Another love story (Mads Mikkelsen)

17. A New Start

AN: it's been a long time since I updated this story but I thought I'd drop another part.

Jan had been the saviours to end all saviours. Dropping in when she could and sending checking in texts when she couldn't, Jan had been there to look after Sophie. It's what best friends did for each other and Jan knew that if the roles were reversed, Sophie would have done exactly the same for her.

It had been nearly a week since Mads had admitted to kissing Hanne and although they hadn't been together long, Sophie had been inconsolable the first couple of days. After the shock had dissipated, she had cried herself to sleep nearly every night. Her new routine made her feel miserable: waking up, crying, getting up and going to work, before coming home, eating a fifth of the meal that Jan had been leaving her, before crawling back under the covers. She felt like an invalid and wanted nothing more than to be happy again.

Mads had had a lasting impression on her. The passion and excitement he expressed was alluring and she missed him dearly.

She wondered what he was up to, whether he'd been called away to a set to perform or whether he was thinking of her. The amount of times she had reached for her phone to message him was unreal but each time she remembered that he had betrayed her trust by kissing another woman, a woman he had history with.

The whole situation was abysmal and she knew the best thing for her was to get over the whirlwind romance that was Mads and her and get on with her life.

She still had that Charlie's number and half of her was tempted to message him but the other half of her was petrified of rebounds. They were only good for one thing and she felt unfair doing that to the lovely man who had looked after her after her crash.

Today was a better day. It was a Saturday and she was, surprisingly, already out of bed and dressed in joggers and a runners top, ready to run off her thoughts. She had woken this morning feeling energised and motivated and she was going to grab that feeling by the horns and run with it while it lasted.

So she did. Racing down the steps of the apartment to the pavement outside, she blasted the energetic music into her ears, her feet pounding the pavement with each beat of the drum.

The urban park was about a ten minutes run away and Sophie's goal was to reach the park, run a loop before heading back, taking a shower and getting on with a few projects she had procrastinated doing because of her lack of motivation.

Her mind was focused on the run, her eyes forward and attentive, she was in the here and now. She felt her feet bouncing off the floor, the end of her  ponytail swinging against her shoulders, and her laboured breathing. She watched the sun creep above the houses, running towards the horizon, as the park became clearer and clearer.

Pavement turned to grass underfoot and she pushed on even though she could feel the heat rise across her face from exertion. She felt alive and she hadn't needed Mads to feel that way.

Reaching an appifiny, she stopped and jogged on the spot. All her thoughts and feelings overwhelmed her.

She realised she missed him but she didn't need him to be happy, she could do that all by herself, she had done before and she would do again. Sighing involuntarily with relief she turned and began jogging again.

The park was gated all around its edges and where she had run in, there was a 6ft side brick doorway which was the quickest way to get back home and sophie ran towards it, pushing herself that bit more.

Her phone blipped and she looked at her shoulder where the phone was strapped to see a message from Jan as she ran through the archway and struck a solid force, knocking them backwards onto the floor.

Her heart stopped a beat.

It was Mads.

He was sat on the floor looking perplexed as to what just happened before his eyes met Sophie's and became deeply saddened.

"Sophie." he said, barely audible.

She held a hand out to help him up which he took gracefully. When their skin touched Sophie felt the electricity and she knew this meeting would undo all her progress which made her stomach sink.

"Sorry about that, I was running, looked at my phone and then you were just there." She stumbled through.

"We must stop meeting like this." He said simply, brushing down his trousers.

There was an awkward silence as neither knew what to say.

Sophie stuck up a hand to wave goodbye and started to move past him.

"OK, well goodbye then." she started jogging down the street again, feeling a tightness in her chest and a watering creep in from behind her eyes. She knew he didn't want to see her, let alone bump into her like that. She felt mortified.

"Wait!"

She stopped in her tracks and turned to see Mads chasing after her.

"I've missed you Sophie." he said when he stopped in front of her.

She was lost for words. She thought of telling him she missed him too but no words came out.

"I know I messed up, I didn't mean to hurt you. I've been thinking about you every day since I left. You have this hold over me and all I want to do is be near you, share your company."

Sophie's jaw went slack and she held back the tears. She'd dreamt of him doing something like this, admitting his feelings hadn't been imaginary.

"I've missed you too."

She closed the gap between them and took his face in her hands before kissing him.

As they pulled away Mads held his forehead against hers and said lowly,
"I am so sorry. I left you alone because I thought you would want that."

He pulled away but still took her hands in his.

"I should have been at your door with flowers to apologise but I was too scared you would turn me away. It was selfish."

He paused and let the sounds of nature fill the air between them.

"I finalised my divorce yesterday morning."

Sophie let out another involuntary sigh of breath she didn't even realise she had been holding.

"Please can you let me make this up to you?"

Sophie simply nodded wordlessly.

The air was heating up as the sun burnt through the clouds as Sophie let go of his hands.

"I'll see you soon Mads."

And with that, Sophie left, running home. She didn't know what the future held with Mads but she was feeling excited to find out.

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