A Beauteous Flower Ch. 12

"You know, I'm not ashamed of that video, but I'm not proud of it either. It wasn't my best moment, but I did it and I never backed away from it. I just wasn't prepared for what it would cost me. I don't care if it cost me your respect. I never wanted respect from any pack of silly popular girls in my life. If I had, I wouldn't have done it. No, it cost me something way more valuable than what you think of me. It cost me something I didn't appreciate at the time."

Greg Something-or-Other stood at the edge of the small clot of hangers-on and Cassidy pointedly looked right at him. He flinched.

"You want to know what it cost me?"

"What?" Madison challenged in her best mocking tone. "You're self-respect?"

Cassidy didn't take her gaze off Greg Something-or-Other.

"Heh heh. That's funny, Madison," Cassidy snickered. "Especially from a pick-me girl like you."

Cassidy's gaze swung to Madison and Greg Something-or-Other quietly edged his way toward the door.

"I'll tell you what it cost me, you ignoramus." Cassidy took a huge hit off the vape before she continued. "It cost me what you treat so carelessly, like it's your God damn birthright. It cost me the chance at the love of a guy with a good heart. It cost me any chance at the love of a guy like Daniel."

That shocked everyone into silence and Cassidy went on.

"It's true. A guy like Daniel... no that's wrong... a man like Daniel wouldn't have anything to do with a girl like me. In fact, he shouldn't have anything to do with me, with any of us. You most of all, Madison. He's too good for girls like us."

Cassidy looked contempt at everyone and pointed at the women in the small huddle.

"Yeah, girls like us. Common, low rent, good-timing pretty bitches who don't know the difference between a guy and a man. You girls don't know the difference between a guy and a man, do you? Well, all you've got to do is take a look at a man like Daniel and then compare him to the riff-raft that showed up at this party and there you have it. But you dumb bitches just whore yourselves out to pretty faces for a good time, a fast car, and a big house rather than take the time to learn the difference between a guy and a man. And you don't care either if the parties are lit, and the drugs are high quality."

Cassidy took another hit from the vape and snorted a derisive laugh at the women in the room.

"Do you know how stupid you all look? How desperate and pathetic? You literally throw yourself at these vain and vapid morons because they're pretty and their bank accounts have a few extra zeros in the right places. Let me hip you to something. In ten years, they'll all be broke because they're crippled and can't play football anymore and you'll be there with the four kids when he files for bankruptcy and there is nothing to take from him in the divorce. That's where that silly high-school girl dream ends. The former star quarterback hobbles around the trailer and reminisces about the glory days while you microwave a pasta meal and wonder how you wound up right back in the trailer park."

Cassidy's derisive laughter cowed everyone into morose silence. They might not have liked it, but Madison could tell they heard Cassidy, because she did too. And Madison's stomach began to knot up with a question born of fear. Cassidy fixed her gaze on Madison again.

"And you, Madison. You get lucky and find the one real man in this steamy, sweaty, smelly herd of guys. A man who could appreciate and cherish you and give you a life where you're always safe and secure and warm and loved. A man who would put you first, even if it hurts him, and help you build a life that is so... so wonderful and magical that you didn't even know existed, and you don't deserve. A life of a home and a family and the joy of the company of your soul mate."

Cassidy's voice wavered a bit in a shaky little sob as Greg Something-or-Other shut the screen door and headed for his car.

"That's what that video cost me. But you, Madison, you had it. You had Daniel and all you had to do was love and care for him and be gentle with him and respect him for the wonderful person he was."

Cassidy's voice hardened a bit and she continued on.

"I didn't flirt with Daniel, Madison. I know I can't get a man like Daniel because of what I did. But I'm grateful to him because tonight he didn't treat me like every else treats me; like a two-dimensional slut who sucked a dick on the internet. Do you have any idea what a relief that is? He treated me like I was a person, with respect and sweetness and he listened to me like I was more than a scarlet letter, and I wouldn't do anything to disrespect that depth of kindness. I'd kill to have a man love me the way Daniel loves you, Madison."

Cassidy paused to sniff back some tears.

"That's why I didn't hit on him. I knew he would never go for it because he loves you, Madison, to the exclusion of all others and it would never even occur to him to look at another woman."

