I lifted my shirt and moved the laptop camera, so that she could see the side of my torso. “What do ya think?”
“I think it’s gorgeous,” she said.
“Well, I think you’re gorgeous,” I said as I pulled my shirt back down and repositioned the computer.
“Thank you,” she said sweetly.
After another moment of us just starting at each other smiling had passed, Allison spoke. “Cedric, tell me something about yourself that would surprise me.”
My eye twitched as the irony of that question hit me.
God she had no idea, but I wasn’t going to let my mind go to that dark place tonight. Not tonight.
“You first,” I said, giving myself time to recover from that question.
Allison smiled and closed her eyes to think for a second.
“Okay…well, let’s see. Something that would surprise you…okay…well, I was once in the Miss Massachusetts pageant!”
“No fucking way…you…a pageant girl?”
“Yeah…my mother convinced me to enter and I actually placed third runner-up.”
“Third-runner up? There is no way that pageant is based on beauty then, cuz you would have won if that were the case.”
“Aw, thanks…but no…see, there’s this little thing called talent? And well, I guess they didn’t appreciate my rendition of Wind Beneath my Wings.”
I threw my head back. “You did not sing that song?”
“I did…and it sucked ass.”
I lost it at her use of that term, which I used a lot too.
“Hey…but still third runner-up, it couldn’t have been that bad!” I said, wiping my eyes.
“Your turn,” she said.
I closed my eyes and thought about it.
“Okay…I know…something that would surprise you is that I have a bit of a musical past myself.”
“Oh yeah?”
“My brother Caleb and I used to rap, actually. We had an amateur rap group as teenagers called Triple C.”
“Triple C?” she asked.
“Yeah…Triple C for Cedric…Caleb…Callahan. We thought we were the shit. I used to write the lyrics and Caleb did the beats. We had the baggy jeans falling off our asses and everything…Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch wannabees.” I chuckled shaking my head at the thought of how ridiculous we were.
Allison covered her mouth and shook in laughter, then shouted, “Rap me something!”
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Yes! Come on…show me what you can put together in three minutes,” she said.
My head fell back in disbelief and laughter. She was actually gonna make me do this?
“Okay. Three minutes…hold on,” I said.