✍🏻 Little Matchmaker

25 - The New Year

A/N: A short chapter but from the next one things will start happening again and we are slowly but surely approaching the first half of the book!

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Sophie was lying in bed and contemplated what to do when Yuzuru gets out of the shower. Her leg was good enough to walk without clutches though the pain was still very much present and from her past experience, she knew it will take a few weeks until it's completely healed. At least thanks to strictly following all the advice from Yuzuru it was indeed getting better much faster than she expected.
And so now she stared at the ceiling and tried to evaluate if she really needs him to sleep next to her.
It was true that she slept better in the last nights, on the other hand, right now she did not believe she would need him there. But it was nice. She always hated sleeping alone. It was a significant improvement from the usual pillow.

"Hey," Yuzuru said when he entered the room and approached the bed, "so, do you want me to....?" he asked, pointing at the empty spot on her large bed.

"It's fine, Yuzu," she answered, "I don't think I still need you here. The leg is already improving."

"Oh," he said and gave her a weak smile, "of course. Got it."

She expected to exchange their good nights, but he still stood there as if wanting to say something.

"Something on your mind, Yuzu?" she asked and he merely nodded.

"I was just wondering," he said, "about what you said this morning. That you, you know...."

Sophie frowned, trying to recall what was she saying in the morning as usually anything before the morning coffee was blurred.

"On the terrace...." he added, watching her memory struggle.

"Oh," she said recalling the phone call, "the 'deal with it' usually just means to get the person some money. Either in a way to shut them up if they find out something or the better version, to help them out. So Trevor will just check if the Spiderman guy has a college debt or someth----"

"No," he interrupted, "I meant with not being in love."

"Oh," she let out in realization, "you mean that! Yeah, what about it?"

Instead of answering, Yuzuru pointed at the bed and raised his eyebrows in a silent question if he can join her for a while. She nodded and he climbed in, turning on the side to face her just as she was doing the same.

"So you truly didn't have feelings for anyone else?"

"I did," she replied, "having feelings and being in love is quite different. There was one guy that I dated and had deep feelings for."

"What happened to him?"

"I broke it off."

"Why?"

She sighed and rearranged the pillow under her head for better comfort, "Well, we dated for almost a year. He was a few years older and had a daughter in Aki's age so we had a lot in common. Very relatable to complain about their drama fits, the constant stress, arguing, overthinking everything to do the best you can, and then being told off for buying the wrong brand of cereals," she chuckled and looked away, "and it all diminishes the second you recall the child's laughter when they dipped their toes into the ocean for the first time. Or the pride in their eyes for building a sandcastle. Or the wonder in their face for patting a kitten for the first time, transfixed by the softness of the fur. And so you get in the car and drive across the town to get the right brand of cereals."

She laughed and looked up at him again, "he was also a slave to his kid, so we never ran out of topics to talk about and things to share. But he was also quite a workaholic who loved his job. So balancing both the job and his daughter, there was not that much time for me. And I wanted somebody who could spend a lot of time with us, with Aki."