Ignitable

Ignitable - Chapter Eight

I know we are in a posh restaurant and all that, but I can't hold back how thrilled I am anymore. Trying to quietly clap my hands, I bounce up and down in my seat with absolute joy. "Oh Jems and Zara, this is so lovely...thank you." Once again, I jump up out of seat, needing to give my gorgeous friends yet another grateful hug. Jemma is the first to get a zealous squish first, promptly followed by my dearest Zara.

Just as I am straightening up and smoothing down my pale lemon skater style dress and about to happily go back to my seat, I am suddenly stopped dead in my overjoyed tracks. "Sophia?" Cade seems just as surprised to see me, as I am him.

"Cade?" His name is pleasantly expelled from between my lips, although it's such a shock to bump into him here.

With an enamoured smile, he looks from me to our shredded tissue strewn restaurant table. "Is this your thirtieth birthday that you're celebrating?" His amused green eyes quickly return back to me.

And strangely, they are eyes that I'm so very pleased to see again. "Yes, it is." I glance down at my presents, then briefly at a staring Jemma and Zara before fully looking back at Cade.

Who is actually about to say something, but two formally dressed men come up behind him. "Our table is just over there, Lapley." One of them points to where they are to be seated, and it's not too far from our table.

Cade just nods and lets them pass, keen to pick up our conversation from where we just briefly had left it. "It's a works dinner." He quickly explains, feeling the need to tell me why he is here.

"That's nice." That's nice? Is that all you can actually come up with? I silently tell myself off, on account of my lack of interesting things to say back to him. The truth is, I am taken aback by Cade's kind niceness towards me. I wasn't exactly nice to him the last time I saw him, now was I? And yet, he is nothing but pleased to see me. My smile his way, becomes a jittery one. Jittery, because part of me is feeling embarrassed and the other part of me is feeling excited by the very unexpected sight of him.

Smiling across at my still staring friends, Cade politely nods an unsaid hello to them before bringing his purposeful gaze back onto me. His smile changes from one that is politely casual, to one that is sincerely affectionate. "It's good to see you again, Sophia." Tenderly placing his hand on my shoulder, he then slowly leans in to sweetly kiss me on the cheek. "Happy birthday." With one last heartwarming smile, he leaves me just standing there.

As I numbly sit back down, Zara crudely quips. "Cade Lapley, now there's a man I could happily feed myself with."

Jemma is next to hijack the convo with a very loud whisper, a whisper so loud, it's not actually a whisper. "How in the hell do you know Cade Lapley?" She's eyeballing me with total disbelief from across the table, desperate to hear how I know him.

"I'll tell you both later." I don't know why, but I'm blushing. I don't know whether it's from remembering my one night with Cade or the way his hand and his kiss just felt on my shoulder and cheek.

But they both don't want to drop it. "Soph, how do you know him?" Jems asks, leaning right into the middle of the table.

"Not here, okay?" Awkwardly, my pleading eyes ask for them to stop asking me anymore questions about Cade. I have a tornado of feelings swirling around inside of me, feelings that are being caused by the man that I so hastily turned down. When I did that, I was hurt and confused. But time has been kind. It's allowed me to realise that I wasn't actually nursing a broken heart over Paul, just a broken dream.

Both my friends look at each other, then me, then back at each other. "He was the guy you had a one night stand with, wasn't he?" Zara quietly whispers, a whisper I am so very grateful for.