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“Thank you for trusting me with this. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to talk about. I think you did an amazing thing for Penny. Please know that I would never tell anyone.”
She fidgets with her fingers again. “I know.”
Before I can stop myself, my arms wrap around her shoulders. Her spine straightens, which makes me remember that she’s not a big hugger. She relaxes slightly and wraps one arm around my back.
We pull out of the hug and stare at each other, I think we’re both unsure where to go from here.
“So, is Drew home?” I ask.
She wrinkles her nose. “No. I practically forced him to go out. He’s been a mess all week. I thought it would be good for him to go out with his buddies.”
My eyes fill with tears. “Ugh, I feel awful. I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”
“Please do. He’s called me every evening this week. And I love talking to my brother, but he’s being a little needy.” She smirks.
“I’ve missed him like crazy all week.” I admit, slumping back onto the couch.
She stands to leave. “He’s missed you too.”
The next morning, I wake up early, eager to talk to Drew and sort this out. It’s barely seven, and Sam isn’t even awake yet.
I jump in the shower and think about what all I want to say to Drew today. I understand now why he didn’t tell me about Penny. And I should’ve heard him out instead of just pushing him away and shrinking back to avoid anymore heartbreak.
The tricky thing about love is you have to be willing to put your heart out there to be broken. You never know what the future holds. But you can control your actions and live life the best you can. And the best life for me is a life with Drew.
There’s no doubt our future will hold trials and difficulties, but I’d much rather go through those things with Drew by my side than face them alone.
After my shower, I begin my fanciest primping routine. I even dry my hair with a blow dryer and curl it into beachy waves. Samantha appears in my doorway after a while, her eyes are bleary like she’s still trying to wake up. Her blonde curls are matted down on one side of her head while the other side is all fluffy.
“Good morning, sweet girl.”
She rubs her eyes with the backs of her hands and then looks up at me. “Mommy looks pwetty.”
I kneel on the floor in front of her, holding back a chuckle at how crazy her hair is. “Thank you, sweetie. We need to get you ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s for the day.”
That wakes her up instantly. She loves spending her Saturdays with my parents. She runs into her bedroom and starts grabbing clothes out of her dresser.
Together, we pick out her clothes and she helps me select which sundress I should wear. We agree on the yellow one. I’m pretty sure that’s Drew’s favorite anyway.
Two hours later, I’ve dropped Samantha off with my parents, and I’m parking in front of Drew’s house so we can finally talk. I step out of my car and close the door. As I begin my ascent to his front door, I squeeze my fists together and then release them again. My palms are so sweaty because I’m nervous.
I’ve pushed him away all week, which only caused heart-ache for us both. All I want is to talk this out and for our relationship to go back to normal. I want him to wrap me in his big muscular arms and forget about the emotional angst of this past week.
I nearly trip over the last step that leads up to Drew’s front porch, but I catch myself and smooth out my dress with my sweaty palms.
Lifting my hand to ring the doorbell, I take a deep breath. Before I can ring it, the door swings open. Emily stands before me, her lips forming an uneasy smile.
She looks me up and down, taking in my dress and my hair. She smiles, but the smile looks sympathetic and unhappy.
“Hey, Sophie, I saw you walking up the steps. I was just going to text you.”
“You were?”
“Yeah, Drew isn’t home.”
My shoulders sag in disappointment. “Oh, when will he be back?”
“Well, he used to camp at least once a year with James and Conner, but they haven’t been in ages. So apparently last night when they were out, they decided to camp tonight. They packed up and left about thirty minutes ago.”
