My Sweet Canadian Girl Ch. 05
By Masterbates13
This part picks up with Rick arriving back in Oregon for his graduation. I hope anyone that's still reading will enjoy this chapter too. Please remember to practice safe sex unlike my fictitious characters. Also, allow me to apologize up front for any grammatical errors I missed. Comments, good or bad, are always welcomed.
***
My plane touched down right on time. That meant my mother probably wouldn't be there yet. She was always running late, something that must have driven my father insane when they were together. I had time to gather my luggage and eat an over priced airport sandwich as I waited for her in the arrivals area. I saw her come rushing in looking around and smiled waiting for her eyes to find me.
"There's my college graduate son," she said hurrying over to hug me. My mother is just over five feet tall so I stooped down to hug her back. She has short dark hair that she dyes to keep the gray from showing and a few fine lines around her eyes. I worried about her living all by herself but she seemed content.
"Hi mom," I said. "It's good to see you again."
"It's been far too long," she agreed. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. "Where did you learn to smile like that?" she asked.
"From Cassie," I said right away.
"My God Rick I got the photo you sent of her. She's absolutely gorgeous. You didn't even bother to shave before getting your picture taken with her," she said frowning at the end.
"Yes mom I know," I said rolling my eyes.
"Well come on let's go. You can tell me more about her on the ride home. What's her family like?" she asked as we started walking.
I told mom about living with Cassie during the ride. She couldn't believe how sweet she sounded. When it came time to tell her about Cassie's family I mentioned meeting Marc and his family but left out the rest. She would have been angry if she knew someone didn't like her son. Mom asked me if I'd remembered to get her something for graduation when she noticed my watch and I told her it was a gift from Cassie. She stared at me in disbelief when I told her the story behind getting Cassie the professional artist's easel and painting supplies. I wasn't the man she remembered anymore, the one who was growing up to be his father's son.
My mother was anxious to meet Cassie. I told her we were planning to fly down for the Dodgers game this year though we might not be able to stay long with Cassie's work schedule. Mom didn't ask me about my work prospects in Vancouver, she just assumed I'd find something decent with my excellent grades. She knew I had some savings to live off for now and that what I had with Cassie was more important than any job. Sometime later in the year she'd try to come see us but she couldn't make any promises yet. Once I got back to Vancouver we'd convert Jana's old room to a guest room that could double as Cassie's art studio when we had no visitors.
"Anyone home?" I shouted when we got to my old house and unlocked the door.
"Go back to Canada!" Greg shouted from the kitchen.
"Don't worry I will soon enough. Mom's here with me," I reminded them in case they'd forgotten.
"Hello Judy, nice to see you again. You came a long way to watch us fools graduate," Greg said coming out to the front entrance.
"Hi Greg," she said. "I'm proud of all you boys. Rick told me how hard you all worked."
"The guys are in the living room," Greg said. "Can I get you a drink?" he asked my mom.
"I'm fine but thank you," she said as I led us inside.
"Hey guys I'm back for graduation as promised," I said. I noticed Anita was over and sitting very close to Miguel. She'd just finished her junior year and it was beginning to look like Miguel would be staying in Eugene for one more year.
"Hello boys," my mother said. "How's your mother doing Timothy?" she asked my old friend. Tim's mother had suffered from a serious illness recently but the worse was over.
"She's much better now," Tim said standing up to hug my mother. "Here sit down Judy," he added offering her his seat.
"Thank you Timothy," she said calling him the only name she knew him by. It took me forever to train her to call me Rick instead of Richard or Ricky so Tim was on his own.
"Who's your new friend Miguel?" my mom asked smiling at them.
"This is Anita," he said putting an arm around her. "Anita this is Rick's mom Judy."
"Nice to meet you," she said shyly. "I should go," she added almost instantly.
"Don't leave on our part," I said.
"She's worried about meeting my parents when they come in tomorrow," Miguel explained. "If you want to go I'll come with you."
"You'll both stay here. I just wanted to say hello to the boys," my mother said standing back up. "I'll see you all again tomorrow," she said as I walked her back out to her rental car.
Once my mother was gone my old roommates had all sorts of questions for me. They all wanted to know how living with Cassie was treating me and smiled when I said it was even much better than expected. Anita looked happiest out of all of them and asked me to write down Cassie's email address for her. She'd only met her that one night but she could tell even a mostly drunk Cassie was a special woman and she wanted to thank her for introducing her to Miguel. I told them about meeting her brother Marc and the day her parents discovered me too. They laughed at my description of Mr. Dumont and maybe I was exaggerating a bit but it wasn't far off from the truth.
