Page 82 of As the World Falls

“None of them smell right.”

“What should they smell like?”

“Like they’re ripe and sweet. They all smell like…grass.”

I smirked as I picked up a cantaloupe and smelled the bottom of it. “This one isn’t terrible.”

She takes it from me and smells it, and a smile lights up her face, which nearly stops my heart right here in this market. Fuck…I was so screwed.

“Just like you to be so perfect all the time. Even the fruit you pick is good.”

I grin now, looking at her as she rounds the fruit shelf. “You think I’m perfect?”

She tries to hide her smile as she shakes her head, looking down at more fruit in front of her. “Nope. I just meant you’re egotistical.”

“Sure,” I chime, rounding the shelf to be next to her again.

“So, what should I get next? What looks good to the fruit king?” she smirks, looking over at me.

I laugh now, scanning the store around us. “How about those?” I say, pointing to a mountain of peaches.

“Peaches?” she asks, surprised, pushing her cart toward them. “I haven’t had peaches in so long.”

“Why not?”

She shrugs. “I just haven’t. Do you like them? Is that why you chose them?”

I shake my head, helping her fill her produce bag with some. “You have a lip gloss you wear sometimes that reminds me of them. I thought of you when I looked at them.” I set two more peaches inside her bag, totaling five altogether, and realized her hands had been oddly still holding open the bag. I look up at her, seeing her eyes locked onto me like she was experiencing an alien sighting or something. “What’s wrong?” I ask her.

She blinks, her voice quieter than normal. “You’ve noticed the color of my lip gloss.” I assumed it was a question, but she says it is more like a statement, so I’m not exactly sure how to answer her.

“Yes,” I simply reply.

She quietly pulled the bag of peaches in and tied them up before putting them inside her cart. She began her trek back through the store, not saying much else now. Her mood completely shifted, and I wasn’t sure if I had done something wrong.

I follow behind her, staying quiet and inspecting the kinds of groceries she picks out, curious about what she likes. She gets bagels with raisins in them but gets the whipped cream cheese, not the regular spread. An obscene amount of bananas. She seemed to prefer chicken over beef regarding her meat selection. She gets fruit-infused water instead of regular water. The lastitem she grabs, or items, is four different pints of something called Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. She tossed them into the cart like she had a personal vendetta against them. I was still mystified by her newfound hostility.

I load her groceries into the trunk of my car and head back to her apartment. She doesn’t say a word the entire way there, and I don’t either. I'm still confused by what the hell happened. Maybe she doesn’t like peaches. Maybe she’s mad I suggested them, and she has to eat them. Although I feel like if that was the case, she would’ve told me she didn’t like them. Cecilia isn’t one to hold back her opinions or thoughts.

Once home and her groceries are put away, she pulls one of the pints of ice cream out of her freezer and cracks it open, shoving a giant spoon right into the center before she plops down on her sofa.

I sit down next to her, watching her intently as she silently eats her ice cream. “Is there something wrong?”

“Nope.”

“Don’t forget I know when you lie to me.”

“You just know every little thing about me, don’t you?”

“Okay, enough. What’s going on here?”

She glares at me, stabbing her spoon rather harshly into her ice cream. “I want you to tell me about you. Tell me about your life. How you became who you are. Share a secret with me. I don’t like knowing hardly anything about you when you seem to know me inside out.”

I press my lips together, understanding dawning on me. “I see. What do you want to know?”

She closes her eyes in what I can’t decide is either patience or impatience. “Everything. Just…tell me everything.”

“Okay,” I answer softly, a mixture of feelings washing over me like anxiety and a strange need to show her who I really was. “I’ll tell you what you want to know.” She opens her eyes,slowly spooning another bite of ice cream into her mouth as she gazes at me, and I can’t help but chuckle. “You asked me earlier who the other person in my life is that I trust…well, his name is Stefano Luccio.”

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