“Your Grace,”
They both turned to find one of the staff in the doorway. Anna wondered how long she’d been standing there watching them. How much she’d heard.
“I just wanted to let you know that lunch is ready,” the woman said.
“We’ll be right up,” Cedric told her. “Thank you,”
The woman turned and left.
“Actually, I think I’ll skip it,” Anna said. “I’m still pretty full from breakfast. I think I’ll take a walk in the gardens instead.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I think the fresh air will do me good.” For some reason she felt as if she needed a little time alone. Time to clear the unpleasant memories. And the pleasant ones.
“I’ll have the cook put something aside for you, in case you change your mind.”
“Thanks.”
He turned to leave and made it as far as the door before he turned back. “You know, you’re right. It was a good thing it didn’t work out between you and your friend’s brother. You deserve better.”
Maybe he was right, but she’d learned the hard way that the less you expected from life, the less you were disappointed when you didn’t get what you wanted.
___________
Four weeks later….
“That was wonderful,” Anna said, wiping away any last traces of chocolate mousse from the corners of her mouth. She settled a hand on her overstuffed stomach. “I ate way too much again.”
Cedric sat across from her, sipping a steaming cup of coffee. “I’ll tell the cook you enjoyed it.”
She leaned back in her chair and sighed with contentment. Cedric looked so happy lately, she observed, like he was glad he’d gotten what he wanted, and while normally that would have annoyed her even more, she realized in his own clueless male way, he meant well. Despite what she might have believed due to the circumstances, it was clear now that Cedric wasn’t trying to manipulate or control her. He just wanted to take care of her and their unborn child.
It was tough to fault a guy for being generous and kind, even if his methods were slightly off the wall. And she couldn’t deny her new car and shopping her heart out had been a blast. After a couple of hours in town shopping last week, she’d begun to feel a little like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Except, of course, that she wasn’t a hooker, and Edward hadn’t gotten Vivian pregnant or married her for an inheritance. And this wasn’t a movie. It was real life. Cedric wouldn’t be sweeping her off her feet, or in Vivian’s case, off a fire escape. They wouldn’t ride off into the sunset together in his limo and live happily ever after.
“So,” Cedric said, dropping his napkin on the table. “What would you like to do now?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
Although she already had a pretty good idea. He’d been teaching her to play pool. Rather unsuccessfully.
“Game room?”
“Why, so you can slaughter me at pool?” she asked playfully.
“We don’t have to play pool.” He had this grin, like he knew something she didn’t. What was he up to now? Honestly, she was afraid to ask.
“I told you, video games were never really my thing and I suck at foosball.
“So we’ll do something else,” he said.
“Darts?”
“Nope.”
Now she was getting curious, which with him could be a dangerous thing. In more ways than one. Since their almost kiss on the pool table weeks ago, they had both been pretty good about keeping their hands to themselves. Cedric’s eyes were another matter altogether. It seemed he was always watching her, studying her. But not in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. Instead she felt so…aware of herself. Aware of him.
Even though she shouldn’t be.
“You’ll see,” he said, rising from his chair, motioning her to join him.
“All right.” She got up and followed him downstairs to the game room, all the while feeling he had something up his sleeve. She found out what it was when he switched on the game room light, and she saw the brand new Ping-Pong table sitting there.
She groaned and shook her head. “You can’t go a week without spending money on me, can you?”
He shrugged apologetically. “Sorry. It was this or the pony, and we both know how you feel about that.”
The man was hopeless. “You really do have too much money, don’t you?”
He grinned and handed her a paddle. “Want to play?”
Of course she did. She took the paddle from him. “I have to warn you, I’m pretty good. I might bruise your ego.”
“It’s been bruised before,” he said, taking one side of the table.
“That’s what you think.” She flashed him a devilish smile. “Ten bucks says I whup your behind.”
_______
Anna did whup him. Repeatedly and shamelessly. But Cedric redeemed himself by decimating her at a game of pool, although they didn’t play for too long due to her pregnancy. Anna on the other hand didn’t seem to care who won or lost, as long as they were having fun. And they did have fun. She had a playful, almost silly side that was unexpectedly refreshing. She brought light into a world that had been too dark far too long. She gave him hope. Though, hope for what, he hadn’t figured out yet, since it was clear that their marriage would be over soon and he didn’t want to bring up the topic anymore since they always ended up arguing. Things were going so well between them, but he didn’t want to hope too much, so he figured they just live in the moment and enjoy any time they had left together.
After minutes of competition, they took a break and Cedric got them each a bottle of water from the refrigerator behind the bar.
“That was fun,” she said. “I haven’t played Ping-Pong in a long time.”
“It was fun,” he agreed.
“If I wasn’t here, what would you be doing? What was a typical Friday night for you? You know…Before we….” she stopped and averted her eyes.
He leaned on the bar and took a swig of his water, refusing to let any awkwardness stay. “Either work or watch television.”
“I thought you would do more exciting things, like going to parties or night clubs.”
“Not anymore. You outgrow or get tired of it after a while. Most times, the only reason I attend those parties these days is because of work,”