Chapter 44
SOFIA
Alice was right, the night really was like old times. Mrs. Riley and my grandfather brought up stories of the stupidity we had done as kids while I prepared dinner. Alice only pretended to help but she played with cutting one capsicum till the end of the dish, Sam had volunteered but I refused. He used to be the designated helper earlier, but that was more because of our own inside jokes and giggles, and less because I needed help. We could be friends–him and I, but I had no interest in taking back the friendship to what it used to be. I couldn’t, not when my heart was crying for a certain someone who was absent
from my life.
I looked at the door every little time with eyes that were obviously of longing if Alice noticed it, hoping and wishing that Gabriel walked through it.
I thought I came here for space, but now I’m realising I came here to see if he would care about my absence. I thought I Invited Sam over for old’s sake- and I did, but also because I wanted to see if it would tick him off like it did last time. A crazy part of me wondered if the driver I had brought with me would let him know of my shenanigans- but that thought was just like the rest of me- delusional.
He did not care.
So, everything was like old times except for me faking a smile and my thoughts and attention often focused at my phone and door, and then being met with disappointment.
Sam and Mrs. Riley both left a little past midnight, and after freshening up, I and Alice sat in my room with a sappy movie. At some point, the tub of ice cream was shut and the bottle of wine opened. Alice shed tears, cursed her ex boyfriend, and I hugged her till the rage overthrew the sadness and she was convinced she’s better off. Then, I opened up about my situation with Gabriel, the honeymoon, Arthur, and even Lily. By the end of the story, Alice even wanted to call Gabriel and curse him out, and I had stop her wine–drunk self.
We slept just before the sun came up.
Alice still went to work the next morning, albeit groaning and complaining about it, waking me up in the process.
“Why don’t you come stay with me and Gabriel for some time, Grandpa?” I offered while stirring the pot of soup and my grandfather sat on a chair, passing me the condiments as we prepared lunch together.
“I like living here, Sofie,” he replied. “I’ve lived here all my life. I want to die here, not in a city.”
I turned around with lips parted to glare at him. “You’re not dying!”
“I will someday,” he joked. “Besides, if I wanted to shift to the city, Alister and Leila have been calling me every other day trying to get me to live with them, so I’d shift with them.”
I pretend to be hurt, clutching my heart. “Over your own granddaughter?”
He laughed. “Now I don’t want to interrupt a newly wed’s bliss, do I?”
My smile fades a little. That would have been true, had we come from Venice wrapped in the same bubble. But
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unfortunately, it had blasted.
“Sofie, what’s wrong?” He asks, almost carefully. “Are you not happy?”
I pull back the smile. “Of course I’m happy, Grandpa.”
“You used to share everything with me, Sofie.” He says, motioning with his hands for me to come closer, and I do after switching off the gas. “Do you dislike me because I got you married against your choice?”
“Absolutely not!” I mutter, taking my hands in his as I kneel in front of his chair. “And I really am happy, Grandpa.”
He caresses my head. “I worried about you, Sofie. You gave up everything you dreamt about when you found out I had cancer. Every penny you earned went to my treatment. I only did this to make sure your future is secure, you know? If you choose to get a divorce from Gabriel, that is your choice.”
I don’t look him in the eye. He didn’t know about why Gabriel agreed to get married to me, and the six month contract we were under.
He went on, ‘I didn’t know if the two of you would fall in love. My only thought process was getting you married to someone who could take care of you before I’m gone. But you can divorce him if he’s making you unhappy, you know? Whenever you want. I will stand by you.”
I smile faintly. “Thank you, Grandpa.”
“Your nana would kick my ass if she was here and found out I arranged your marriage love.” He jokes, and I laugh.
Tears glisten in my eyes slightly. “I miss Nana. I miss Mom and Dad.”
“They’re looking at you, Sofie. They’re so proud of their little girl being a fine woman.”
and didn’t give you a chance to find
I smile, wiping one traitor tear that slipped off, getting up. “Come,” I help him up, “It’s time for lunch.”
In the evening after I woke up, I mailed resumes out to companies, again. I remembered Gabriel asking me to come work with him and me promising I would consider, but it didn’t seem right anymore.
Later, I met with Alice again.
“I’m being offered a job in the city.” Alice slurped on her almost–over strawberry milkshake, making unnecessary noise while
doing so.
“Why don’t you take it?” I ask. It wasn’t the first time she was offered a job in the city and if she said no, it wouldn’t be the first time she declined.
I hate it when people leave our town to shift to the city, you know.” She pouts, “We need to protect the integrity. The culture. The vibe. Besides, I have nob*dy there except you.”
I give her a small smile. “I, for one, would love it if you shift.”
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Chapter 44
“But aren’t you in the city just for a few months more till your contract with Gabriel ends? What will happen after that when you decide to shift back here and I can’t because someone else takes my spot here and then I’m all alone?” The words slip out of her mouth before she can stop them, and as if listening to herself, she shut her eyes for a moment, her nose scrunched. “Sof, I’m so sorry.”
I
in
“No! You’re right.” I try ignoring the heaviness settling in my ch*st on the blatant reminder of my reality. “But I haven’t decided what to do after it ends. I don’t think I want to come back home, it doesn’t feel the same here.”
“So you’ll stay in the city?”
“I don’t know.” I raise my shoulders dismissively, my tone playful when I add, “Maybe I’ll run away and start somewhere new altogether, you know somewhere where people don’t know me and don’t think of me as a gold digger for marrying a rich man for six months.”
My frienti finds no humour in my joke as her hand reaches out to be placed on mine over the table of the diner we were at “Oh, Sof.”
When we walked back home, much like we did last evening from the supermarket, I could feel a gaze on me.
I was feeling watched,
But every time I looked behind, there was nob*dy.
As my second day came to an end here and then the third and fourth, I was growing worried.
Gabriel
It was very much unlike Gabriel to just disappear.
Even if he didn’t care to come after me, he was always one to make his thoughts known on anything I did, adamant to have
a say. Maybe he was giving me space like I asked…
But still, it was unlike him to just… vanish.
Where was he?
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