Cassie began to think there was only one logical answer to overcoming her little problem. Maybe she needed to reconsider Gabby’s idea to go out on a date with someone new. If there was a way she could stop herself from fixating on her ex-boyfriend, then she had to at least give it a go. She couldn’t keep going on the way she was.
She thought if she could just keep busy by working and raising Jake in a normal upbringing, then all her thoughts about Jordan would simply disappear like they never existed in the first place. Unfortunately, her head and her heart had other ideas, and one wasn’t communicating with the other.
Cassie only saw one possible outcome to resolve her little dilemma. She didn’t want to continue obsessing over something that was never going to happen on her day off work, when she only got a few of them. She should be making the most of her time spent away from the bakery.
As she paced the tiled floors of her kitchen, contemplating over her impossible choices and what she should do—before she chewed through all her fingernails and had nothing to paint and make pretty, or before she paced around her kitchen enough to wear a hole in the middle of the floor—she slipped her iPhone out of her skinny-leg jeans pocket, unlocked the screen, and dialed a number she’d saved a while ago.
Waiting for an answer felt like torture. She hoped she hadn’t her bridges by saying no so many times he’d finally taken the hint and realized it just wasn’t meant to be.
Then, she was taken by surprise when a deep voice answered the phone call with a simple, “Hello?”
Cassie breathed out a sigh into the phone, giving herself a little pep talk. She could do this. She had to. She saw no other choice if she insisted on moving on with life without Jordan.
“Jesse?” Cassie asked.
“Yes? It’s Cassie, right? I have caller I.D,” he responded. His voice sounded almost happy to hear it was her calling him since it was usually Jesse calling Cassie.
“I—um—” Cassie stuttered. She didn’t have a whole lot of practice in dating, when she had only ever been out with one guy in her entire twenty-five years of life.
You can do this, she told herself. It’s not rocket science or anything, Cassie. You’re just asking him out. He’s asked you out plenty of times. It can’t be too damn hard to do. He might even say yes.
But the yes part was probably what scared Cassie the most. Although she knew she needed to escape her comfort zone, she wasn’t sure she would ever truly be ready to leave the past where it belonged—in the past.
“I was calling to ask if your offer to go out on a date was still open,” Cassie said all in breath, as if she had to get it out before she changed her mind or realized it was an abominable mistake.
“So, you mean to tell me you’ve actually reconsidered and changed your mind about going out with me?”
“Wow, you make it sound like I find you repugnant or something,” Cassie joked, and she heard Jesse join in with a chuckle.
“Sorry. I don’t mean to, but I have asked you out on a number of occasions, and each time, you’ve turned me down. I was beginning to think you didn’t like me very much.”
“No hard feelings or anything, I do like you. You’re an incredible friend to me, and I wanted to say yes to go out with you the first time you asked me out. I just didn’t know if the time was right to be going out with you, and if by doing so, how much of an impact it would have on Jake.”
“How do you feel now?” Jesse asked her, his tone of voice changing to a serious one.
“I wouldn’t be calling you if I didn’t want to go out with you, if that’s anything to go by.” If only that were the actual truth. Cassie didn’t like lying to those she cared about, but she also didn’t have much of a choice. She didn’t want Jesse finding out the real reason she was changing her mind about a date with him. He didn’t deserve to know the only reason she was changing her mind was because she needed to get her mind off of someone else, kind of like a rebound thing, even though she didn’t plan to sleep with Jesse—or with anybody—on the first date. Unlike Gabby, Nick, or even Jordan, it wasn’t her style.
Nobody deserved to be a rebound. Sometimes, it just happened that way.
“Okay, so I will pick you up at seven tonight.” Jesse’s voice changed once more, and Cassie felt bad again that she didn’t feel as good as he obviously did about their plans.
“It’s a date.”
Once Cassie ended the phone call, there was a tiny part of her deep down inside that felt all giddy. She finally had something to look forward to, and she’d finally have a chance to wear the little black dress she’d bought a couple of months ago, but hadn’t worn yet. Maybe a date with Jesse was exactly what she needed to really get over Jordan after all.