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Mr. Black (Ch. 2)

Chapter 2: Cassidy Amor

By Robin AmorPublished 5 years ago 16 min read
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Earlier that day.

Cassidy sipped on her cup of coffee, letting the heat of the beverage warm up her body on such a cold autumn morning. The sun was shining, but in the far distance, she could see grey clouds gathering. She continued to gaze out from the large glass window in Guy's apartment which overlooked the London horizon. She didn't know how Guy could afford the rent for such an expensive apartment in the city centre. It was huge, with a large, open-space kitchen, living room, and four master bedrooms, all of which had their own en-suites and dressing rooms.

Cassidy finished her cup of coffee and placed it down onto the black marble worktop and started making breakfast while going through some last minute notes regarding the opening of the art gallery tonight. Well, some of the pieces were hers. She flicked through the brochure. The majority of the paintings were Guy's. His images were dark and dangerous, bloodshed filled with action and suspense. Guns, violence, and car chases. She didn't know where he got his ideas from, but they looked so real, like Guy had witnessed each scenario as it happened, and each brushstroke conveyed the adrenaline running through his fingertips. Nonetheless, people loved his work. It was fresh and exciting, compared to today's boring drab of a blank canvas with a single black dot in the corner. Guy's paintings sold for hundreds of pounds, sometimes thousands. He was starting to gain a name for himself, and he wasn't even aware of it. He had no care for his work. He would sit in his art room all evening, usually after work, and paint. Then he would discard it in a pile in the corner when finished. It was almost like he was erasing the image from his head by drawing it onto paper, and his discarding it was his way of forgetting about the memory forever. Cassidy took it as an opportunity to sell his discarded works online. Of course, she'd asked his permission first, and he didn't seem to mind, and now because of the sudden popularity of his pieces, she had enough money to open her own gallery. Not bad for a second-year art student. Although her artwork was popular, she wished it had the same success as his. She'd gone against her father's advice to go to medical school and had changed her major to art so she could pursue her dream as an artist, a career change that strained her relationship with her father, but she wouldn't change it for the world. So she needed her artwork to succeed.

She closed the brochure and turned on the oven and started making pancakes. She stacked them one on top of the other and topped the stack with dark berries and maple syrup. Guy's favourite. She poured the fresh orange juice into a glass and carried the tray back to his bedroom. Although Cassidy pretty much lived with Guy, she still had yet to officially move in with a key, and she couldn't wait to move in. Already she'd started to decorate the place with a more feminine touch: flowers, scented candles, and the odd pink cushion. He hadn't noticed. He never did.

Guy was only two years older than her, but she still remembered the day fondly when she first met him. She was eighteen, in her final year of secondary school, wearing her school uniform, and she'd hitched up her pleated skirt to make it shorter. She was best friends with Mikey, and his older brother had come to pick him up in his flashy black Aston Martin. Cassidy was taken by him immediately when he stepped out of his car, looking like a movie star who'd just come back from filming in Spain, his skin tanned by the sun. He took his sunglasses off and winked at her with a dazzling white smile that had her nether regions pulsing. But nothing came of that day, not until a couple of months later after she finished school and bumped into him at the Royal College of Art, where she attended class. She didn't know what he was doing on campus, but he asked her out to dinner. One thing led to the next, and they ended up back at his apartment taking each other's clothes off. Just thinking of those days when he used to visit her on campus had her cheeks burning red. Guy had been her first time with a man, and he'd been loving and gentle with her. She loved everything about him, and now here she was two years later and in a committed relationship with him and bringing him breakfast in bed.

However, recently, Guy had been focused on work. She didn't even know where he worked. He was twenty-two years old, but he made a suspicious amount for his age. He told her he worked in finance, which she guessed was where he got all his money from, but he never went to university to earn such a high paying job, and he kept coming back home later and later, missing dates and his brother's birthday. Or he'd disappear halfway through the night and wouldn't return until two days later. Sometimes he came home covered in cuts and bruises. The scars were piling up, and it had Cassidy frightened of what he was truly up to. Could he be working for a crime boss in the underworld, and she had no idea? The London-Irish mob had been hitting the news a lot recently. There'd been a lot of knife and gun crime overtaking the city as drugs ruled the streets. It explained Guy's recent artwork. She loved Guy, but if he kept keeping secrets from her, then it would end badly for their relationship, and she didn't want that. It would break her heart.

"Good morning." Cassidy entered the bedroom, hoping to surprise Guy, but he was no longer in bed.

Cassidy frowned and placed the tray down onto the dresser and followed his voice to the bathroom and creaked the door open. She held back a gasp when he pulled his t-shirt off and revealed a big black bruise covering the lower half of his toned torso. Where did he get such an ugly, painful looking bruise from? He was talking on the phone. It had to be important, as his reflection in the bathroom mirror looked anxious, and his hand curled tightly around the porcelain sink.

