My Everything

Chapter 1: Sophie

This is my first story EVER so please leave *kind* and helpful feedback. If you're looking for a raunchy story this isn't it but it's a SLOWBURN satisfier for sure. A real love adventure I hope you like. ENJOY!
So here it begins......

Sophie stepped through the automatic doors as they briskly closed behind her, trapping all the dry hospital cold air inside releasing her to the humid heat of summer. Her glasses couldn't take the abrupt temperature change and became coated with fog. Her vision might be temporarily impaired but she knew this walk by heart.

Leaving work under the sheet of darkness was once a peaceful way to end the evening. She used to take this time to call her husband as an extra safety measure. Hospital parking garages can harbor some shady clientele. It was always comforting having her husband's deep voice on speaker  to ward off any shady characters. He was also a captivated audience for her to deconstruct and process that day's chaotic events. As an ER nurse there was always some story to tell at the end of her shift. Even after almost 2 years now her muscle memory would still kick in. She would reach deep into her front pocket of her scrubs to pull out her phone to call him before she would painfully remember that was no longer an option tucking it back in.

She instead settled for an internal dialogue with her husband. Today she would of said how she interviewed for the Charge Nurse position. That she was so nervous in the interview she had an uncontrollable eye twitch until she looked out the conference room windows. A psych patient who had tried  to escape disrobed running naked through the department. The  ER staff chasing him with gowns and blankets. Even while witnessing the chaos she was still able to maintain her composure in front of the managerial team. It reminded her how much she truly loved the chaos that is the ER.

She would have vented how the other candidate was not nearly as qualified as her. The other candidate doesn't have family obligations therefore could be on every hospital committee and put in loads of overtime. For those reasons she was the manager's favorite therefore shoe in for the position. She imagined how he would respond but as the years went by his voice in her head seemed to grow more dim.

Sophie could smell that the rain was getting more prominent and the roll of thunder ahead meant a downpour was imminent. The parking garage provided some shelter from the rain storm as she jiggled the keys out of her pocket. She placed her now empty lunch box in the passenger seat, plopped her work bag next to it and melted into the driver seat. With one swift motion she pulled out her ponytail and let her wavy brown hair drip onto her shoulders. Her scalp happy with the constriction lifted. Taking one big deep breath that came at the end of each day affirming that she had indeed lived through one more ER shift. She exhaled, reversed and headed home.

Sophie's life now was just a variation of the previous day on repeat. Every week the same and now every year too. Yes new patients and new cases but overall it was church, work, daughter off to school and repeat. Her life was the same week on repeat. She took solace in this now more than ever. Sophie was never one for spontaneity or surprises. Her turbulent unpredictable childhood left her longing for stability that she had always lacked. The most interesting part of Sophie's life was being an ER nurse. She relished in the unknown as long as it was in a controlled environment of course.

Since highschool Sophie believed  in the ominous power of a to-do list attempting to plan her entire life. She had a mental checklist that included graduating college with her Bachelors of Nursing, marrying the man of her dreams shortly after, and then a child. All of which she was able to successfully check off. Life was perfect, right?

Of course you can't plan your whole life. There's always some form of destiny that intertwined. A curve ball that kept her life from being seamlessly perfect. The occasional broken bone, the car dying in  the middle of the road and the elderly family member that went to heaven. Besides the minor bumps Sophie enjoyed her bland adult life. This consistency made up for her shaky start to life tipping the scales to be more balanced or so she thought.

Her low maintenance personal style was on par with her mundane life. She didn't desire to capture an audience with perfectly highlighted hair or nails. Never keeping up with the current trends but dressing for practicality and comfort. She didn't want to stand out but just blend in with the background. She wasn't into jet setting or typical bucket list adventures. She enjoyed the simple things in life. She wanted to grow old with the man she loved, watch her kids grow to be parents and then babysit her grandchildren. She craved normalcy from her previous chaotic childhood. That was her plan for the future, the last item to check off on her mental checklist. That WAS her plan until her perfectly bubble wrapped life shattered around her. It's amazing how one event can cause a completely different trajectory in life.

To compliment her quiet life was an equally quiet man. Sophie's husband, Thomas, had enough adventures before settling down. Even though he grew up in the polar opposite way of Sophie, their complete codependency for one another allowed their relationship to flourish. Thomas had a literal silver spoon in his mouth fed to him by an overpriced nanny. He always knew stability on every level. He too now preferred local adventures to his previous overseas escapades and tranquil nights reading instead of the evenings of tequila.

His job was even more boring than his days off. He was a chemist at a pharmaceutical company. Sophie couldn't always understand all the details of his job, but she could tell her OCD husband thrived in such a sterile environment. It also provided consistency and predictability two qualities Thomas loved as well. There was the occasional downside when he would have to travel for work. Thankfully this wasn't a common occurrence. If there was a deal his company needed to close they would bring Thomas along. He would break down the components of the medications and the mechanism of action for the buyer to see the benefit of purchasing their product.

Their lives intertwined perfectly and their daughter Phoebe, even still so young, would benefit the most from this security. Sophie thought she had built the perfect little cocooned life but like everything in life it changed.  It started with that dreaded phone call that a business trip was needed to seal a deal. Thomas would be gone 3 days and would return to celebrate their 5 year wedding Anniversary.

Although it was poor timing Thomas was the bread winner these days. Thomas preferred the more traditional family lifestyle and wanted Sophie, like his mother had, to stay at home. Sophie conceded only after he agreed for her to still work part time. She had worked entirely too hard to lose her skills as an ER nurse. So after lavish promises of a make up anniversary date Thomas was off to El Paso, Texas.