Ch 8: Embarrassing Recollections

Recap:

"Then we have nothing further to say to each other!" He sneered.

"No!"

"Good! Goodbye!" He turned back down the hallway, in the direction they had come from.

"GOODBYE!" She screamed after him, voice carrying down the corridor, before she turned and strode off in the opposite direction.

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Cecilia fumed as she marched down the corridor, muttering obscenities under her breath, impatiently tossing her hair back with each stride.

"Asshole... who does he think he is!... just you wait, Mr Nicolas Freire... when I'm done with you, you'll wish you never met me... no, you'll wish you'd never even heard my name... no, you'll wish you had never been born to live in the same lifetime as me!" She panted, enraged. She was so engrossed in her evil plans of revenge, she didn't even see him, until she crashed right into his chest.

"Ouch! Hey, look where you're—"

"Cecilia!"

"Tom!" Cecilia looked up, a little dizzy from banging her head against his, finally noticing who she'd crashed into. "Tom?" She said again, questioning this time. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" He repeated, incredulously. "What are you doing here? I've been calling your name for ages! I couldn't find you anywhere! I was so worried! Do you even understand how worried I was?!" He shook her, gently holding her shoulders, as she gazed at him in bewildered silence. "My God, I thought someone had kidnapped you from right under my nose, while I just stood there, helplessly. I couldn't even imagine... what if something happened to you, and I wasn't even able to prevent it—"

"Tom."Cecilia said gently, uncertain whether she wanted to laugh, or feel touched.

"And, my God, what would I say to your father?!" Tom raked his hands through his hair, lost in his own world of horror. "What would I say? That your daughter was kidnapped from right under my nose, and I—"

"TOM!"

He stopped suddenly, as if noticing for the first time, that she was alive and well, and standing before him. He strode forward, and clasped her to him urgently.

"Don't ever do that to me again." He whispered into her hair. "Do you hear me? I was so scared. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you..."

"Tom, ssshhh." Cecilia stroked his hair, feeling extraordinarily guilty for not realizing how Tom must have felt when Nicolas dragged her away without any warning. "I'm fine, I'm here, see? Nothing happened to me. I'm ok."

They stood like this for a few seconds in silence, as she just held him, and calmed him like a child. Before she could say anything further, Tom cleared his throat and pulled away.

"Ummm," he cleared his throat, cheeks turning pink. "So, ummm, so are you ok? Of course she's ok, what am I saying? I mean, she looks ok," He mumbled to himself, then addressed Cecilia once more. "So... great, you're ok then?"

"Yes, Tom," Cecilia bit her lip to hide her amusement. "I'm ok."

"Good, good... ummm..." he cleared his throat again, pulling at his collar lightly. "It's good that you're ok. Very important to m- ummm... I mean, to your father, and your family, and such. Ahem," his throat seemed to need yet another clearing. "So, where did you go, by the way?"

Cecilia's mood abruptly soured at the reminder. She forced a smile. "Oh, nothing, just a brief chat about some business. All boring stuff, I assure you."

"Oh, I wouldn't be bored." Tom replied, honestly. "Who was that man?"

Cecilia felt her entire jaw clench. "No one. Or, atleast no one you need to worry about." She gritted.

"Oh." Tom looked at her with surprise and - if she wasn't mistaken - hurt in his eyes.

"No! That's not what I meant. It's just boring old work, and I don't really want to talk about it right now, that's all." She reassured him, smiling when she saw his countenance lighten. "And besides, there are so many better things we could be talking about," she declared, sliding her arm through his and leading him towards the veranda that overlooked the back gardens.

"Oh, really?" Tom smiled back, finally overcoming the awkwardness that had fallen over him for a while. "And what, exactly, is that?"

"Well, for one," Cess teased. "You never did tell me how exactly you declared your feelings to the love of your life."

"That's because I haven't yet proposed to the love of my life," he spoke under his breath, as they reached their destination.

Cecilia turned towards him, eyebrows scrunched. "Did you say something?"

When Tom only shook his head, Cecelia shrugged and turned back towards the garden. She took in a deep breath of the chilled night air, leaning her elbows along the railing and tilting her head upwards to look at the sky.

"It's so beautiful, isn't it?" She sighed. "There's just something magical about the stars. Don't you feel like you could just look at them forever, and never get tired?" She looked up, longingly.

"Yes, I do." Tom's gaze was just as longing as Cecilia's, but she had only to turn her head to see it wasn't the stars he was looking at. "Beautiful..." he breathed.

Cecilia suddenly swung her gaze around to him, giving him a cheeky smile. "Hey, don't think you're off the hook, just because I got mushy over some stars. Tell me everything, from beginning to end, Mister." She put one hand on her hip, wagging her finger in mock seriousness.

Tom only shook his head at her, indulgently. "Well, I've told you how infatuated I was. I think everyone else saw it, too. My friends at the time," he sighed. "Thought it would be funny to see me get punk'd. So they raised my beliefs and self-esteem to the point where each and everything Miss Penny would do convinced me that she, too, felt the same way about me. For example, if she smiled at me, that was a clear invitation, and meant she loved me too. If she complimented my work, it meant that she was trying to please me and make me happy, which again meant she was in love with me.  No matter what she did, my friends convinced me this was true."