"It's Saturday, Miller. I don't work on the weekend. That was our agreement."

Miller? Cassidy had never heard of any of Guy's friends called Miller before. Was Miller his boss? Why would he want Guy to work tonight? Like Guy said, he never worked on the weekend. It was the one constant thing Cassidy could rely on when organising events because she knew those were the days Guy could make it. Why today of all days did he have to work on a Saturday? Cassidy could hear slight murmuring from the other end of his telephone conversation, but she couldn't pick up what was being said.

"I don't care. I have plans this evening. It's the opening of my girlfriend's art gallery tonight, and I can't miss it. She's been looking forward to it for months!"

A smile picked up on her lips. He remembered, and he cared enough to say no to whatever Miller wanted from him. Her heart melted at the gesture. She felt guilty. She had doubted him, thinking he would forget to come and miss the event like he missed their date last Friday. Guy sighed, dropping his head. His dark brown locks swayed in front of his face as he looked down at the sink, and his eyes scrunched up. No. Cassidy knew that expression of his, the look of regret. He was going to change his mind and commit to work. Her heart instantly fell to her stomach. She should have seen this coming. It was too good to be true.

"Fine, I will do the job!" His voice rose angrily. "But I want a bonus for working on the weekend, and it'd better be over before eight o'clock."

He ended the call, slamming his phone down against the counter next to the sink, and sighed, running his hand through his hair and slicking it back out of his hazel eyes. He caught her heartbroken reflection in the mirror, and Cassidy stepped back and walked out of the bedroom and grabbed her purse off the counter.

"Cass!"

He grabbed her arm. "Let me explain."

"You can't keep doing this to me, Guy." The moisture glistened in her eyes. "You promised you'd be there tonight. This is important to me."

"I know." He wrapped his arms around her waist. "My work will be finished before the event even starts. I'll be there, I promise you." He pulled her into his body. "I love you."

He leaned in to kiss her, but she moved her head out of the way. Not this time. She wouldn't fall for that trick where he'd kiss her and all was forgiven. Her line of sight caught the black bruise on his torso, and she reached out and touched it. He flinched and grabbed her hand, kissing her palm and seeking forgiveness. She loved him with all her heart, but she couldn't live on with the lies and deceit. It was driving her crazy.

"Then make light on your promise, Guy."

Cassidy pulled back from his embrace and left the apartment.

"I'll be there, Cass!" he shouted after her. "I promise."

****

Cassidy waited and waited for Guy to return home so they could go to the opening together. She checked the time on her phone. It was just hitting half past seven in the evening, and the event would be opening soon. Where was he? She looked herself over in the mirror one last time. Her brown hair was pulled back into an immaculate bun, showing off the diamond earrings Guy had gifted her for her birthday, and she wore a black spaghetti strap dress just short of the knee with nude heels and a faux fur coat. She played with her necklace, chewing down on her lip as another five minutes passed. Her heart throbbed painfully. He wasn't coming. He'd broken his promise. She rang Mikey in the hope that he could pick her up on the way to the gallery. He arrived in minutes, dressed in a tuxedo and looking as handsome as ever. His eyes were the same hazel colour as Guy's, but his hair was a shade lighter. It astounded her how similar the two brothers looked, almost like twins. They even had similar mannerisms.

"I'm going to kill my brother." Mikey guided her to the car after Cassidy explained what happened. "What's he doing working on a Saturday?"

Cassidy shrugged, holding back the tears, and looked out of the window. It had started to rain, and the droplets splashed against the window as they zoomed through the dark streets of London. She thought over her relationship with Guy, and her heart stammered when she knew what she needed to do when she saw him again. A mascara-tinted tear trailed down her cheek, smudging her foundation. She quickly wiped it away before Mikey witnessed her current state of emotions. She smiled as she looked back at her best friend. He seemed much better than he was a couple of months ago. After the tragic fire that killed Alistair Baker last year, Mikey was distraught for months. Alistair wasn't just the lead singer of Mikey's band, he was his boyfriend. It seemed the new man on the scene had helped him to find closure and move on, and he was starting to smile again.

It wasn't long before they made it to the gallery. Cassidy opened the doors, and the guests arrived, praising her display. As she expected, everyone adored Guy's art. Even Mikey was most impressed by his brother's artwork. He had no idea that Guy was this talented or where he got his ideas from.

"Mija!" Cassidy's father called from the across the room, and Mikey quickly took his leave before José Amor spotted him talking to his daughter.

