JUST A LITTLE COMFORT

C H A P T E R S I X T E E N

I turned 30 and they took me out for dinner. Just James, Julia, Cole and me. Anna-Marie said she'll keep Amir so we can go be adults.

"BABY ANGELO is the only one still in his 20s" Julia teased.

"Boo Hoo. You sound jealous." He shot back.

We laughed a lot that night. We ended up having a game night after that and I regretted the sugar overload. We ate a lot of junk food. I felt sick. I crashed and had a terrible sleep. I woke up and wobbled into the kitchen area where Cole was sitting at the table, sipping his coffee.

"30 works fast... Yikes Sydney." He said, when he saw how I looked. Anna-Marie walked in with Amir a few minutes later. I was sitting at the table, with my head down and my hair was messy, "Why do you look so sick Sydney?" She asked me, concerned.

"Anna-Marie please... you can't just be asking people questions like that. She just turned 30. Be more sensitive." He said and she looked at him confused.

"Haha.. I'm fine Anna. Just ate a lot of junk food last night." I said.

He brought me some lemon tea. I gave him a smile.

"So, I'm making pancakes with extra syrup. How many do you want?" He asked. I looked at him, nauseated.

"I'm kidding... I can make eggs. Maybe an omelette." He said, and he made me breakfast.

"Bless you Dr Darcy." I said, when he brought me breakfast and some orange juice.

"Blessed by Sydney. I'm going to have a great day." He said and I laughed. He took Amir for a walk to the coffee shop across to get some coffee for us because he wanted butterscotch Coffee. I just sat and enjoyed my breakfast. It felt nice to get spoiled. I kept suppressing the feelings I had for him and him living here wasn't making it any easier, but life carried on.

Days went by and it was the day of what would have been his wedding day. James, Julia and I were thinking of ideas of what we could do to cheer him up in case this day brought his mood down. He was still asleep because he had only come back from the hospital in the early hours of the morning. James had actually come early this morning. He'd never been up and out of his house before 12 on a weekend and here he was here at 10 am because he was worried Cole would go off the rails today. Julia was awake too. It was weird seeing the two of them up early and Cole asleep. 

We were brainstorming ideas but first had to see how affected Cole was by this day, if he even was.

"We should maybe go for a hike..." James suggested. 

"No JAMES. I'm not walking in this heat, and doesn't he like to hike early in the morning?" Julia asked.

"Maybe we can do something like an escape room? You know... something that might keep his mind busy." I suggested.

"I heard they were live streaming the wedding. How lame! We should watch it and make fun of how tacky it is." Julia said.

"No Jules let's leave that alone. Social media can become the thief of joy." I said.

"Ah, I thought only Julia was the thief of joy." James said and laughed at his own joke. 

Julia hit James on the shoulder.

"or... we could actually go to the WEDDING." James said jokingly, "Since Julia has FOMO and wants to see what goes down."

"Please! I don't wanna see that stupid, cheating, human fish for the rest of my life, let alone on her WEDDING DAY!" Julia said, beginning her rant, "I just wanted to make fun of her over shots! Like a drinking game."

"Okay, okay.... It was a joke. Sorry I said anything... Don't get riled up or Angie might wake up and you'll get him all down." James said.

"NO JAMES! She cheated. She lied. She used him... She didn't even pay him back for all the vendor deposits and still got the audacity to get married today, knowing my BROTHER paid for like half of her stupid WEDDING!" She said. This was news to us. We didn't know that she overheard Cole talking to one of the vendors in the week and she confronted him about it and he said it wasn't a big deal so she dropped it.