Who was this Stephanie and how serious were they? She’s clearly all over Cedric…who could blame her…but I couldn’t help but feel like he only had eyes for me out there. They seemed to follow my every move, while she was going on and on about her job. I wanted to scream while Cedric pretended to listen to her while he clearly wanted to say something to me.
I had also forgotten just how painfully good looking that man is; he is hotter than ever. His hair has gotten a little longer and is parted and pieced so perfectly together framing his beautiful face. And his scent had been killing me from across the table. Let’s just say, the pork wasn’t the reason my mouth was watering.
This was all so awkward and frustrating. I can understand the predicament he is in. He could have never imagined I would show up out of the blue after disappearing for months and never contacting him. Who could blame him for moving on? I might have done the same thing if I were him. Taking a deep breath and grabbing my bearings, I opened the bathroom door to return outside.
As I exited the bathroom, I was startled to see Caleb standing there waiting for me with his arms crossed. “We need to talk, real quick, Allison. Let’s go out front.”
I nodded, took a deep breath and followed Caleb out to the front steps, as he gently closed the door behind us.
“Listen, I know this has got to be awkward for you,” he said.
I shook my head in agreement. “Obviously, I wasn’t expecting this when I came here.”
Caleb blinked rapidly and shook his head. “Where have you been for three months?”
I hesitated for a second, unsure about whether I wanted to tell him where I was before I had a chance to explain it to Cedric, but caved. “I was in Chicago actually…with my sister’s parents.”
Caleb looked stunned. “No shit…Wow. I didn’t expect you to say that. Cedric had no clue where you went and you told him not to contact you, so—”
“Yes, it’s a long story, but the Thompsons and I have really gotten close. That’s part of what I wanted to talk to Cedric about. I was going to contact him later today, before I knew he was here. I really did come here to see Callie and I didn’t mean to make anyone uncomfortable.”
Caleb quickly looked back to check if anyone was coming and then said, “Listen, we don’t have much time. People are gonna start to wonder where we are. I just wanted you to know that Cedric has been really broken up over everything that happened between you two. It’s taken him all the time you have been away to only somewhat recover and even though it may look like he has moved on, I know for a fact that he hasn’t. I just talked to him this morning on the phone and he was still talking about you, okay? I didn’t want you using the fact that he is here with a date as an excuse to run away from him again. They are not serious. I just wanted to make sure you knew that.”
Relief washed over me. “Thank you. I appreciate that.” I couldn’t contain my smile upon hearing that.
He looked back again and spoke softly. “And Allison, listen…I know he hurt you really badly by not telling you the truth right away, but he didn’t mean to cause you pain. His feelings for you were as true as I have ever witnessed. But let me tell you, if your plan was to come back here and ream him out face to face about what happened, I would appreciate it if you didn’t. Just walk away from him instead and let him try to move on. Believe me, he understands his mistakes.”
Walk away? No.
“Caleb, I wasn’t planning on doing that. I had a lot of time to think in Illinois about his reasons for doing what he did. Amanda’s parents really helped me through it. I know now that he didn’t mean to hurt me and I still care about him a lot. I just wish I could talk to him right now.”
Caleb smiled, looking a little surprised at what I just said. “You’ll get your chance. Come on, let’s head back out.”
Stephanie was still talking Cedric’s ear off when Caleb and I returned to the yard.
At the sound of the sliding glass door, Cedric turned around looked at me and then to Caleb inquisitively. I wondered if he knew we were inside talking. Denise didn’t seem fazed and I have a feeling she knew exactly what Caleb had been up to in cornering me.
My heart clenched when I looked over and saw Stephanie running her fingers through Cedric’s hair. It was painful to watch but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Jealousy swept in like a freight train.
I tried to distract myself by walking over to where Callie was sitting and trying to involve her in a game of tic tac toe on her iPad. As we took our turns with x’s and o’s, I snuck glances over at Cedric and Stephanie who were still seated next to each other at the dinner table and noticed how uncomfortable he looked, stiff and fidgety. He wasn’t returning any of her touches and his hands were planted firmly on his lap.
Stephanie’s back was turned to me, when Cedric’s and my eyes briefly met and I could tell by the look he gave me that he wanted to talk to me but he didn’t know how to break away from her. I needed to communicate to him somehow tha
t I wanted to talk to him too and that I wasn’t mad at him for being here with her, that I wasn’t mad at him for anything anymore.
Stephanie ran her fingers through his hair again and then reached over and pulled him toward her suddenly kissing him on the mouth. I turned away immediately at that sight and could feel the bile rising in me and started burning up with more feelings of intense jealousy. It was one thing to see him here with another woman. It was another to see her all over him.
I was done with this, especially after what Caleb told me. If I truly felt that he was happy and moving on, I would have up and left. Thank goodness Caleb confronted me or I may have been gone by now. But I was determined to stay and determined to send him a signal that I still wanted him…that I needed him, and most of all, that I had forgiven him for not telling me the truth. I couldn’t sit here while someone else took something so important from me…while I watched. A primal urge to claim what was mine erupted in me and I knew needed to fight for him.
Just as Stephanie put her arm around him, Bettina started clearing the table. Stephanie got up and took some plates through the sliding glass door into the kitchen.
Then, Cedric immediately got up from his seat and started taking in some of the side dishes and was gone into the house.
Callie and I had stopped playing tic tac toe and now, she was just looking at You Tube while I sat beside her, playing with her long braid and pretending to focus my attention on anything other than the competition I had mentally started.
Stephanie came back out and returned to her seat, checking her phone, but Cedric remained in the house.
This was my chance.