Sophia

 

 

"Why are you sitting at home on a Saturday night?" Cadence pushes my feet aside so she can sit next to me on the couch. The aroma of the popcorn she just made fills the room. "I thought you'd be out on a date with the great American novelist."

I thought I would be too. I wasn't all that surprised when Nicholas turned down my invitation to meet me at the fabric store. I don't know another soul who would want to spend an entire Saturday afternoon checking out hundreds of rolls of discounted fabric. I totally get that, but I was curious when he said he had other plans and then didn't elaborate.

We had that awkward conversation about only dating each other a few days ago, but we haven't touched on it since. If he's changed his mind, I'm not going to pout. I just want to know where I stand with him.

"Are you saying you'd rather be at home alone?" I push my bare foot into the side of her jean covered thigh. "I know Tyler pulls a shift every Saturday night because he can't stand the thought of anyone but him being at Nova's helm on the busiest night of the week."

"That's word-for-word what I said to you when he started working weekends." She arches a brow. "You know how he is. He owns the place. If something goes wrong, it's all on him."

"I get it." I do. I'm the same way with my designs. I tweak them incessantly until I think they look perfect. It's not because I have the pressure on me that Tyler does. No one knows about my work yet, but when I do get discovered, I want to be certain that it's smooth sailing from that day forward.

She stretches her arm along the back of the sofa as she pops a piece of popcorn in her mouth. "I want to talk about Nicholas. Have you seen him again?"

All of him, as a matter of fact.

"I saw him last night," I say as I push the remote to pause the program we've been watching. It's an episode of our favorite police procedural. We started the habit of watching it together when we were roommates and now I always wait for Cadence to come over before I order a new episode on Netflix.

"I thought you went to that club opening last night." Her eyes volley between the frozen image of a police officer with a gun in his hand on TV and my face.

I sigh heavily. "He was there."

"Nicholas was there?"

I take a minute to reply. I could easily get her off the topic of what happened between Nicholas and me if I bring up Trey Hale. It was a brief encounter that isn't worth mentioning though. She's my best friend, so I shouldn't hide the truth from her even if it sends her into a romantic frenzy. "He was. We left together."

The large bowl of popcorn in her lap almost tumbles over as she turns to look at my face. "Sophia, what the hell? Why didn't you tell me this the second I walked in?"

"Because I knew you'd act like this." I scoot my ass across the couch so I can sit upright. "It was just sex, Cadence. I had sex with him at his place."

"It's not just sex." She moves to put the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table. "It's sex with Nicholas Wolf."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I reach for a handful of popcorn and toss a piece in the air before I catch it in my mouth. "He's just a man, Cadence. He's a man who happens to write books."

"He's not just a man," she mimics my tone but adds a noticeable dash of sarcasm. "He's one of the hottest men on the planet and you slept with him."

"He is hot," I acquiesce as I toss a piece of popcorn too high and it coasts over my head before hitting the hardwood floor behind me. "We had fun and then today I invited him to tag along with me to buy some fabric and he said he had other plans."

"I would have ditched on that too." She laughs. "I've gone fabric shopping with you, Soph. It's not a fun time."

My mouth curves into an unwanted, but uncontrollable, smile. "I know. It's just that he was uptown and I was headed uptown and I assumed he'd want to see me after last night."

"You thought he'd want to follow you around a cramped fabric store for hours because the sex was that good?"

"When you put it like that, I see your point." I throw the last piece of popcorn in my hand at her. She watches it fly past her nose before it lands on one of the red throw pillows she left here when she moved.

"Let him decompress, Soph." She reaches to grab the remote from where I put it on the table. "Give him a couple of days and he'll be all over you again."

I know she's right. We had too good a time last night for him to brush me off. I should be thinking about our next date with butterflies in my stomach but the only thing rooted in my gut is a niggling feeling that the girl in the photograph I saw last night, may not be completely out of the picture.

 

***

 

"Your website is a work of shit," Joe, the tech guy, that Nicholas connected me with laughs. It's one of those deep chuckles that lure the attention of every person around us. That might be fine if we weren't sitting in the staff lunchroom of Foster Enterprises headquarters.

Several of my co-workers turn to look at us. I toss them a polite smile hoping they'll get back to their microwave warmed lunches.

"Nicholas told me it was bad, but Sophie, this is the worst."

"It's Sophia," I say as I take a bite of the apple I brought with me today. I knew I'd be having this meeting at lunch so packing something more substantial didn't make any sense.

"Sure, Sophia." He gazes over the top of his laptop screen at me. "When Nick called me yesterday to ask me to do this, he didn't tell me you were so blazing."

Does that mean hot?

It doesn't matter. What does matter, even though it shouldn't, is that he heard from Nicholas yesterday and I haven't heard a peep out of him since our text exchange on Saturday afternoon.

Joe's a guy, so I'm tempted to ask him what the current protocol is for texting a woman after you've fucked her brains out. I resist that urge and instead focus on the matter at hand.

"I don't think it's all that bad." I lean back on the plastic chair I'm sitting on. "I do respect your opinion so tell me what I can do to improve it."

"Start from scratch." He accompanies that comment with an actual scratch to his overgrown dark beard. "The mess you've got going on now is unfixable."

I glance around the room before I lean in closer. "My finances are tight right now. Can you do anything for say, five hundred dollars?"

"Beautiful and cheap?" His hand leaps to his chest. "You're a woman after my own heart."

"I'm not cheap," I correct him in a hushed tone. "Most of my resources go into my business. I design clothes."

"Duh." He points to the screen of his laptop with both of his index fingers. "I'm looking at your website right now. I see what you've got going on."

"Can you spice it up for five hundred?" I finish the last bite of the apple. "I'd appreciate anything you can do that would make it look edgier."

He snaps the cover of his computer closed before he rests his elbows on the circular white table we're sitting next to. "You know that Nick is footing the bill for this, right? He wants your input on everything design related, but he's covering the cost of a complete overhaul of your site."

"No." I shake my head as I drop the apple core in my empty coffee cup. "I don't want him to do that."

"It's already done." He thumps his front shirt pocket and the top of the small weathered billfold that is visible. "He paid me yesterday and the cash is tucked away in my account. Between you and me, it's the only money in my account right now."

"Why would he pay for it?" I ask myself as much as him.

He looks over at the table next to us where three women are sitting. "Isn't it obvious? Men will do anything for a woman they want."

That might be true, but I'm not for sale. Before this day is over, Nicholas Wolf is going to understand that I take care of myself.