Page 34 of Designing Love
“Really? You guess? You storming into a small-town pub yelling about my career and accusing Ethan of I don’t know what?”
He grimaces. “It sounded better in my head.”
“Most of your ideas usually do.”
Daniel sighs, running a hand through his meticulously styled hair. “Sophia, please. I’ve been trying to contact you for days. You completely disappeared.”
“I didn’t disappear. We’ve been living apart for months. The marriage has been over for years. We’ve signed the divorce papers. I’m free to do as I please.” I tap my fingers impatiently on the tabletop, feeling a flicker of old irritation.
“You can’t blame me for being worried,” he insists, his voice softer now. “I mean, leaving the business we built together. That’s not like you.”
“Maybe I’ve changed. It’s been known to happen. I’m not 30 years old anymore.”
“You sure? Because you’re hanging out with a 30-something…”
I glower at him.
Daniel leans back, exhaling slowly, his eyes narrowing slightly. “We have a business. You have responsibilities.”
I laugh humorlessly. “Yeah, you definitely rode my coattails on that, Daniel. I built my design business. You ran along, making contacts and building a client list of your own.”
“That’s not true…”
“Isn’t it?” My voice rises, a spark of anger heating my words. “Did you even realize that I didn’t feel at home in our house? Or that you insisted on picking my assistant, and she ended up spending most of her time running your errands? I barely recognized myself in that life.”
“I was trying to help you!” Daniel protests, hands raised defensively. “I saw potential in you that you didn’t see in yourself.”
“Potential?” I lean forward, incredulous. “Daniel, you didn’t see potential. You saw someone you could benefit from. You never cared about what I wanted.”
He fidgets uncomfortably, eyeing a bizarre, brightly colored painting of a seagull riding a bicycle. “Well, what do you want, then? Living in this…” He waves vaguely around the room. “…chaos? A random renovation project with that guy — Ethan?”
I bristle instantly, my heart beating faster at Ethan’s mention. “’That guy’ has nothing to do with this conversation. He’s a friend. That’s it.”
“Just a friend?” Daniel scoffs quietly. “He looks at you like he’s ready to fight dragons to keep you around.”
A sudden warmth rushes to my face, but I recover quickly. “Maybe he is. Maybe he isn’t. Doesn’t matter. Not relevant to our conversation.”
Daniel blinks, momentarily speechless. “You’ve changed.”
“Finally noticed, huh?”
The tension between us thickens, an unspoken challenge hanging heavily in the air. Daniel’s expression shifts, becoming strangely earnest.
“Look, Sophia. I miss you. Vancouver isn’t the same without you. My life isn’t the same without you.”
His words pierce a tender place inside me, a familiar ache I’d almost forgotten. But it no longer consumes me.
“Maybe you think you’ve changed, Daniel. Or maybe you think you want to change. But I’m not going back.”
He laughs weakly, gesturing toward the disarray. “Why?”
“Because I want to be here,” I say firmly, nodding at Sage’s clutter. “Because it’s real and messy and full of possibilities that don’t revolve around pleasing someone else.”
Daniel pushes back his chair so abruptly it scrapes loudly against the wooden floor, startling Mr. Darcy — Sage’s resident stray cat — who hisses in protest and darts beneath Sage’s overstuffed armchair.
“You’re making a huge mistake, Sophia,” Daniel says sharply, his voice tight with frustration.
I cross my arms, heart pounding but determined not to give an inch. “Maybe I am, but it’s mine to make. You have to accept that.”
