Five weeks, it had been five weeks since her return from her world travels. Sometimes it felt longer; months some days and even years others. Cassie missed her world exploits. Being away was easy; she did not have to deal with her feelings. She could package them up in a neat little box and store it somewhere for later.

But now was later. And Cassie's defensive walls were trying to withstand a breech by both old and new people in her life, specifically Jade and Luke. Jade, being herself, was trying to get her best friend Cassie to open up to new possibilities, to new friendships. Luke was trying to be a new possibility. And Cassie was not appreciating either attempt.

What Cassie did appreciate was the invitation Dani extended, albeit through Jade, to dine and try new menu items at Elves. She was looking forward to a night away from her apartment. Though she would never admit it, Jade was right about Cassie being a bore. Since coming home, she spent most of her time alone in her apartment. She would either read or practice new songs on the piano. When she was not at home, Cassie was working on ideas for the foundation. Nothing exciting ever happened in her life anymore. She did not go out for drinks or entertainment. Most days, Cassie felt she had nothing to which she could look forward.

Cassie looked over herself in the mirror making sure everything was in place. Pushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, she decided she was ready to head to the restaurant.

After a thirty minute cab ride through the city, Cassie arrived at the restaurant. She noticed the dining venue was crowded. Every chair at every table was being used; there was not even room to sit at the bar. She looked around the room for a friendly face, but she saw none. So she made her way over to the hostess who was busy answering the phone and taking reservations for later in the night.

"Excuse me," said Cassie trying to gain the hostess' attention.

The hostess, a leggy red head who seemed to have a perpetually annoyed look on her face, glanced up at Cassie and held up one well-manicured index finger as she answered another call. A few minutes later, the hostess decided to pay attention to Cassie. "What do you need?" she asked.

Cassie rolled her eyes at the girl's seemingly agitated tone. "I'm here for a tasting. I don't see anyone I recognize. Perhaps you can find Dani for me."

The hostess looked Cassie up and down before she responded. "Um, does it look like I have time to find Dani for you?"

Just as Cassie was about to tell off the rude hostess, Dani walked up behind her husband's employee.

"Cassie, I'm so glad you could make it," Dani said.

"Thanks Dani. I think you should look into hiring a new employee though. She's a bit rude." Cassie suggested.

"I would, but she's family. She's a relative on my mom's side that needed a part-time job while she's in school." Dani explained. "Lauren," she called to the rude hostess who then looked up. "If anyone else comes in looking for me or asking about a tasting, direct them to the back okay."

"Yeah, sure whatever."

Dani shook her head before smiling at Cassie and leading her away. "You're early you know."

"I hate being late," Cassie supplied.

"Oh, I remember that. You were always at least fifteen minutes early to class. Some things never change do they?"

Cassie smiled, "I guess not."

Dani led Cassie into a large banquet style room. There were three round six-person tables set up in the center. Along the room's back wall, there was a table with a flower arrangement and full glasses of ice water. A few people, no one Cassie recognized, had already arrived and were mingling by the back table.

"There aren't that many people here," Cassie noted.

"I know," Dani laughed. "I said you were early didn't I? Why don't you get something to drink? There's a bartender over in the corner." Dani pointed to a man standing alone behind a bar.

"I guess I'll get myself a drink then," Cassie said as she began to walk toward the bartender.

"You do that. I'm going to make sure my incompetent relative has not turned all the guests away." Dani turned around and made a swift exit.

After obtaining a drink, Cassie sat at a table by herself and waited for friendly faces to arrive, specifically Jade who swore she would be in attendance.

Eventually, more people seemed to wander into the room and find seats. Cassie was soon accompanied by Jade and Sean who sat across from her. As more people came, the tables became completely occupied. Three seats at Cassie's table remained open. She assumed the two of the seats between her and Jade were for Alex and Dani. But she briefly wondered who would sit in the third seat.

About fifteen minutes after the event was scheduled to start, Dani came back into the room and stood in front of one of the empty seats. "Hey everyone. Thanks for coming. We are so happy to have you all here to try out the new menu items. We'll get started in a moment. We are just waiting on one more person." Dani explained.

"Who's that?" Cassie asked curious as to who would sit in the empty chair next to her.

Outside of the restaurant Luke shoved his tie into his briefcase and undid the top button of his dress shirt. He rushed into the building and headed past the rude hostess and straight to the back.

"Excuse me," Lauren called after Luke. He stopped in his tracks and turned around. "You can't just walk through here. You need a reservation."

Luke waived a hand dismissively at the girl and continued on his path weaving through tables. When he made it to the designated room, he stopped and took a moment to catch his breath. Since he had left the office, Luke had been racing against the clock to get to the restaurant on time.

As he entered the room, he inspected his surroundings looking for an open chair. Instead, he made eye-contact with Dani who was smiling and waving him over. He continued walking through the room over to the only table with open seats.

Luke shrugged out of his suite jacket and placed it on the back of his chair. After being seated and storing his obtrusive briefcase under the table, he was greeted by Dani.

"It's about time you showed up. You're late." Dani accused.

