9 Years Later

Chapter 5

(A/N: I know it's only chapter 5, but what do we all think of this story? It hasn't got into full swing yet, but it will start getting there in the next couple of chapters or so, hope you are enjoying it so far anyway!)

Sophie's POV

Finally, I can settle down for the night, it has been a long and busy day, as always. Time to get some snacks, watch some TV and maybe play on my phone, I go to the kitchen and get some cheese and onion crisps and a drink of orange juice, I take it back to the living room and put on my favourite TV programme and start eating and watching, soon an advert break comes on so I go on my phone.

I have a facebook message, from hours ago, strange, I don't usually get facebook messages, I open it up and see the person is called Carlisle Reed, wait! Carlisle Reed? As in the one I met like 9 years ago and spent the day, and night with, that Carlisle Reed? I open the message, 'Hi', well he's a man of many words, he must be around 32/33 years old now, I'm 31 and he's 2 years older than me so yeah, around 33 years old. Why is he messaging me? I wonder if he's married or got kids, moved away.

I click on his profile and not much is revealed, he still has his business, he's done well then, what about his profile picture, I click on it, still gorgeous, his smile is perfect. What am I thinking? It was a one night stand, I haven't seen him since, I mean what we did was good and all that but he's an attractive man, he's probably like that with loads of ladies.

I go back to the message, 'Hi', should I reply? Say hi back, or should I leave it or delete it? No, not delete it, what would I say if I reply back? Hi? Hi, how are you? How's the last 9 years been? No, definitely not that last one, maybe I'll just leave it for a bit and come back to it.

It's a little bit surprising receiving a message from someone you never thought you'd come across again in your life, I don't hate him or anything, he did nothing wrong, if anything he should hate me for leaving him the way I did, maybe he wants answers or something, I'll leave it for now and come back to it. I mark the message as unread and put my phone down, now I've missed half of my programme.

I hear footsteps approaching me.

"Why aren't you in bed?" I ask.

"I couldn't sleep" I hear from behind me, I turn around and see Finley.

"Come and sit, have a cuddle" I say, he jumps on the sofa and snuggles up against me.

"Mummy, what are you watching?" He asks.

"Nothing, it doesn't matter, let's watch your programme instead, this is boring anyway" I say changing the channel to the kids shows. "Which one do you want?" I ask as I go through the channels.

"That one, it's funny" He says. I put the show on and wait for him to nod back off.

After only about 20 minutes I hear him snoring, I gently get myself up from the sofa, trying not to wake him up, I pick him up putting his hands around my neck and my arms around his back and bottom, I carry him back to his bed and lay him on it and cover him with his duvet, I give him a kiss on his forehead.

"I love you buddy, my handsome boy" I whisper and leave the room. I'm feeling pretty tired so I go back to the living and turn everything off and go to bed.

A week later

I can't stop thinking about Carlisle's message, I've been thinking about all the different ways I could reply, 'Hi' or 'Hi how are you?', maybe 'Hi, how are you, how's work going, are you still with your business, we could meet up for a coffee, or tea and have a catch up?'. I've decided not to say any of that, but I am ready to reply back to him with a 'Hello', I type 'Hello' and stare at it for a few minutes, wondering if I should or shouldn't, wondering if I should say more, will he even reply to me? I mean he did send the message first, but maybe because I've waited, I've kept him waiting, maybe he's given up, forgotten about and moved on or something, I guess and can only be polite and press send. Send.