“Thanks, Mar; I’m really glad that I came here. You have always known how to make me feel better.”
“Well I am your older sister,” she smirks which causes me to roll my eyes; it was a game that she always played with me when we were kids. She was technically the older twin, but I don’t think that a minute separating our births constitutes her as being older. She just laughs at me and I run up the steps. When I reach the top step I hear my phone beep on the bed as I walk over to see that it’s from Paige.
How’s everything going? Haven’t heard from you in a week, starting to worry; I will come down there and hunt for you. I can’t help but laugh.
I’m fine, just been sad. Call you later.
We sit in the diner as I look over to Mar, as we are waiting for our food.
“Mar, does mom and dad know?” I know that I don’t have to explain to her what I am asking that they know about.
“Yes,” she pauses, and I can’t bring my eyes off of the table. “I’m sorry, Soph, but I had to tell them when I was talking to mom and she was going on and on about meeting up when we all got there-,” she hesitates and I know that she doesn’t want to say the word wedding, “I had to tell her that you guys split up, but I never told her why. Then she started in about going up there to see you, to make sure that you were alright, and that’s when I had to tell her that you were moving down here with me.” I look down at the table, “She asked why, and I had to tell her.” I sigh still looking down.
“And their failure daughter strikes again.” I say as the waitress brings over our plates.
“Stop being so hard on you,” she tells me picking up her fork and starting to eat her meal.
“Why shouldn’t I be?”
“Because you’re not a failure, you’re only a failure if you let this beat you.” I stare to her and pick up my fork resisting all urge to say something else to her, but finally I cave and I look up to her.
“That’s what they say to make failures feel better about themselves.” She shakes her head at me, not knowing what else to say. “Mar, I don’t care how you want to try and spin this, but I physically assaulted two people and could possibly go to jail for it.” I say tossing my fork onto the plate in front of me.
“You won’t go to jail.”
“No, I just may.”
“Sophie, you are not going to jail.” She says and I look up at her and I know that she is serious.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because,” she grins at me, “I was going to tell you this later, but we’re getting you the best attorney around. My friend, he is out of town right now, but he’s getting back this week, I will introduce you to him.” Then she smiles bigger, “And trust me, he is the best.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” I tell her slowly picking up my fork again and beginning to pick at the food on the place, “I’m sure he is expensive, and I can’t afford him.”
“Nope, not for me, I told you he is a good friend of mine.”
“Is he your boyfriend?” I’m not sure why but I can’t help but ask.
“No, Soph, but you need to watch yourself because he is known to be a womanizer.”
“I can handle my own.” I tell her smiling, and begin to eat again.
“I know you can, which is why I don’t have a problem setting it up for him to represent you.”
“Thanks Mar,” I reply to her.
“No problem Soph, oh and one more thing,” I look up to meet her eyes and to tell her I’m listening. “I’m glad you beat the shit out of Joe; he deserved it and I never liked him anyways.” And neither one of us can help but laugh.
Chapter Three
The week came and went faster than I wanted it to and it was Saturday, the dreaded, fifteenth before I know it. I am again laying in my chair looking out the window out onto the beautiful ocean that sat in my horizon. It is calming. I hear a light tapping on my door and it opens. I look up to see Marsi standing in the dark looking at me with a sullen face.
“Hey, Soph,” she says looking down at her hands, “How are you doing?”
I don’t answer her but simply look to the window and shrug my shoulders.
“Alright,” she says silently and turns on her heal to walk out of the bedroom back out into the light of the hallway. I didn’t see the need with turning on my light today. I think that before she leaves I hear her mumble , “I’m so sorry, Soph.”
I am sitting on my balcony a few hours later, still not a light on in my entire room, when I hear my door open again and I look over to the direction that Mar is in, “Get up,” she says slightly smiling.
“What?” I ask almost confused by her change in attitude.
“Get up, we’re going out.” She demands, staring at me and I can see that she isn’t going to back down.
“I do-don’t want to.” I tell her quietly.
“You are not sitting in here, wallowing in your own self-pity. You are going to get up, put on the sexiest thing that you can find in your ridiculously expensive wardrobe, and we are going to go out and have fun.” I walk over to my bed and sit down.
“Mar, I’m really not feeling up to this,” I look down at my feet, “Can’t I just stay here?”
“No, now get up, we are going to go meet a few of my friends out in town and have fun. MOVE IT!” she turns and before she leaves the room she adds, “You are not going to let fucking Joe ruin one more day of your life. We are young, we are going to act like it,” she finishes and walks out of my room slamming the door.
I begrudgingly get up off of the bed and head for the shower. I am supposed to dress sexy. I’m not even sure if I remember what that looks like.
I pull myself out of the shower, blow drying my hair, and straightening it, so that it falls straight down my back. I walk into my closet with my towel pulled tightly around my body. I pull out of the mess of clothing that I have managed to get around to putting up this week, a short white BCBG dress that hugs my body just right, and then I pull out a pair of hot pink heels. I walk out of my bedroom well after the sun has set and Marsi looks over to me and smiles.
