Chapter 3
“You don’t have to buy me a ring, you know,” Cassie said in an emphatically stubborn tone.
Frank sighed. “Yes, I do, Cassie. At least a wedding ring.”
Cassie looked mulish and folded her arms across her chest.
Frank said, “You are going to be a married woman so you should have rings. And I don’t want the people who know me thinking I’m a cheapskate.”
She uncrossed her arms and sighed. “But nothing too flashy, okay? It’s going to be hard enough with people like that awful clerk at City Hall thinking you’re a pervert without them thinking you bought me with bling. Good thing Mum was coherent enough get a taxi down to City Hall to sign their forms with us. But I don’t need a big flashy ring.” Cassie gave him a pointed glare.
Frank fell silent for a while as he thought through her objection. After a moment he nodded. “You’re right. It should be understated. Tasteful. A statement of love not a statement of ownership.”
Cassie felt a pang of guilt and longing at his casual mention of love. Then she felt anger about the impermanence of their proposed marriage. Frank couldn’t possibly love her, at least not in the way a man is supposed to love his wife. But she saw tenderness in the thoughtful way he looked at her and began to question her assumption.
She sighed again. “One of the girls in the townhouse next to ours off Donald got involved with one of the guys everyone said was a middleman for the neighbourhood drug gang. She showed up one night in this trashy red spandex dress and covered in bling and the next thing we knew she was pregnant and married. When he went to jail they confiscated most of her jewellery and now she’s raising a kid on welfare. I don’t want people to think badly of you, Frank. And I don’t want people to think I’m just after your money.”
Frank started to object but sighed instead. “Some people will, regardless.” After a short pause he said, “Cassie, I’m an accountant. I have a different image. I’m not going to buy you anything that flashy.”
Cassie relaxed and allowed herself a brief grin. “No, you’ll buy me something that’s a good investment, right?”
Frank stiffened in protest but belatedly recognized that she was teasing and changed his frown to a grin. “Yeah. Something like that.” He took her hand, surprised at how small and soft it was, and tugged to get her to enter the jewellery store with him.
After looking over a bewildering array of rings, Frank finally saw that Cassie’s eye was repeatedly drawn to an elegantly simple platinum ring with a trio of brilliant diamonds recessed so they wouldn’t catch on her clothing. He pointed at it and said, “Do you have this in Cassie’s size with a one to two carat centrepiece? And are there matching wedding bands?”
The clerk checked the sizes for both of them then returned to show them an engagement ring with a two carat centrepiece flanked by a pair of three quarter carat diamonds. She also had the matching wedding bands in the holder. “Will these do?”
Frank saw the panic in Cassie’s eyes as she saw the large five figure price tag on the engagement ring. Deciding to pre-empt her objections, he plucked the engagement ring from the tray and dropped to one knee.
Cassie was startled out of her panic and smiled as he slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her hand. Then he rose and gave Cassie a chaste kiss that she began to respond to before Frank felt her start to panic and released her. The clerk put aside her doubts and beamed at them. “Shall I put the wedding bands in a box for you?”
Frank tore his eyes away from the awestruck wonder on Cassie’s face. He said, “Yes, please,” and handed over his credit card and waited for the inevitable phone call from the bank.
As they left the store and headed back towards the hotel, Cassie felt the weight of the ring on her finger, stunned by the reality of it and more stunned by her reaction to Frank’s kiss. This was way too much like her fantasies of a white knight coming to her rescue. Then she touched her lips reverently as she remembered the kiss. Was he going to want more than just a few kisses? He promised he would wait for her but would he really? Or was he just another dirty old man like Gord and his creepy buddies?
She snuck a look at Frank’s face and decided that she would trust him to keep his word, for now. Then she thought again about the kiss and how comfortable it had felt to wrap her arms around his neck and respond to him even if she’d started to panic towards the end. She would have to watch herself because she couldn’t afford to fall for him.
