Cassandra in Reverse

Cassie returns home in the morning to find a nearly naked Derek. While she tries to avoid a conversation at first, she remembers that she needs to avoid being unfriendly, but also not be too friendly, to avoid sending “things spinning off in the wrong direction again” (207). She tells Derek a few details about Will. When he begins to flirt with her, though, Cassie decides she’s unprepared for this “whole thread” and time travels again to avoid it.

At work, Cassie is very moved when Sophie offers to make all the phone calls to journalists for the SharkSkin campaign, a task that causes Cassie to fall apart with anxiety. She arranges to meet Will for his friend’s photography exhibition, initially confused because that date didn’t happen in the first timeline, and departs after asking Sophie to take a message from the person who’s just called for her (who turns out to be Artemis).

Cassie arrives early to the exhibition and is surprised to find that Will, whom she assumed was late, is already there and is talking to Artemis, who introduces herself as Diana, Cassie’s first flatmate. They argue, with Artemis accusing Cassie of living in black and white and compartmentalizing people and Cassie accusing her of pathological lying.