"What if she was ever mean to you? I assume she can't have been nice to you all the time?" Cecilia asked curiously.

"My friends even convinced me that there was a reason for that too: if she ever scolded me or told me to improve my work, it either meant she was jealous of my other female friends, or she was upset that she couldn't be with me. Maybe even both. I guess, at the end of the day, I believed my friends more because I wanted to believe them, than anything. So, one day, I gathered my courage, and bought her a bouqet of pink and white roses, and a box of chocolate truffles, as well as a card that I'd bought for Valentine's day. And on the day, just before we broke up for the Valentine holiday, I went up to her after everyone had left class, and...."

"And???" Cecilia questioned, impatiently.

Tom's cheeks burned bright red. "Oh God, this is so embarrassing," he mumbled. "How did I even get myself into this?"

"Well you have no choice now, Mister, so get on with it." Cecilia bit her lip to prevent from bursting out laughing.

"Ok! I declared my feelings by sayingoutloudthelovepoemthatIhadwrittenforher!" He burst out, chuckling nervously. "Yep, and that's it, end of conversation, let's move on to something else now."

"Wait." Cecilia stared at him, stunned. "Did you just say that you, not only wrote her a love poem, but that you read it aloud for her to declare your feelings."

Tom just grimaced, looking at his feet in silence, cheeks flaming and shifting awkwardly.

"Oh my GOD!" Cecilia burst out laughing, gasping for breath. "You! You wrote her a!" She held on to her stomach, eyes tearing. "And then you read it out loud! Oh God! " She grabbed on to the railing with one hand to maintain her balance. "To your teacher! In 10th grade! Hahahahahaha!!! Oh my God, her face! PLEASE tell me someone was recording this!"

Tom started chuckling as well, her laughter infectious to him. "Yes, it was. Thankfully my friends were loyal enough to not put it on any social site, otherwise that would have been the end of me. It just stayed as a private joke amongst us... and as occasional blackmail material for them," he grumbled. "But, you're right, Miss Penny's face was quite hilarious, now that I look back on it. She didn't quite know where to look, poor woman. I swear, she was just as embarrassed as me! But even though she let me down gently, I felt really humiliated, and I ran out of there. When I found out it was my friends, I was so ANGRY at them! I didn't speak to them for weeks, but eventually I forgave them, and we were able to laugh about it. Thank God I didn't have her class anymore after the holiday; I would have been so embarrassed!"

This just made Cecilia break out into a fresh wave of laughter, before she finally composed herself.

"Oh!" Cecilia wiped her eyes, standing back up. "I really love your friends, already. I wish we could meet."

Tom just stared at her, stunned. "Really, do you want to? I would love for you to meet them."

"Really?" She widened her eyes, surprised. "That would be amazing! I would love to have a group of friends like that! I only have one best friend, but at the moment she's living in Dubai, so I don't see her too often. It would be really great to hang out with you guys."

Tom tried very hard to surpress his elation, but his grin still came through. "Great! So it's a date! I mean," he coughed.

"It's ok, Tom," Cecilia laughed. "I know what you meant."

They exchanged telephone numbers, as they made their way back to the ballroom, with promises to fix a date when they were all free.

"I'll talk to the guys and check when they're all free. You let me know, too, ok?" Tom checked.

"Yeah, sure, I don't think I've got anything planned over the next few weekends, but I'll let you know." She leaned forward to hug him, taking him by surprise. "You take care, ok? It was really nice talking like this."

"Yeah, really nice," he stared at her a moment, smiling softly, before he said his goodbyes.

The ball was ending, and Cecilia was engulfed with the swarm of guests, all wanting to say their goodbyes and give their well-wishes. She switched back into the role of hostess, giving out air kisses and returning the well-wishes. She didn't see any sign of a certain dark-haired gentleman, but she was glad: she'd had enough of him for one day! And to think, she'd only just met him that evening...

Finally, she saw off the last of the guests and breathed a sigh of relief. Another successful event.

"Cecilia," her father suddenly spoke from behind her, startling her out of her thoughts.

"Cecilia, I don't know if you have spoken to Nicolas about this, but earlier this evening I told him that we should launch him at the Company's ball in 3 months. What do you think?"

Cecilia knew this was a purely rhetorical question, since once her father's mind was made up, it was almost impossible to change it. "Mmmm," she hummed in agreement.

"Good," he beamed. "Well, since you agree this is a good idea, you'll be joining him in his office at Freire corporation on Monday at 9am."

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AN: Hey! I just decided to upload again for no reason, LMAO. But, OMG, I have 600 views now!! So excited! (even though you guys may think I'm a little crazy for being excited over a couple-a-hundred views, when you have, like, squillions in your pocket) But that's ok! It would be absolutely AMAZING if we could get this story upto 1000 views! So please SHARE this story as much as possible! Also, please don't forget to VOTE and COMMENT to show your support! Everyone likes a bit of feedback and/or appreciation now and again! 😉😉😉

Love you!! 😘😘😘😘

P.S. This song by Beyonce is one of my favorites EVER!! I swear, that girl is so sassy! I love it!!! 😂😉😉😂 Also, the pic is something along the lines of what I imagine Tom wrote, lol! 😂😂😂