"I know, I know. I had a lot of work to finish up at the office." Luke explained.

Dani just shook her head before she turned her attention to the rest of her guests.  

Luke looked to his left and smiled. Beside him sat Cassie dressed in a yellow sundress. She had tamed, what he had deemed, her often unruly curls and flat-ironed them into submission.

Cassie gave Luke a quick once-over before fixating a semi-annoyed look on her face. "You," she said accusingly. "I didn't think... I should have known you would be here."

"You make that sound like a bad thing, Cassie," Luke smirked. "And hello to you too."

Cassie rolled her eyes and began to open her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by Jade.

"You must be the infamous Luke," Jade said somewhat excitedly.

"What gave it away?" Luke asked.

"Cassie's friendly greeting of course." Jade responded sarcastically. "I'm Jade." She reached her hand across the table introducing herself.

"I know. You're kind of famous." Luke smiled.

Before the three could delve into a conversation, Alex came out of the kitchen followed by three servers carrying trays of food. The servers each went to a different table and began to set plates of food in the center.

"Hi everyone," Alex said, "I know Dani already did this, but I want to thank you again for coming out. You all are some of our closest friends and your opinion is highly valued. Most of you have done this before but, some of you haven't." Alex glanced over to the table where his wife sat with her newest friends.  "Here's the deal. The food is laid out family style. Eat what you want and however much you want. All I ask is that you are honest when you fill out the comment sheets later in the evening. I hope you enjoy the food and the company."

After he finished talking, Alex made his rounds stopping at each table to greet his friends.

"Wow," Cassie commented. "This food smells great!"

"Alex is the best chef in New York City. Although, I'm biased. He's married to my best friend." Luke said adding food to his plate. When he was satisfied with the amount of each dish he put on his plate, he placed it back on the table. He then turned to Cassie and reached for her plate as well. "Do you want me to add some of this to your plate?" He asked pointing to the dish that was directly in front of him.

From across the table, Jade watched the interaction between Luke and Cassie. She was nearly giddy when she recognized a suppressed smile on Cassie's face. Luke was being sweet, a gentleman even. And in Jade's opinion, a gentleman was exactly what Cassie needed.

"Yeah, thanks." said Cassie giving Luke permission to take her plate and add food to it.

Luke smiled. "Not a problem."

The light chatter from earlier faded as people began to eat. Alex was finally able to pull himself away from an old friend and sit down at his wife's table. "So what do you think so far," he asked the table.

"The food is wonderful," Sean said.

"I agree. What I love most is how the flavors blend together perfectly and compliment each other." Jade supplied.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it. I still can't believe that you two, Sean and Jade music superstars, agreed to come to my restaurant and try my new dishes." Alex said.

"We're here every week working Alex, and I've had appetizers here before. There's no need for you to be in such shock about the whole thing. I'm surprised more people in the industry don't dine here. The food is always perfect and the service is great, well except for your hostess up at the front. But I do love the atmosphere." Jade said.

"Thank-you."

"Alex, babe, this is Cassie. I don't think you've met her yet," said Dani to her husband.

"It's very nice to meet you Cassie," said Luke. "I've heard so much about you."

"Good things I hope." Cassie said.

"Of course!" Alex laughed. "Luke and Dani told me you three were classmates in college."

"Yes we were. Though, we never really had the chance to get to know each other. We had classes together, but we didn't do anything outside of class." Cassie explained.

"So no good stories to tell then?" Alex asked.

"Nope. But, with these two," Cassie said pointing to Luke and Dani, "I would think you've heard them all already."

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" Luke asked.

"Don't act so surprised Luke. Even in class you two were always up to something. It was hard to pay attention with the two of you scoffing at each other and having private conversations discussing the merits and faults of our classmates," explained Cassie lightheartedly.

"Really?" Dani asked. "Do you think anyone else noticed?"

"I don't think so. They didn't seem to notice the two of you scheming like I did. Plus they didn't really know you like I did either." Cassie laughed.

"I thought you said you guys didn't know each other well in college," Jade commented.

"We didn't outside of class," said Luke smirking and leaning back in his chair.

"The class was kind of clique-ish and the three of us always seemed to end up working with each other for in-class scenarios." Dani explained.

"And Frank, don't forget Frank." Luke added.

"Yes, we can't forget Frank!" Cassie noted.

"Do you remember when we had to do those presentations?" Dani asked as she began to recount a tale of their class exploits.

Jade, Sean and Alex watched as the three friends became engrossed in their own conversation, forgetting the others who sat at the table with them.

"Well, they seem to be enjoying themselves." Sean said.

"Yeah, they get like this sometimes. Well, at least Luke and Dani do. Who knew it would be worse when we threw in another member of their little clique." Alex laughed.

"Yeah, who knew?" Jade said contemplatively as she watched Dani, Luke and Cassie talk.

