Mine to Take (Southern Weddings #5)(3)
My hand is in Helena’s as we look at a picture of an elaborate altar. She is going on and on about it and how she would have added color into the flowers. When I hear the sounds of heels clicking behind me, the sound coming closer and closer to us, I can see the woman approaching in my peripheral vision. The sun comes into the windows all around her. My head turns in slow motion or maybe that is just how I feel it happens. I blink once, twice, three times, wondering if my head is playing tricks on me.
My vision is almost blurry at this point, or at least that is how it feels, until the woman is standing closer to us. It can’t be. Again, I blink my eyes, hoping to fucking God that this isn’t happening to me right now. I even lift my free hand and rub my eyes to see if it’s all in my head. Sadly, it is not.
My heart is beating so fast and so loud in my ears that all I hear is the thumping it makes. My hands are now getting sweaty, and the heat is rising to the back of my neck. She is looking down at her feet, and when she finally looks up, she spots me and we make eye contact. Full-on eye contact. There is no denying it’s her and not some long-lost twin that everyone has. You know the one everyone is always telling you about but probably doesn’t exist. Yeah, that one.
She stops mid step, and if you didn’t know her, you wouldn’t see the way her eyes light up for one second before the wall comes down, shutting it out. Her eyes go from mine to Helena and then down to our hands. My head is screaming at me while I keep asking myself the question over and over again. What the fuck is she doing here?
“Hello,” Sofia greets when she is standing in front of us. “You must be Helena.” She looks over at her and extends her hand to her. “I’m Sofia.”
“It’s so good to meet you,” Helena says, “this is my fiancé.” She hugs my arm with her hands and looks up at me. “Matthew Petrov. We call him Matty.”
I look over at Sofia and see her blue eyes get a tad darker when she looks at me, everyone calls me Matty, except for Sofia. She always called me Matthew or MVP, but that was as a joke every time I won a game. “Matty.” She extends her hand to mine as if she doesn’t know me, as if we’ve never met. I don’t know how I feel about this. On one hand, I should be happy I don’t have to explain this to Helena, and on the other hand, I’m pissed. Which I shouldn’t be, especially with the way things ended. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” My hand moves up and clamps on to hers, and I swear to God it’s like I’m being electrocuted or something. “Thank you so much for coming in today,” she states, and I can’t help but take her in. Her brown hair is pulled back in a ponytail, but I see the end of her hair is curled and drapes over her shoulder. Her smile is as fake as can be. Trust me, I spent two years knowing the ins and outs of Sofia. No one knew me better than she did. No one knows me better than she does, is more like it. Not even Helena, I don’t know, and I can’t even explain it. With Sofia it was just so easy, me being me never fazed her. “And congratulations on the engagement,” she says, and I see her eyes looking straight down at the ring on Helena’s finger.
“Thank you so much,” Helena replies, and my tongue just keeps on getting bigger and bigger in my mouth. She picks her hand up to look at the diamond in front of her before she turns to smile at me. All I can do is smile back at her. “It was a special surprise.”
I almost laugh because it was not a surprise at all. In fact, she left me subtle messages since the second week we started dating. She was at the peak of her prime and wanted to get married when she would look amazing in her pictures. We’ve been together for nine months and this was the next step, so I thought why not. “That sounds very romantic,” I hear Sofia say, shaking my head.
“Shall we sit down and go over a couple of things?” Sofia suggests, pointing at the round table to the side. “Would you care for anything to drink?” She looks at Helena first.
“I’ll have a bottle of water,” Helena says, “sparkling if you have it, if not still is good.” She nods her head and then has to look over at me. I’m waiting for it, and when she does, I really wish that she hadn’t. Her eyes pierce my soul and make my heart stop in my chest. “He usually has still water.”
“Coming right up,” Sofia declares, turning and walking away from us, disappearing around a wall. I swear, if I could, I would let out a deep sigh and hang my head. I really want to get the fuck out of here. Seeing her it’s just, I don’t even know what to say. I’m surprised. I’m shocked. I’m blown fucking away that she is here. Not only is she here but I’m also going to sit down and discuss my wedding with her. I close my eyes; not even sure I want to think about how things would be if the roles were reversed. I would not be okay with any of this. I guess I would be happy for her, maybe, not sure. My head is going around and around, I’m literally hanging on by a thread.
“What is wrong with you?” Helena hisses to me. “You are acting so freaking weird.”
“No, I’m not,” I scoff at her, shaking my head while my whole body wants to pick up the chair and throw it across the room, right before I run out of here. “I’m fine,” I confirm, walking over to the round table Sofia pointed at before walking out. I pull out a chair and sit down, my foot moving up and down, the nerves just radiating in my body. “Sit down.” I pull the chair beside me out. “Before you agree to anything…” I want to tell her more, but I hear the clicks from Sofia’s shoes coming again.