"Sooo?" Nessie asked as she pulled a red dress from the rack in the store. She barely looked at the dress, staring at Cecilia instead, who was looking with a rather bored expression on her face at a denim skirt.
Ignoring the skirt, her eyes found Nessie's. The girl's brown eyes had a curious glint in them and the way the corners of her mouth curled into a sly smile had Cecilia's skin crawling with fear. Not the same fear as when Aro looked at her like that, but close enough. She tried to hide her horrified expression and focused her eyes on some other piece of cloth. "So what?" she asked, playing dumb.
Nessie let out an exasperated sigh, hanging the dress back rather aggressively. "So, how's everything between you and Demetri, obviously?" the girl asked, giggling after.
"Oh, that's what this shopping trip is about, huh," Cecilia said, rolling her eyes. "I thought it was about the clothes."
"Of course not," Nessie replied, smiling smugly. "But I had to get you out of the castle for one reason or another."
"Somehow, you've just made me hate shopping even more than I did before," Cecilia sighed, hanging back a red shirt. At least now she could stop pretending to look at clothes, while secretly counting to hundred and back in her head, wishing Nessie would be done already. "We should at least go to some nice restaurant if you're going to torture me with your questions. You pay."
"Deal," Nessie said without a moment of hesitation. She linked her arm through Cecilia's, pulling the girl out of the store at a speed that made Cecilia's head spin. "I think that place will be just fine."
Cecilia followed Nessie's finger, a soft smile coming to her lips as she recognized which restaurant she was talking about. It had been the one Demetri had taken her to as well, where she'd been amused the whole night by his horrible facial expressions alone. She nodded and Nessie increased their pace until Cecilia almost had to run to keep up. "We've got the whole afternoon, Ness," Cecilia said, chuckling. "Calm down."
"Sorry, I just can't wait to get the tea," Nessie excused herself, though she didn't sound sorry at all.
"Ah, miss Cullen, such a delight to see you again," the host spoke as soon as she and Nessie arrived at the terrace. She'd forgotten his name, but she remembered him as the one making sure she and Demetri got seated at the best place and had the best service. "Where would you like to be seated today?"
"Buon pomeriggio," Cecilia greeted the man with a polite smile, ignoring the way Nessie's eyes were burning holes in the side of her face. She looked across the terrace, noticing it was packed already. "I was wondering if you had a place for two outside, but if not, inside is fine as well."
"Oh, no worries miss Cullen, follow me please."
They followed the man inside the restaurant as he lead them through the private area out two doors and onto another terrace of which one table was only occupied. The host turned to them, gesturing to a table that was placed partially in the sun, partially in the shadow. "Will this suffice, miss Cullen?"
"Yes, thank you very much," Cecilia said, nodding as she took the seat in the sun. She watched with a smile as Nessie took the seat opposite of hers, an unbelieving look in her eyes.
"When exactly did you become a celebrity around here?" Nessie asked in a low tone as soon as the host walked away. "He treated you like you would end his life if you didn't like his service."
Cecilia's widened and she gave the girl in front of her a soft nudge with her foot under the table. "Don't speak so loudly," she hissed back. Still, Nessie continued to stare at her, demanding an answer. Letting out a loud sigh, she shrugged. "Demetri took me to dinner here once. I didn't know he would remember me."
"Yeah, who would have guessed that right? A mortal with a well..."
Before Nessie could say anything again, Cecilia gave her another kick, this time a bit more harshly and a bit more effective in shutting the girl up. She loved the girl to death, but when you were surrounded with the supernatural all the time, you forgot that certain topics couldn't be discussed in public. Like having a vampire soulmate.
"But he took you out on a date?" Nessie asked, her eyes already shining with excitement again. "Tell me all about it."
"Well, I'm not sure it classified as a date, but," Cecilia said, quickly continuing before Nessie would cut her off with a witty remark again. "I had a lot of fun, especially when he was trying to eat something. You should have seen his face, it was hilarious. We walked over the market after that."
"Awh, so romantic!" Nessie swooned, listening closely. "Did he kiss you?"
"What? No," Cecilia said, scoffing at Nessie's intruding manner. "I'd only known him for about a week."
"Who cares, you're going to spend eternity with him," Nessie said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah well, Demetri isn't Jake," Cecilia countered. "He comes from a different time."
"So he's a prude, like my dad was?"
"Not exactly."