While she trembled with emotion, Cassidy braced herself with a huge hit off the vape. After she exhaled, she spoke her next line like a coffin nail.

"At least he did love you. I don't know about now."

Madison's heart stalled in fear.

"What did you tell him?"

"Not a thing. Girl code honor."

Cassidy turned her head while her eyes stayed fixed on Madison, and she took another outsized hit of weed out of the vape.

"I didn't flirt with Daniel." Cassidy intoned impassively as she exhaled smoke. "So, you can holster your hilariously ironic jealousy. This little slut didn't disrespect your man in any way. Which is more than you can say."

Madison felt a tug of self-doubt and hesitated. Cassidy looked at Madison and nodded in affirmation.

"Point of fact; your man just let me hold his cat while told me a funny a story about his trip through TSA at the airport. All I did was laugh."

Madison balked, unable to think.

"A funny story?" Madison repeated automatically.

"Yeah, your man has an atomic sense of humor, and he's smart as a whip."

Madison's anger faded.

"Why would he...?"

"I saw him in the kitchen with a desperate look on his face. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me he couldn't find his cat. He was on the verge of panic, not that you noticed. You were too focused on yourself. You had to break up the party and bury the evidence. Meanwhile Daniel was afraid his friend got outside and that the coyotes would eat him. So, I showed him where Gandalf was and after he rescued Gandalf from the closet, he and I had a nice chat."

Madison blanched at the thought that Daniel knew that Gandalf had been stuck in a closet. That certainly explained his retreat to the bedroom. Cassidy reclined against the counter as the weed kicked in. She blew some breath straight up to stir her red bangs out of her eyes.

"He's been your husband for a year and your boyfriend and fiancé a year before that. You should know that he would never cheat on you. He couldn't even if he wanted to. It's just not in him to do that kind of thing."

Madison's face fell.

"You do know that, right?" Cassidy quizzed.

Madison looked up helplessly and Cassidy burst into laughter.

"She doesn't know!" Cassidy crowed and slapped Kelly on the arm. They both leaned into each other, and their laughter swirled around the kitchen like a merry whirlwind and the tension in the air eased tangibly. Madison couldn't be sure, but it seemed like everyone else in the kitchen gravitated towards Cassidy despite her caustic assessment of them. Cassidy took another drag off the vape and passed it to Kelly.

"Well, that's a scream!"

Kelly tittered out a big plume of blue smoke and Madison's anger returned, rekindled by the insolent display before her.

"I know that Daniel would never cheat on me!"

Cassidy guffawed and shrugged to Kelly in disbelief.

"Then why bother to confront me? Why aren't you upstairs right now with your man?"

Cassidy's eyes narrowed as she gleaned the truth right off of Madison's face.

"Oh, won't talk to you, huh? He shut you out of the bedroom, didn't he. Well, maybe there is hope for him yet."

Madison tried to dodge the truth train that hurtled her way.

"What does it matter where he is and where I am? This is about what you did!" she protested. "Besides, I know him!"

"Thick as a brick, just like you said," Cassidy muttered to Kelly, who passed the vape back to Cassidy with a confidential smile. Kelly giggled her empty girlish titter with Cassidy, but for a moment Madison saw something flash in Kelly's bloodshot eyes; intelligence and sympathy. It was gone as fast as it appeared and Kelly and Cassidy shared another round of giggles as they both turned to Madison, who was struck dumb by the display.

"I should have seen this sooner. A blind person could see it in an instant, but not a fool like you, Madison. You found a diamond; a one-in-a-million kind of man, but you treated him like he's just some plain old guy you could replace with one of these party idiots. You have no idea what you had there in Daniel. You don't know a damn thing about him."

Cassidy's discernment hit Madison like a sledgehammer. She had stormed into the room full of righteous anger and now Cassidy bested her like a bulldozer in the middle of her own pretty salmon-tiled kitchen floor.

"Shame on you, Madison," Cassidy puffed the vape again with plump pink lips and then forged ahead. "I mean, I've known him what, twenty minutes? I know more about your man than you do, and you've had him all to yourself for two years!"

Again, Kelly and Cassidy dissolved into mirthful gales of laughter. Madison's indignation rose. How dare Cassidy think she knew more about Daniel than she did?

"I know him!" She snarled defiantly at Cassidy.

The laughter stopped and Cassidy's face resumed a deadly serious cast.

