“Is this a bad time?” I really don’t mean to, I mean the laugh comes out before I can stop it. “I’m sorry, I’ll call back later.”
“No, no, no, it’s not a bad time. It made me laugh because it’s two in the morning and you’re asking me if it’s a bad time.” I hear him understanding what I’m saying and he laughs.
“I can’t sleep.” He admits.
“Me either.”
“Why can’t you sleep?” he asks me
“I just keep thinking-,” I let my sentence trail off.
“About what I’m going to say?”
“Yeah,” I admit.
“Well I think that we need to talk about it.” he says and I think I hear the sounds of traffic behind him.
“Sounds good,” I tell him.
“I think that we should do it in person.” He says to me.
“I do, too.”
“Good, because I’m downstairs.” He chuckles a bit.
“What? What if I wouldn’t have answered?” I slightly laugh and ask him.
“I would have walked home.” I laugh as I hear the elevator ding on his side. “Be up in a minute.” I hand up the phone and walk over to the front door opening it and walking out into the hall. When the elevator car dings on the floor I’m pretty sure that my heart stops, but I cannot tell for sure. When the doors slide open he still manages to take my breath away.
I see the corner of his mouth turn up as he smirks to me.
“You know,” he says stepping out of the elevator, “There’s something about you that instantly causes a smile on my lips the second I see you,” he says as he wraps his arms around me body and I can’t help but laugh.
“You are still a smooth talker aren’t you?” I laugh saying it to him as we walk inside of my apartment and into the kitchen.
“Maybe, but does that ever go away?” he smiles, shyly.
“Want me to break out a guitar for you?” I ask him raising my eyebrow at him referencing our first lunch together.
“That was a million years ago.” He looks down at the ground.
“So, are you saying that you’re a changed man, Mister Calloway?”
“Yeah,” he nods his head, “You did that to me,” and my heart breaks and I’m not really sure why, “I don’t mean that in a bad way. I mean that you showed me that there’s more to life. That’s why I walked away from the partnership that night.”
“Because of me?” I ask, stunned.
“Yes, you told me to do what I wanted to do. To do something that makes me happy.” I see a smile spread on his lips,” and I’ve found it now, Thank you.” I mutter out a pathetic ‘welcome’ and ask him if he wants a beer. He nods his head and I hand him the beverage and then we walk out onto the balcony.
“This is amazing.” He says looking out onto central park.
“Thanks, it’s what sold us on the apartment.” I tell him
“I see why,” I sit down and awkwardly stare out into the city, neither of us saying a word. “So, Jack already knows about Kaylee?” he asks me.
“Yes, I was trying to find you and I was desperate. Then when he saw me a few months later at one of the events he sort of put two and two together.”
“I’m sorry I left you to go through it all alone.”
“No, Austin, you didn’t know. Hell at the times I didn’t even know.”
“Something told me not to go, something told me to stay and make you see, make you understand, but I was so fucking mad at you for not believing me.” He admits to me.
“I understand, I really do, I’m not mad at you for leaving.” He looks up at me and I think that I see tears threatening to come out resting on the brim of his eye. I place my hand over his as he looks away again.
“She’s beautiful. She looks just like you.” He tells me smiling at me.
“I think she looks just like you. Those eyes are killer.” He laughs taking a sip from his beer.
“Well, they have managed to get me my way, my whole life.”
“I know, I was a sucker for them.” He smiles looking to the ground and I think that I see a hint of blush on his cheeks.
“Soph,” he pauses looking up to me with a serious look, “I’m sorry for what I said to you that night at the bar.”
“No, stop. Stop apologizing. It’s done and over with I know why you said the things that you did and you know why I did the things that I did. Let’s just move on.”
“I do have one question though.” He asks me seriously.
“Alright,”
“Why did you leave, the night that we ended things, why did you leave me?”
“Because I knew that if you woke up while I was still there that it would make things harder and I wouldn’t be able to walk away.”
“Why wouldn’t you be able to?”
“Don’t play dumb, you know why.” He smiles at me and then looks down.
“Need another drink?” I ask and he nods his head not looking up at me. When I come back outside he is staring off into the distance.
“I want to be around,” he says as he hears the door close behind me.
“What?”
“I want to be around for her. I know that it took me awhile to think about it, but she’s here. She deserves to have a dad that is around and loves her.”
“How do you know that she deserves it?” I ask him and he looks up to me again.
“Because every child deserves it, I don’t want to wonder about her and you every day if you guys are doing alright. I want to be here and I want to help out with her, you will have to cut me a little bit of slack though because I have never taken care of a child before.” I nod my head and smile.
“I understand.”
“And with the other thing,” he says and I look to him confused, “Oh, don’t play that card, I think we need to figure out what we are going to do about us, I don’t think that we should jump into anything right away, maybe just start out being friends, and you have no idea how hard that is for me to say.”
“I do, I think this is a good idea.”
We sit on the balcony talking and catching up on what has been going on in our lives until the sun starts to break over the buildings.
“Did we just sit out here and talk all night?” I ask him.