“Perfect,” she stands up and she looks simply stunning as well. I love how she likes to mock my wardrobe, but yet I’m pretty sure that her outfit is more expensive than mine. We pull up to a club and I watch at Mar gets out and then motions for me to follow. I worry that we won’t be able to get in, but she bypasses the line and walks right up to the bouncer. He is one of the tallest and most muscular men that I have ever met. His biceps are probably the size of my head –not exaggerating- and I am slightly terrified of him.
“Marsi,” I hear him say as he reaches down to hug her instantly washing away any fear that I may have had for him.
“Hi, Daryl, this is my sister, Sophie.” I smile politely at him.
“Oh, Sophie, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” I am completely take a back when he hugs me and Mar just looks to me, smiles, and shrugs.
“Nice to meet you too,” I struggle back to say to him. Daryl lets us into the club a second later and I lean over to Mar, “How do you know him?” and she laughs.
“His brother had to get surgery last year, he was impressed with me, I guess, and told me to come by here, I did and I have been coming here ever since,” I laugh about this, my sister, the club hopper. I look down, “Come on,” she says to me, “Let’s go dance.”
“Aren’t your friends coming?” I ask her.
“Yeah, but they won’t be here for a little while.” She pulls me to the dance floor.
We danced for half an hour before Mar sees her friends walk in and she goes over to them. I stay on the dance floor for another ten minutes, releasing every bit of built up tension that I have in my body; releasing Joe from me. I am actually glad that Mar forced me to come out. When I finally stop I walk over to the bar for another drink. I motion for a round and the guy smiles to me, he is cute but seems too sweet, maybe I could get a bartending job… no, I won’t like to work in a place that I could
be having fun at.
“You know, you clean up really nice,” I hear in my ear and even though it has been two weeks since I have heard that voice, and I have only ever heard it that one night, I know who it is. I turn slowly and look up at Austin, the man that I met at the restaurant in Savannah, “I almost didn’t recognize you in that dress, you know without the oversized sweater.” I am blown away, is he hitting on me? “But I couldn’t help but watch you out there.” He says nodding his head behind him to the dance floor.
“Are you stalking me,” I smirk back to him as my drinks are sat down on the bar and I throw a shot of tequila back. He laughs a little and rubs his hand across the back of his neck.
“No, I should be asking you that thought since I’m the one that lives here.” He smiles at me, oh that smile. I was already a sucker for it and I didn’t even know this man.
“Well, I do too, now. Remember I was moving.” He grins a little and I notice his head cocks to the side and his face falls a bit.
“It’s the fifteenth, isn’t it?” I nod my head in a response to him, taking the biggest sip from my straw completely blown away that he remembered what the fifteenth was, as I see Mar walking over to me. Mid-sip I watch her as she walks to my side.
“Soph, there you are… OH, I see that you have met Austin, he’s the lawyer that I was telling you about.” Which causes me to spit out my drink which manages to land on him, of course he’s the womanizer.
“You’re Sophie.” I nod my head and he shakes his head and wipes off bits of my drink/saliva mix, “Of course you’re Sophie.” I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean but he gets up, walking away, and Mar locks her arm in mine and motions us back to the table, helping with my drinks as we walk over.
“Of course he would seek you out here.” I want to tell her that we met before this, “Don’t worry though I told him that you’re off limits.”
“Why?” I ask her quietly.
“Because you’re my sister, and he’s never going to change his ways,” she says and I sigh a little, “Oh, Soph, I know he is incredibly gorgeous, but he’s terrible for every woman that comes into his life. He has had his car windshield smashed on more than one occasion.” I’m not sure now if she’s keeping him away from me or me away from him knowing that I would lose my shit and smash in his windshield also. We sit down at the table and I see Austin talking to everyone as Mar introduces me. It’s a small group two other women and three men, I say hi to everyone; Sarah, Becka, Matt, Toby, and Aaron. I notice how Mar looks at Toby as she introduces him. I smile and sit down with them for a short amount of time I start to see the looks of pity as everyone tries to include me into the conversation, and then I get up to go back to dance, and forget about all of them, especially Austin. I love the D.J. tonight. Not slowing the pace at all. I feel hands on me as the first slow song of the night comes on and I sigh about to walk back to the table. “Shh,” I look up to Austin’s deep blue eyes, “Dance with me.” He smiles and I nod my head. And I let my body rest close to his.
“I’m sorry,” he says completely apologetic, “I didn’t realize that you were Mar’s sister, although I should have, you two resemble one another-,” I cut him off.
“Well we should, she is my twin sister.” And he laughs looking down at me.
“You’re right.” he pulls me closer as we sway with the music.
“So, my sister is pretty adamant, huh?”
“Yeah,” he smiles down to me, “It’s a shame too.”
“A shame for you,” I tell him, I feel him laugh as we dance close to one another until it is over and he pulls away from me and smiles a bit, leaning down and kissing me. He leaves me standing on the dance floor alone; breathless. He intrigues me which cannot be a good thing.
We leave the bar and I’m certain that I can see the sun begin to rise and I know that I watched Austin for a bit as he was making out with a girl in the corner of the bar.
