Navy Blue - A Second Chance Romance (Complete)

Navy Blue: Chapter 3

Emily couldn't decide. Practical or Impractical.

Her family expected practical. At her sister's baby shower, Emily had researched the car seat with the highest safety rating. For his first birthday, Emily had gifted Ben a savings bond to mature on his eighteenth birthday, in time for him to go to university, she hoped. Her theory was a baby barely able to recognize birthday cake from pureed apple sauce wouldn't remember his aunt's practical gift.

But Ben was turning two in a few weeks and Emily had the urge to start bestowing upon Ben all the things that would ensure her fun aunt's status.

"I think he's a little too young for drums." Sophie pointed to the set Emily stood in front of.

"But he might be musically talented. Mozart played piano at the age of three." Emily crossed her arms. She'd loved playing her mother's grand piano. Right up to the day they'd had to sell it to clear her father's debts. "I don't want Ben to miss out."

"Maybe start him on the tambourine? Or the piano." Sophie's eyes shone with mirth. It was a chronic condition for her best friend.

She'd come into Emily's life at her lowest point. School had just started and Emily found herself looking for a roommate to fill the financial void left without Finn in her life. With plans to move in together, she'd given up her dorm room and its meal plan in favour of an off-campus apartment. Finn was to find a local job while she attended class and eventually get a job herself to cover all the new living expenses.

Without his half of the rent, Emily didn't know how she'd make ends meet. Not that she cared much. The massive hole Finn left in her life swallowed her whole and left her in a pit of despair. Mary had driven her to Yale, moved her in, set her alarm, got her out of bed, pushed her into class. Emily acquiesced, doing whatever was asked of her, no more and unable to resist or pick her own path. She simply didn't care.

Mary put the ad in the classifieds and arranged all the interviews. In amongst a run of questionable applicants, Sophie was a ray of sunshine. After explaining the situation and confirming it didn't scare the other woman, Mary offered Sophie the spot. Sophie, desperate for a place not currently shared with cockroaches or rats, moved in.

When Mary eventually left, anxious to get back to her own life, Sophie gave Emily space. Later, the other woman said she recognized Emily needed to grieve.

Thankful for the reprieve, the ability to cry without the disapproval of her sister, Emily did just that. She grieved. By that point, some things had become habit, and she stuck to a routine. School, study, cry herself to sleep. Rinse and repeat, day after day. Some people gained the freshman fifteen. Emily lost weight, often forgetting to eat.

Eventually, Sophie took Emily under her wing. First, her new roommate started ensuring they ate at least one healthy meal a day. Then she pushed Emily to get some exercise, convincing her to walk to the grocery store together. Bit by bit, Sophie dragged Emily out of the shadows and into some semblance of a normal life.

Emily wasn't sure what she did to deserve Sophie, but she knew her friend probably saved her life. Unlike her family, Sophie asked about Finn, pulling the story from her in dribs and drabs, getting Emily to open up. Talking about him helped. Little did Emily know at the time Sophie was giving Emily the blueprint for what to do when Sophie's fiancé Thomas was tragically killed in a car accident three years later.

From that point on, the two were fused together in grief. Fiercely loyal to each other.

Sophie took Emily's arm in hers. "Maybe we try the toy section. How about a fire engine?"

"And encourage him to want to grow up to be a fireman?" Emily shook her head. "No way. Far too dangerous."

"Buy him the drums and he might join a band. Drugs and rock and roll have a disastrous history." Her friend leaned in. "Besides, you know Lance would have more fun with them than Ben."