Chapter 4 - The Uninvited TruthThe memory of that February afternoon faded into the reality of the present night. Nina had gone. The living room was quiet again, save for the rain against the pane.
Sophie stood in the kitchen, her dark green top glistening under the amber overhead lighting. She looked small against the wide marble counter.
“You heard me back then,” she whispered, her voice barely carrying across the open floor.
“I heard,” I admitted, stepping away from the couch. “And tonight... introducing Nina like that. What was that, Sophie?”
Sophie crossed her arms, hugging herself. “I wanted to be normal, Jack. I wanted to bring a girl home, sit on this stupid yellow couch, drink wine, and pretend that my life is simple. I wanted to prove to myself that I don't spend every single night thinking about the man who lives down the hall.”
The confession hung between us, stripped of jokes, stripped of glitter.
“You think about me?” I asked softly.
“Of course I do!” she cried out, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I talk about you to my friends, to my sister, to anyone who will listen. I tell them about the guy who fixes everything except the one thing that’s actually broken in this apartment!”
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“And what’s broken, Sophie?” I walked slowly toward the kitchen island, stopping just a few feet from her. “Tell me, because I’m a contractor, remember? I fix things when people tell me where it hurts.”
“Us!” she said, her chest heaving. “The fact that we’ve been living in this fake, perfect boundary for fourteen months! You treat me like I’m made of glass, Jack. You leave sandwiches and check the locks, but you never... you never just grab me.”
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