Page 76 of Final Goodbye
“That must be Sophie. I’m going to head out and check on Myles. See how his conversation went with my parents the other day. Text me when I’m in the clear to come home.” He kissed me on the forehead as we stood up.
“You can come home whenever you want. I’ll make sure to get all of the juicy details out in the beginning, so you don’t come home to us talking about how big your dick is.” He shook his head at my joke before opening up the door to let Sophie inside.
Declan threw his coat and boots on so he could slip out the front door as Sophie came in. He slapped my ass before calling out over his shoulder, “Have a fun night, ladies. Oh, and don’t forget to check the freezer!”
I invited Sophie in, and we headed straight for the kitchen to check out everything I completely skipped over when I first came home. I ended up heading straight for Declan, ignoring the food spread he set up for us.
“Holy shit. Who else is joining us?” Sophie asked.
“No one to my knowledge. I guess Declan just wanted to make sure we were well fed,” I said as I took in the kitchen island that was flooded with food. He ordered us a pepperoni pizza that was still hot; it had to have gotten here just moments before I did. A charcuterie board that looked like it came straight out of Laura Cooper’s kitchen, and six bottles of wine. I knew he was taking notes when I noticed the two bottles of pinot grigio, myfavorite. There were also two bottles of cabernet and a couple of rosé too. A little bit of everything.
Remembering what Declan said on his way out, I drifted toward the freezer and when I opened it up I was stunned by the perfectly stacked Ben and Jerry’s pints looking back at me. There had to be one in every flavor created.
This man was a fucking saint.
“Damn. Can we clone your boyfriend so I can have one too?” Sophie joked as she went straight for the cabernet.
“I honestly have no idea how I got so lucky. Sometimes I wonder when the ball is going to drop, and then it never does. He just continues to surprise me.” I poured up a glass of wine for myself and when we both had full glasses we made a toast.
“To girl’s night, and new relationships!” Sophie announced as we clinked our glasses together.
With plates full of food and a bottle of wine each, we made our way over to the couch where the warm fire was lit. The perfect setting for a girl’s night.
“Alright… So where do I start?” Sophie and I had so much to catch up on. Even when we had seen each other at work lately, it was super busy, which left very little time for long winded conversations.
“Start with the tea about why you had to miss work the other day. Had to be serious if you were asking me to cover for you.” Sophie took a sip of her wine as she listened.
“You may want to top off your wine for this. It’s a long story…” Sophie got comfortable with her cabernet and a cozy blanket on the couch as I gave her all the gritty details. From the night of Thanksgiving, the conversations with Myles, the meet up with Logan and the end result of him getting hauled off to jail.
Shock was written all over her face as I divulged every detail. “There is so much to unpack here… First of all, Logan killed your dad and tried to pin it on Myles? Who the fuck does that? I am sosorry, girl. This has to be insanely hard for you and your family.” She set her wine down, scooting closer to me when she wrapped her arms around me. She showed me the type of comfort that I needed and didn’t know would feel this good coming from her.
“It was definitely a shock and I’m still trying to wrap my mind around everything that’s gone on in the last few days.”
“Jesus, I can only imagine. If you need more time off from work, please just let me know. You know I have your back,” she offered.
“That means a lot. Thanks, Soph. But I think working and staying busy might actually help. Keeping busy is the way that I’ve seemed to heal lately.”
“I can understand that.” She reached out to grab her wine, taking another sip. “How did your mom and brother take the news?”
“I wanted to tell her in person everything that happened, but after it all went down Declan and I were wiped—running on almost no sleep. I just didn’t have it in me to make a trip over to her house.” I looked down at the golden ring I spun around on my finger, an old graduation gift from my parents. I was surprised it still fit me after all of these years.
“I called her last night when Declan and Myles were having a moment alone to talk. Luckily, she was at home and not at work when I called. Naturally, she was upset and needed time to process it which I could understand—even I’m still processing.”
I reflected back to the phone call with my mom that took place last night. She was silent on the other end of the phone the entire time while I let the word vomit flow. Words continued to fall from my mouth, one incident being explained after the other. I wasn’t even sure if the line was still connected because I had talked so long without a response. While I was fresh out of tears, I could hear the struggle in my mom’s voice when she finally did speak.
Wow. I knew there were still some unanswered questions… but I never would have imagined. You did such a good job, honey; you’ve always had a wonderful gut instinct. Thank you for always listening to it. We will all get through this together, as a family.
“I couldn’t fathom having to go through what you and your family are going through right now. But you’re one of the strongest women I know, Paige, and if anyone can get through this and make it out on the better end, it’s you.” Sophie had a soft look of sincerity painted across her face as she talked with me about everything that had happened recently.
She may just be the closest friend I’d ever had.
“I’m sorry this girl’s night has taken a depressing turn. It was supposed to be all rainbows and unicorns and screw top wine,” I let out a forced laugh, “at least that’s what I had envisioned a girl’s night looking like.”
“Don’t you dare be sorry. Girl’s nights are allowed to be anything you want them to be. And this one is meant to get all of the sad depressing shit out of the way first and then we can get fucked up off cheap wine and talk about boys.” Sophie lifted her glass for another toast. “Cheers to round two of girl’s night! To having girlfriends you can confide in and to boys, because what’s a girl’s night without a little bit of penis to talk about?!” We laughed, clinked our glasses and took a gulp of our drinks.
“Now, speaking of boys—I feel kind of bad with the way I have been judging Myles. He’s had so much going on and I just thought he was being an idiot twenty-one-year-old who drank and partied too much,” Sophie admitted.
“Yeah, I mean, I think we were all guilty of thinking that for a minute…” There was a moment of silence between the two of us as we both got lost in thought. But before we took this topic any deeper, Sophie did what she did best, cracked a joke to lighten the mood.