“It looks that way.” I hear the crying come inside as I get up and briskly walk into the apartment. I peak my head into her room and see her standing in her crib. I smile as I walk to her and pick her up in her dinosaur pajamas, and walk back out the balcony.
“Good morning sweet Kaylee,” I says kissing her cheek as I look up to Austin and I see his face melt, just seconds before my heart does. “I would like you to meet someone.” I whisper to her as she looks around, “Kaylee I want you to meet your daddy,” I see the water beginning to take control of his eyes. My heart seems to beat louder than I ever thought was possible. “Kaylee, can you say daddy?” she smiles attempting to say it and coming fairly close. His eyes widen as he looks to me and I smile, “Austin, please don’t disappear again.”
“Never again,” he smiles to me, “Never again, can I hold her?”
“Of course,” I say as I hear a noise coming from behind me.
“Hey Soph,” Mar says looking from me to Austin, stunned, “Oh, I see that you’ve got some stuff going on out here.” She smiles looking to me and I think I see her somewhat relieved.
Chapter Twenty-One
I stop at the walk up that leads up to Austin’s house and I smile knocking on the door. He has been amazing and has really been helping out with Kaylee, spending at much time with her as has been possible. We are also planning her first birthday party together; I know it’s a big deal for him considering that he wasn’t there for when she was born. The door opens before I can knock and he smiles at us, and instantly Kaylee reaches out for him. It makes me happy that everything seems to be working out but there is still this awkward tension that manages to sneak in between us, especially if we are alone around one another late at night.
It hasn’t been easy but with much work, I am sure, on both of our parts we have managed to keep a bit of distance, and by distance I want to clarify that I mean we haven’t slept together.
“Hey, Kay,” he says as he carries her into the house and leaves the door open so that I can walk through after them. I watch him carrying her into the kitchen as she is laughing, and I can’t help but smile. I can’t help but slowly fall farther in love with him as much as I convince myself that I am not.
“So, how’s the planning with the party coming along?” Austin asks turning to look at me and smiling.
“It’s good. I can’t figure out where I want it to be at though.”
“Why don’t you just have it at your apartment, or here?” He pauses looking over to me, “There’s no point in paying for a place when you have a view like that, plus she’s going to love it no matter where you have it.” He pauses turning around to look at me and the sight of him standing in his house with our child in his arms is almost too much for me to take.
The day of the party I am running around like I am insane. I have decided to just throw the party at my apartment, but you think that because I plan events for a living that planning one for my child would be the easiest thing ever, but I was very wrong it has been more stressful than any party before it. We had managed to make a make shift dance floor on the balcony. I’m freaking out as I pull the cake out of the oven but I let my arm too far into the oven and I burn my forearm on the top of the oven.
“Ow, shit,” I swear as I pull my arm out of the oven cradling it in my other hand.
“Soph, are you alright?” I hear Austin say from behind me. I can only guess that he has just gotten here.
“Yeah, I just burnt my arm.” He steps up to me and smiles.
“Let me help,” he says holding on to my arm and ushering me over to the sink. I feel the water begin to slide over my burn and take the stinging sensation out of it. “Is that helping?” he asks in my ear and his breath on my ear almost sends me over the edge, god it’s been too long since I have had sex. I let my eyes look up to him and out eyes lock. We stand in an intense gaze and I have to contain every ounce in my body to not lunge at him.
“Look at the birthday girl,” I think I hear Mar say in the distance as the door closes. “Oh, Kay let’s leave mommy and daddy alone for another moment.” She instantly says and walks back into the room. We both let out a light laugh and look away. I curse Mar in my mind as he turns the water off, grabs the cake pans out of the oven and puts them in the fridge, and then walks to the bathroom. I hear Kaylee’s door open again and her and Mar walk out.
“Oh, sweetheart, you look so pretty.” I say walking over to her and lifting her up.
“Did we ruin the moment?” Mar whispers to me and I wave off her question.
“It’s probably for the best anyways.” I shrug off and she looks back to me with sad eyes. “Don’t worry about it, Mar.”
“Honestly,” she pauses and looks back to the bathroom and lowers her voice, “I just want the two of you to get back together.”
“Oh, what happened to miss, ‘My sister is off limits.’?” I try and most her causing her to laugh aloud.
“That was before I saw the two of you together.” She admits.
“Thanks, that’s comforting.” I tell her, but we stop talking as we hear the bathroom door open and Austin walks out holding something. “What’s that?” I ask him.
“Burn cream.”
“Burn cream, we have burn cream?” I ask turning towards Mar, knowing that she would have been the one to buy it, but she just shrugs her shoulders. He rolls his eyes as Mar walks back into the bedroom and he motions for my arm. I let my forearm fall into his hand and I gasp as the cold ointment slides on my arm.
“Better?” he asks me and I smile, nodding my head. “Soph, I have to ask, why are you baking the cake yourself? You know plenty of bakers.”
“I know, but there is just something about making her first cake.” He smiles looking up to me.
“Can I help finish it?” He asks, shyly.
“Yes.”
