by Linnea May
“I… I mean, I don’t know for sure,” she utters. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were. You know how closed up he is about his former relationships.”
“Mhm,” I make.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have much time left,” she adds, pointedly checking the time on her phone. “Anton is with his sitter and needs to be picked up.”
“I see,” I reply, pretty sure that she’s lying to me.
“Do you have any more questions?”
She looks at me with big eyes, trying to act confident and calm, but her brittle frame doesn’t provide much for her to hide after.
“Yes, one more little thing,” I say, suddenly remembering something that’s been bugging me. “How did you know where I work?”
She raises her eyebrows. I don’t understand how she could not have anticipated that particular question.
“You must have stalked me?” I assume. “But I am still curious how you found that one out? I’m sure that part wasn’t mentioned in the article you read.”
“It… wasn’t hard to find out,” she says. “I wanted to make sure to meet you alone, so we can speak freely, so-”
“How did you know where I work?” I repeat my question.
“I did a little research, yes,” she says. “Let’s just leave it at that. I’m sorry, but I really have to go now.”
She makes an effort to put her coat and scarf back on.
“Here,” she says, slamming some money on the table before she abruptly turns around and practically flees from the place.
My eyes follow her as she hurries through the door. This is getting kind of old, people unloading their crazy stories on me and then turning their back to me when they’re fleeing the scene, leaving me behind confused and irritated.
The money she left on the table is enough to pay for both of our drinks.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I pay for our drinks and leave the Café a few minutes after Adriana has fled through the door. It’s dark outside, and I am so deep in thought that I don’t even notice the black limousine that is waiting for me outside until a familiar voice yells my name.
It’s Cedric.
He is leaning against the car, his arms crossed in front of his chest, looking at me with a stern expression.
“Cedric,” I gasp, freezing on the spot.
We look at each other for a few moments. I am so surprised to see him there that it is impossible for me to come up with a good excuse.
What the hell is he doing here?
He doesn’t move but seems to expect me to come to him, which I do. I slowly approach him, slouching like a kid who got caught doing something wrong.
“Surprised to see me?” he asks. He looks extremely unhappy.
I gulp. “Er, yes…”
“Did you have a nice talk with Adriana?”
My heart jumps up in shock when he mentions her name. Again, I feel like someone is choking me.
“How do you… what are…how…?” I utter.
“Renee, I am not stupid,” he says. “And I don’t like to be lied to.”
I look up at him, incapable of coming up with a reply. I didn’t exactly lie to him, did I? Except for the part about working overtime. Otherwise, I just didn’t tell him about what has happened during the past two days.
“You still don’t trust me, do you?” he asks.
“Well, you’re not making it easy for me…” I try to defend myself. “How did you know I was meeting Adriana just now?”
“I saw her coming out a few moments ago,” he says.
“Yeah, but what are you doing here in the first place?” I ask.
He clears his throat and straightens up.
“Let’s not talk about that here,” he says, opening the door and beckoning for me to get into the car.
I follow his gesture moving like a robot. I have always considered myself to be a smart person, but somehow Cedric constantly seems to be one step ahead of me.
He sits down next to me and knocks against the dark glass wall that is separating us from Craig to let him know that he can start driving.
“How did you know I was going to be here?” I ask. “With Adriana…”
“Lesley,” he says simply.
I did not expect that.
“What? Did you call her to-”
“No, she contacted me,” he says, casting me a reproachful look. “She didn’t feel good about you investigating this on your own. She was afraid you’d come to a deadlock.”
I sigh. I never would have thought that Lesley would do this. She has never betrayed my trust when it comes to secrecy.
But somehow, I cannot be mad at her right now. As surprised and shocked as I was to see Cedric here, I am also kind of glad that he is. After all, I do want to talk to him; I just didn’t know how…
“How come your best friend trusts me more than you do, Renee?” he asks.
I shake my head. “It’s not that, I was just confused and… I had to this on my own. For now.”
“Why?” he wants to know.
“Well, to be honest,” I say, slightly upset. “Because I figured you wouldn’t give me any clear answers anyway. You always divert from the subject of exes, remember?”
“Because I didn’t think it was of any importance for us right now,” he says.
“Whatever,” I murmur.
“Don’t ‘whatever’ me!” he warns, raising his voice.
I flinch at the tone of his voice and slightly distance myself from him. He scares me when he’s like this.
“I’m sorry,” Cedric adds, noticing my discomfort. “I just hate this. This whole situation. You looking at me like this…”
“Like what?”
“Like you believe them,” he says. His voice is the complete opposite from just a few seconds before. It is low and sad, unlined with disappointment.
“I thought you’d gotten to know me well enough to discard their nonsense,” he adds. “But you don’t. You become suspicious of me, and you start lying, acting secretively on your own…”
He doesn’t look at me but turns his face to the window.
“I don’t believe them,” I assure. “I don’t want to believe them. But you have to tell me about Adriana.”
