Spring in Toronto is normally warm and pleasant, but this was not one of those type of days. Cassandra looked out the view from her window, it was pouring, it was gray and she didn't want to be out in it. She'd had enough rain in her lifetime.
Cassandra remembered something at that second – she hated rain. Hated it, loathed it, despised it with every fibre of her being. Rain made her sad, rain made her glum.
To cheer herself up, Cassandra had ordered a lush breakfast, indulging in Belgian Waffles, with gobs of fresh whipped cream. She sat in the comfortable chair and went through the TV channels. Nothing good on, nothing on "Ellen", "Springer" made her queasy – how COULD intelligent people watch this tripe? - and Cassandra began climbing the walls with boredom.
One of the things Cassandra had figured out about the person she was – she detested boredom. She had a very low threshold for tedium. Cassandra was racking her brain trying to figure out what to do when the phone rang in her suite.
"Miss Cassandra? There is a Miss – Kobe, is it? - here to see you. May I send her up? Yes. Thank You, Miss Cassandra, I'll send her right up."
Cassandra wondered why Kobe had come to see her, but she wasn't going to complain. She was hoping her boredom was about to come to an end. There was a loud knock on the door and Cassandra walked over to let Kobe in the room.
Kobe was even more stunning than last time. She was beautifully made-up, hair a shimmering, flowing dark wave. Her eyes were accentuated with glitter, she wore diamond teardrop earrings, a short, purple sequined mini and silver heels. Yummy, simply mouth-watering, Cassandra thought with an evil mind.
"My goodness, don't you look stunning!" Cassandra exclaimed, happy to see her new friend. "Who is all of this finery for?"
Kobe looked down at her feet. "Well, actually, you. I was bored at the store, you hadn't paid me another visit, so I looked up where you were staying on your receipt and ..."
"You thought you'd pay ME a visit?"
Kobe nodded. Cassandra could hardly contain herself.
"You thought perhaps, we'd have a repeat performance of what happened last time?"
Again, the beautiful Asian woman nodded. She was feeling a little bit squirmy, but Cassandra allayed her fears.
"Your timing couldn't be better darling. I've been going out of my mind on this gray, gloomy day. Playing with a sexy thing like you will just make my cares go away. Did you have anything special in mind?"
Just as Kobe was about to answer her, the phone in the suite ran once more. Cassandra asked Kobe to excuse her for a moment and went to answer it.
"Miss Cassandra, there is a man here named Clayton who says he wishes to see you. He says he has urgent news."
Cassandra sighed. Not that she didn't welcome information from Clayton, it was just his timing was lousy. "All right, send him up." She hoped that Kobe wasn't planning on being anywhere anytime soon. She turned to her new friend and said "Darling, this is very, very important, I must deal with this. Can you stay, are you in any hurry?"
Kobe shook her head. "I'd wait around all day for you, if need be."
Cassandra kissed her soft lips. "You're sweet." The look of adoration on Kobe's face as she kissed her brightened her spirits.
Cassandra opened the door to find Clayton on the other side of it, his face lit up, obviously quite happy. The news must have been good, so she ushered him in to the suite. At first, he didn't see Kobe sitting in one of the plush chairs.
"I'm sorry, is this a bad time?"
"If only you knew!" Cassandra thought inwardly, but she pressed on. "It's all right, this is my friend Kobe. Kobe, this is Clayton. He is a Private Detective I hired to find out some information for me."
Kobe nodded, she seemed to be almost-staring at the rumpled & rugged detective. Cassandra caught it, but said nothing.
"All right Clayton, the Desk Clerk said you have urgent news. Please, get on with it."
Cassandra thought if it didn't look childish, Clayton would have been dancing on one foot, he seemed that happy. "Okay Cassandra, here goes."
"First, you're not a criminal, there is no record with the Toronto Police, the OPP or the RCMP. I even checked with some American contacts of mine, your fingerprints are not anywhere on file. I could even contact Interpol, but I would imagine I will get the same results."
"All right, we both figured that."