Frank walked beside her in stunned silence. Because of his promise, he hadn’t wanted to think too much about Cassie as a woman, at least not yet, but her naively passionate response to his kiss had shocked him. She was all hard muscle and bony ridges with a very small amount of padding but she fit him like no one had before. And the way she’d draped her arms around his neck and held his head in place to prolong the kiss had tempted him to deepen it even in front of a witness.
He took another glance at Cassie’s face with the smile playing around her lips. He fully intended to keep his promise to let her set the pace but it was going to be very difficult for him to wait now that he knew what it felt like to hold her close. She was definitely a woman even if most people would think her too young for him. And in five hours she would be his wife.
He said, “I know it’s only eleven but would you like some lunch?”
Cassie gave him a nervous smile and said, “Sure. We were up early.”
“What would you like?”
Cassie remembered that her Dad had always brought Chinese takeout when he visited with her and Granny. “How about Chinese?”
“Fine by me.” He took her hand in his and led the way to a nearby restaurant.
In the dim light of the restaurant, Frank examined his fiancée then felt a moment of unreality, as if he had been suddenly transported to an alternate dimension. He closed his eyes for a brief prayer and the hymn Trust in the Lord Always began to run through his mind. He thought back to earlier that morning when the Holy Spirit took over and told Penny he was marrying Cassie and smiled to himself.
Cassie saw the amused smile and asked, “What’s so funny?”
“I’m laughing at myself, really. I’ve been praying for several years now for the Lord to send me a good woman to be my wife. I’m just a little surprised that He sent you, although it would explain why he waited so long. You aren’t what I expected.”
“Why? Is there something wrong with me?” Cassie’s tone was verging on belligerent.
Frank shrugged. “I don’t know enough about you yet to tell one way or the other. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you. We’re going to have to get to know each other as we go along. Which, I suppose, isn’t that different from most marriages, except maybe in degree.” He didn’t want to tell her that he felt it was the Holy Spirit that prompted his offer of marriage.
“I suppose.” Cassie sipped her tea. “Who did you expect the Lord was going to send you? A university educated soccer mom? A fellow professional? You were probably looking for someone who was all grown up. Someone prettier.”
Frank reached a hand across the table to take hers. He gave her a lopsided grin. “I think I had my head set on the soccer mom – someone like my cousin Chelsea. None of the high society debutantes Grandmother introduced me to appealed to me nor did any of the professional women my father thinks are appropriate. And don’t sell yourself short, you’re much prettier than any woman I’ve ever dated seriously.” As he spoke the words, he realized they were true.
Cassie snorted to dismiss his compliment and said, “Thanks for the ego boost but I know I’m too skinny and my nose is too small and I don’t have a very womanly figure even when I’m at my proper weight.”
Frank pointedly examined her face and marvelled at the fine structure he hadn’t taken the time to appreciate before now. She might want to use some makeup to darken her eyebrows and lashes if they were going somewhere special but otherwise everything fit perfectly. He finished his examination on her pale rose lips and started t
o blush when he thought about that one kiss.
“Do I pass?” She asked in a cheeky tone.
“A plus.” He responded. “I think your nose is exactly the right size for your face and I can always fatten you up a bit. Or maybe I’ll just give you the grocery money and you can fatten me up.”
“Then it’s a good thing I can cook, isn’t it?”
Frank was brought back to reality. “I suppose so. I’m pretty good with stews, soups and anything you can put on a barbeque but it’s a lot harder to cook for one than for two. Where did you learn to cook?”
Cassie got a sad look. “After Dad left us the first time, Mum and I went to live with her Mum in Toronto, my Granny Caswell. Mum was working nights as a waitress, at least that’s what she said in front of us. Actually, I’m pretty sure she was a stripper even then but never admitted it in front of Granny because she didn’t want a lecture. Then Mum got a job in Sudbury when I was seven or eight, I guess, and I got left behind in Toronto.”