Jade was happy. For the first time in a while, she could tell Cassie was truly enjoying herself. What made the sight even better was the way in which Dani, Luke and Cassie were interacting with each other. Dani had leaned in closer to Luke and Cassie, with one hand remaining on her husband's lap. What Jade found the most interesting was Luke and Cassie. The two had gravitated closer to one another. Luke's arm rested on the back of Cassie's chair while Cassie's chair sat almost on top of Luke's own chair. It was quite obvious that the two had unknowingly invaded each other's space, and the both looked completely comfortable with the arrangement.

While Alex and Sean started their own conversation beside her, Jade continued to watch the scene unfold before her.

"The landfill scenario, I think that one was my favorite," said Luke.

"Oh my god I was so embarrassed!" Cassie exclaimed. She bent her head down as she felt the familiar heat of embarrassment wash over her face.

"Oh come on it wasn't that bad!" Dani said.

"It was. It was so bad. I was nervous enough as it was, standing up to speak. I was getting the facts all wrong and then to top it all off, I said the name wrong. What kind of last name is Comfunkerwitz?"

"I don't know but it was funny," said Luke making no attempt to suppress his laughter.

Cassie hit him on the chest.

"What, Dani is laughing too!" Luke pointed out.

"Yeah, well I like Dani." Cassie smiled as she stood up from the table. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go to the ladies room."

Luke watched her as she walked away.

"You know what, I'll be right back," said Jade interrupting Luke's train of thought as she followed Cassie.

Jade entered the bathroom just as Cassie was coming out of a stall to wash her hands.

"Oh, hey." Cassie said surprised.

"Hey, to you too." Jade said leaning against the wall.

"The food was really great don't you think?"

"I think the food was good. But you look like you're enjoying the company more." Jade said.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing, it's just nice to see you having a little bit of fun."

Cassie finished washing her hands and walked over to the paper towel dispenser. She pulled out two and began to dry her hands. Looking at Jade she said, "I know what you're thinking."

"I don't know what you mean."

Cassie threw the used towels in to the trash and started to walk out of the bathroom. However, before she exited, she turned to Jade. "It's nothing, just a trip down memory lane."

"This could be good Cassie, new friendships. Promise me you'll just stay open to the possibility that maybe it's time to let go of your fears and open yourself up."

"I'll think about it." Cassie smirked as she grabbed her friend's wrist. "I think we better go back out there before some of Alex and Dani's friends decide to flirt with Sean."

Once again, Jade found herself smiling. She missed this Cassie, and hoped she would stick around for awhile.

When Jade and Cassie got back to the table, there were women crowded around Sean trying to get his attention. One woman was bold enough to sit in Jade's seat. However, upon their return to the table, the women dispersed.

As the evening wound down, guests came up to the group's table and complimented Alex on a job well done. There were few people left when Jade and Sean said their goodbyes. Alex left the table and went back into the kitchen. Cassie, Dani and Luke were left sitting at the table.

"This was fun. I don't understand how the three of us didn't become good friends after that class," said Dani shaking her head in disappointment.

"I agree. We need to do this again, maybe with just the three of us. I think everyone else felt a little left out." Luke suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds fine." Cassie gave them a small smile as she stood up. "I'm going to get going. Dani, I'll talk to you later."

Both Luke and Dani recognized the change in Cassie's demeanor. She had gone from lighthearted and fun to somber in a matter of minutes. Luke looked at Dani who just shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm going to go back in the kitchen. I'll see you later." Dani left, but Luke's attention was still on Cassie's fast fading figure.

"What am I doing?" Luke asked himself. He grabbed his bag from under the table and his jacket from the back of his chair. He then walked quickly, weaving his way between tables, to catch up with Cassie.

Luke met Cassie outside the restaurant where she was about to get into a cab. He gently grabbed a hold of her upper arm. "Hey," he said.

Keeping one hand on the door of the cab, Cassie turned around. "Luke, what do you want?"

"You're phone number." He stated simply. This was him being proactive.

"What?" Cassie asked slightly confused.

"It's not hard, Cassie. What's your phone number?" Luke laughed at her dumbfounded expression.

"Why?" Cassie asked.

Luke watched as the walls that seemed to disappear during dinner came back up.

"So we can do this again. Dani, you and I have a meal together and talk." He was making an effort and hoping she would too.

Cassie bit her lip as she contemplated whether or not to give him her phone number. Pushing strands of hair behind her ear, Cassie made a decision. "How about you give me yours. That way if I want to do this again, I'll arrange it."

Luke nodded his head in defeat as he fished in his briefcase for a business card. Finding one, he pulled out a pen and wrote on the back of it before handing it over to Cassie. "On the back is my home number."

Cassie took the card and put it in her pocket. "I guess I'll see you around then," she said as she got into the cab.

For the second time that evening, Luke stopped her. "Cassie," he said.

She turned and stared at him, "yes Luke?"

"You know you can call me any time."

"Okay. Bye." She closed the door and the cut its way into city traffic.

Luke stood on the sidewalk. The ball was no longer in his court. He did not have control over the situation, a feeling he had felt many times before. But this time, fate was not at play either. This time, it was all up to Cassie. Whether things moved forward or not, depended on Cassie.