Strangers All At Once

Leave me Slowly

Four weeks after Benedict had called in to visit Sophie at The Cottage cafe, they'd fallen into a routine and a strange sort of friendship. They laughed and joked like they'd used to, messaging often and it felt comforting. There was even a bit of flirting going on and Sophie couldn't help but wonder if perhaps he did feel differently about her now.

Kate and Anthony had set their wedding date and had decided to marry at Aubrey Hall and rather than waiting too long they'd decided to marry before the end of the summer which meant there was not much time to get everything prepared and Violet was planning the wedding with Kate's step mother Mary and they'd decided to have a big dinner at Aubrey Hall to plan everything and as Sophie was both maid of honour and making the cake and arranging the catering, they'd insisted Sophie come.

Sophie had felt sick about the idea of confronting Benedict's family, she had no idea what he'd told them when they split. Kate had told her that Benedict had been heartbroken when they'd split and Sophie had just brushed it off as lies, assuming that Kate thought it was what she'd wanted to hear.

She'd clearly remembered what she'd heard him saying that fateful night, she knew he wasn't heartbroken but if he'd told his family that he was...

Then she dreaded meeting them. It was why she'd avoided every invite Kate had sent her way over the last two years and she'd even missed the engagement party but now she knew she had no choice.

Benedict had texted her to tell her that his mother expected her there, Kate had messaged her and when she'd replied to them both saying she wasn't sure if she'd be free, Kate told her under no uncertain terms she had to be there and Benedict had replied: "mum said if you don't come, she'll come to the cafe and drag you there herself... I can give you a lift if you want?"

Sophie had pondered this but figured if she took her own car it would be easier to get away if things were getting out of hand. She knew she'd done the right thing two years ago, she'd left him before he could leave her so she had no idea why she was so terrified of his family.

3 months was barely anything, she must have been another in a long line of women that he'd introduced to his family but still, depending on what he told them...

She knew it was going to be a rough evening so she'd declined the offer of a lift, promised to be there but vowed she'd find a reason to make a quick escape.

Benedict had been a little disappointed that Sophie had said she'd make her own way to Aubrey Hall but he had a feeling he knew that she'd want a quick escape route and assumed that was why she was taking her own car.

It had taken him two days to convince both his mother and two of his younger sisters, all of whom had adored Sophie in the short period of time they were together to be civil to her. Violet had seen the state Benedict had gotten himself in after the split but he'd never gone into details as to why she'd left or what she'd said as she'd left.

He barely understood it, the way he'd come home to find her things packed as she said "it's better this way. It never works out in the end and I'm just saving you a job"

Saving him a job? He'd been planning to ask her to move in properly, planning to ask her to marry him, to tell her that he loved her and to hell with it being too soon... it was far from the truth that he'd wanted to split up with her but now...

They were just two heartbeats that never seemed to be in time with one another, two lovers that seemed to end up over enemy lines... though he had been heart broken he'd never hated her and that was what he'd told his mother and sisters.

It had been that information that had made them promise to behave and be nice to Sophie.

Everyone was already at Aubrey Hall and Benedict was nervously pacing around the hallway, waiting for Sophie to arrive when his mother walked down "are you sure she's actually going to come?" Violet asked