“Granny got cancer when I was twelve, so I had to cook if I wanted to eat. When Mum was in Toronto, if she was between boyfriends or jobs and actually lived with us, she was never up early enough to cook breakfast, not that she ever ate any because she was mostly hung over, and she always left for work or to party with friends by four. So she only cooked lunch, if she was awake and sober enough.” There was a rueful expression on Cassie’s face. “So I cooked most of the time. I can even make bread from scratch. I think that’s what Gord really wanted me for. The groping was just his twisted idea of a little extra fun.”
Cassie tilted her head and the light from the street caught her hair to create a blonde halo around her head. Frank was captivated by the image and finally understood all of the disapproving looks coming his way. In that pose, Cassie looked like the subject of one of Wyatt’s Arthurian paintings – a quintessentially pure maiden – too pure to allow anyone to defile and certainly not someone as old as him.
Then the server broke the spell by placing a dish of vegetable fried rice and two entrees filled with chicken and steaming vegetables in front of them. Cassie reverted to an exuberant teenager and gushed over the sight and smell of the food in front of her while she tried to identify the ingredients and spices. Frank was mildly embarrassed by her enthusiasm but then it occurred to him that this might be the first time she’d been taken to a sit down restaurant in years and consciously relaxed to allow himself to share in her delight.
———
Frank chased her as she ran into the mall and intercepted her before she could get to the door to the street. “Cassie, be reasonable. You need some new clothes – at least a nice dress to get married in.”
“I don’t want you spending that much money on me.”
“I don’t care what you spend. I can afford it.”
“But I’m not comfortable shopping in there. We were getting those weird looks from the sales lady in the dress department.”
“Fine, is there somewhere else you’d rather shop?”
She looked over his shoulder at the entrance to Holt Renfrew. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to choose.”
Frank moved to a bench and indicated they should sit. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that the teen magazines the girls at school showed me talk about clothes to attract boys but I never thought that the clothing they suggested was very modest. And I’m sure that what you wear to attract boys is different from what you wear after you’re married. Since Mum ran out of my money I would go to The Well when I needed clothes but they don’t ever have much in size 4 or 6. And forget about size 3 or 5. No one makes misses sizes anymore cause all the girls wear padded bras. Except me.” She shrugged. “Most of the clothing at The Well is for women that have, like, a figure.”
Frank looked at the lunch crowd milling about. He smiled as a thought struck him and said, “Are there any women here that you think are dressed the way you’d like to be?”
Cassie furrowed her brows and said, “I don’t know.”
Frank said, “Let’s go downstairs to the food court so I can get another coffee. If you see anyone that looks like you want to dress, I’ll ask them where they shop.”
Cassie looked uncertain but Frank pulled her up to standing to give her a brief hug to distract her from objecting.
They stood in line for a coffee and a hot chocolate while Cassie began her search for the right look. As Frank was paying, she spotted a young redheaded mother chasing a giggling toddler. She was dressed in an elegantly casual knee length yellow and green short sleeved dress. After she caught her daughter, Cassie noticed that the woman was examining her and Frank with interest. Her smile when Cassie caught her eye held something like approval. She indicated the woman and said, “I like the way she dresses, Frank.”
He smiled and said, “Let’s go ask.”
As they approached, the toddler escaped her mother again and barrelled into Cassie, almost spilling her hot chocolate. Cassie crouched down to speak to the little girl who was seated on the floor and looking up at her trying to figure out if she was a friend or if she should start crying.
“Cassandra! You need to watch where you’re going.”
Cassie blushed and stammered at the woman. “D…do I know you?”
The woman picked up her daughter and said, in a puzzled tone, “I don’t think so.”
“But you told me I needed to watch where I was going.”
A delighted smile crossed the woman’s face. “I was wondering when that would happen. I’d like you to meet my far too energetic daughter Cassandra, who really does need to watch where she is going.” She made Cassandra wave at Cassie.
Frank said, “And I’d like you to meet my lovely fiancée Cassandra, who would like some fashion advice from the best dressed woman here.”
The woman raised a bored eyebrow at Frank’s flattery and asked, “And you are?”
“I’m Frank Ellis. And this is Cassie Marcussen.”
