“American Airlines would like to welcome you all to Boston, Massachusetts. Right now, it’s currently 35 degrees outside and there are some snow flurries in the area. We’d like to wish you a Happy Holidays from our families to yours,” the pilot announced over the speaker. Nick sighed and gnawed on his fingernails nervously.
He gathered his carry-on bags and wrapped his coat around himself tighter; he figured it would be quite cold. As he exited the plane, he couldn’t help but think about Sophie some more. He was paranoid. He kept thinking he was seeing her throughout the airport. What if she had moved on with life? He hadn’t spoken to her since before June when she had decided to pick up her life and move away. He sucked in a deep breath and hurried to baggage claim. There was no turning back now.
-With Sophie-
Sophie glanced at her appearance in the mirror. She really wanted to impress Elise and her friends; she was hoping she could join in with them and establish friendships here with people. She had decided to wear nice cream-colored dress pants with a cream colored camisole and red lace top over that. Her hair was divided half up, half down and her make-up was nice, but natural looking.
She became distracted when she heard the phone ring. “Hello?” She answered as she sprayed a bit of Tommy Girl perfume on and glanced at her reflection in the mirror.
“S-Sophie?” She heard that all too familiar voice and her jaw dropped. Why was he calling her? What did he want all of a sudden? And on Christmas day, at that.
“Nick? Hi…” she mumbled and ran her fingers through her hair in complete shock. She plopped down on the edge of the bed and cleared her throat. With her eyes squeezed shut, she managed to murmur, “W-What’s up?”
“Merry Christmas,” he said. He sounded almost as shocked to be speaking with her as she was to be speaking with him. “I just, I wanted to call…I got your number from Caden.” Damn you, Caden, Sophie cursed her older brother in her mind. “I wanted you to know that I, uh, I’m in Boston.”
Boston. Sophie froze. “M-My Boston?” She stuttered, then quickly came back to correct herself. “I mean, Boston as in Boston, Massachusetts?” She asked him. Her heart was beating so quickly in her chest, she honestly thought she was going to have a heart attack.
He chuckled nervously and swallowed the lump in his throat. “Yep.” He sighed. “I wanted to get away from Florida for a while and so…I…came here,” he mumbled. He could tell she was far from excited. There was a reason she left Florida. He was completely ruining that right now.
Sophie had so many thoughts running through her mind. Did he want to see her? What did he want her to say? “That’s neat, Nick.” He tells you he’s in town and all you can come up with is, ‘That’s neat, Nick’?!, Sophie mentally yelled at herself.
“I guess you’re probably busy, I mean, it’s Christmas,” he sighed. She didn’t sound enthusiastic to see him or speak to him at all. “Sorry I bothered you.” Now all he wanted was to hang up and forget about everything; which would be hard to do considering he had already flown all the way to Boston.
“W-Wait. Nick?” Sophie quickly responded. She wasn’t quite sure she was trying to make conversation with him. He was the last person on the face of the earth she wanted to talk to, or even see.
“Yeah?” He mumbled, embarrassed that he had dropped everything and flown all the way to Boston for a girl who wasn’t interested in him. This was new for Nick – usually he was the one playing hard to get, not the other way around.
“Where are you in Boston?” She sighed and played with the hem on her lace top. She bit her bottom lip and waited for him to respond. She didn’t have any hard feelings against Nick. There were things that definitely had gone wrong in their relationship, but nothing drastic to the point where she hated him. She still cared about him enough to not want him to spend Christmas by himself.
“I’m staying at a hotel by the airport,” he stated. “The Embassy Suites by the T Station.”
Sophie sighed and closed her eyes. “Okay, take a taxi to 1127 Newbury Street. Ring up to room 210 and I’ll let you in, okay?” She mumbled. “I have plans to go to a friend’s house for Christmas dinner, but I’m sure she won’t mind if I bring you along. I’ll give her a call and let her know…”
“Soph, I really don’t want to be any kind of trouble. You have your Christmas plans. I was stupid to just jump on a plane and fly up here,” he admitted quietly. “I’m sorry. Merry Christmas and I’ll see you sometime soon or something, okay?” He sighed.
“Nick –…” Sophie tried to butt back in to convince him to come. Now she was kinda interested in seeing him.
“Don’t worry about it, okay? I’ll be totally fine. I’ll get some room service and then catch a plane back to Florida. I’ll stay with Brit and Chris in Miami for a little while,” he said, shrugging off the fact that he was alone for Christmas. “I’ll talk to ya later.” He tried to end the conversation.
“O-Okay,” Sophie sighed. This had been the weirdest conversation she had had in a long time. “Bye.” She muttered and hung up. She bit her bottom lip and tried to finish getting ready in front of her full length mirror. It was no use. She couldn’t stop thinking about Nick and how he’d be by himself. She wasn’t even fully comfortable going over to Elise’s home to meet her friends. She was never very outgoing or very good at meeting new people. Without even thinking a second thought, she picked up the phone and dialed the number written down on the post-it note.
“Hello?” Elise answered.
“Hey, Elise? This is Sophie Kent from work…” she jogged the girl’s memory just in case Elise didn’t remember her.
“Hey Sophie! Merry Christmas!” Elise exclaimed cheerfully. “Are you still planning on coming by the apartment today to have a little bit of dinner and meet everyone?” She asked, making Sophie feel guilty about having to cancel.
“Merry Christmas to you too! Actually, that’s why I wanted to call you,” she paced around her bedroom, nervous about making a bad impression. “One of my friends from Florida actually called me just a minute ago. He surprised me and flew into Boston for Christmas. Total shocker to me,” she chuckled.
“You can feel free to bring him by,” Elise suggested. “We have enough food for like, the whole year.” She chuckled.
“I’ll mention it to him,” Sophie replied. “That’s really sweet of you to invite him, too. We might stop by for a little while.”
“Okay! It’s fine if you can’t. I don’t want you to feel pressured to. I just think you’d get along great with everyone else,” Elise beamed. “So if you can’t come over today, we should definitely try to catch up sometime soon.”
“Aw, thanks Elise,” Sophie grinned. “That’s sweet. We’ll definitely all get together.” She agreed.
“Okay, well, I’ll talk to you soon, okay? Have fun with your friend!”
“Thanks! Have a great get together with everyone,” Sophie smiled. “I’ll see ya at work. Bye.” The two hung up and Sophie threw on her pea coat and scarf to head over to the T Station – more specifically, the Embassy Suites. “I cannot believe I’m doing this.” She mumbled under her breath as she made sure her kitten, Lizzie, was content. She locked her apartment door and hurried down the stairs to the street to try and catch a taxi.
“Where to?” The driver asked as she slammed the door shut.
“The Embassy Suites by the T Station and next to the airport,” she muttered and glanced out the window. Damn her for falling into his trap.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you SO much for the reviews! I'm really glad you all seem to be enjoying it. I'll try & update once more before Christmas, but if I don't get the opportunity, then I wish everyone a very happy holidays! Please review & let me know what you think of this chapter!!