"Oh, you know him? Then tell me, why did he name his cat Gandalf?" Cassidy demanded. When Madison hesitated, Cassidy plowed on implacably. "Don't know, do ya? OK, let's try more basic. What's his favorite thing to drink? No idea? Well, it's unrealistic to expect things like that to come up over two years!"

Now most of the people in the kitchen laughed along as Cassidy took another thoughtful pull on the vape. She exhaled smoke like a dragon and launched another truth missile at Madison.

"What's his favorite color?"

Madison's shoulders slumped and Cassidy closed in for the kill.

"I've known your man for twenty minutes and I know those things! I know because I listened to him! You've known him for two years and you don't know anything about him! I'd bet real money that you don't know his fantasies, his hopes, his fears; right? Why on Earth would you ever discuss stuff like that with him? I mean, he's only your husband! I bet you don't know if he wanted you to make over his house. You didn't even ask him, did you?"

Cassidy paused for another hit off the vape and then went on.

"You were so focused on yourself and what you wanted that you didn't bother to find out anything about him. Did you, you simpleton?"

Cassidy's eyes narrowed and she pointed a finger of accusation at Madison.

"Did you?" Cassidy repeated like a grand inquisitor.

"That's not true!" protested Madison loudly. A little too loudly to ring true.

"Oh, yeah? Then tell me this, Madison. Did you let him in on the decision to get pregnant, or did you just stop your birth control and figure that when you gave him a positive test, he'd be so happy that he'd forget to be offended by your failure to include him in the biggest decision of his life?"

Cassidy staggered a little as the weed messed with her equilibrium, but she quickly righted herself and pushed on.

"If you had put any effort into your relationship with Daniel, you would have respected him enough to include him in that little decision. And you'd have known he would never cheat on you with me or anyone else for that matter. And you would have known better than to lock his cat up in a closet and, more to the point, would have known better than to have this party in the first place. And you would have known that you have an absolute gem of a man on your hands, and you wouldn't have dared to do anything that might disrespect him or threaten that relationship. Period. Full stop."

Cassidy slowly strolled towards Madison with a confident swagger only slightly off kilter because she was so stoned. With another large puff on the vape, Cassidy blew smoke directly in Madison's face.

"And if you knew what kind of man you had in Daniel, you wouldn't have bother to flirt with that oaf tonight. What's his name, Kelly? Steve? Was that it? Ah, it doesn't matter. He's just a disposable hunk of meat when compared to Daniel. Yeah, you wouldn't have flirted with him, and you wouldn't have even considered fucking him, especially here, in the home Daniel built for you."

Cassidy's eyes were stone cold as they bored into Madison's eyes. Tears of embarrassment flowed down Madison's cheeks, embarrassment at the public revelation that she had kissed another man in her husband's home and, more importantly, that she did not know much about her husband.

"I didn't fuck him!" Madison offered her best bitter protest.

Cassidy smirked derision at Madison.

"You kissed him, though."

Madison didn't answer, but she didn't have to. Everyone in the room knew.

"If you knew Daniel at all, you'd know that it's all the same in his mind and the degree doesn't matter. Kiss, fuck, it's all the same; you betrayed Daniel's trust and that will kill your relationship with him. You might as well have fucked Steve the Oaf as far as Daniel's concerned."

Cassidy gave Madison a pat on the shoulder while she pushed out her bottom lip in a mock sympathetic pout.

"At least if you'd fucked Steve the Oaf, you might have gotten a few moments of pleasure out of the deal. A very few from the looks of him, but you still defiled your home and insulted your husband, and you didn't even get laid for your trouble."

Cassidy took another big hit off the vape and blew smoke straight up.

"So don't blame me for your mess, Madison. You did this all by your lonesome. If you hadn't tried to lay the blame at my feet, I might feel sorry for you. You don't even deserve the favor of the truth. You think because you don't have a sex video on the internet, you're somehow pure? Well, let me set you straight, sister."

Cassidy leaned close to Madison.

"At least in my video, I paid enough attention to make sure everyone got what they wanted. If I left any scars on my co-star, they're superficial and as for Gail, she deserved it. But, sister, you've just chopped Daniel's heart into little pieces, like a careless six-year-old with a hatchet, because your video will scar Daniel's soul and he didn't want or deserve it. "

Cassidy closed her eyes and nodded sadly at Madison as she pointed to the security camera in the corner of the kitchen.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm not the only one here with a video that might keep me from a man like Daniel."

