Do Us Part

28. "Fairytales are just tales II"

Chapter 28

Natalie

"We spoke not long before you got separated and I remember you telling me that you were finally ready to speak to him about everything that happened. You were finally going to speak to your husband and move past it so what changed in such a short span of time?"

"I really don't want to talk about it, Claire. Please.

" Ok." She sighed.

"But anyway, you said you didn't know Henry liked you?"

"Yes. That's what I have been saying."

"Then why did you think Sam was always picking on Henry each time he came to visit?"

"I don't know."

She gave an unimpressed look. "The only reason why he was so against him was that he knew how much Henry was into you..and you kinda encouraged it."

I shook my head at her. "I did not encourage anything. Henry was just friendly and so was I. That's probably why you guys thought otherwise."

"Babe, for someone smart and top of her class, you were so naive. Even now, the man can't stop staring at you as though you are such glorified stuff." She held my face and winked. I swatted her hand playfully,

"You are crazy. That is so not..."

"Hi ladies," Anna said and we turned to face her.

"Oh hey...Anna." I said.

"This is an awesome place you've got here, Anna," Zoey compliments with a smile.

"Thanks, Zoey." She smiles and faces me, "Natalie, I have to leave."

"How come? It's hardly 1 pm."

"Yes, I have to go pick up Chris and Racheal."

"Why? Racheal said the party doesn't end until six."

"Yeah well...Chris broke his thumb."

"Aww..is he alright?"

"Yes. Thankfully, the celebrant's father is a doctor so he was able to give him first aid."

"How did he break his finger anyway?" Claire asks

"Racheal said he was attempting a dangerous stunt with some older boys."

"Kids," I muttered with a smile.

"Tell me about it...Your nephew and niece will be the death of me. Their father, inclusive. More often than not, I feel like I have three children and not two." Zoey and I laughed at that.

"Anyways, I'll let you guys continue shopping. I'll see you later." She adds with a tired smile.

"Do you need me to come with you?"

"No, that's not necessary. I'll call you once I have them."

"Ok. Have you told Will?"

"No. He travelled earlier today for a 3-day conference in Cape Town. Didn't he tell you?"

I nod. "He mentioned something of the sort."

"Ok. I'll see you later."

"Bye, Anna."

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"What do you think of this one? Cute, right?" I held up a little green dress.

"You call that cute? What kind of color is that anyway? Vomit green? There is no way my child is wearing that."

"Oh c'mon. This dress is great."

"Are you being serious right now?"

"She's gonna look like a..princess in that."

"More like maleficent to me."

"You say that like it's a bad th-"

"Natalie Bryce?" A lady's voice called and Zoey and I turned to look back. "I knew it was you." She continued with a smile.

"Hello?" I replied, still trying to figure out who it was.

"It's me, Sophie. Sophie Black." She introduced.

Oh...no

"Hey.." I said, my lips automatically forming a shaky smile as she pulled me for a quick hug.

When she pulled away, she said, "Oh. Look at you. You are so fat now. Too much of that London dumpling, huh?" She said smiling and I forced a smile back as I scanned her appearance. She was still the same.

Sophie Black; a short and simple name, but in reality, Sophie was anything but simple.

You know, in college, there is always this most sophisticated girl who has everything, from friends to hot boyfriends, to popularity?

Well, that girl was Sophie in my set. Sophie was the most popular and sophisticated girl in my college.

And as you can already guess, I was the other girl in this story.

Yes, my life was pretty much like a teen com growing up, the difference being, unlike the usual stories, I happen to be the actual rich kid while Sophie was raised by a foster family, and call it fate or not, her foster father just happened to be one of my uncle's supervising managers at the time.

Sophia was everything you could think of as a star in college; Head cheerleading team, one of the top school dancers, and a smart girl who got great grades.

But of course, as is every cliche story, she was my nemesis.

She was always out for me, constantly making teasing comments and making up stories about how the only way I got great grades was 'cause of my family money.

This was not honestly not true. I mean, I might not have been the most intelligent kid, but I was pretty smart.

Still am.

Thankfully though, Sophie and I didn't attend the same university so there was less bad energy from her side but we met a lot during several intervarsity competitions.

"Well, she's rocking that body well, unlike some people." Zoey buts in.

"Zoey darling...almost didn't see you there." She says in a fake British accent and Zoey and I shared a look.

"Well, you might wanna check in with the optician for that, girl. We wouldn't want our little Sophie going blind already. Would we now?" Zoey sarcastically remarks with a smile.

"Hmm." She nods with a fake smile. "I see you still got that sense of humor."

"Only for you, darling." Zoey replies in a 'sweet' British tone herself.

Since the first time both girls met at our first inter-varsity sports competition, of which Zoey and me were participants, for which we had to spend a week in the same hotel, they never got along to date.

  Sophie hated Zoey's guts and well, let's just say, she had to be the only person Zoey hated as much as she hates peanut butter.

Zoey was the one person who always had a sassy response for Sophie in a matter of seconds.

"Heard about you and Sanderson's divorce. That was a shock." She turns to me and feigned a sad face.

"Hmm."

"The way you guys were so...in love," She said dramatically, raising her eyeballs heavenwards. "I seriously thought you were forever goals or  something, but oh well, that was such a cliche, right?" She justifies herself with a half-assed fake smile, and I resisted the urge to slap her face.

But she wasn't entirely wrong.

Here's the thing about my cliched life: Like every rom-com you've ever seen, I got to be exclusive with my dream guy after getting rejected. We created magic together and even got married. And of course, at that point, I was sure that I had finally got my 'happily ever after, but as it turned out, I'm no Cinderella and life's not a movie. Reality struck hard, and time brought such heartaches that we couldn't recover from.