The woman paused to examine the two of them again and saw something she liked in the way Frank was looking at Cassie. She held out her hand for Frank to shake. “Meghan Sokolov.”
She turned to Cassie and shook hands. “Don’t worry, Cassie. I see how everyone is looking at you two and I fully understand. It will be a bit hard for the first few years but once everyone finally figures out that you aren’t just a trophy wife it will be a lot easier. My husband is more than twenty years older than me.” Then she turned to Frank. “I take it Cassie needs some advice on clothes and makeup and such because she doesn’t want to embarrass you by emphasizing she’s a teenager.”
Frank and Cassie looked at each other in bewilderment. Meghan laughed which caused her Cassandra to laugh. “Why don’t we sit and talk? Frank can chase Cassandra if she escapes again.”
Frank sighed but made a funny face at little Cassandra, who giggled at him.
When they were settled, Meghan said, “My husband is almost twice my age. Evgeni was in Ottawa for a research project and I was temping as an admin clerk at Carleton between high school and college. We hit it off right away and before the end of the summer we got married. But we get some very strange looks, rather like the ones the two of you are getting. And Gene still gets grief from my Da because Gene’s three weeks older than he is.”
Meghan plopped Cassandra onto her lap. “Because he was more than twice my age when we met everyone assumed that it wasn’t possible that we could really be in love with each other.” Sensing their discomfort, she continued, “But it did mean that I had to find a way to dress that didn’t emphasize that I was still a teenager. And I refuse to dress like an old lady.”
“So where do you shop?”
Meghan recommended two stores on Sparks Street that were close and a few more shops in Westboro and the Market. “Holt Renfrew upstairs is very good for little black dresses, though. And with your colouring you’d look stunning in black. But I don’t think you suit the colour selections for their other clothing for younger women, a
t least this season. The women they cater to with hair close to your colour are those beautifully confident older women who don’t hide their grey hair. And those styles are designed to minimize figure flaws that you won’t have for a very long time.” She made a note of the recommended shops on the back of an old coffee receipt. Then she wrote down a phone number and circled it before handing it to Cassie. “Call me if you need to talk. Or vent.”
Meghan paused to let them think then said, “Do you have a card, Frank? I’d like to invite the two of you for dinner some time.”
Frank looked reluctant but seeing the approving look on Cassie’s face he handed over his business card. “Oh. You’re based in Halifax.” There was a brief look of regret on Meghan’s face.
“I’m not certain where I’ll be based after next week. There will probably be a big shakeup soon, if I’m reading the rumours correctly. I’m hoping to get promoted to the head office here in Ottawa.” If I still have a job at all, he thought.
“Are you in town for long? I’d still like to have you both over. Cassandra likes you.”
“We’ll be in town for at least another week.”
“Excellent. Check your email for an invitation.” She wiped her daughter’s crumb covered hands. “It was a real pleasure to meet you. I hope your wedding is everything you’re dreaming of.”
Neither of them knew what to say to that, so they thanked Meghan for her advice and began to walk to the Bank Street exit.
“Now that was a real coincidence, meeting someone who understands what I need to buy. And she’s so chatty,” Cassie said. “I like her.”
Frank took Cassie’s hand. “I like you better.”
Cassie gave an involuntary smile, then said in a stern tone, “Don’t try to butter me up, Mr. Ellis. I know what you really want.”
“For right now, what I want is to get you a nice dress and shoes to be married in this afternoon. Shall we try the first store on Meghan’s list?”
“One dress? And one pair of shoes?” Cassie was firm.
“And makeup and, um, lingerie. For now. You can go shopping for more clothes tomorrow while I work on my report.” Frank sounded serious. “Shopping isn’t necessarily buying, Cassie.”
“I know. I’m an expert at looking.” Then she sighed and said, “But it would be nice to be able to buy a few nice things once in a while.”
Frank felt humbled by her response and couldn’t say anything, so he gave her hand a squeeze as they climbed the stairs to street level.