Cassidy exaggerated a nod with a flat line on her face.

"Check the security video if you don't believe me. After you're satisfied that I didn't lay a finger on Daniel, then maybe you can use that video to prove to Daniel that you didn't fuck Steve the Oaf."

Madison's blood ran cold and froze the tears on her cheeks. That's what she had forgotten! The security system! And the video feed went right to the monitor in their bedroom! And Daniel was alone in the bedroom!

"Oh, my God!"

"Yeah, OMG is right, Madison. The only trouble is when you show Daniel that video to prove you didn't fuck Steve the Oaf, Daniel will also find out, well, you know... how the party got started,... how Gandalf wound up in the closet... how chummy you got Steve the Oaf. My, my. That sure is a pickle."

After a moment of intense study and another toke, Cassidy's eyes softened. Maybe because she had totally crushed Madison, Cassidy felt she could be magnanimous to her defeated foe. Or perhaps she really did empathize in the end.

"Actually, I've changed my mind. I do feel sorry for you. This is bad, Madison. Once Daniel finds out, and he will find out, it will explode in your face worse that you can even imagine. When you hurt a man like Daniel, well, you'll see; it's seismic. I feel bad for you because you had everything a woman could want right in in front of you. Daniel is a beautiful soul; a man you could live a dream with. But you chose to focus on yourself and your own petty wants and needs rather than the dream Daniel offered you. Now it's all crashed down around your head, and now that you know, it's probably too late for you to save it."

Cassidy shook her head sadly.

"A girl maybe gets one chance in a lifetime to build a life with a man like Daniel, Madison. I don't think girls like us can get second chances with men like that. At least not that I've ever heard of. Probably because we don't deserve the first chance, let alone the second."

Cassidy's eyes got a far-off sad look in them, and her little pixie face went wan.

"I'll never get a chance with a man like that. They don't go for girls like me," Cassidy admitted softly. Then she looked around the room with contempt in her eyes.

"They don't go for girls like us."

Cassidy shook her little head sadly.

"I really feel bad. For Daniel especially. This will leave a scar on his soul so deep... well, you'll see."

Then Cassidy's wistful look melted from her face, and she made slow, soul withering eye contact with every woman in the room before she turned back to Madison.

"Look at them, Madison. A feckless flock of party chicks. They circle at parties like hungry vultures and hunt for some carcass of a guy to feed and support them. Now they've got the scent that Daniel is something special and they've all schemed up their fetid little plans on how they'll swoop in and get their hands on him because you're on your way out the door. Look at them. They can't help themselves. Like a pack of zombies out to devour your wounded relationship. The only question in their tiny brains now is how long is a polite mourning period before they can sink their nasty little claws into him."

Cassidy turned back to the small crowd of hanger-ons.

"Listen up, you soulless bitches." Cassidy ordered. "It's true Madison doesn't deserve a man like Daniel, but before the rest of us get any ideas, neither do any of the rest of us. So, you raggedy lot of scavengers, just steer clear and give Madison room to try to fix this with Daniel. Madison might not deserve a second chance, but Daniel deserves a chance to see if Madison can make this right. So leave them alone... or deal with me."

Cassidy touched Madison's arm sympathetically and placed a gentle kiss on Madison's cheek. Madison tasted the tears both she and Cassidy cried.

"I'll light a votive for you and Daniel. I do hope it works out; for Daniel's sake. This is going to cut him right to the bone and he's got every right to be mad as hell at you. You should know that he loves you. Deeply and truly. And luckily that won't just vanish overnight with a man like him no matter how hurt or angry he is, because it's the real thing; true love like you read about. Like he writes about, which you might know if you ever bothered to read one of his books. I learned that in twenty minutes too and you'll never believe how much I envy that. The love of a truly good soul is a precious gift. It might have been your saving grace. You don't have to be a stupid selfish bitch like this lot for the rest of your life, Madison. There must be something different about you or Daniel wouldn't have wasted his heart on you. So, change and pay whatever price you have to pay to keep him. Fight for him. He's so worth it."

Cassidy let out a resigned sigh and wobbled for the door.