“Yes, I do,” he agrees. “I am sure a lot of things would not have happened if I had been honest with you from the beginning.”
I frown at him. “So, you were lying to me? About what?”
“About none of my former girlfriends ever meeting my mother,” he says. “Yes, Adriana and I used to date. In fact, she was the last person I was seeing before I met you. We didn’t date for very long, not even a year. But I really liked her.”
“She said you told her you loved her,” I interject.
“That’s a lie,” he says. “I never said that. I don’t use those words if they aren’t true. They weren’t with her. We were pretty close, and I wanted to love her, especially because she kept pressuring me to say it. But I could never say it because I didn’t feel that way, and it felt wrong to use those words if they aren’t true.”
He pauses and looks at me.
“It was part of the reason why we broke up,” he continues. “But before we did, she met my mother. Once, as far as I know. It was the last time I saw my mother, actually. Adriana had this idea of her and me making things right, and she convinced me to visit my mother in the institution she was living in. So, we went there together.”
“So they do know each other?” I ask, somewhat relieved.
“Yes, they do,” he says. “Of course, my mother tried to poison Adriana the same way she tried to poison you. But it worked better on her. They got along and bonded over saying bad things about me while I was sitting next to them.”
I furl my eyebrows and shake my head in disbelief. “Why?”
“Adriana was bitter at the time,” he says. “She hated the fact that I couldn’t be more to her. That I couldn’t tell her that I loved her because I didn’t, and that we kept our
relationship a secret, even though that part was easy back then because I didn’t have any releases out or planned and the media hardly had an eye on me.”
“I see,” I whisper.
“Seeing those two getting along so well was just another sign for me that I should break up with Adriana,” he says. “So that’s what happened shortly after. I stopped talking to my mother again, and I broke up with Adriana. It was one of the best decisions of my life.”
I hesitate for a moment, trying to gather the courage to ask the question that’s been bugging me now.
“And… was Adriana pregnant at the time you broke up?”
I am pretty sure I know the answer to this, but I still need for him to say it.
“No, she wasn’t,” Cedric says. “I can assure for certain that she wasn’t. I bet she’d back off immediately if we asked her to test this, which, I can promise you, I would be willing to do.”
He looks at me, his face painted with determination.
“Who’s that little boy’s father then?” I wonder, feeling sorry for the kid.
“I couldn’t tell you,” Cedric says. “For all I know, it’s not even hers.”
“What do you mean?”
“Adriana and my mother may be scheming, but they are not very smart sometimes,” he explains. “When Lesley told me what had happened, I instantly did some research on Adriana and couldn’t find any record of her giving birth.”
“Damn,” I utter. “That’s fucked up…”
“I’ll say,” Cedric agrees. “I truly hope that kid has only been used by her this one afternoon when she confronted you and is taken care of properly otherwise.”
“Mhm,” I make. “So, if they know each other, and both showed up here during the past few weeks - do you think that they are working together?”
“I know that they are,” he says. “Because there’s something else I haven’t told you yet.”
I sigh. “And that is?”
“My mother called me again,” he says. “Today.”
I turn to him; my eyes widened with surprise. “She did?!”
“Yes. She threatened me,” he says. “Apparently she and Adriana were sure that their little plan-”
“What was their plan?” I interrupt.
Cedric turned to me, looking confused.
“To break us up,” he says in a matter-of-fact tone as if it should be completely obvious to me. “They wanted you to despise me and leave me.”
“But why?” I ask.
“Because they know how much that would hurt me,” he says. “I told you how my mother sees me. She cannot stand the thought of me being loved by a woman because that messes with her view of me. That’s why she was happy to find an accomplice in Adriana.”
“Your mother called you to tell you all that?” I ask.
“No,” he says, letting out a helpless chuckle. “She called me because she wanted money, which, I assume, was Adriana’s main motive to take part in this whole endeavor.”
“What?” I gasp.
“You see, they were trying to blackmail me,” he explains. “My mother told me that you were about to find out ‘the truth’ about me, and if I wanted to stop that, I was to pay her an enormous amount of money. I don’t think that would have stopped anything, though. It was just bait she laid out to get me to pay. She didn’t mention Adriana, but since I had talked to Lesley before, I had an idea how she thought that those horrible ideas about me would get to you.”
“Wow,” I breathe. “That is so…”
“Fucked up,” Cedric completes my sentence. “Well, that’s my mother for you. I have to say, I’m not even surprised anymore.”
He looks at me and reaches over to take my hand.
“I’m just glad her cruel plan didn’t work on you,” he whispers. “Because she did get one thing right. It would destroy me to lose you.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
We arrive at his place and follow our usual routine of ordering dinner to be delivered. I am starving by now and start nibbling on some dark chocolate while we wait for our food.
“How come you don’t have a private cook?” I randomly ask, sitting on one of the barstools at the kitchen counter while Cedric prepares us some tea.
He chuckles. “Would you want me to?”
