“I walked in, and Sofia was there.” I say her name out loud and my uncle Matthew is the first one to hold up his hand.
“Sofia?” He repeats the name, making sure he heard right. “The Sofia?”
“The Sofia.” I say her name in a whisper.
“The woman you were in love with?” Max asks and my chest gets tight and all I can do is nod at him.
“But you guys broke up?” my father asks and I take a deep inhale.
“We did,” I admit, “sort of.”
“Sort of?” Evan says and I just stare at him. “Oh, there is so much more.” He points at me. “And I have a feeling I’m going to have to kick your ass.”
“I have the same feeling,” Matthew agrees, glaring at me, and when I look at Max, he just shrugs.
“No one is kicking anyone’s ass,” my father declares. “You never told us.”
“I guess there is no time like the present.” I rub my face and get up, the nerves getting the best of me. “We were at an away game,” I start, thinking back to the fucking day I wish never fucking happened. “We won by the skin of our teeth and the guys wanted to go and celebrate.” I can hear their voices clear as day in my head. “Let’s just go and have one drink, they said, and I knew I should have just said no and gone home. But I didn’t, of course, I was like, one drink and then I’ll leave.” I start walking the room, pacing. “Especially since I knew Sofia was waiting for me to take her out.” I close my eyes. “We were going to go celebrate her getting into Chicago events.” I look at the guys, who still don’t say anything to me. “I kept checking my phone and then the guys there were relentless, ‘Stay, have one more.’” My hands go into fists. “‘Stop looking at your phone, Petrov.’” The burning starts in my stomach. “‘You’re so pussy-whipped.’” I look up and close my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose. “So I kept drinking with them to show them I wasn’t pussy-whipped.” The minute I say the words, all four of them groan. “Needless to say, I was shit-faced, and when I got home, she was there waiting for me all dressed up. Her face was filled with worry because she couldn’t get a hold of me.” I swear I have to rub my chest as I see her face again, like it was just yesterday and not two years ago. “She was frantic with worry since I never answered her calls or texts because my phone had died somewhere along the way. She tried to walk away from me and I—”
Max gets up. “Did you touch her?” He asks the question, and if I didn’t know better, I think he would have hit me first and asked the question after if I wasn’t related to him.
“Of course not,” I reply, and he sits back down. “But I wasn’t kind to her either. I told her to stop complaining and then I broke up with her.”
“While you were drunk?” Evan asks. I refuse to look over at my father for fear I will see how disgusted he is with me.
“Yes.” The word comes out in almost a whisper, but loud enough that I know they all hear me.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Matthew curses. “But you went to see her the next day, right?”
“No, there is more,” I admit, and his head goes back, and he lets out a hiss. “My friends were there telling me I didn’t need her. She was holding me back. She had no right to be pissed at me, it was my night.” I wish I would never have listened to them. “So after she stormed away from me, I went into my room and packed up all her shit.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “And dumped it at her door that night.”
“You fucking idiot,” Matthew says, “you fucking, fucking idiot.”
“I know!” I shout “You don’t think I fucking know this? I got up the next day and it was all a blur. Like, I remember bits and pieces, but when I sat up in bed, I saw all of our pictures gone. I saw my bedside table where she kept all her stuff on it empty.” I want to vomit, just like I did that day two years ago. I got up out of bed and I was going to go over to her when the doorbell rang. I ran, thinking it was her, but instead it was one of her guy friends and he had a box in his hand. The box I left at her house. I thought for sure it was her stuff back, but he shoved it in my hands, and when I looked in, it was all of my stuff. I was destroyed, but when I turned around, all the guys were there.” I shake my head. “I let my pride win.”
“Oh, Matty,” my father says softly, and I look over at him and he has his own tears in his eyes.