“Try forty, and Billy, don’t finish that sentence,” I warn, as Cecelia finally smiles and walks over to me. She lifts my sandwich and takes a large bite. It’s an act of kindness, a rarity since I showed up, and my shoulders ease back a little.
She chews slowly, and our eyes meet and hold. She’s in there, hiding, both the girl I met and the woman I love, as she was yesterday. Maybe her dream haze anger has passed. “Done with this?” she asks, snatching the plate just as I reach for the other half of the sandwich.
Maybe not.
“It’s true, Billy. He’s my old flame,” Cecelia snarks in an indicative way that means trouble is coming. “He’s here to try and win me back. But I’m thinking of passing.”
Billy lifts his brows. “Well, what’s wrong with him, other than the way he dresses?”
Billy-1, Tobias-0
She crosses her arms, lips lifting. “Quite a bit.”
“Does he always dress like that? He could be in one of those rap videos in that getup.”
Billy-2, Tobias-0
“It’s just a part of his disguise. He’s a professional liar.”
Shit, here we go. And no doubt she’s going to make this publicly painful.
Bring it, baby.
“That’s never good,” Billy says, sizing me up as Cecelia begins to tick off my crimes on her fingers. “He’s a thief, a liar, and the first time he kissed me, he didn’t ask permission, so definitely not a gentleman.”
“Shame,” Billy analyzes me with a crease between his brows. “You should always ask a woman’s permission.”
“And he betrayed me,” Cecelia adds, and there’s nothing humorous in her tone. I feel that blow so much I grunt through it.
You hurt, I hurt. Look at me.
But she doesn’t, and it’s all I can do to keep from jumping over the counter.
“You did all that?” Billy asks, his frown deep-set.
I nod. “I did.”
“You’re not even going to defend yourself?”
“No,” I reply as she lifts her eyes to mine. “It’s all true.”
“Well, then, do you have one reason why she should take you back?” Marissa is standing a foot behind me, and I can feel the rest of the sparsely-filled café leaning in on bated breath.
Small fucking towns.
Cecelia collects a tub of dirty dishes when I finally speak up in a shitty defense. “I stopped lying yesterday.” I barely get it out before she passes through the double doors.
Not long after Billy leaves, she immerses herself back into cleaning and making small talk with her customers. I lay low, hoping the rest of the shift will pass without incident or another public inquisition. The more I try to concentrate on the task of tying up a few loose ends for Exodus, the more I’m distracted by her presence mere feet away.
It’s the ache of wanting her. It’s the need to erase the distance, not just physically but emotionally. But on the physical side, I’m tamping down a thirst that’s been constant since the first time I thrust inside her.
Cecelia has always been beautiful. Her face a mix of innocence and incomparable natural beauty. She measures above the average woman in that respect. Still, it’s also in the way she carries herself with confidence, the way she beams when she smiles, the carefully conveyed words that come out of her mouth that express her warmth, empathy, and intelligence. In appearance, I still see some of her lingering youth, her curiosity for the world around her. She’s forever a student, and I find that appealing. Where some women seem to be convinced that they’re experts on everything after a certain age, she’s always searching for ways to understand the world around her, to both learn and grow.