Cassandra

Cassandra had a truly wonderful weekend. She had spent basically all of Friday cuddling with her girlfriend, culminating in staying up late to finish a truly long movie marathon, then sleeping in the same bed as Zoe.

Admittedly, they had tried sleeping cuddled up, but even in the cold of winter, they were overheating being so close. So, while they had initially fallen asleep holding hands in Zoe's queen sized bed, Cass ended up getting a rather comfortable night's sleep.

Saturday morning had gone about as well as it possibly could have, too; Zoe had gotten up and made breakfast for the two of them. It wasn't anything special menu-wise, just bacon and eggs, but the meal itself still felt special. Zoe invited Cassandra to join her in watching whichever of her weekly shows she had interest in, which turned out to be a bunch of them.

Zoe kept up to date with a couple comedy-type series that Cass also liked, so they watched them together and ate breakfast. There were also a few weekly anime that they were both watching too, so those were played through as well. Cass kept putting off leaving until early in the afternoon when she got hungry enough that she had to go for food.

The two of them went out for lunch at another nearby cafe where Cass had finally made the decision that she should probably go home. Zoe, meanwhile, decided that she wasn't done quite yet, and told Cass that she could drive her home. Instead of an hour-plus long walk and train ride, a twenty minute drive was hard to pass up, so Cass relented.

And, of course, that fiasco ended up with Zoe spending the rest of the day at Cass' place until after dinner. And even then, once Zoe got home, they continued to message one another well into the late evening.

By the time Cass was getting into bed, she could hardly believe how much their relationship had changed. She had to admit, of course, that the potential to be this involved had always been there. There had been a number of days where they had basically messaged back and forth all day long, though it had mostly been in relation to a new game they were both absorbed in or something equivalent.

This time, they talked about nothing and everything. Small, inconsequential thoughts were passed along in messages, as were probing questions that wouldn't be out of place on a playground. Cass hadn't really needed to think about what her favorite color was in years, but Zoe still asked, wanting to know more about Cass. The entire day had basically been perfect.

When Sunday rolled around, things were a little bit different. Cass still sent Zoe a good morning message, and they chatted a little, too, but the vibe was different. They were both locked in, ready, and excited to get back into the raid in Mag Mell and it showed. Even their aimless banter had quickly turned to strategy and curiosity about what was coming next, after almost zero game-related talk the previous day.

Cassandra's morning was spent fairly normally, just with the new addition of constant messaging going back and forth. But when the time to log onto the game came around, she was ready and raring to go. She had a sandwich and some pretzels beside her alongside a bottle of cola for her lunch as she launched the game and entered the Clan chat a little early, around fifteen minutes before the agreed upon meet time of noon.

Evidently, Zoe had been basically waiting and ready to go, too, because she popped into the chat literally seconds after Cass did. The chatter was entirely game focused as Cass was busy running Evie around to get herself set up for PvE content once again, and then travel to [Gorias] where the raid questline would continue from.

The rest of the party trickled in, a few of them still needing to prep for entering the raid, just like Cass did. But while there were a few stragglers that needed to finish getting their stuff together, the atmosphere in chat changed as soon as everyone was in attendance.

Mellody was the last to arrive, and as soon as he did, everyone got quiet. Bisky was the first to talk after that, beginning with a long, drawn out, "So…"

What Cass had read as tension in the moment shattered entirely when she realized why everyone got quiet.

"So, y'all gonna tell us or do we need to ask?" Caoimhe said bluntly. "Because we will. Ask, that is."

Zoe sighed dramatically. "De we have to?"

"Yep." Aleister said brightly. "You don't have a say in the matter. There is internal Clan tea to spill, and spill it you will."

"Nyx?" Cass asked.

"Nope, you first." Zoe chuckled.

Cass shrugged. "Well, on Christmas," she began, but stopped. A thought occurred to her, and a devious little grin split across her face. If Zoe was determined to make her talk first, she'd get a little bit of good natured teasing in.

"You know what? No. Not at Christmas." Cass started again, and she imagined the silence over the chat suddenly being from confusion rather than just anticipation. "I've been crushing on Nyx for…I don't know, at least a year now."

That got the sort of response she had wanted, with 'ooo's coming from several of their friends. "You know, it's funny? Neither of us knew that the other was into girls. At least, not for sure? I won't get too into it for reasons, but I had been prowling around basically every dating app I could, trying to see if I could find her on it to get confirmation?"

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Laughter. That was nice.

"Never had any dice on that. But a few weeks ago, I kinda decided "to hell with it all" and started going on the offensive a little bit." Cass smiled. This was actually one topic that they hadn't touched on yet, so this could be just as new to Zoe as the rest. "I think you all know we're co-workers, right? Well, we've been going to lunch together pretty often over the last four years or so since we met."

Someone in the chat whistled at that number, which made Cass smile.

"During one of our lunches, I asked Zoe out to dinner. We went, and it was great. Then I asked her out again literally the next night. That was actually the Thursday night we cancelled because Eli was sick, I think."