I told them what Cassie's roommates were like too and the guys smiled at my descriptions of them. One after another they kept asking questions about what Vancouver was like to live in and I filled them in using the photos stored on my digital camera to show some of the sites I'd seen. Someday we'd have a house and they could all come visit to see for themselves. There was still plenty to do and I hadn't seen more than a small part of it myself yet. I think the thing I was most looking forward to was a camping trip with Cassie this summer. Anita asked me what I got Cassie for a graduation present when I told them my new watch was her gift to me. I explained my gift and the story behind it leaving them all smiling.
It was good to see all the guys again plus Miguel and Anita's relationship gave me good news to report back to Cassie but I would have preferred to be with her. Imagining what she might look like all dressed up for her graduation made my heart race. I was desperately hoping that her family would forget about me and enjoy the special day with her. I should have called her by now to let her know I made it to Oregon safely so I excused myself and ignored the whipping sounds Greg made as I went upstairs with my stuff. I wasn't whipped at all; I loved Cassie and wanted to talk to her. Cassie must have been expecting my call because she picked up on the first ring.
"Hello?" she said with excitement in her voice.
"Hello. Could I speak with Ms. Cassandra Dumont please?" I said trying to disguise my voice. I even mispronounced her last name with a hard T on purpose.
"Rick! We've got caller ID now remember?" she said giggling. It ruined the joke I wanted to play on her but it let me avoid answering the phone when her parents called so it was well worth it.
"Hi sweetie. I made it into town. Mom loved the picture of you and can't wait to meet you this summer. How are you doing?" I finished spilling out a mouthful.
"I'm fine but I miss you already," she said. "I can't wait to meet your parents too. Make sure to get lots of pictures tomorrow," she warned me for the hundredth time.
"I will don't worry," I said. "Are you busy?"
"Not really," she said. "Why?"
"I was thinking we could get on instant messenger for old times sake so were not tying up the phone lines," I said.
"I'm already logging in," she said and I could hear the smile in her voice.
"Okay I'll talk to you in a few minutes," I said. "I love you Cassie."
"I love you too... Dickie," she said whispering her pet name for me as she hung up.
I spent the next hour talking to Cassie online until the guys came to get me. Greg and Miguel hauled me away from the keyboard while Tim told Cassie they were taking me away. It was going to make her feel bad for hogging all my time while I had a chance to be with my friends again. Anita had followed them up and said she wanted to talk to Cassie so we could go downstairs and drink or whatever. Miguel tried to linger behind but she banished him from the room with the rest of us.
Downstairs we sat around the living room drinking and talking about our years together in that house. This one last week together was going to be it. I'd miss them a lot but my life was in Vancouver with Cassie now and they understood that. Greg still wasn't sure what he was going to do now that he was graduating. As he put it, when he started school four years ago actually getting his degree was low on his list of priorities and expectations. Miguel was already making plans to stay in Eugene for another year with Anita, just as I had guessed earlier. She lived in the dorms but they'd started to look for an off campus apartment. His degree was in computer science and he'd lined up a job maintaining one of the student computer labs on campus, Beside that there was some contract work he could do on the side. Tim wasn't sure what he wanted to do either. For most of our college days our plan had been to stick together after graduating. That all changed when I met Cassie. While he didn't resent her anymore, he was still trying to figure out what came next.
Anita came down nearly an hour later and said she had a wonderful time talking to Cassie. She'd invited her and Miguel up for a visit sometime and I said they were more than welcomed whenever they wanted to come. It would be nice to have some friends around and I was already planning some extra bedrooms for that house of ours so we'd always have room for a few more. Cassie had asked her to remind me to make sure my suit was ironed and the guys had a good laugh at my expense but I would have forgot otherwise. She was going to leave but Miguel convinced her to spend the night without having to do much arm-twisting.
Before going to bed I took out my suits to iron them. I decided to wear the plain black one tomorrow and got it ready. In the pants pocket I found a little card from Cassie and opened it to read it. She wished me a happy graduation, said she couldn't wait to see me again, and told me she loved me. At the end her reminder for me to get pictures tomorrow made me smile. What an amazing woman she was. How had she known I would pick the black suit? Reaching into the pocket of my other pants I found another identical card and burst out laughing. That night I fell asleep thinking of her and woke up doing the same.
The four of us got ready the next morning and Anita took some pictures of us together with my camera before she and Miguel left so she could get dressed at home. Greg was driving the rest of us to school with plans to meet up after the ceremony for more pictures. Before we left I gave Cassie a quick call telling her to have fun and told her I loved her again. Once we got there we split up to find our own sets of parents before the long assembly got underway. I found my parents and sister stood together with Susan in the middle to keep them separated. At the last minute dad's wife had to pull out for a business commitment so it was less awkward than it could have been.
