Sweet Sofie

Since Sofia told him she was going to run this morning, he didn’t call her when he got home. He would finish up on Asia’s portfolio, then give Sofia a call. It was still early. This time he wasn’t taking any chances. He wanted to talk to her first thing today and tell her about it. He really hoped she wouldn’t make a big deal of it, especially since he had no intentions of ever seeing Asia again. He’d email her when he was done and that would be the end of it.

He probably could’ve finished last night, but as usual, he was being a perfectionist and obsessing over the site. There was a knock at the door. Eric left the laptop on the counter top and walked over to open the door.

“You’re home?” Sofia smiled big.

Eric pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. “Yeah, I was gonna call you, but I figured you were running.”

“I was, and I saw your car in the driveway.” She kissed him then leaned her head against his chest. “God, I love having you home.”

They walked back into his house, closing the door behind.

“You hungry?”

“Yes, I’m starving.”

“Cool, let’s go get some breakfast. I have something I wanna talk to you about.” He leaned in and kissed her, noticing the concern in her face. “Relax, it’s nothing bad. Just let me grab my shoes from my room.”

He dug in his closet for his shoes. After a few minutes of digging, he remembered they were under his bed. When he walked back out of his room, Sofia was standing in front of his laptop, staring at the screen. She looked up. Her eyes were more questioning than angry. “She sent you all these pictures of herself?”

“Yes, because I offered to help with her portfolio. It’s what I was going to talk to you about, babe.”

She stared at him without saying anything.

He walked up to her and cupped her cheek with his hand, glad that she let him. “I hadn’t gone back to the coffee shop since the day we discussed it.” Eric did his best to explain it and hoped with all his might there wouldn’t be another blow up.

There was an abundance of him kissing her and caressing her face as he spilled it all. Every detail—he wasn’t keeping a thing from her. She didn’t say anything the entire time he explained, and Eric was sure that was a bad sign. He braced himself when he was done and waited.

“After this, you won’t have to see her or talk to her for any reason, right?”

Eric smiled, relieved. “Right.”

Her reaction to it all had been a pleasant surprise, but after breakfast, he was having second thoughts. She’d been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time they ate. He hated to bring it up again, but she was acting so weird, he had to. Once in the car, he glancedar,een at her before he turned it on. “Are you sure you’re okay with me doing this for Asia? Because I promise you after this I won’t be in contact with her at all.”

Sofia snapped out of the same daze she’d been in all through breakfast. “No.” A weak smile spread over her face. “I’m fine with it.”

“Then what is it?”

She shook her head and stared out the window. “Nothing.”

Damn it. He should’ve gone with his gut and just stayed away from Asia all together. He hated for Sofia to have any doubts. Being away from her all summer was hard enough.

They drove back to her house. She wanted to shower and change before they did anything else. He went back to his house, finished up the portfolio and sent it off, feeling a relieved to be done with it. That was the last time he’d ever bring Asia up again.

A few minutes after he was done, he got a text from Sofia.

Almost done. Come over. I made empanadas last night. You can have some while I finish getting ready.

Eric smiled and grabbed his keys. He loved everything Sofia cooked for him, but her empanadas were one of his favorites. He never even had any until she made some for him some years ago.

He knocked once before walking in her house. The only car in the driveway was hers. She was on her way down the stairs when he walked in.

“Hey.” She hadn’t snapped out of that mood, barely smiling as she walked down the stairs.

She hugged him when he reached her. Eric wasn’t sure but she looked ready to cry. “Sofie, what’s wrong?”

She pulled away from him. With one hand over her face, she barely got the words out. “You’re going to hate me.”

Eric stood still. He had no idea what she could mean. He reached his hand out to her. “C’mere. Don’t be silly. I could never hate you.”

She pulled away and crossed her arms in front of her. The tears in her eyes unnerved him.

“What’s wrong? Tell me.”

She walked around the sofa and sat down. “Eric, I did something so wrong. I wasn’t going to tell you, but I just can’t take the guilt anymore. I have to.”

Like a drum, he felt his heart jump start. Guilt? So wrong? His stomach tensed. He almost didn’t want to know. He took a cautious seat on the sofa across from her. He gulped, staring at her big, anxious eyes. “All right, tell me.”

“When I ran with Brandon last week, he asked me to come over his place. He wanted to show me some of his Marine things.” Eric’s eyes went from hers to her hands. She kept intertwining them together, unnerving him that much more. “He showed me pictures and metals and stuff. Then we went into his bedroom…”

Eric stood up. Something pierced into his chest. “What did you do?”