𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚝 | 𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝟷

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚢 𝚃𝚠𝚘

𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎

☆═━┈┈━═☆

It took fifteen minutes for someone to sell the story, twenty before my social media was blowing up.

Thirty before I was entering the lobby of the complex alone, my eyes shooting over to Alexander, and he looked almost sad for me. I nodded at him, no use in fighting with him, Sofia wasn't mine, there was nothing for me to be jealous of him for. "Steve," I stopped at the edge of the couch, turning to where Alexander was coming out of the office, something small in his hand, "I'm the last person who wants you two to be together," he held out his hand and I almost collapsed, he was holding the engagement ring, I don't even remember throwing it out, "but somewhere below all the fucked up emotions you two have you both love each other," I took the ring from his palm, looking back at his face, "I found it in the trash, don't toss it, go talk to her."

"She's in New York," I pocketed the ring, "I think, I don't actually know, but she's not here."

"She's upstairs, she came in alone about ten minutes ago," Alexander shoved me gently over to the elevator, my feet felt like weights when they started moving, "if you two won't talk I don't think either of you will bounce back, either have a plan to make up, or get closure, but you two need to talk."

I looked back at Alexander as he pressed the elevator up button and his hand clamped down on my shoulder, it felt like all the hatred I had for the man disappeared, he hated me and Sofia, but he knew how much the two of us relied on each other to function. Codependency at its finest Sofia and I, we were both slipping. I had done a lot to her in the years, but public humiliation was a new low, even for me, and she never played into my games, never in public. She kept her head down and was docile little Sofia.

We've well and truly fucked ourselves up haven't we?

The elevator ride up wasn't slow enough, neither was the walk to Sofia's door. What the hell was I doing? She wouldn't want to see me, but for some reason I couldn't go without her, I couldn't breathe if I didn't cover some ground with her. Tucking the ring back into my pocket, I knocked on her door, stepping back to lean against the wall behind me, I didn't think I could stand on my own right now. "Elena, please I told you," she froze mid sentence when she opened the door and saw me. She was back in her clothes, well mine to be exact, the gray hoodie she stole from me a few weeks ago was on her body, and her biker shorts were barely visible under it, but it felt good to see. "Steve," I watched the longing in her eyes for a moment, before she was building shields up, "what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to apologize."

"Right, well it's water under the bridge," it wasn't, but she was trying to avoid talking to me, "we fight all the time it's nothing new."

"Except it is," I looked behind her, making sure she was alone, "can we talk, please?"

Sofia wanted to fight, I know she did, but I could also see how tired she was, it was the little things I learned over the years of watching her. Her green eyes paled out, she didn't care about her posture, she lost the flush of her skin. She just became stagnant, and god I wanted to fix that, I wanted to kiss the pain away, and scream how much I loved her because at some point this wasn't a game anymore, I fell in love with her. Like really, truly fell in love with her. The fight left and Sofia stepped back, pushing her door open wider.

I walked into her little home, and it screamed Sofia at every turn, the girl could have a fucking library from all the books she has laying around. That's the thing not many people know about Sofia, she's a bookworm. She loves anything from romance to fantasy to thriller. I asked her one time years ago why she would rather lay by the pool with a book instead of having fun, to which she replied, I'm having fun because I get to escape my reality.