the tour. In some ways, Desmond is a purist.”
‘The bastard.” The words escaped Cassie without any thought on her part. But as she looked at Nancy, she suddenly hated her. And him. It had all been a game. For both of them. It was all part of the Pacific tour, and the grander scheme of things, all to sell airplanes.
Marrying her had been just one small part of the plan, for publicity, and all the while he'd been sleeping with Nancy. No wonder Nancy had been so cool to her once they married. And maybe, for a little while, Nancy had even been worried. She was ten years older than Cassie, and not nearly as exciting, or as pretty.
“Weren't you just a little bit afraid he might fall for me?” Cassie eyed her carefully, and was pleased to see the older woman squirm at the question.
“Not really. We talked about it. You're really not his type, Cass.”
“Actually, given everything I know, I'd say that's a compliment.” Cassie looked at her coolly. And then she decided to deliver a small blow to the opponent. “You're not alone, you know. You're not the only one with an arrangement with Desmond.” She said it very confidently, and it was easy to see that she had made Nancy more than a little nervous. Her livelihood and her future depended on her “arrangement” with Desmond.
“What's that supposed to mean?”
‘There are others like you… with houses… with contracts… with arrangements… Desmond's not a man to be satisfied with one woman.” Cassie was rewarded with a look of terror.
‘That's ridiculous. Who told you that?”
“Someone who knows. He told me that there are quite a number of others. You know, kind of like a little competition.”
“I don't believe you.” But her words reeked of bravado.
“I didn't believe any of it, Nancy. I do now though. Nice to see you,” she smiled. “Say hello to Desmond.” And with that, she hurried back into the building. She didn't want anything to eat anymore. Nancy Firestone had ruined her appetite. She felt sick when she went back to find Billy in the hangar.
“Where's my dinner?” They both had to be in a meeting in less than half an hour, and he was starving.
“I ate it on the way back,” she quipped, but she was looking deathly pale. He noticed it immediately and was worried.
“You okay, Cass? You look like you've seen a ghost. Did someone call about your dad?”
“No, he's okay. I talked to my mother this morning.”
“So what happened?” She hesitated for a long moment, and then sat down in a chair, and told him about Nancy Firestone, and everything she'd told her.
‘That sonofabitch,” he commented through tightened lips. “He really plays quite a game, doesn't he? Too bad he has to go around ruining other people's lives. It would be nice if he stuck to his own kind.”
“I guess he does, at least some of the time.” Nancy Firestone had certainly not been the friend she'd thought her. “All I want to do after the tour is leave LA, and go home for a while. I think I've about done it here. This is a little racy for me.” She looked drained as she looked up at him and he nodded. He felt sorry for her, she didn't deserve this.
And for Cassie, it explained why they never made love anymore and why he'd never had any real interest in her after the honeymoon. He had just gone on seeing Nancy, and God only knew who else. Maybe she was lucky he hadn't bothered spending time in bed with her. Maybe she'd have felt worse now if they had. She suspected she would have. What she felt now was betrayed, and more than a little foolish. The worst part was that she had really believed him. The bastard.
“So what do we do now?” Billy asked, worried about her. He kept wondering if, because of Desmond's betrayal of her, she would throw in the towel, with or without a contract. But she didn't do things that way. She had every intention of finishing what she'd started. And Billy admired her for it.
“We finish the race, kid. That's what we came here for. The rest was all icing on the cake anyway.” And (or Cassie, for a while now, the cake had been poisoned. But nobody had ever called Cassie O'Malley a quitter.
“Good girl.” Billy gave her a hug, and took her out for a quick dinner. But she hardly touched it.
There was a press conference every week after that, and Desmond made a point of being friendly to her publicly. There was lots of bantering, some funny little stories about her, and a small show of affection. It was all very touching, if you didn't know what was really happening. And it was surprisingly believable, to anyone who didn't know them.
Cassie seemed more serious than previously, but that was easily explained by the pressures of the upcoming tour. She had an important task set before her. She was training hard, and Desmond reminded the press frequently that she had spent the entire summer taking care of her father.
“How's your dad, Cass?” one of the reporters asked her.
“He's doing great.” And then she thanked America for their gifts and cards and letters. “It really helped him. He's flying again, with a co-pilot now,” she said proudly. They ate it up. Just the way they ate everything Desmond had fed them. She knew the game now. And Billy marveled at how good at it she was when he watched her.
“You okay?” he asked her in an undertone after one of their press conferences. Desmond had been particularly nice to her, and Billy could see afterward that he had really upset her.
“Yeah. I'm okay,” she said, but he knew how hurt she was. And how betrayed she felt. She hated the hypocrisy of it, the pure sham of it. She had nightmares at night. And once from the next room, where he slept, he heard her crying.
She never saw Desmond alone again, until the night before the Pacific tour. There had been a huge press conference that afternoon, and she and Billy had gone out for a quiet dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant afterward.
When they got back, Desmond was waiting for them. He was sitting in his parked car, and when he got out, he let Billy know he wanted to talk to Cassie.
“I just wanted to wish you luck tomorrow. I'll see you there before you take off, but I wanted you to know that… well, I'm sorry things didn't really work out the way we planned.” He was trying to be magnanimous, but the way he did it made her very angry.
“What exactly
‘Then you should have married someone else, I guess. I was looking for a partnership. And not much more than that. This was business. But isn't that what marriage is, Cassie?” He tried to make it sound as though things just hadn't worked out, and not as though he had lied to her about everything, including being sterile. She could have lived with that, she could have lived with a lot of things, if he'd been honest with her. But they both knew he never had been.
“I don't think you have any idea what marriage is, Desmond.”
“Maybe not,” he said without embarrassment. ‘to tell you the truth, it's not something I've ever really wanted.”
“So why bother? I would have flown this for you, without all the nonsense, the lies… the wedding… You didn't have to go that far. You used me,” she said, relieved that she had finally had a chance to say it.
“We used each other. You're going to be the biggest star in aviation there ever was two months from now. And I put you there. In one of my planes. It's a wash, Cass. We're even.” He seemed pleased with himself. It was all he wanted. She meant nothing to him. She never had. That was the hard part.
“Congratulations. I hope you enjoy it as much as you thought you would.”
“I will.” He was sure of it. “And so will you. And so will Billy. We all win on this one.”
“If everything goes right. You're assuming an awful lot,” she said cautiously.
“I have a right to. You're flying a remarkable plane, and you're a great pilot. It doesn't take more than that. Except Lady Luck, and some fine weather.” He looked at her long and hard, willing her to do right by him, but offering her nothing in return except glory and money. Love wasn't part of his scheme of things. He didn't have it in him. “Good luck, Cass,” he said quietly.
‘Thanks,” she said, and walked upstairs to Billy's apartment.
“What did he want?” Billy asked suspiciously. He was worried that Desmond might have said something to upset Cassie.
“Just to wish us luck, I guess. In his own way. There's no one in there… I finally figured that out… the man's
