“It’s my last night here, my daughter is very polite about these things,” Emma said soothingly. “She’ll say goodbye to me before I leave, so she should be coming today. If she can be understanding of me, then she needs to know that I understand her, too.”
I smiled a little, but I knew they were hopeful, they didn’t know whether she would show up or not. I wanted to call or text, but I didn’t think it mattered whether I did or not, because it was going to ignore it anyway.
“Why don’t we order?” Dad said, raising his hand to call for a waiter.
“Sorry, I’m late!”
The voice came before Dad could say anything, and I whipped around in my seat, eyes wide as I watched Sophia walk over to our table, breathing a little heavily. She took the only other empty seat, but she wasn’t quite so close to me, since we sat at a square table, and everyone had a side to themselves. Why couldn’t the seating arrangement be just like last time? It felt like she was too far away like this, especially since she wasn’t even looking at me in the face.
“Mom, Ted,” she said, taking in deep breaths. “Sorry to be so late. I had a class, and it ran a little late.”
“We're glad you could make it, honey,” her mom said quickly.
Dad smiled and nodded beside her.
“I didn’t think you’d be showing up at all,” I said, relieved, offering her a small smile.
“Mm-hmm,” she murmured, picking up the menu in front of her.
I lost the smile because Sophia didn’t once look at me. I opened my mouth to call her name, but the waiter showed up at our table at that moment. I looked up at the man with a frown, but kept quiet. We all made our orders, and he went away.
“So,” she said, folding her arms on the table and lea
ning forward toward her mom, who sat to her other side and smiled at her. “Can I ask where the two of you will be going next? Not back to the Bahamas, right?”
Emma giggled and waved a hand at her. “No, definitely not! I had enough of vacation for a while. We’re not sure where we’re going to be living, though we will technically be moving in together, we’re leaving that alone for the time being.”
I cleared my throat. “Hey, Soph—”
“Ted, hum… I hope you don’t mind me calling you your real name for the time being.” She sounded sheepish, even as she talked over me, and it had to be deliberate.
“You can call me whatever way you’ll be comfortable,” Dad said.
“Well, I just wanted to say, please look after my mom well for me, okay? She’s the only family I have left, and I’ll be devastated if anything ever happened to her. I can see she’s happy with you, so you both get my support.”
They shared glances with each other, then with me, before they both smiled at Sophia.
“That’s so sweet of you, honey,” her mom crooned, reaching for Sophia’s hand and squeezing it lightly.
“I promise to treat your mom well for the rest of our lives,” Dad promised solemnly, then he and Emma both laughed.
The whole lunch went on like that. I was confused, but I noticed the pattern. Every time I tried to say something, Sophia would keep quiet, or interrupt before I could even say it, bringing up her topic. Our parents were looking between us, obviously knowing something was wrong, but I’d already talked to them on Sunday so they would let us take care of this while mess ourselves. They both had some responsibility in it, so it wasn’t something easy to resolve, but I was determined not to lose Sophia.
Still, I couldn’t help getting irritated at her behavior, and I didn’t want to blow up at her in front of our parents, but she was practically ignoring me when I was right there. I also couldn’t help feeling hurt, and by the time lunch was over, I wasn’t in the mood to play nice. I said goodbye to both our parents and headed out early. Last time it was Sophia, now me. I knew Dad would understand, and he’d probably explain it to Emma, too.
She was ignoring me while I was right there, treating me completely like air and not even trying to hide it. No one, not even me with my guilty conscious, would be okay with something like that.
I couldn’t be civil to her right then, so I thought it was wise to get away from Sophia for a couple of days before I resented her even more for her actions.
It’s not my fucking fault our parents got married, Sophia!
I loved her, I could only admit it to myself, but that didn’t mean I could forgive something like this so easily.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sophia
I was the one that had been avoiding him like crazy. But, it was bugging me that he wasn’t making the effort to connect with me. I watched Elijah’s back move further and further away as he left the restaurant at the hotel, with me, my mom and his dad all still seated and eating.
At that moment, I didn’t have the courage to reach out to him. Because our parents were there, and I didn’t know if I could control myself with all four of us seated at the same table. So, I decided to ignore Elijah, instead, but I just ended up making him mad. I didn’t think I even had the right to reach out to him, and it had hurt.
I really messed up this time. It had been a few days already. I got the message from Mom telling me where they were at. They’d wait for us before deciding on living arrangements, but that was the last thing on my mind.