“That sounds amazing. Yes, I would love to do that.”He nodded slightly, turning over so that he was facing Sophie, putting his arm behind his head, resting it there while he continued gazing at her. Sophie felt herself getting nervous when she saw that he was looking at her like that. She couldn’t look away. She tried to hold his gaze, but after a short while she found herself closing her eyes and closing her mouth, feeling embarrassed. She felt his fingers brushing through her hair.“Will you kiss me?” he whispered.Her eyes flew open immediately and stared at him, her heart racing faster than ever. Her cheeks started blushing, but she didn’t move. She knew that he was talking about something other than kissing him. He must have noticed her hesitation because he added.“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s totally okay if you don’t. You don’t have to.”She remained silent for a moment, not knowing what to do, before replying.“Okay.”She sat up, leaning toward him, pressi
Before Sophie could protest anymore, Max suddenly took her hand, starting to run toward the harbor. Sophie stumbled, falling down in front of Max, but instead of letting go of her hand, he simply held it tightly. He dragged her along the street with him.“Hey! What are you doing?!”“Don’t worry! Just keep running!”When she saw how serious he looked, Sophie decided to stop complaining and start running with him. They ran until they reached the docks, Max stopping in front of an old building and dragging Sophie inside. He pushed her inside the building, closing the door behind her.“Max, what is this place?”“Just look around for a while and try to find your voice.”“Okay.”“Now go ahead.”Sophie walked through the room, looking around. Finally, after several minutes, she found the door and pushed it open, stepping outside. It was quiet, and Sophie felt like she was alone for the first time since she woke up. She walked slowly, her legs carrying her to wherever Max said she had to go
“Everything looks so empty,” Sophie commented.“Yeah, it does kind of feel empty.”Sophie stood there, staring at the closet for a moment.“I think we should get rid of some of your stuff.”“What? Why?”“Because...it seems like a part of us has already moved on.”Max raised an eyebrow.“I’m serious. When I packed up everything, I was trying to make sure that it would always be there when I came back. But now it’s just here, waiting for me. And I think, we should get rid of that part of us too. I think you should move out of the apartment. And I think I should move in.”Max stared at her for a moment.“What?”“I’m not saying this to change your mind or anything. I’m just saying that this place is starting to remind me of where I first met you. I’ve missed you. So much. I feel like I hardly ever see you anymore. So, I thought I would get rid of your things to bring them here. So that way I would only have memories of you here and I would feel closer to you again.”He stared at her for a
“I don’t care what anybody else thinks. Especially not yourself,” he said. “You’re going to go back to the hospital right away. We can talk to the doctor together and figure out what’s wrong. We’ll deal with it.”“Thank you,” Sophie whispered, wiping tears away from her cheeks. “I appreciate it. I’m sorry.”“Don’t apologize, sweetheart. It’s okay.”She could hear the worry in his voice, the fear that something might happen to her.“I’m not gonna disappear, Max. Trust me.”“I do trust you.”“Good. Now you should go get ready. We both have to be at the hospital in an hour.”Max smiled.“Alright. See you later then. Love you.”“Love you too. Talk soon.”Max hung up the phone. Then he went into the bedroom, throwing a couple of items into the wardrobe, which consisted mostly of his clothes, along with several different pairs of shoes. He grabbed a couple of jackets as well, stuffing those into the suitcase. After he finished packing, he opened the closet doors, looking for an empty suit
Sophie blinked sleepily as she tried to focus her vision, rubbing her eyes slowly as she turned to look at him. He was leaning forward on the steering wheel, his arms crossed, his eyes closed and his head lolling backwards slightly. It seemed like he was barely asleep, although he did appear to be sleeping."What are you doing?" she whispered, furrowing her eyebrows. "Where are we?""Just stopping. I wanna eat something before we go home.""Alright... But what are we eating?""A burger," he replied, opening his eyes, looking at her with a small smirk."A burger? At midnight?""It's fine. It's not like we're gonna run out of money, are we?""No... Well, I guess not.""So what's the problem? Come on, we gotta get going.""Are you hungry?" she mumbled softly, turning and reaching towards the glove compartment."Not really, but you need to eat.""I'm not hungry...""Then I'll just go get the food. Don't move."She stayed silent as he reached across her body, opening the glove box and di
"Sophie, what's wrong?" he asked."Nothing is wrong. Everything is fine," she mumbled."Come on. Just give it to me!""Fine, fine! It's just that, um... This isn't your typical kind of place. So, this is kinda embarrassing to say, but it's like you never actually went anywhere before," she explained awkwardly."Really? Like where?""Uh... Where you come from. It's just... A little different, is all."He raised an eyebrow. Why was she bringing it up? He hadn't exactly talked about his past very often, especially not while they were dating. He didn't really know how to. He didn't even talk about it to his family. He was pretty sure that they were aware of it, since they had known each other long enough for them to eventually find out anyway, but he doubted that they would say anything, as he was quite sure that they didn't approve of their relationship."Different?""Yeah. It's just... Different.""Is it really that hard to explain? Should I ask you to spell it out for me?""You should
The last thing he wanted was to scare her more than she already was. There was only one person who he wanted to comfort her. He wanted her to be able to talk to him."We can keep going if you want," he offered, grabbing the menu off of the countertop again and flipping through its pages until he found the one he was looking for. "How does steak sound?" he asked, smiling softly at her, waiting patiently for her response."Sure."He flipped it open, showing her the pictures. He pointed at two steaks in particular. They both looked good to him, so he handed the menu back over to her before pushing himself out of the booth. She placed it beside her plate before following him outside. He walked over to the truck, unlocking it before turning around to walk back to her side, opening the door and sliding into the passenger's seat. After locking everything back up, he leaned forward and grabbed the handle, pulling the door all the way across to the driver's seat. He slid over to the middl
"I'm glad you're here."He squeezed her hand gently as he spoke, making her smile softly to herself. She glanced down at their hands, then back up at his face, studying his features. His lips were twisted into a small frown, but he didn't look angry or upset. He looked thoughtful rather than angry. Not that she blamed him for feeling that way, though. She knew that being left there without saying a word really scared him. It probably had scared him even more when she didn't answer. And she didn't blame him for that, either. She understood completely. She understood why he was worried. But she hoped that he wouldn't worry any longer. She hoped that they could move past it."Me too," she told him honestly. "And you know what else?""What?""I love you."His frown disappeared as he lifted his head to glance at her. She smiled brightly at him. She was happy. She was happier than she had been in years. Things didn't feel as suffocating anymore. Everything felt lighter. Every single b