"It was. We were at dinner when I realized the next week was Christmas…" Zoe added, her voice a little quiet as she listened to Cass' story.

"That night, when we were walking home, Nyx was interested in the jacket I was wearing because she hadn't really ever worn peacoats. So, that night, we set up a shopping date in New York City."

"Damn, you two moved fast."

"I knew that was supposed to be a date…" Zoe muttered, which got another group of chuckles from their audience.

"Sure was." Cass continued. "We went shopping, got lunch, walked around the city a bit, and went to a park with holiday vendors set up…it was a good day."

"It was…" Zoe agreed.

"After that, you all basically know my side. I had intended to be home alone all day on Christmas and enjoy my day - but I did tell Nyx that I would have a second bucket of fried chicken with her name on it if she wanted to stop by. Lo and behold, she showed up on my doorstep pretty late. Well after dinner, at least."

Cass couldn't help but grin, thinking back to that night. "Y'all, she was so cute, you have no idea. She looked a little disheveled and a bit wild. I'll skip some of the actual details, but suffice to say, I laughed when she told me she deleted all of her dating app profiles a couple years ago, then told her I had been prowling around all of them just to find her. Talk about a waste of time."

The group laughed, and Cass grinned, taking it a step further. She was almost positive she wouldn't be able to say any of what she was about to if it wasn't with the express purpose of teasing Zoe. "Y'all, I haven't been this happy in so long. Nyx is such a lovely, beautiful woman. I can't believe how lucky I am."

That got some whistles and cheers from the peanut gallery as she continued, "And more than that, we've basically been messaging back and forth all day every day since. That is, when we weren't cuddled up next to one another all day. She's a wonderful girlfriend, and I couldn't ask for more."

More cheering followed, but what made Cass actually grin wider was the notification chime that indicated a direct message from Zoe.

{Zoe} : You jackass.

{Cass} : I'll take that as a compliment.

{Cass} : Get revenge. If you can.

Cass doubted very much that Zoe had it in her to speak so candidly to try to embarrass Cass in retribution. That doubt was shaken pretty quickly when Zoe spoke up nonchalantly.

"You know, I invited Cass to my family's house with me for Christmas? Because I felt bad that she'd be spending the holiday all alone."

Cass frowned at the opening line, because she wasn't quite sure how she would continue from there. It sounded almost insulting. The group suddenly going quiet seemed just as confused.

"You guys, if she had come with me, the absolute trainwreck that followed would've been a sight to behold. I can't even describe how lucky I was that she rightfully recognized it might be awkward to show up at someone else's family dinner. But I don't think even Cass realizes how awkward it would've been." Zoe chuckled.

"I'll spare you all the messy details, but my family - mostly my mother - has been so on top of me to find a girlfriend since my older sister got married. It's been a nightmare. And for a myriad of reasons, I haven't been looking to date for several years now." There was a short gap before she continued, "And it didn't exactly help that I have been denying a crush on my best friend for a long time."

That finally got the group back on board with some teasing 'ooh's again.

"I couldn't let myself admit it. Couldn't. And Evie asking me out on what were clearly dates in all but name was making it more difficult to deny. And then all hell broke loose at that Christmas dinner. My younger brother saw us in the city on our not-date, and decided to use it to throw fuel on my mother's fire while we were eating."

"Oh, man."

"Evie, you really dodged a bullet by not going." Bisky laughed.

"You guys have no idea." Zoe continued. "I narrowly managed to get off the subject, and ended up on the back porch with my sister afterward. She did some light interrogating to suss out my feelings, and told me pretty much outright that there was no way that Evie wasn't interested in me."

"And then, immediately after my sister went back inside and left me standing out in the cold, I got this."

Zoe posted a screen shot from her messages of the image and message that Cass had sent her that evening. The message that read, "Hey, I know you were probably joking about stopping by tonight, but I still got two buckets of chicken just in case." and the image of Cass holding one bucket of fried chicken in one hand and the second bucket held fast between her teeth, using her other hand to take the selfie.

The group's reaction was a comically unified "Oh. My. God."

"Right?" Zoe laughed. "Y'all, so much of that day and night are something of a blur, but I distinctly remember standing there and staring at that picture, knowing I was entirely fucked. I went back inside, took the family picture that I put in the chat, and basically beelined it the fuck out of there, and drove straight to Evie's house so I could tell her I liked her."

"Admittedly, she ended up sort of asking me out first in the end, but…well. I'm a little gunshy when it comes to relationships these days. And Evie has been nothing short of wonderful and damn-near perfect. I can't imagine she'll be anything other than an immense pillar of strength for me in the future. Despite how amazing she had been, that feeling from Christmas night of knowing that I am truly and entirely doomed by this woman hasn't budged an inch."

Amidst all the hooting and hollering from their friends, Cass saw the message from Zoe that read, "How's that?" but she honestly wasn't sure how to respond. On the other hand, the furious scarlet blush that painted her entire face and neck probably said it better than she could have.

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