CeCe's Interlude

The young man walked through the mall with rolled up black sleeves over his creme complexion with the hopes that his job interview had went well. He rubbed his stubble free face with his large hand with his mind on another mission. A number, a combination to a beautiful young lady's heart, and he didn't want to leave until his mission was accomplished. While his mind wandered around the mall, his eyes searched for that someone special, someone who he can spend the remainder of his summer with. He continued walking in his stupor until he came across an older beauty looking at a lingerie dress in the window of Victoria Secret.
The young man sized the older woman up immediately. Even though she may have had a few years on him, he could see that her figure, her face had not aged with her. She was poetry in motion. She was the walking fountain of youth. She was simply okay in the eyes of young Jake, but for the artistic young man with big dreams of making it in Hollywood, he always was a hopeless romantic and he felt in his heart that he would know in his soul the perfect person for him. But for now, she would do.
She looked at Jake's boyish features and examined his broad shoulders, his tone tall body. She turned her attention back to the lingerie playfully knowing that the young man was going to pursue and pursue Jake did. When he close enough to the woman to talk to her, the words flowed poetically off of his tongue. His shy nature gave way to his desire for the beautiful woman. "Hello, love. I'd hate to disturb you from shopping, but I was struck by your beauty from afar and I knew I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror the next day without regretting getting your name."
He was so busy pouring out every line of poetry from his mind, he didn't even notice the wedding ring on her finger, but she placated to his flow. She liked to hear a man speak poetry the way he had. She decided that she was going to make sure he continued his modern day sonnets. "Oh."
"Yes. May I ask love, what is your name?"
His smile was enchanting just like his demeanor. If she had been a little younger and a little less married, she would have gave him a chance, but his voice was comforting, so she continued to to give him a signal of interest and she also gave him another present: her name. "I'm Ashley."
"Lovely," he said offering his hand, "My name's Jake, and it is a pleasure to meet an angel on earth." The game was over. She knew what came next, she just didn't expect for it to come as quickly as it had. "Well Ashley, I hope I don't seem forward or anything but I would really like to get to know you. It would be really nice to talk to you outside of this moment, maybe I could get your number, holla at you sometime."
That same smile grew across his face like a blue rose growing in a field of red, comforting because it was special, unique because it was lonely. She heard footsteps walking behind her and she knew that her husband was approaching. "Your cute, Jake, but for some reason, I don't think my husband would appreciate me giving out my number to a young man like yourself."
Jake formed a dumbfounded face when the word "husband" left her lips. "Husband?"
"And who might this be Ashley?" Her husband was a large, mature gentleman who looked like a recently retired superhero. He was massive with muscles that looked like they were going to rip his clothes with their presence. She smiled and went to the side of her husband and this little diamond hid behind her father's leg.
Ashley smiled up at her husband and begun to introduce the men to each other. "Andy, this charming young man is Jake. Jake this is my husband, Andy."
Jake began to backpedal and apologize to the husband for intruding on his wife. He rose his hands up in an effort of surrender. "Man, I'm sorry." But then his charming smile came back, which surprised Andy. His face gave a clue to that fact. "But take it as a compliment, big dog. Your wife is beautiful."
Andy smiled and replied, "I know, and so is our daughter."
Jake looked down at the little girl who hid behind her father and he smiled. He looked at Ashley and asked her innocently, "Is this your little girl right here?"
Ashley looked down at her daughter proudly and answered, "Why yes, this is my own little angel, Erica."
Jake knelt down and waved at the young girl. He smiled at the young girl, "Hello pretty girl. I like your hair."
The little girl smiled, still cowering behind her father's leg. She watched Jake stand up and offer her father his hand in apology. "Sorry, sir. I really didn't mean to step on your toes."
Andy smiled and simply stated, "No worries. Like you said, take it as a compliment."
They both laughed. "Well, I guess I better go. I think I've embarassed myself enough, don't you think?"
Ashley smiled and in a rash moment, she asked, "Would you like to meet my sister? She's around your age. Beautiful. I think you two would get along wonderfully."
"So you mean to tell me that your moms made two angels."
Ashley smiled at the compliment. "She actually made five angels, including my little brother."
Jake stood shocked, but in a way of approval. Andy chimed in happily and grabbed his wife into an embrace. "You ever seen Deliver Us From Eva? Well let's just say, I have the nice version of Eva, and my mama has golden ovaries."
They all laughed and Ashley tapped her husband on his wrist sweetly, "Oh stop it Andy. I don't want our young friend here to mistake me for that for vicious woman."
Jake merely shook his head and smiled. "Wow."
"C'mon..." Ashley took Jake's hand and lead him to the food court, where his eyes were introduced to that angel who hovered above the ground in his eyes. The woman who made his heartbeat, the love he had been searching for his entire life and she was sitting on top of a table talking to a young, frail dark skinned boy.
