Caleb had his head in his hands while he tried to contain and hide his laughter; he was doing a horrible job at that, by the way.
Allison walked over to me. “I’m sorry, Cedric…that was bad.”
I squeezed my white Ralph Lauren polo shirt to rid it of the excess wine. “I am not sorry at all…you shouldn’t be either…C’mere.” I pulled Allison onto my lap, not caring who was watching and planted a kiss on her lips.
“Cedric, what are you crazy? We shouldn’t do this here in front of everybody,” she said.
“Allison, every single person in this house already knows how crazy I am about you.”
Her face turned a beautiful shade of pink as she blushed, before taking a piece of my wet shirt jokingly into her mouth. “Mmmm…I love Chardonnay.” She laughed. “Seriously, you should go inside and change your shirt.”
Caleb wiped his eyes from tears of laughter and walked over to where we were sitting. “Bro, I think I have a spare shirt in my truck.”
“Gimme the keys, shithead,” I said as I got up and reached for Allison’s hand.
We walked through the gate to the driveway at front of the house, where I opened Caleb’s backseat to find a navy button down shirt.
I put my hand on Allison’s cheek. “I was gonna offer to drive you home, but I just realized we took Stephanie’s car here, so I am carless.”
“Join the club. Looks like someone’s going to have to slum it and take the train like the rest of us.” She winked.
“Let me go inside and clean up and then we can leave.”
We walked back through the gate and Allison sat down to wait for me while I went into the house and changed. I looked back at her and couldn’t believe that this was real, that she was really here. I couldn’t wait to get her home and be alone with her.
My mother was just finishing up the dishes in the kitchen while Denise wiped them.
When I tried to sneak past them, my sister-in-law interjected, grabbing me by the shirt. “Uh-uh, no you don’t. What’s going on out there? You smell like the dumpster behind the pub,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I tried to play dumb, but my guilty smirk probably gave me away.
Denise laughed and glanced over at my mother who was also smirking. “Liar. Caleb’s been texting me a play by play.”
That shithead.
“Stephanie left,” I said.
“And?” she laughed.
“And she threw her wine at me.”
Denise’s jaw dropped. “And that was…because…”
I threw my head back and ran my hands through my hair. I just wanted to go to the bathroom, change and get out of here with Allison.
“Because she figured out that Allison and I snuck away after lunch and were making out in Callie’s room.”
“What?!” Denise yelled as she smacked the counter.
“I knew it,” Mom said smiling.
“You knew what?” I asked.
“I knew that the second she walked in that door, that you’d end up together. I could see it in both of your eyes, she smiled. “And I also knew the entire time you two were holed up in Callie’s room.” She laughed. “I was playing lookout, you just didn’t know it.” My mother winked.
I knew how she felt about Allison, but found that a little disturbing.
“Thanks, Mom…I think.”
“Plus, she has a hickey on her neck that looks like the state of Florida,” Ma laughed and Denise and I joined in.
“You didn’t take off your shirt, did you?” Denise asked. “If she sees it, she’s gonna think you’re a psycho, you know that, right?”
“I was a psycho…for a while, after she left. And no, she hasn’t seen it yet,” I said.
When I emerged from the bathroom in Caleb’s shirt, Allison was in the kitchen with my mother and Denise. The three of them smiled at me in unison and I knew they had been talking about me. The look on Allison’s red face was so sweet and affectionate and I was bursting with love for her, a love I hadn’t even ever professed to her directly. I needed to tell her I loved her as soon as the time felt right.
“Ready to go?” I asked.
Allison hugged my mother and Denise and went to say goodbye to Callie and Caleb who were still outside as the sun was setting.
As we walked hand and hand to the train station, Allison told me all about her trip to Illinois. I didn’t think my feelings for her could get any stronger, but when she told me how she decided to stay there to help Ed during his cancer treatments, my heart just about blew up. I wanted to tell her then and there how much I loved her, but decided to wait.
The story of how she ran into her brother at Amanda’s grave was also unbelievable. If her car hadn’t stalled, she would have never met him. It makes you wonder about how divine intervention plays in our lives.
Once on the train, I led Allison to the very back of the car so we would have the most privacy. As we swayed with the movement of the train, we held each other and kissed the entire ride to her stop. The train car was almost empty, but if there were people watching us, we probably didn’t notice. Thirty minutes felt like three.
After the train ride, while walking to Allison’s house, the skies opened up and rain came pouring down on us. Even though the torrential rain had us soaked from head to toe, we could have cared less and stopped to kiss under the deluge. It was one of the happiest moments of my life.
We laughed in the rain as we ran all the way to her doorstep. I couldn’t contain my excitement over being alone with her. Allison told me her roommate Sonia was down the Cape for the night with friends, so when we arrived at her house, I dragged her up those stairs so fast, she almost fell.
We were drenched and I hadn’t had sex in months, but it felt like ten years. She was the only woman I wanted from the moment I first laid eyes on her and for a long time, I thought I would only ever be able to experience her again in my dreams and memories. This moment, of being happy here with her like this again, in the same place we first made love, was a dream come true.
CHAPTER 38
ALLISON
Cedric wouldn’t let me come up for air and I loved every second of it. From the moment my apartment door burst open, he pressed his rain-drenched body against mine, then moved to the couch on top of me, kissing me passionately. I wanted him inside of me so badly, I thought I would burst.
He broke from kissing me only long enough to lift off my wet shirt and loosen my bra, throwing it on the floor, as I pulled off my soaked skirt. When he lowered himself back down, I snuck my hands under his shirt to feel the warmth of his bare skin and his tight abs. I started to nudge his shirt to pull it off and he pushed back, breathing heavily.
“Take it off,” I said.
“Wait,” Cedric said as he pulled back and kneeled above me, looking down into my eyes. His hair was wet back from the rain and his face was turning red. “I have to explain something first.”
