My hand slowly reaches up to grab the envelope, my stomach burning when I think it might be a letter he’s written to me since I won’t give him the time of day. My name is written in the middle of it with a line under it. I turn it over in my hand, trying not to make him see that my hand is shaking. I see the top of a check when I open it and I don’t know if I’m disappointed that it’s not a letter or happy. “That is a check,” he says when I pull it out and see that it’s a check for the whole invoice of services, “for your services.”
“Umm,” I say, looking down at it. “You don’t have to pay for the whole thing now,” I tell him. “I know you are good for it.” I look up, trying to make a joke, but everything about this feels off. Every time I’m alone with him it feels off. Like there is this huge-ass elephant sitting in the room and we aren’t talking about it. But said elephant feels like it’s crushing my chest.
“Actually,” he says, and I finally look into his eyes, “I’m also here to tell you that the wedding is off.”
The minute he says the words, my ears start to buzz. “Excuse me?” I say shocked, thinking maybe I heard wrong.
“I don’t know if there were deposits made on any other things,” he continues, ignoring my question. “If there is anything, I will cover that also.”
I am at a loss for words, and I have no idea what to say. I keep looking at him, then down at the check and back up at him again. My mouth is going so dry I don’t even think I would be able to swallow cold water. “Sofia,” he says in almost a whisper.
I blink away the tears stinging my nose and my eyes as I look up at him, his eyes so dark blue it looks like the deep end of the ocean. You know when you go far out to sea and the water gets darker and darker, that is exactly what it looks like. I’m about to say his name when the door opens. Both of us look over to see Charles walking in with two coffees in his hands. He looks at me and smiles. “I’ll go,” I hear Matthew say, my eyes go back to look at him as he nods at me. He turns to walk out the door, nodding at Charles at the same time.
“I’m sorry,” Charles says, laughing nervously, “it seems I really don’t have good timing.” I try not to let what just happened get to me, but I can’t help it. All I can hear is the wedding is off. “I was in the neighborhood,” he explains, coming to stand in front of me, “and I thought I would drop off some coffee.”
I force a smile on my face because if not, I know my parents would kick my ass if I was rude. “Thank you,” I say, reaching out and grabbing a cup from him.
“I got this one for you also, not knowing if you wanted regular milk or oat milk,” he says of the other cup of coffee in his hand.
“That is very kind of you,” I tell him, grabbing the other one.
“I was also wondering if you were free tonight?” he asks, putting his hands in his pockets, and I can’t help comparing how different he is from Matthew.
“I’m sorry, I’m swamped all week,” I tell him. “And then I’m going home to see the family this weekend.” He looks at me awkwardly. “But how about I touch base with you next week?”
“That sounds perfect,” he replies, his face filling with a smile. “I’ll let you go.” He leans in to kiss my cheek. “Have a great time with your family,” he says, turning and walking to the door.
“Thank you,” I tell him, “and for bringing me coffee.” He leaves, and I let out a huge sigh, walking back to my office. Sitting down, I put the coffee to the side before looking back at the check, my name written in the comments section. I hear the girls walk back into the office and get up going to Shelby’s.
She is sitting down reading something on her computer when she looks up. I put the check down in front of her, not saying anything to her. She looks down at it, then picks it up and looks at me. “What is this?” she asks.
“That is the check from Matthew and Helena’s wedding,” I say, trying not to freak out, “that has just been cancelled.”
matthew
I walk into my house, tossing my keys on the table by the door before making my way to the couch. Throwing myself onto the couch, I put my head back and close my eyes, letting out the biggest sigh of relief.
Fuck, today has been brutal. I walked into practice not knowing if anyone would ask me, but why would they? I went on the ice, did what I had to do, and then got my ass out of there, knowing I had to go to Sofia. I don’t know what Helena was going to do or if she was going to call her, but I wanted her to hear it from me at least. How fucking dumb did that even sound? I wanted my ex to find out from me that the wedding she was planning was now cancelled. I practiced what I was going to say the whole ride there. How I was going to tell her that it was cancelled and ask her to sit down with me for a minute. I was almost there until her boyfriend walked in the room. I rub my hands over my face as I laugh, thinking how this is like a soap opera.