After it has time to cool down I take it out, of course though it has taken longer than I planned for so I am rushing trying to finish it, as the party is scheduled to start in three hours, and my family as well as Jack have flown in from around the country which is why I want everything to be perfect.
“Icing, icing, icing,” Austin sings to himself as he spreads it across the cake. His song makes me laugh to myself, “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” I say, smirking.
“Do you like my song?” he smiles to me.
“Oh, it’s perfect.” I joke and roll my eyes continuing to ice my side of the cake.
“Don’t make fun of my song,” he says and points the spatula at me, but he points it with such force that the icing he has on it flies off and splatters onto my face. I gasp as I look up to him and for a split second I can see a brief worried look on his face.
“Did you just fling icing onto my face?” I ask him trying to act serious but the smile forces it’s way onto my face.
“Yes,” he grins at me as I reach into the bowl of the homemade icing, with my own spatula, and fling it back to him, which hits him in the cheek and he flitches at the impact.
“Oh no, you did not.” He says reaching into his bowl and pulling out a handful of icing and trying to smear it onto my face. I duck and with the motion it ends up throughout my hair. I can’t help but laugh.
“Ah,” I squeal as I lob a handful of it towards him and he ducks as it splatters all over the wall behind him. He sends one right back at me; finally as I scrape the last of the icing out of the bowl I look to the half iced cake that is sitting on the counter and launch it at him. The cake hits his face and I see it explode in a hundred crumbs around him and he laughs, chasing after me as I try and run around the island in the middle of the kitchen. He finally wrestles me down to the ground and pins me in place.
“This isn’t fair,” I yell, “You are much stronger than I am.” He only laughs as he wipes his face all over mine spreading the icing from his face to mine and I cannot control my laughter as he pulls down the remainder of the cake and spreads it all over my face.
“Stop, stop, I surrender,” I say as I let my hands fall to the floor. He stares intently into my eyes and he brushes a piece of my iced hair behind my ear, and I cannot break the connection in our gazes. I hear footsteps coming into the kitchen.
“What is going on-,” I hear Paige trail off as she rounds the corner and sees me lying on the ground with Austin lying overtop of me and both of us covered in icing, “I don’t even want to know how this started.” She says instantly turning around and walking back into her room.
“Is she mad?” he asks me as he stands up.
“Nah, as long as it gets cleaned up.” He nods his head and then looks back up to me.
“So, now that we have demolished the cake, what are we going to do?” he asks me reaching down and helping me up. I walk over to my bag and grab out my phone.
“Hey Patty, it’s Sophie,” I say into the receiver as I look up to meet Austin’s wondering gaze. “I have a favor to ask of you.”
Four hours later we are all standing around as the beautifully decorated cake is sitting in front of Kaylee and she is laughing along with us or at us… I’m not really sure.
“Sophie,” I hear my mom say after we blow out the candles.
“Yeah, mom,”
“Is that icing on your wall?” She says pointing up to the very top of the wall almost to the kitchen and Austin and I look to one another and can’t help but smirk.
Kaylee falls to sleep around eight and Austin offers to lay her down as I sigh and everyone begins to leave and I say bye to my family. Mar goes with our parents back to their hotel to stay for the night and Paige walks with her current boyfriend back to his apartment.
“Sophie,” I look over as Jack is standing next to me, “I have so much
to thank you for.” He says looking over to me. I know what he is talking about. When Austin left Miami he was actually crushed. When I went to him hoping to find Austin I could tell that he had been looking for him since he left. The second that he saw me he got upset telling me that he didn’t fucking know where he was and that it’s what was he wanted. At first I thought that he might have meant that he didn’t want to know where his son was, that it was better off that he wasn’t there with Jack, but I understand now that he meant Austin didn’t want to be found. I look across the room as I hear the bedroom door shut and Austin strides over to us. Our eyes lock only for a moment and then both of us look away.
“When are you two going to give in and realize that you’re supposed to be together?” I hear Jack say under his breath.
“Well son,” Jack walks over to Austin and pulls him in for a hug. I watch as he whispers something into his ear and Austin looks stunned, pulling back and his dad places his hands on his shoulders, “Call me sometime, kid.” And then turns around looking to me, “Soph, she just continues to take my breath away. I wish that you wouldn’t have moved to far away, I miss spending time with her.” He embraces me and then walks out of the door. The apartment is quiet again, and I look up to Austin as he sends me a questioning glance.
“He-,” His sentence falls and I know what he is going to ask about.
“I told you that he saw me before I had her. He put two and two together and I was so hormonal when he asked I just started crying. He helped out a lot right before I had her. Came by regularly afterwards and spent a lot of time with her.”
“I’m sorry; I should have never dropped off. I should have left some form of way for you to get a hold of me. I’m glad he helped you out when I couldn’t.”
“Stop,” I tell him walking into the kitchen and reaching into the fridge, grabbing a beer out of it, and pushing it to his torso as I walk outside. I hear the door shut behind him and I walk over to the balcony looking out onto the park. I hear the music cut back on as Ateryu’s I’ll Wait for You comes around me. I feel his presence behind me without even having to turn around.
Fated Page 14
