Chapter Seven

I was, in my opinion, supervising.

Only overseeing the date on which Cee and Paul were.

Of course, Cee asked me too. If not, well I would have been spying wouldn't I?

Which I only agreed to because I wanted to get Gina and her dad off my mind.

I managed to sneak out of the house after convincing everyone to leave me alone because I was "sleeping". I didn't have anyone to cover for me this time, so I had to stress to everyone in the Ackerman household that NOBODY will be bothering me. But not too much, or else they'd get suspicious.

I don't doubt any bit that Cee was nervous. I mean he had tried to kill me once. And I guess Jesse too. That, I still haven't forgiven him for by the way.

But, come on. This will make a great story for the Carmel Pine Cone right? Not.

So there I was, casually looking over the menu at Bonne Nourriture, some fancy French restaurant, which Paul insisted on bringing CeeCee to.

If Cee was nervous, she didn't act like it one bit. It looked as if she was just interviewing Paul for an article.

She didn't have much make-up on, since she has to special-order all her make-up, but she did look really good.

She had a long, silky blue dress on that went off the shoulder slightly. But she covered it with a black button-down sweater.

Oh, and did I mention that she was wearing my shoes? Which looked totally awesome on her.

Don't worry, I warned her plenty about the whole blister thing. She didn't seem to mind though, or that's what I thought. She doesn't let-off much.

I heard their conversation. Well, I heard them before the evening crowd starting filing in.

Luckily, I had gotten a table that was behind Paul. You see, I have connections.

Man, I wished Jesse were with me. So I wouldn't look like a freak sitting at a table alone. I tried calling him earlier, but he wasn't home.

Anyway, since I didn't have enough money for an actual meal there, my plan was to drink Diet Cokes the whole time and pretend to be deep in thought. Even though what I was really trying to do was hear Paul and Cee.

"So, why exactly did you ask me out, Paul?" Cee questioned.

Hah. That's CeeCee for you, straight to the point.

"Well…" Paul started to say. I didn't know what his expression was, you know, since his back was to me.

"Here, let me rephrase. Why did you take a sudden interest in me?" Asked CeeCee.

That's when I saw him.

I saw him standing there, staring back in forth between Paul and Cee.

You might ask who him is, right?

Well, I might as well just say it. It was Adam.

And he was in a waiter's uniform.

Whoa. Adam has a job? Here?

I mean, here. Of all places, he had to work at Bonne Nourriture.

And if you ask me, he looked insanely jealous.

This was going to be interesting.

I lipped "Adam" to Cee. Her eyes widened.

I was just about to get up, to at least try to explain why CeeCee was here with Paul to Adam, but someone's cell phone started ringing.

Thinking it was mine, I searched through my purse. But when I looked up, I noticed it was Paul's.

He got up, said something to CeeCee, and started heading outside. Which coincidentally, outside was behind me.

I held up my menu really high, so Paul couldn't see my face. But as he got closer, this was no longer working.

So I "accidentally" dropped my napkin.

I made sure I took extra long to pick it up too. You know, searching for it while trying not to mess up my hair. My hair was up tonight, even though I strongly dislike it like that. I was willing to try anything to disguise myself. Anything reasonable that is.

Once I heard the restaurant's back door close I got up, with napkin in hand.

Success! Suze Simon has still got it!

But to my surprise, the door didn't close all the way.

And I could hear Paul.

I glanced at Cee. She was looking around for Adam, who had mysteriously disappeared.

The restaurant was getting more and more crowded every minute. And might I add, louder.

But I could still hear Paul.

"Listen Stephanie…under control…don't worry." I heard him say.

There was a pause.

"This isn't a good time…bye" He hung up.

Only I hadn't noticed he had hung up until he came back through the door and stopped.

I turned around slowly.

"Suze. I wasn't expecting that you'd be here." He said smoothly.

I didn't respond. I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts. Why was Paul talking to Stephanie?

I reasoned through my head why on Earth Paul would be talking to my stepbrother's fiancée.

I smirked. "Hah." I thought. "I knew there was something fishy about Stephanie. I was so right."

Paul slid past me. I didn't find it strange that Paul wasn't curious if I had heard him or not. Paul has a way of hiding stuff like that.

By that time, Adam had reappeared. He was walking briskly toward Paul and CeeCee's table, with a scowl on his face and his hands in fists. Again, looking extremely jealous.

Paul had made it back to the table by then, I suppose apologizing to Cee for the phone call.

Then Adam showed up.

"CeeCee." Adam said while trying to make his voice sound deep. It was pretty funny.

That's all I heard though.

Paul started speaking, but I couldn't make out his words. Then he started to stand up…and then Adam punched him.

Right in the gut too. Ouch.

I guess Paul has a way of speaking that makes people hate him, or at least want to knock him out.

And I don't blame them. I want to punch him too, mostly, every time I see him.

Paul sat back down holding his stomach and groaning.

"Haha, baby." I said out loud.

Before Paul had a chance to fight back, other employees had grabbed both him and Adam, and started heading toward the front door.

Laughing, I got up and went to go stand toward CeeCee.

When I got there, Cee looked at me and said, "Sorry."

"For what?" I replied.

"Well, I never got to ask Paul about his mysterious plans." She said.

I narrowed my eyes and said, "Oh, don't worry about that anymore. I think I've got it all figured out."


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Tell me what you think is going to happen or something. I need to see if I'm leaving all the right clues!

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emma