The young boy who sat with Ashley's sister saw Jake holding hands with his sister and the overbearing nature of a little brother took over his being. "Say CeCe, who is ya' boy holding Ashley hand, man? He sho' ain't Andy."
CeCe caught eyes with her older sister and then her eyes crossed paths with Jake's, and it was literally love at first sight. She gazed into those playful brown eyes and found her own heart beating inside of his pupils.
Ashley saw the attraction between the two was instaneuous. She turned to face her husband and she winked, almost as if she were saying "I told you so" with her eyes, and all her husband could do is nod his head and smiled. She turned back around and tugged on Jake's hand, "Follow me. I'll introduce you two."
Jake simply followed because well, he was struck speechless. Andy tugged his daughter in tow, and Jake was on his way to meeting the love of his life.
When they reached the table, Ashley held her hand out to her younger brother, and introduced him first. "Jake, this is my baby brother, Mans."
Mans grabbed Jake's hand and replied, "Wassup my nigga."
And then she introduced Jake to CeCe and the world seemed to stop. He heard her introduce CeCe to him, but he was so entranced by her eyes, that it felt as though he were on another planet holding her by the hands, dancing in the Milky Way, floating in each other in antigravity. When Ashley's voice carried over to his ears, all he could say was, "Beautiful."
She licked her lips and smiled her large smile and batted her doe brown eyes. She couldn't take her eyes off of his. She knew what he was thinking. She knew the thoughts going through his head, because she had those same thoughts of antigravity running through her thoughts. There was no further need for anymore conversation. Their attraction to each other was animalistic. He pulled out his cellphone, which was in desperate need of an upgrade, and he handed it to her. She looked at it sideways at first, but then she looked into his eyes again and she knew he would explain to her why his phone was in such horrible shape. She dialed her number into his phone and she handed back his phone. His voice deepened into a suave, mishievous form and he asked her, "Can I call you tonight?" She nodded her head "yes" and he blew her a gentle kiss only for her to see. She smiled and he replied, "It was nice to meet your family, especially you CeCe. I have to go but I will definitely make sure to talk to you later, okay." She smiled again, feeling as though she were sixteen again, giving out her house number to the first boy she ever liked. In her mind, she knew that it was very possible that Jake could be the first man she would ever love.
He walked out of that mall with her eyes embedded in his back and he turned his head slightly to meet her eyes one last time before he left. One last smile before the two had to part from each other.



Late that night, Jake found himself on the phone talking to his bestfriend from school, and she could hear the excitement in his voice. It was something that she hadn't heard in his voice in a long time. "What's going on, Jake?"
He just laughed and laughed, "I think I found love today."
"Whattttttt? Tell me more." Now the excitement was bubbling between both of them.
"Her name's CeCe. I just got off the phone with her actually."
"Oh," His best friend replied, voice filled with the joy of knowing her closest friend was happy. "I'm glad you sound really."
"I am, like you have no idea. Not only does she have a beautiful smile, a face that belongs on an angel, legs that go on forever..."
His best friend abruptly interjected, clearly uncomfortable with hearing him talk about another woman's looks to her. "I don't wanna hear that shit, Jake."
He continued without missing a beat, "But she's real cool too. She has a real big heart I can tell. I can tell by the way she talks about her family, oh yeah and get this, her whole family smokes but her so she cool wit' it since she's grown up around it for so long. She loves all of her nieces to death, that's all she talked about for like thirty minutes. We just talked about each other's families, and for the first time in a long time, I was completely honest to a stranger ya' know. Like you know my situation down here, but I didn't think I'd be able to tell just anybody about what's going on down here, but when she asked, I just felt real comfortable telling her. You don't think I'm revealing too much do you?"
"To be honest Jake, you're a real inward person. You keep a lot of stuff inside you like you don't tell anybody nothing just Jayme, so for you to tell me that you told her anything like that let's me know that you really like her, and I'm really happy for you."
"Thanks, Shanell. I'm really happy too. This summer started off some bullshit, but now, everything's starting to clear up."
"Yeah, but what are you going to do when school starts back up? I mean it is almost July."
That was Shanell for you. Always asking the questions that needed to be asked. But she was right, and up until that moment, he hadn't spent much time dwelling on the fact that in a little over a month, he would be leaving her. His voice lowered an octave as sadness took over his being and he answered, "I don't know."
She heard the pain in his voice and knowing she was the cause of it decided to lighten the mood. "But hey don't let me rain on your parade. Just try and spend as much time with her as you possibly could and see where that takes you. You'll figure out what you wanna do by then."
"Yeah, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." He cracked a smile.
"Well I hope everything goes well between you two."
His smile grew wider and he replied, "Me too because right now, she is my light in the shadow of darkness."
"Awwwwwww!"
He laughed, realizing the fact that he knew his best friend too well. "I knew you was going to say that Nelly."