Under the fluorescent light, Devin's eye appeared emerald green while Dustin's own appeared more green and their sense of dressing was different.

While Dustin was dressed in casual clothes, Devin opted for comfortable yet conservative clothes. Finally able to speak, she said " Can I have a glass of water?"

" Oh..sorry about that," Devin said and hurried to get water for her.

" He is boring and strange right?" Dustin whispered to her in a conspiracy tone.

" Ummm…. I don't know" She replied, unsure of how to respond to him but finding herself mentally comparing the two. Dustin is undoubtedly friendlier and more outgoing than Devin is and she couldn't help but wonder which of them was the actual womanizer.

" If it gets too boring with him tonight, I promise to make it up to you with dinner tomorrow. Not here but at a fancy restaurant" He said and gave her his contact details. " Just when you see a call from this number, know that it's I" he continued and on seeing Devin approaching, he sat down on the sofa and pretended to go through his phone.