Sofia’s eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open before she let loose a hoot of victory. “Iknewit! I knew something was up!”
Realization hit me swiftly and I scrambled for something to say, but I was done for. She’d tricked me.
I groaned and dropped my head into my hands. “Fuck… she didn’t tell you anything, did she?”
Sofia laughed and shook her head, leaning on the railing beside me with a victorious grin. “Nope. I pushed her and Kate hard, too, but neither of them broke. Ara kept to the story you two had concocted. I could tell she was lying about something, but I wasn’t sure what the actual story was.”
Fuck!“Sophe—”
She shook her head. “Don’t even start apologizing.”
“So, you’re not mad that I flew in to help her lie?”
“Mad?” Sophe repeated with a shake of her head. “I was more upset thinking that Chiara had really been in a relationship with someone and hadn’t told me. Then you showed up and I was too happy to be mad. But the more I watched you two, the more I realized something was up. Knowing the truth helps, actually. But it also means you and I need to have a chat,” she continued,levelling me with a serious stare.
I waited and remembered what she’d said about using Ara to get back at Ellis.
Grimacing, I nodded. “I understand your worry, but I promise, I’m not using Ara like that.”
She squinted at me in a cute glare, and I held up my hands in surrender. “I promise. I wouldn’t do that to her. Yes, pissing Ellis off has been a bonus, but she asked me to stop purposely needling him because this was your weekend too, and since that first night at dinner, I have tried my best to be nothing but nice to the guy.”
Sofia sighed and nodded. “I know. He wasn’t exactly helping with some of the jabs he threw your way. But you have to understand how weird it is for him to see you with her. He never did understand why she broke up with him, and I think a part of him is still… clinging to her in a way.”
I frowned and resisted the urge to fill her in on some of what I knew about their breakup. Instead, I zeroed in on what she’d said about Ellis not moving on. “How can you be okay with that? Ara’s your best friend.”
She sighed. “I knew I was his second choice when we started dating. I’d had feelings for Ellis for years before Chiara ever gave him a chance, but I never told her because everyone always told her how she and Ellis were meant to be together, and I saw the way he looked at her. But when she said they were done and he finally looked my way…”
I frowned, but I understood.
Sofia shrugged her shoulder. “Chiara really seemed okay with us—relieved, even—and I never got the impression that she wanted him back. They happened in high school and barely made it out into the real world before she ended things. If I thought for a second that she felt anything for him, I’d have never even considered it. But she has been our biggest supporter, and tothink she’d been dating someone was a huge relief. But now I know it’s a lie, and I’m just confused.”
I wrapped an arm around her to give her a small squeeze and sighed. The cat was out of the bag now, so she might as well know the story—without bringing Foxy’s into it. I’d like to keep that to myself.
“The truth is, Ara panicked when she thought she’d confessed to a relationship. When I showed up, she was going to back out, but then photos started circulating of us at the café and we were in too deep after that. Everything just kind of… snowballed. She hated lying to you, to everyone.”
Sofia looked up at me with knowing eyes and her lips crooked in a small smile. “But it wasn’t all lies, was it? I see the way you look at her, and the way she looks at you. Don’t even get me started on how you guys were the other morning when we had all those activities.”
My gut twisted, and I shrugged. “It’s… complicated.”
She shoved me. “Then uncomplicate it.”
“Sofia—”
“Look, I have eyes, okay? You guys were practically glued to each other all of yesterday, and I saw you guys ride off this morning and you looked mighty cozy. The way you two are when you’re together is something special. I can see something has gone wrong, and you’re both miserable, and I want you to fix it.”
I raked a hand through my hair. “It’s not that easy.”
“Make it that easy,” she snapped. “You smile when you’re with her—”
“Christ, not this again, I smileallthe time!”
Sofia scoffed. “No, you don’t. You grimace, you do half-hearted side smiles, sarcastic smirks, or you do this thing where you try to smile but it looks like a shark bearing its teeth. But you’ve never been big on actually smiling, not until Chiara.”
Well, fuck. That was two people telling me the same thing now.I’d honestly never noticed.
Sofia sighed. “Flynn, I’ve seen the way you look at her when she’s not watching, the way you’re always touching her when she’s around… the way you kiss her. No one is that good of an actor. You were in love with her when we were young, but you never let yourself really feel it or acknowledge it. Apparently, a decade apart has done nothing to dimmish those feelings. You’re in love with her, and maybe you haven’t admitted it to yourself yet, which is why you haven’t told her. But I need you to hurry up and see the light, so you don’t break my best friend’s heart.”
My lungs felt like they were being squeezed in a vice, and the idea of allowing myself to love Ara was bound to send me into a panic.