I wake at noon and walk downstairs to find that Mar had to leave for work. I’m not sure how she can work after a night like that. I sigh and open the backdoors to start on my morning run that I have planned on doing every morning, but I know that I won’t stick to it. As I am running I look over and see Austin standing at the backdoor looking out of one of the houses as I hear tires squealing from the street, and he sees me and opens the door.
“Hey, Soph,” I hear him say and I wave back trying to make it so he doesn’t feel the need to come over to me and I quicken my pace. I also know that the squealing tires was most likely coming from the girl that he had taken home last night, I’m not sure why I feel slightly jealous over it.
I walk back into the house an hour later gasping for breath. I am a little out of shape; yes I will admit that I, Sophie Tice, have been eating my feelings. I shower quickly and change into a simple tank top and a pair of shorts then walks back downstairs when I hear a tapping coming from the backdoor and I see Austin standing waiting for me. He smiles at me and waves; I simply smile back as I approach the door and open it stepping out onto the patio.
“Hey,” he says. I can’t help but stare at him in his khaki shorts and White button down shirt with the first three buttons unbuttoned showing off his sculpted pecks.
“Hi,” I reply looking up to him strange.
“So, did you have fun last night?”
“Yeah,” I want to add not as much as you, but I decide to take the higher road, plus I’m not sure why I care.
“That’s good, I’m glad Soph.” I sigh, sitting down at the table and looking to him; he sits down next to me which causes my pulse to quicken a bit. “Look, I’m sorry about last night. Sometimes I can’t turn it off.”
“Turn what off?” I ask him.
“The asshole,” I can’t help but laugh.
“You know, you do choose to be him.” I smile at him and he shrugs.
“Sometimes you don’t have a choice over who you become.”
“If that’s what you think.” I tell him. “But I believe that you always have a choice.”
“It is, what I believe,” he smiles, “You know though, for you and Mar being twins you don’t look exactly the same.”
“Well, that’s because we are not identical, and I get a little excited with black dye.” He laughs.
“I like it, there’s something different between you two.”
“Yes, if only my parents approved of it,” he smiles to me again.
“Well, why don’t you come by my office tomorrow around eleven, we can start going over the case.”
“Alright, that sounds good. I’ll just ask Mar for the address.” He nods and then walks away. I can’t help but watch him as he walks back down the beach and look at his back as the muscles move with every move that he takes. He suddenly stops and turns to look at me like he is going to say something, but when he sees me, watching him, it falls from his face. I let my eyes fall suddenly, pulling my lip in with my teeth, knowing that he is watching me I get up from the table and walk back through the doors, I turn to shut them and see him still standing there, watching me. One corner of his mouth pulls up and he smirks to me, and my pulse starts racing.
Chapter Four
I am not ready for this on a Monday morning. I am walking up the steps in my blue Mouret dress with blue Jimmy Choos and my thick frame glasses. I had pulled up my hair in a twist which I then pushed some chop sticks through, sometimes I like to coordinate my outfits for the occasion, and I figured that since today was a business meeting I wanted to look as professional as possible. I stop at the receptionist desk telling her that I had an eleven with Austin, whom I not sure what his last name was and she smiled pointing me down the large marble hallway. I am already freaking out because I have been lost today, and I was almost late. I knock on the large oak doors as I hear shuffling and then I watch a woman with ruffled clothing comes scurrying out and I walk inside looking to him, pointing in the direction of the door, and say, “Really?”
“Sorry,” he mutters sitting down at his l
arge desk, he has yet to look up to me and when he does I am walking over to his desk and I do take notice that his eyes slightly widen. I smile to him as I take a seat in front of him; looking over and seeing the name plate that sits on his desk, Austin Calloway. He stares at me intently for moments that turn into minutes before stumbling over his words and then taking a deep breath, looking down to his desk, shuffling through the papers, and looking back up to me smiling.
“Well, Soph, when you said that you lost it I had no idea it would be this.” I frown and look down at the ground, fidgeting my fingers. He gets up from his desk and walks around to kneel in front of me. “I’m sorry, Soph; I was only joking with you.” I sigh deeply, look up to him, and say.
“It’s bad, isn’t it?”
“I’m not going to lie, it isn’t good, but maybe it won’t be as bad as you think. We will just take it one step at a time,” he says placing his hands on my shoulders and I look up to him. He looks sincere and I wonder if he is like this with all of his clients. He stands abruptly and walks back behind his large des. “So, since you haven’t been arrested before-,” and I have to stop him.
“I have-,” I say in the smallest voice that I can find.
“What?” he sounds confused and slightly frustrated.
“I have been arrested before,” I repeat.
“But Mar told me that you haven’t.”
“I never told her.” I admit.
“Well, what is it?” He asks and I wonder if he is slightly irritated.
“It was almost three years ago, my business was doing really well, and I let the money go to my head, I mean, I guess I never really stopped letting it, but I found a more constructive way of spending it.”
“Drugs?” he asks me already knowing.
“Yeah, but I never got into trouble for that, but I was pulled over for driving under the influence, but I never got sentenced with anything.” He laughs, he actually laughs about it.
Fated Page 3