I crossed my arms over my bare breasts, suddenly cold. “What do you mean?”
He shook his head. “It’s nothing bad. I mean…I hope you don’t see it that way.”
“Ok, now you’re scaring me.”
He bent down to kiss my forehead. “No, no, no, no…don’t be scared…it’s not like that.”
“What, then?”
Cedric took a deep breath. “When you told me not to contact you after you read the letter and then you disappeared, I was really screwed up. I was sure I had lost the one thing that mattered to me most. And to be honest, until you told me you forgave me and missed me earlier today, I was sure that I had lost you forever.”
I blinked rapidly and sat up. “Okay—”
He continued. “One night, I had gotten a little drunk and was staring at myself in the mirror at the tattoo I got in memory of Amanda and came up with the bright idea that I wanted another one. So, I walked down to Kenmore Square.”
“You got a tattoo…where is it?”
“That’s the thing…that’s why I had to tell you before you took off my shirt.”
“Ok, let me see it.”
“Promise you won’t think I’m crazy.”
I crossed my heart. “I promise.”
Cedric ran his hands through his hair and sighed. “Because…I was…a little crazy.” He laughed. “But I’m not anymore.”
“Can I see it please?”
“Okay…here goes nothing.”
He lifted his shirt slowly showcasing his beautiful abs and then as he pulled it over his head I saw it.
Oh. My. God.
It was of my initials…in same font as the A.R.T. on his torso, except this tat was higher on his chest over his heart: A.O.A. That wasn’t all though. Underneath the larger letters of my initials, was a scrolling sentence written in small calligraphy that ran across his chest to his underarm. I struggled to see what it read: When I saw you, I fell in love and you smiled because you knew.
I recognized it immediately. “It’s Shakespeare,” I whispered.
“Yeah…an ode to our middle names.”
Words could not describe the amount of love I felt for this man as I rubbed my hand over the words slowly following the path of the sentence.
“It’s beautiful.” I gasped.
“You really like it? It doesn’t freak you out?”
“God, no. I love having a part of me on you permanently. I earned it, dammit,” I said as we both laughed. “And you’re right, Cedric. Our connection has always been so strong, from that first moment. I guess deep down inside, even though you never said the words, I always did know. That’s why I came back.”
He kissed me tenderly and said, “I got this tattoo, because no matter what happened, I never wanted to forget how you made me feel. I’m not the type of guy who can give my heart to someone twice. You are the only woman who has ever claimed it. It’s yours forever, take it or leave it. I love you so much, Allison, more than my life, more than anything.”
My heart just about burst into flames hearing him say the words I had longed to hear for so many months. “I love you too, Cedric.” I pulled him down onto me. “So much,” I said as I held his head to my na**d chest.
When he lifted his head to look at me, his eyes were watery. “Sweetheart, thank you for coming back to me,” he said.
I wiped the tears from his eyes and from my own and held his face in my hands and said, “You thought you took something from me, by waiting to tell me the truth. But you actually gave me the greatest gift: the opportunity to experience what true love was. Your finding me not only gave me you, but Callie, the Thompsons and now my brother. It’s all because of you, Cedric. Because of you, I am not alone anymore.”
As soon as the words came out of my mouth, they seemed to ignite something inside him. Cedric kissed me so hard I thought my mouth might fall off and I could feel his pounding heart on my chest.
His hands trembled with need as he pulled my underwear down. His jeans weren’t even all the way off when he suddenly plunged into me, moaning into my mouth on impact. I gasped upon the initial burn and almost immediate intense pleasure that followed as he kissed me hungrily, while pushing into me repeatedly deep and hard.
“I f**king love you so much, he whispered over my mouth as he moved inside me. “You have no clue…”
“Oh, God. Deeper, Cedric. I want you deeper.” My fingernails dug into his back as I pushed him into me.
“I can’t get enough of you…can’t get deep enough. I love you…I love you…I love you,” he said hoarsely over my mouth.
We were still connected when Cedric flipped us over swiftly continuing to pound into me while squeezing my br**sts hard. He looked intensely into my eyes while I grinded my h*ps on top of him for several minutes as his eyes seared into mine, never looking away.
Tears streamed down my cheeks as the intensity of what I was experiencing with him overwhelmed me.
His hands moved down to my h*ps guiding the motions to push himself deeper into me.
After a few minutes, his eyes moved from mine and seemed to roll back in ecstasy, almost like he was possessed. “I’m gonna lose it…you feel too f**king good. I can’t hold out anymore…I want to come inside you,” he said.
Hearing him say that made me crazy and brought my orgasm to surface fast. I started to scream as the intense pleasure overcame me. Cedric’s loud moan followed and I felt his hot release as he pulsated inside me.
He turned us over in one movement, so that he was on top of me kissing my face softly, professing his love again with each kiss.
We had sex several times throughout the night after moving from the couch to the bed, then in the shower and even against the kitchen counter when we were supposedly going to have a midnight snack. Cedric was insatiable and I was a more than willing participant.
CHAPTER 39
CEDRIC
Waking up in Allison’s bed was surreal and I had slept like a baby for the first time in months. Despite the fact that we had sex at least six times last night, I couldn’t wait to wake her up again. She looked so peaceful, though, so I decided to just stare at her.
It’s no wonder she was out like a light. We had spent the entire evening alternating between ha**g s*x and drowsy pillow talk.
Allison had told me more about her time in Chicago with Ed and Elaine. The role Amanda’s parents played in convincing Allison to give me another chance really touched me. I also opened up to her about the years I spent in Chicago after Amanda’s death, something I hadn’t really talked about with her before. She was less than impressed to hear how I started my career as the lover of my much older boss. But I vowed to tell her everything about me…no more secrets.