“Maybe,” I say, winking at him.
“I don’t like having other people in my home,” he argues. “But we could talk about something like that if you’d move in with me already.”
I almost choke on my chocolate, which causes him to laugh at me.
“I’m sorry, I just…,” I try to explain, but I am interrupted by uncontrollable coughing.
“It’s alright,” he says, approaching the counter and planting a soft kiss on my cheek. “I know now is not exactly the right time to talk about something like that.”
I swallow hard and regain composure. “No, it certainly isn’t.”
He returns to the center of the kitchen and pours us some tea in red designer mugs that he bought recently.
Carrying both of them with him, he returns to the counter, placing one of them in front of me as he sits down next to me.
I smile at him. “Thank you.”
The tea is still too hot to drink, so I just warm my hands on the mug for now, staring at the steaming surface as I softly blow on it.
“You never told me how you left things with your mother,” I say. “What did you tell her?”
“That she should leave me alone, and I am not giving her any money,” he replies. “And that I was confident that whatever scheme she is planning won’t be working on you because you’re too smart for that.”
I chuckle.
“I didn’t tell her that you’d gone into private investigator mode already, though,” he adds.
“Did Lesley tell you to say that?” I ask, jokingly rolling my eyes.
He grins at me and nods. “How did you know?”
“She’s been using the same phrasing when we talked last night,” I say. “That I was going after things Renee-style again and that I was Miss private-investigator.”
“Well, I thought it was a good fit,” Cedric says.
I’m inclined to repeat my ‘whatever’-mantra but bite my lip not to do so.
“Did it work, though?” I want to know. “Do you think she will leave us alone from now on?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “I guess that greatly depends on how your conversation with Adriana went?”
I tell him almost word for word how my short meeting with Adriana proceeded. Luckily, I still remember almost all of it, and I even mention the little pauses and moments in which she appeared to be startled or not prepared to give a proper answer. Now that I know she’d been plotting with his mother, it all makes even more sense, especially her suspiciously fast reply when I asked her what I was supposed to do now. She blurted out that I should leave Cedric a little too promptly, almost as if she’d rehearsed to say it.
“Yeah, she did not look very pleased when she left the Café,” Cedric adds after I have concluded my story.
“Did she see you?” I ask.
“No,” he says. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t. I was still sitting in the car, and she paid no attention to the street at all.”
“How come you didn’t get out and talk to her?” I ask. “It would have been the perfect opportunity to confront her.”
“No,” he disagrees. “I wanted to talk to you first. Even though Adriana didn’t look like your conversation went the way she wanted it to, I couldn’t be certain of how you feel about this entire thing. You still might have believed her.”
“Mhm,” I make.
“And you see,” he adds. “I like to approach these matters as a team, with you and not single-handedly Renee-style.”
I raise my eyebrows and look at him. Really? He doesn’t think I got the hint by now?
“It’s what partners do, you know,” he continues, now casting me a sassy smile. “That’s what a relationship is all abou
t. Supporting each other, working together, fighting together. Letting each other in on one another’s feelings-”
“Alright, alright!” I interrupt him, laughing and nudging him from the side so he almost falls off his stool. “I got it!”
Cedric keeps laughing as he lifts his mug to his face.
“I learned that from a wise woman,” he adds, still chuckling.
“Yeah, I hear she’s brilliant,” I say, winking at him.
~~~
Our food finally arrives, and we take it up to the sunroom on the rooftop, digging in while lounging in the seating area that has been our playground for so many times.
The question still remains as to what we are to do about the crazy women who tried to drive us apart, but for a few minutes there’s nothing but chewing sounds to be heard as both of us feel close to starvation and go for the food as if we haven’t eaten in days.
I am so glad we opted for burgers and fries tonight; it is the perfect food to indulge in.
Cedric picks up another fry, and I cannot help but grin at the sight of him. He is he is still wearing his suit pants and a nice fitting white shirt of which the uppermost buttons are unbuttoned. His hair is neatly gelled to the side, falling down about his edgy undercut and, all in all, he looks like the perfect business man, not because that’s what he is but because he likes to imitate their style. According to him, wearing suits and nice shirts gives a man a certain kind of elegance and power that radiates confidence, which influences the people around him.
I couldn’t agree more and assured him that it is incredibly sexy, too. But I love the fact that I get to see this other side of him as well. The boyish, more relaxed and intimate side of a man who is exhausted from the day and just wants his burgers and fries while putting his feet up on the couch.
“Now that you do know how my conversation with Adriana went, what do you think we should do?” I ask eventually after my burger has vanished and I am nibbling on some fries, leaning back into the cushions next to Cedric contently.
“Well,” he says. “They are right about one thing. I do have all the money in the world to pay for the best lawyers if need be.”
“Do you want to sue them?” I ask.
“No,” he says. “But I will give them a good warning. After hearing how your little talk with Adriana ended, I am pretty sure that she’ll just be happy to get out of this without getting into any serious trouble.”