Sophia waved his comment away. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll give the plumber a call.”
Darren gave her a strange look. “I’ll call you later.”
With that, he hurried outside, taking the stairs two at a time. Sophia lingered in the doorway to watch him leave, a heaviness settling in the center of her chest. When he drove off, Sophia was still standing there, wondering what was the matter with her.
Teddy’s tongue darted out to lick her palm, and she was brought back to the present with a jolt.
Sighing, Sophia slammed the door shut and stepped into the kitchen.
After preparing some pasta with a creamy white sauce and strips of chicken, she settled in the living room. She paused to give Teddy a few cans of food and waited till he was curled up on the carpet by the fire before she picked up the remote. A short while later, she was still flipping through the channels when her stomach began to grumble. Reluctantly, she settled on an old black-and-white movie and settled against the couch.
Halfway through her meal, she took her plate into the kitchen and covered it in aluminum foil. She placed it in the microwave and poured herself a generous amount of red wine.Then she changed Teddy’s water for the fourth time that day and made her way back into the living room.
There, she propped her feet up on the coffee table and tugged on the blanket draped over the back of the couch. When her phone rang and Zac’s name flashed across the screen, Sophia had sunk lower against the couch and was studying her dad’s cracked ceiling. She sat up straighter, set her glass down on the table next to her, and smiled.
“Hi, honey,” Sophia greeted, her voice rising toward the end. “This is a nice surprise.”
“I had a few minutes, and I wanted to check in,” Zac replied, his handsome face appearing in and out of the frame. “How’s everything? Work going okay?”
Sophia nodded. “The same as usual. How’s it going with you?”
“…family…hours…great.” Zac’s voice drifted in and out of focus, and Sophia strained to hear him.
She pulled the phone away and stared at the screen, at a frame of her son’s frozen face, his mouth partly open and a furrow between his brows. In silence, Sophia touched two fingers to the screen and exhaled. When the camera unfroze, and Zac’s voice filled the living room, disconnected and garbled, Sophia sat up and went to the kitchen.
She was peering at the contents of the fridge when the line went dead.
Sophia tried Zac a few more times before hanging up.
Then she took an apple out of the fridge and made her way back to the living room. She stretched her legs out on the couch, dialed her father. On the sixth ring, it went straight to voicemail, and she made a low, frustrated sound. Teddy lifted his head up from his paws and looked directly at her, his bright eyes wide and unflinching.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Sophia said with a shake of her head. “What else am I supposed to do?”
After a few more minutes of channel surfing, Sophia pulled up a DIY video and found herself in the kitchen, drenched in sweat and with a wrench in one hand. Once she failed to fix the sink, she shoved the tools back into their box and drifted back into the living room. There, she lowered herself onto the carpet, tucked her legs underneath her, and squeezed her eyes shut.
Even yoga couldn’t help her relax.
When she was done, she rose back up to her feet, stomped into the kitchen, and took out a few ingredients for a cake. She was muttering to herself and whisking the batter when her phone rang, and Zoe’s name appeared on her screen. Hastily, she wiped her hands on her apron and swiped right. Zoe’s familiar face appeared, holding up an outfit to a full-length mirror.
“Uh-oh. I know that look. Who annoyed you?”
“Nobody annoyed me,” Sophia replied, pausing to reach for a vanilla sachet. “I just thought I’d try out some new recipes for vanilla cake.”
“You don’t try out new recipes unless you’re angry or restless,” Zoe responded before twisting in front of the mirror. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“I’m just having an off day. I got locked out of the house, and Dad had to come and bail me out. It’s a good thing he did, too; otherwise, the alarm system would’ve gone off.”
“Don’t you think Uncle Ian is taking it a bit too far?”
Sophia sighed. “I do, but you know how he gets.”
Zoe adjusted the phone on top of her dress, and her eyebrows knitted together. “There hasn’t been another break-in, right?”
Sophia glanced up and shook her head. “No, sweetheart, don’t worry.”
“He should ease up, then.” Zoe stepped back and walked over to her bed, where another outfit was laid out. “So, do you remember that cute guy I was telling you about? We’re supposed to go out tonight.”
Sophia stopped whisking and smiled. “Honey, that’s great. I know you’ve liked him for a while. How did he finally ask you?”
