In the aftermath of the Autumn Festival, Cassie must face the wrath of her peers, but perhaps even more frightening, she must face Prince Coleman again. Fortunately, Cassie has a cute butler on her side...and a few new friends.
I could tell Coleman was down when Mr. Prescott left, but I didn't have much sympathy for him. I just felt bad for Luke.
On Friday, Luke and I went to a karaoke night, where he sang the song "Brown Eyed Girl" which was one of my favorite songs. Naturally, his beautiful voice made my heart swoon.
On Saturday, I met Madeline for lunch in Wethercross and she told me the details about her successful date with Roiben on Sunday and how they had spent time with each other twice since. From the way she was glowing, I could tell she really liked him. She also invited me to two parties the next week—one party in the middle of the week hosted by Roiben, and a smaller soiree of hers on Saturday. She had asked him to secure me and invitation. While I was in the city, I went to a nail salon to fix my grown out nails from the Autumn Festival.
On Sunday, I looked at my calendar and realized that a special date was coming up—Luke's 23rd birthday on November 15th, so I started planning on what I was going to get him and went shopping. The night before his birthday, I decided it was time to head to the kitchen. It was a place I avoided as best as I possibly could since the Autumn Festival, but now I would have to face Chef Jonathan again.
"Miss Cassie!" Chef Jonathan looked quite surprised to see me.
"Hello, Jonathan," I said, carrying a grocery bag full of ingredients.
"What do you have there?" Jonathan asked me.
"Ingredients to make a cake," I answered, lifting up the plastic bag. I sighed. "I know we aren't on the best of terms, but would you allow me to borrow your kitchen tonight?"
Chef Jonathan looked at me thoughtfully for a moment. "Of course," he said at last. "We are friends, after all."
Friends, I thought. I guess we were friends, somewhat. But I thought of Nikolas, who also claimed my friendship, and the vastly better relationship we had. He never treated me like a slut and turned cold towards me when baseless rumors started flying.
I guess there are different degrees of friendship.
"Thank you," I said to Chef Jonathan. He supervised while I baked my chocolate cake recipe that I had found online. Luke had mentioned that he loved chocolate, so I had spent a fair amount of time searching to internet for a delicious-sounding recipe. I wasn't a bad cook, but the recipe was complex, and Jonathan was there to help me with some of the more complicated parts. I think it was way of saying sorry. When the cake was complete, I high-fived him and thanked him for his help. I guess that was my way of saying "I forgive you."
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The morning of Luke's birthday, I got up extra early to get ready before Luke would be up and went over to his room and waited outside his door eagerly. I only had to wait about fifteen minutes until he walked out of his room, and I ran up to him and jumped on him to give him a big hug.