"You're the prude then."
"I'm not a prude."
"So you did kiss!"
"Nessie, shut up!" Cecilia exclaimed, exasperated. She could feel her cheeks heat up with embarrassment and she was glad when she saw a waiter walking in their direction. Of course, that was only a distraction for a couple of seconds and once their orders were taken, she was left to the mercy of Nessie again, who kept on staring at her like she was literally manifesting the answers out of her. Cecilia rolled her eyes. "We kissed. It was five days ago, in the library in the middle of the night."
"Wow, you sure have a way of making something magical sound so dull," Nessie replied, leaning back in her chair. "Do you like him?"
"Of course I like him," Cecilia answered, as if she'd just been asked what two times two was. Letting out a soft sigh, her fingers grasped the ruby pendant hanging around her chest. "How can I not? He's sweet and caring and he helps me read the ancient books of his language. He remembers the small things and whenever I'm upset he just knows the right things to say. He also got me this necklace."
"No wonder you're soulmates, you're absolutely in love with the guy!" Nessie said, smiling enthusiastically. "And he has good taste, that necklace is absolutely gorgeous."
Cecilia wanted to make a smart remark, but Nessie's words caught her off-guard, leaving her words to hang in the empty air. Was she in love with him? As she saw his face in her mind, the way his Bordeaux red eyes could shine with wonder and admiration, how his smile and little gestures took her breath away, the way her skin burned after he touched her, she realised she was. She was in love with him.
A soft smile settled on her lips and her eyes focused on Nessie's again. "I guess I am," she said. "But enough about me, how's everything between you and Jake?"
"Still wonderful," Nessie replied. "Now promise you can keep a secret."
"Promise," Cecilia said, as she held up her pinky.
Nessie intertwined hers and nodded. "I think Jake wants to propose soon."
Pulling her pinky away, Cecilia looked at the girl she considered her sister with pure shock on her face. "What?" she exclaimed, a little loudly. Embarrassed, she turned around to look at the single other occupied table, but the two people around it didn't even appear to have heard her. Cecilia turned back to Nessie. "What? Why do you think so?"
"Well, two weeks ago I overheard him talking with Carlisle about Isle Esmee, said he wanted to take me there for a week," she said, smiling excitedly. Cecilia loved the glow of happiness that surrounded the girl in front of her whenever she talked about Jake and she couldn't help but wonder if she looked the same when talking about Demetri. "And that's not all. A couple of days ago I had to search something up on his laptop, but there was still a tab open. It was a page full of engagement rings."
"Oh, Nessie, that's great!" Cecilia squealed enthusiastically. "I'm really happy for you."
"Yeah, about time as well," the girl said, pushing her brown curls over her shoulders. "I've been waiting for that ring for about a year now."
Cecilia chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Miss Patience."
"Never been my strongest point."
Cecilia watched in delight as the food was brought to their table, thanking the waiter kindly as she dug into the sandwich she'd ordered. At least when she was eating, she didn't have to answer Nessie's intruding questions.
"Are you coming home after Demetri turned you?" Nessie asked all of a sudden.
A heavy silence settled between them. Cecilia chewed and swallowed the bite she'd just taken, all of a sudden feeling a whole lot less hungry. Deciding not to let the mood be completely ruined, she rolled her eyes. "Couldn't you at least let me finish one of my sandwiches before ruining my appetite?"
"So, you're not?" Nessie concluded, the statement containing only just about enough hesitation for it to be a question.
A sigh escaped her mouth and she shrugged. "I'm not sure I have a choice exactly," she said. "Demetri will never belong to our family, not really. And even if mom and dad would have him close, there's no way the Volturi would let their best tracker wander off to the other side of the world. Even worse, I don't think Demetri can leave them, not with Aro's and Chelsea's claws so deep in his head."
Nessie nodded quietly. "I see."
"It's not like I want it this way," Cecilia said, feeling defensive all of a sudden. "If the choice were mine, I would wipe Demetri of the masters' memories altogether and take him with me to whichever place we would want to live in that moment, but that's not an option. Neither is being in a different place."
"It's not your fault," Nessie said as she swallowed a bite from her nachos. "I understand the situation, but I just think it's sad that you'll be thousands of miles away."
"You could always visit, of course, it's not like I'm their prisoner," Cecilia said, considering her words. She came to the conclusion that perhaps, that was exactly what she was. "Well, not literally anyway."