"Sophie, tell us a little about yourself," I meet her kind brown eyes, her expression curious.
"Oh, uh... well, I'll be 30 in a couple of weeks…"
There's that static in my brain again, and I'm just glad I remember my age.What else is there about me?
"I'm originally from New York, and I have an older sister named Tess. She's in the military, stationed in Germany."
"What do you do for work?" April asks, glancing up quickly from her crochet, which looks like it's going to bea blanket? A scarf?Whatever it is, the cranberry color yarn she's using is gorgeous and screamsAutumn.
"I'm a Senior Financial Analyst at an investment firm called Hanson Capital," I supply, when I see a mix of different facial expressions—some confused, some impressed.
Jane frowns as she and Atticus walk back to their seats, "That's in the Financial District, right?"
Her voice is soft and shy, and she's fidgeting with the ring in her hand again. From my angle, I can see Atticus gently place his foot next to hers, a steadying weight. Atticus seems like the person she feels comfortable and safe with.
"Yes, it is,” I nod. “Do you know it?"
"No, but I recognize the name. I work down the street," she says, looking slightly over my right shoulder again. "I work at the Boston Museum of History. I'm an archivist."
"You commute like Jane?" Atticus asks, nodding to the woman next to him. He shares a quick warm look with her before looking back at me.
"Yes... well I used to," I shrug, looking down at the wooden table in front of me. "I'm going to be working remotely for the foreseeable future."
"How come you didn't move to Boston? That commute is anightmare,” Bailey says, her tone curious..
It's like the record scratch noise just went off in my brain, and my stomach drops to the ground.
For a moment, I forgot...
I stutter my answer, "Oh, well, I... I-I moved here because it's my fiancé—" I cut myself off, the reflexive word escaping.
It took me so long to get used to calling Paul my fiancé instead of my boyfriend after we got engaged, and now I have to get used to a new title.
Maybe I should change it completely.
Maybe Judas.
Or Brutus might fit better.
My stomach does a weird drop when Callum's head snaps to me, his face a mix of surprise and...disappointment?
"Well, he's myex-fiancé now," I amend quickly. "He's... from here, so we moved here after grad school."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Bailey winces a bit at bringing up a bad topic, and the embarrassed look on her face has me reaching out and laying a hand over hers.
"No, it's okay. The breakup was very—very—recent, but he's..." I glance up, looking at each of their faces and the kind, caring, and genuine looks they’re giving me break me wide open.
"I got diagnosed with breast cancer, and I start chemotherapy next week."
Dead silence.
You could hear a pin drop in the room.
The only face I'm brave enough to meet is the man next to me. All the color has drained from it, and his expression is a devastating mix of sad, sympathetic, and concerned.
There's an ache building in my chest, and the silence becomes too heavy. I feel the need to fill it for some reason, so I power on and here comes the word vomit—one continuous sad monologue about my mess of a life.
"Paul couldn't deal with the fact that I'm going to have to get my breasts cut off, and that I'll have to go through chemotherapy for the next three months and then radiation after that so he decided the best way to deal with it would be to sleep with his coworker and leave me—afterImoved to this town where I didn't know anyone except his friends and his family, and now I have cancer, and no friends, and no fiancé so..."
