Veiled

Part 3

Chapter 3

Paul had to fight back a laugh, as Cece did nothing but glare at him.  He knew that the true reason she didn’t like him was because she felt like Paul was trying to take Abby away from her.  He couldn’t think of another reason for why she would hate him so much.  The thing was, no one else held a grudge for him being an ass to Abby, not even the woman’s future husband.  There was no other explanation; Cece was jealous.

Her eyes narrowed at him further as his smile turned into a smirk.  “What are you smiling about?” she grumbled, her eyes darting towards an annoyed Abby.

Abby’s hands snapped onto her hips as she shook her head at the two of them.  “Listen,” she started, “Lance and I are going to make some very important decisions about the cake.  I need the two of you to work together to find a good caterer.  Here is a list of foods I want served there, if they can’t provide some, I trust both of you to fix the menu.” 

She held out a piece of paper that Paul immediately grabbed.  A smile flew onto Abby’s face as Lance wrapped an arm around her.  “Come on,” he mumbled into her ear.  “We have,” Lance paused, looking up at Paul with a grin, “cake to taste.”

Letting out a laugh, he watched the two of them practically run from Cece’s house.  “Who do they think their fooling?”

“If she was going to use a lie, she shouldn’t have told me she already ordered the cake,” she mumbled.  He glanced towards her, noticing the small smile on her face.  His eyes rose, connecting with hers.  To be honest, she really was quite pretty when she smiled.  Her hand came up to brush a piece of hair behind her ear.  “What are you looking at?” she whispered, shifting on her feet as if he were making her uncomfortable.

Shaking his head at her, he glanced down at the piece of paper Abby had handed him.  “Nothing,” he mumbled.  “It’s nothing.”

“Good,” she said before hesitating. 

He had to keep himself from looking up at her, had to stop himself from asking why there was hesitation in her voice.  What was it that she wanted to say?  He mentally shook himself.  This was Abby’s fault.  Never had he thought of Cece in any way other than Abby’s friend.  Now that Abby had shattered that image, Paul was beginning to notice things about Cece that he never did before.  Like her hair.  He never knew her hair had a slight curl to it, or that her eyes were not as blue as they appeared.  If he looked closer, he could see the flecks of green throughout them. 

“Have you always been so tall?”

“What?” she asked.  Her voice was confused, and he finally gave in and looked up at her.

“Your height,” he replied.  “Have you been that tall your entire life?”

Shaking her head at him, she frowned.  “No.  There was a time when I was a child.  If I was this height when I was little I would have gotten made fun of even more.”

His hand halted on the piece of paper he had been messing with.  “People made fun of you?”

“Of course,” she said, waving her hand in a dismissive nature.  “It’s how Abby and I met.  I don’t know if you know this, but when we were younger, Abby was the popular one.  Even in elementary, she had those curls and those amazing eyes.”

“I remember.”

She connected eyes with him before rolling hers in a look that let him know she found him idiotic.  “Stupidest thing you ever did, ruining your relationship.”

“Some would agree that it was the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Like who?” she asked as she let out a loud laugh. 

He shrugged, smiling slightly.  “Lance, Abby,” he stopped for a moment before nodding, “me.”

“You can’t be serious.” 

He wanted to laugh at the complete disbelief on her face, but didn’t.  Paul didn’t think she would take to kindly of the fact that he was laughing at her, but how could he not.  She thought that he regretted his decision of not winning Abby back.  What Cece didn’t realize was that by the time Paul thought he wanted to win the woman back, she was taken. 

“Stop trying to chance the subject,” he demanded, even though he was the one steering their conversation in another direction.  “How was Abby being popular how you met?”

“Oh,” she breathed with a small, warm smile on her lips.  “There was this boy that was the worse out of the lot.  I’ve always been tall.  So, my height gave them just another thing to pick on me about.  Well, one day, he went too far.”

“You punched him?”

She let out a laugh.  “If it had happened now, I would have punched him, but no.  I didn’t punch him, Abby did.”

He was shaking his head before she even finished the sentence.  “Abby wouldn’t punch someone.”

“Then you don’t know her as well as you think you do.”

The sentence annoyed the hell out of him, a fact that Cece most likely knew and loved.  Just when he thought they were getting along, she had to throw in that sentence.  “Her favorite color?”

“Brown.  Her first dog?”

“Golden Retriever named Bongo.  Her first boyfriend?”

Her nose scrunched up in disgust.  “The brother of my first boyfriend, and may I say that my first boyfriend was the same guy who Abby punched in the nose.  If he acted like that, try imagining an even worse brother.”

He let out a laugh that had them both smiling.  “Why did she date him?”

“Hot jerks,” Cece answered with a shrug.  “There is just something about them that makes you want to keep going back even though there assholes.”

“Lance isn’t an asshole.”

Cece shook her head.  “No, he isn’t.  Abby got lucky, finding a man like Lance.”

Smoothing the paper in his hand, he turned his gaze away from her before mumbling something underneath his breath.  “What?” she asked.  Her eyes narrowed as if it would help her hear him more clearly.  “What did you say?”

“I’m not an asshole anymore either.”

She let out a laugh, but when he didn’t laugh along, it died down.  “We’ll just have to see, huh?”  Shrugging, she walked towards him and snatched the paper from his hands.  “Until then, let’s see who will cook up all this food before Abby’s wedding.”

He nodded, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to prove himself to her just yet, but hating that he was beginning to care.