“I’m Stephanie, nice to meet you.” The four of us continued to awkwardly stand in silence until we heard the words “PIG IS READY!”
My mother was calling from the back-yard and when we lingered, she burst through the sliding glass doors. “Didn’t you guys hear me, the pig is—Allison!” My mother ran over to Allison, wiping her hands on an apron and hugged her.
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Allison returned the hug. “Hi Bettina, sorry to barge in, I wanted to come by and say hello.”
My mother gazed at her. “Honey, don’t be silly. The door is always open here. I hope you’ll stay and join us for the pig roast?
I absolutely insist.”
Allison looked like she was thinking about it, then while looking straight over at me said, “Yes, that’d be nice.” She was staying.
As awkward as this was going to be, I could get through anything, as long she didn’t run from me again.
The
five
of
us:
Mom,
Caleb,
Stephanie, Allison and myself walked out to the yard.
Allison immediately snuck behind Callie, who turned around and squealed louder than ever at the sight of her long lost friend.
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“Allison! Allison!” she yelled jumping up and down. I guess she hadn’t forgotten Allison after all.
“Callie, I missed you so much,” Allison said as she hugged my sister.
I wanted to hug Allison, too…so badly.
Stephanie was looking over at Allison and Callie, then gauging my reaction. “So, she works with your sister?” she asked.
“Yeah…yup…she does.” I said flatly, immediately picking up my beer and taking a swig.
Stephanie was looking Allison up and down as she sipped her white wine.
My mother waved everyone over to the table where a dozen side dishes flanked the gigantic roast pig, which had now been carefully sliced into individual pieces of sa-vory pork, garnished with herbs. Thankfully for Denise and Stephanie, the head had been discarded. As good as it looked, I had lost my 635/727
appetite the second Allison walked through the door.
Stephanie sat next to me while Allison was diagonally across the table from us, next to Callie. I watched as Allison carefully tucked a napkin into the front of Callie’s shirt and carefully placed slices of pork and sides onto my sister’s plate. God, she was so good with her and Callie looked so happy to have Allison back.
Allison glanced over at me, catching me watching her. I didn’t even try to pretend like I wasn’t and kept my gaze on her. To my surprise, she gave me a slight smile, which I returned. My fists were clenched into balls of frustration under the table.
Everyone
was
unusually
quiet
throughout the meal until my mother broke the silence. “Allison, when did you get back into town, honey?”
“Last night. I called Bright Horizons about getting reassigned to Callie, but 636/727
haven’t heard back yet. I’ll keep on them until they get back to me.”
She didn’t offer any information on where she had returned from and even though I wondered so badly where she had been and what she was doing these past few months, I couldn’t bring it up right then and there.
I nearly spit out my food when Stephanie decided to ask Allison a question.
“So, Allison, how long have you worked with Callie?”
Allison seemed startled before answering. “I had worked with her about six months before I took a leave of absence. We get along really well, don’t we Callie?” Allison turned to Callie who still had her head face down in her food and then laughed nervously.
Stephanie nodded. “That’s so nice.” You could cut the tension in the air with a knife as everyone continued to eat, 637/727
with only my mother and her friends at the far end of the table making small talk amongst themselves.
After about fifteen minutes, after Callie had cleaned her plate and left the table, Allison excused herself and walked into the house alone.
Stephanie had been trying to engage me in a conversation about her law firm’s upcoming yearly banquet that she wanted me to attend, but the corner of my eyes were all too aware of Allison’s absence and my brother Caleb’s swift exit to follow her.
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CHAPTER 36
ALLISON
I had to get out of there and take a breather, so I locked myself in Bettina’s bathroom as a million thoughts ran through my mind.
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 641/727
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 frustrat-ing. 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.
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“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 643/727
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.
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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.” 645/727
Caleb smiled, looking a little surprised at what I just said. “You’ll get your chance.