Coming Back to You ✔

36. July

"Alright, Sadie, you're not getting out of this."

Sophia groaned as she headed toward the hospital's exit and Blake cornered her before she could make her escape. "Fireworks, really?" she complained. "Come on, you can't tell me you haven't treated probably hundreds of people on this damn holiday because of injuries from those."

The Fourth of July had arrived in all of its glory, and somehow, Blake had convinced her to go with him and a few other doctors and nurses to go see the fireworks show along the East River.

"This is true," Blake conceded. "But alas, I am not on duty tonight, and these are professionals. We never get people in with injuries from watching the show."

"Fine," Sophia huffed, although she actually felt a twinge of excitement.

"Are we going?" Carmen appeared at her side, all smiles.

"Yes, yes, we're going," Sophia said, rolling her eyes at Blake. "I'll order the Uber."

They headed into Brooklyn in two separate Ubers, the first time Sophia had been out of Manhattan and the first time she had been in an Uber since moving to New York. She eyed the driver warily despite his indifferent staring at the road ahead of him. But her legs didn't want to move to get into the car.

"Hey, Sadie, you coming?" Carmen stared at her from the back seat of the car.

"Yeah, yeah I am." Forcing herself into motion, Sophia got in next to Carmen. She was with other people. She would be safe.

The Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront was already lined with spectators, sitting on blankets and snacking on sandwiches and beer. The Manhattan skyline glittered across the water, and the feeling of excitement that had dropped away with the anxiety of the Uber ride came rushing back.

With it, a sprinkling of guilt. But Sophia pushed it down. She had no reason to feel guilty, no matter how much her emotions told her she should.

The group spread out their blankets and pulled out their food, and Sophia laid back, staring up at the darkening sky. Carmen, always chatty, appeared next to her in a moment, sucking on a straw that went into a glass of who knows what.

"You ever seen the fireworks here?" she asked.

Sophia turned her head and gave the other woman an amused look. "Carmen, I just moved here."

"Right, right. Well, I used to come here all the time with my family, back when I was a kid. I've lived in New York my whole life, so I kinda just assume that everyone has also lived here their entire lives..."

Sophia let a smile drift across her face as her eyes focused back to the pink-streaked skyline as Carmen told her story after story of how her family celebrated the Fourth, appreciating that her coworker could talk enough for the both of them.

"But my parents moved upstate when I graduated from college, so they don't always come back for the holiday. What do you usually do for the Fourth, Sadie?"

Sophia registered that the question was for her, so she turned her face back toward Carmen's eager eyes. "Honestly, not much," she admitted. "I worked a lot on holidays." It was the truth, just not the whole truth. "And there wasn't really anyone available for me to celebrate." Another half-truth. In the two Fourth of Julys she and Dean were together, he was off for one while she was working, and the next year, vice versa.

"Maybe this can be your tradition!" Carmen's words were meant to invoke excitement, but they hit Sophia in the stomach with a dull ache. The last thing she wanted was to still be in this mess in a year.