Luke followed Cassie down the street. She was moving fast and catching up with the upset woman would not be an easy feat. When he was close enough, Luke reached out and gently grabbed Cassie's arm. She immediately turned around with her other arm raised prepared to fight off any attacker. However, the minute she recognized the person holding her elbow, she dropped the other arm. 

"Cassie."

"Let me go Luke." Cassie said. She had stopped before attacking him, but she was still fighting to get free of his grasp.

"Cassie, stop. Where are you going?" Luke asked. When she took off from the park, Cassie headed in the wrong direction.

"I told you I'm going home." Cassie said defiantly.

"Cassie, your home is the other way." Luke said as he pointed in the opposite direction of where Cassie had been headed. "And you could have hailed a cab."

Cassie stopped trying to wrestle away from Luke. Seeing Milo threw her off. She did intend to go home, but she was not thinking straight. Her only thought was to get as far away from that man as she could.

"Oh." Cassie said simply.

"Come on." Luke said. He turned to the edge of the sidewalk. With one hand still firmly grasping Cassie's elbow, Luke whistled for a cab. 

The ride to Cassie's building was silent. As was the journey from the lobby to her apartment. Cassie opened the door and Luke followed her inside. She discarded her purse on the sofa and she sat down on the floor with the sofa at her back and the coffee table in front of her. Cassie stretched her legs underneath the wooden table, leaned her head back on the sofa and sighed. Her day did not go as planned. She never expected to see Milo again. She never wanted to see Milo again. That man was supposed to be just a remnant from the past, not a living breathing person showing up  in  her present.

Cassie listened to Luke's footsteps as he walked through her apartment. She heard a few cabinets being opened and closed. She then heard the distinct sound of ice clinking in glass followed by flowing  water from, most likely, the refrigerator. Cassie both felt and heard Luke as he came toward her. She assumed he would join her on the floor, which meant he would need to put the glass, or glasses, on the wooden coffee table, and Cassie really liked her coffee table. She did not want any new stains.

"Coasters." Cassie said.

"What?" Luke asked as he came closer.

"Use coasters. There are some in the drawer of the side table." Cassie responded.

Luke looked in the drawer and found a stack of wooden coasters. He pulled one out and placed it and the glass of water on the coffee table. Luke lowered himself to the floor and sat next to Cassie in front of the couch.

"What are you thinking?" Luke asked concerned.

Cassie closed her eyes. She wanted to ignore what had happened earlier in the day for so many reasons. She did not want Luke mixed up with Milo, not sweet, caring, workaholic Luke. Christian had been a hard man who only showed his softer side to a select few. In most ways, Luke was a much different person than Christian had been. But Cassie did not want to tell Luke what to do. And she did not have the right to ask him to request off of the real estate mogul's account either.

"Cassie," Luke said. He touched her arm hoping to get her attention. She turned to face him, and he could see the desperation and fear in her eyes. 

"I don't want to lose you." Cassie said simply. She took hold of his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. "Not now, not when I'm finally..." She stopped talking unsure of how she wanted to finish the sentence.

Luke, however, was surprised by her words. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to Cassie."

"I probably should." Cassie said. She looked up at Luke. "Maybe if I did, it'd help you to understand me better, or at least why I am the way I am now. If that makes any sense. Why I seem to be running." She rearranged herself so she was no longer looking at Luke, but rather at some undefined point directly in front of her.

Luke was quiet. The afternoon had taken an unexpected turn and he was not sure how to respond to Cassie's sudden desire to be open. He did not want to say anything that would cause her to shut down. He knew that this moment would be a defining one in their friendship. 

"I told you about Christian, and his occupation. I told you about Milo, his employer."

"And my new client..."

Cassie laughed mirthlessly, "yes, your new client, the man I'm 90% certain had Christian killed. He's a man I've been terrified of since the moment I met him. It's more than just what I'm sure he arranged, and what I'm sure he's done. I associate him with the day my whole understanding of who Christian was changed. My first encounter with him was the beginning of me questioning myself and who I was." 

"What do you mean?"

"What kind of person does that make me? I was so willing, for so long to ignore my own warning bells. And when I finally had some proof, some evidence that all of my instincts were correct, I stayed." 

"Cassie, you were in love." Luke said simply.

"Was I in love, or was I just that desperate? That man...and Christian may never get justice, not with the way that Milo is connected." Cassie countered. 

There was no response that would make Cassie feel any better. Luke remained silent and just sat next to his friend as she worked through her thoughts. They remained that way for half an hour before Luke turned on the television for some background noise. He was not sure what to do, but he knew he could just be present for his friend.