Puzzlement turned to astonishment and then knee-jerk denial. "You think she tried to make---? No. No, that's not--I would've seen it--"

Would you, though? Or did you just see what you wanted to see and not look any further? She had her pride, and it wasn't easy to accept when someone just wasn't interested. Much easier to assume he was just a slow starter, or playing hard to get. But then with the unexpected one-eighty, and what she'd come to realize later--

"Oh, shit." Ellie's face went ashen, and both hands flew to her mouth as everything clicked neatly into place. "Fucking hell. That unbelievable bitch. She'd do it, too, just out of fucking spite...Christ..." Now her whole face was covered. Not just one, but two vitally important clues she'd completely missed within a few hours of each other. It was more than embarrassing; back in the day, Triskelle would have kicked her straight into the nearest lava pit for such carelessness, and rightly so. You fucking moron, could you possibly have been any more blind? Shit, poor Crowley, all those years and then in you waltzed and...fuck, he's going to be furious...

"Cayce, I think I screwed up big time," came her tiny, muffled confession after a long moment's silence.