He was succeeding in getting her attention in a positive way. She looked back at him, her eyes showing how much crying she had done. He could feel how much the events had hurt her, and he wanted to help her ease that pain. It was all coming back to him, faster than he thought it would. He had been anxious about helping her, a fact that he was unaware of until just then.<br/><br/>Cassie spoke more about their state of dress, Sebastian nodding, confirming in all likelihood that the two had was was seeming to be a common experience with young women; experimentation in same sex activities.<br/><br/><em>"There was wine, lots of wine. More for Izzie than for me though, because she had a bottle in her room. Why the hell did Izzie have a bottle of wine in her room?"</em><br/><br/>His earlier suspicion confirmed that the other woman was Isabelle didn't change how he perceived her at all. Not the argument, nor the activities leading up to them. Again, he pushed that one fact out of his mind, due mainly to the irrelevance of the identity of the other person. Plus, making references to other people when they were not clearly, and deliberately, named had a tendency to make the person he was talking to close up and become uncooperative.<br/><br/><em>"We've known each other since preschool... I can't help that she never did, that's not my fault!"</em><br/><br/>In the middle of her answer, he heard Cassie mention that Isabelle told her about meeting him, and Isabelle's concerns that Cassie might steal him from her. He immediately quarantined the thoughts associated with that to return to later, regardless of how much it impacted in him. Cassie was his concern at the moment, not Isabelle or even himself. But what Cassie had been saying made it easy for him to see how Isabelle came to that conclusion, regardless of how accurate it may be. Finally, her expression faltered, and she looked at her hands, worrying that what Isabelle said was correct, and not being comfortable with the thought that she may be right.<br/><br/><em>"It's not my fault is it?"</em><br/><br/>"No, not at all. The only person responsible for Isabelle's choices, and how she perceived things, is Isabelle. If this fellow you are having lunch with is someone Isabelle felt strongly about, then her not making her thoughts and feelings known to this man are her responsibility. You have done good things for her, but you need to look after yourself more, Cassie. While it may appear to be a good thing not to go after someone that Isabelle is interested in, holding yourself back forever because she doesn't do anything about it is not a good thing to do. Also, if the fellow felt strongly enough about Isabelle, he would have said something to her, rather than you.<br/><br/>"Now, concerning your thoughts of inappropriate activities with Isabelle, what happened between the two of you happens more often than you would guess. Young women, who have been close friends since prior to puberty, in a vast majority of cases, experiment in same sex activities. It is mainly curiosity to experience something sexual with a trusted partner, sometimes it turns out to be a display of affection between the two, heavily bolstered by alcohol or narcotics, and in a few cases, true deep feelings between the two. Given that the pair of you were more clothed than not, I don't think that you went very far before passing out drunk."<br/><br/>Sebastian looked off into the rain, giving Cassie the perception of privacy. "Also, the closer people are emotionally, the more susceptible they are to hurts from those other people. The two of you have been close for most of your lives, and have been of great support to each other. So you're both used to helping each other, and don't have the defences in place to protect you from things that hurt, like you would from strangers, or other people you know. The greater the pain, the greater the reaction." He turned his gaze back to Cassie. "Plus, of the two of you, Isabelle is more reserved socially, and wont assert herself while you're around. So, you gather more attention than she does, which does hurt her a little. She blames herself more than you normally. But on this one matter, the hurt is too great to bear, so she lashed out at you.<br/><br/>"I gather that her new friend was one she developed by herself, which carries greater importance to her. Even if that other person remains just a friend. She did it herself, not challenged or threatened by you. In her moment of great pain, her fears that you would take someone else from her surfaced, and were carried with her fear. I feel that her accusation of stealing her new friend is harsh, and she has little to fear of that happening."<br/><br/>He took a deep breath, and smiled a little. "Would it surprise you to know that I used to do this professionally, once upon a time? My profession ethics still hold. Anything you've spoken about here wont be told to anyone else."