Once I was finished, I stepped out to see a very impatient Cass. I was a little more awake to deal with her now. “You want to tell me what is going on now?”
“I don’t know when the next time I will get to see you. I want to use the next,” she looked at the clock, “Seven and a half hours to spend quality time together before you leave.” She sat heavily on the end of my bed again. “I feel like we barely got to spend time together this summer. You were always training, and so was I.”
I nodded as I walked over in my robe. “I know.” I sat next to her. “I feel like I should apologize, but I know we were where we needed to be this summer.”
Cass nodded and looked over at me with tears in her eyes. “I don’t want you to leave.”
“I know. I don’t want to leave either.”
“Promise me you won’t become best friends with Lynn. I don’t think I could take it.” I laughed and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. “Amy, I’m serious.”
“I know. But I would never replace you, Cass. No one would ever measure up.” I laid my head on her shoulder. “You are always going to be my best friend.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” I stood and headed to my closet to finish getting ready. “I’ll be ready by seven. By the time we eat and head to the mall, it should be open.”
“The mall?” Cass followed me with her eyes. “Why are we going to the mall?”
“I have an idea, but I will have to call ahead.” I closed myself in my closet with her yelling after me.
“This was supposed to be my idea.” She banged on the door.
“Yeah, well, it still can be, but I want to do one thing.” I called back before I made a call. I waited for the person to answer.
“Hello?” The groggy voice made me feel a little bad.
“Hey. It’s Amy. I need your help. Can you be at your store at eight?”
The voice woke up a little more. “I guess. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just need to get that thing we were talking about.”
“Shit really?” The voice was fully awake now.
“Yeah.” I smiled. “Make sure Neil is with you. Cass is coming with me and I want something to match her too.”
“You think she would go for it?”
“Yeah. I’m sure.” I laughed when I heard a thump. “I’ll see you at eight?”
“Yeah. We will be there.” The line went dead, and I finally got dressed.
“Let’s go eat.” I pulled her from my room and raced down the stairs.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m not telling you.” I looked back at her and grinned. “It’s a surprise, but you’ll love it. I promise.” I pulled her into the dining hall and we grabbed big plates of food. I went and sat next to my exhausted father. “You okay?”
“Yeah baby girl. I’m just tired. But I got it done.” He took a sip of his coffee and looked over at me. “You look excited. What’s up?”
“Cass woke me up at the butt crack of dawn to get some quality time in.”
“But she hijacked my plans and now I have no idea what we are doing.” Cass pointed out and I laughed.
“You made the mistake of waking me up.” I leaned into the warmth of my father. “We are going to see MJ and Neil.” My dad looked over at Cass and laughed.
“No idea?” I just shook my head. And he laughed harder. “That’s definitely going to be some quality time.”
