Page 16 of The Longest Wait

Lucy had been the last one he’d consider moving close to. Itturned out to be an all-around win for him. He adored his littlesister. Her husband was a good guy. He got along well with theirfriends. Even Tess was like a little sister to him.

The one crux to his life was Sofia.

He never looked at her like a little sister.

Not once.

Instead, she was someone he struggled to play big brother to.

From the moment he saw her, he was drawn to her exquisite beauty.If she were anyone else, he would’ve done anything to be with her.As it was, she was his sister’s best friend. Even if Lucy didn’t warnhim to stay away, he would’ve either way. He had a horrible trackrecord with women. Besides, Lucy would never forgive him whensomething went sour. Which it already did. In a way, he consideredhimself lucky Lucy didn’t know their history.

From the time he met her, he did a good job of staying awayfrom Sofia or, at least, he tried. He was successful up until thesummer Sofia moved in with his family. One night and he did justas he expected he would. He ruined everything with Sofia. Whilehe expected her to never show her face around him again, she didthe opposite. She didn’t care if she was around him, her solutionwas to behave as if he didn’t exist.

While he had been traveling around the world, it didn’t matter.He barely saw her either way. When he was around though, it stung.

When it was time for him to make a home, Lucy was thereason he came to Philly. She wasn’t the only reason though andhe knew it.

Sofia was why he moved there.

It didn’t make sense. She hated his guts and had no shamein telling him every time an opportunity came about. There wassomething about her, hell, there was always something about herhe couldn’t walk away from.

The reminder of her hasty dismissal of him last weekend wassalt in the wound, but it was par for the course. Lately it seemedlike no matter what he did, she would never accept the olive branchhe offered.

If he sat any longer, he was going to go crazy. He texted Dominic to see what he was doing. It was a Friday night, Dominic hadto be out. He responded quickly.

“Watching basketball at my place if you want to stop by.”

A night in with his friend watching sports sounded a hell of alot better than sitting around, daydreaming about his little sister’sfriend. He was too old to be pining over a woman who couldn’tstand him. Besides, that ship sailed a long time ago.

“DON’T GIVE ME shit,” Dominic interrupted Sofia playing a

Sudoku game on her phone.

She kept playing. “I’m about to beat my high score.”“Does this mean you won’t be mad?”

“I guess that depends on if I win this level, and what you

did that would made me mad,” she responded half paying attention. She needed to look up Sudoku competitions and enter one.Getting her nerd on sounded fun. “I’m already watching basketballwith no drink options outside of beer. I think I have handled thisnight well so far.”

“You were bored and came over. I never said I had wine andchick flicks.”

That was true. Dominic was one of her friends where she couldrandomly stop by, watch mindless television, and then head homewith minimal conversation. Sometimes, it was all she wanted. Liketonight. She had a break in between assignments, and she didn’tfeel like sitting around her apartment alone. Lucy was on a datewith Jack, and Tess had last minute wedding details to attend to.

“I can’t imagine you would ever watch chick flicks.” She stuckher tongue out.

There was a knock on his front door. This made her excited.Fingers crossed he ordered pizza or something that was similarlycheesy and delicious. She was hungry.

Dominic gave her a look, almost as if he was guilty.

“Did you get Hawaiian or something? I can always pick it off,as long as there is extra cheese.” Pineapple on pizza grossed her out.

He seemed a tad confused at the pizza reference, but didn’tmention it. “Alex is going to watch the game with us. If you’re niceto him, the next time you stop over, I promise to watch any movieyou want. Chick flicks and all,” he pleaded with her.

There was a knock again, and Sofia wasn’t sure if it was fromthe door or her head. Why was it so difficult to have a night in,doing nothing? It was like Alex had a bug on her to find out whereshe was. Then he could swoop in and ruin her day.

Dominic opened the door, and Alex gave him the bro hugwhere they half hug each other , while he held onto a bag. Theonly redeeming quality of Alex was it looked like he had bottles inthe bag. Which meant something other than beer for her to drink.With him crashing, a drink was going to be needed.

Once Alex stepped into the apartment, he locked eyes withSofia. She remained silent as they did their typical stare down.She reminded herself Dominic promised to watch any movie shewanted the next time she randomly stopped over if she didn’t causea scene. This called for something that would drive him crazy. Likethe Spice Girls movie.