Her father had a deep hatred for Mikey and Guy Black and had been most displeased when she started a committed relationship with Guy. He believed they were the reason she quit medical school. He found them both menacing and a bad influence on her. Despite their strained relationship, she loved her father very much.

"Papá." Cassidy smiled and kissed him on the cheek and proceeded to chat away to him in her native tongue of Spanish.

José couldn't stay too long, as he had surgery in an hour, but he'd managed to catch a break from the hospital and had come over to see her achievements in art. Even her own father, a busy neurosurgeon, could make it to the opening, so why couldn't Guy? Her father seemed most impressed by her display but still managed to annoyingly mention that she should follow his footsteps and return to medical school. It's what her mother would have wanted. He knew people in high places and could get her into one of the best schools in London. As usual, Cassidy dismissed the idea of ever returning to medical school.

Time passed, and the evening was a success with many buyers. However, there was still no sign of Guy, and every time the door dinged open, Cassidy would look over in anticipation, hoping he would make it. Her hand curled tightly around her glass of red wine when it was just a couple who had walked in. The woman was young no older than Cassidy but with long blonde hair, wearing a vibrant red dress and a big bright smile on her face as the man who'd come in with her held the door open for her. The man, from what Cassidy could gather from beneath his sunglasses, was incredibly handsome, with a strong build to him but with soft curly hair and freckles scattered across his cheeks. She noticed he had one of those security coiled tube earpieces dangling around his neck. He was her security guard, but from the way the woman gazed up at the man with her big blue eyes, she was in love with him, and he was definitely more than a security guard to her as she thanked him by elegantly placing her hand on his for a single second. Then she looked away as though nothing had happened and rummaged through her purse and took out her engagement ring. They were having an affair.

"Excuse me."

Cassidy jumped when a man suddenly stood next to her. Her eyes widened in awe at his charismatic beauty, like an angel or a god that had bestowed itself in front of her to whisk her away to heaven. He had to be in his late twenties with dark, tousled hair, a strong jawline, and he had a warm, pleasant sounding voice. His eyes got to her. The colour of ebony had her skin crawling pleasantly. He was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome, more so than the security guard who'd just walked inside.

"I'm sorry if I startled you. I'm Desmond Blackwood. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Miss Amor."

Blackwood? Cassidy straightened her shoulders and smiled. "You're my top buyer."

"Yes. There is something about the art that speaks to me. I would love to meet Guy Black. Is he here?" His eyes scanned around the room in hopes of finding Guy.

"I'm afraid he couldn't make it," Cassidy grumbled.

"That's such a shame." His voice lowered and sounded sinister, and his pleasant smile turned down into a frightful frown as he stared at the woman in the red dress. "Annabel, darling, where did you disappear to?" he asked so harshly that some of the other guests stopped and stared at him.

Annabel's beautiful smile disappeared from display, and she altogether looked timid as she walked over to Desmond with her security guard following after her. Just who in god's name were these people? Cassidy gawped at the young woman's red dress, one of Chanel's latest designs, matched with a pair of black Christian Louboutin heels. Her neck was covered in diamonds, and her engagement ring was a big fat ruby. These people were rich! What was that woman thinking, fooling around with the security guard, when she could have a rich hunk like Desmond?

"Miss Amor, I would like you to meet my fiancé, Lady Darlington. She's the one who came across Guy's work."

Darlington? As in the rich aristocratic family with ties to royalty? That explained the jewels, security, and the expensive designer clothes they were wearing.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Cassidy couldn't keep her eyes off Annabel. She was beautiful, with fine, delicate features that could easily break from the slightest touch and a tall, slim frame that put Cassidy's petite, curvy body to shame. She felt ugly stood next to her radiance. Annabel had even caught Mikey's attention from across the room, which was a rarity. Although he was bisexual, it was rare of him to have much interest in women.

"The pleasure is mine." Annabel's voice was sweet and soft, like an innocent little mouse, and the closer Cassidy admired her, the more she noticed that she was still just a girl, possibly only eighteen. Now Cassidy understood the affair with the security guard. Her engagement to Desmond Blackwood had to be an arranged marriage between the two wealthy families.

Cassidy found it hard to get a word out of her. She was rather shy and clearly scared of her fiancé. She would only pick up a smile when her security guard was nearby. Then the unusual trio left, buying the rest of her paintings that they would pick up on a later date, and they were never to be seen ever again. It was strange to say the least.

The doors closed for the evening, and Cassidy's heart shattered when Guy never turned up, not even at the last second. She decided to go home with Mikey and stay at his for the night. She didn't even want to see Guy. She played with her phone and looked at the background of Guy kissing her on the cheek, and tears splattered against the screen. What happened to their relationship? What changed? Cassidy cried herself to sleep that night.

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Robin Amor

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