Sophia and Adrian Begin Again
Chapter 15 - Sophia and Adrian Begin Again
Sophia and Adrian avoided romance for almost a year.
They attended counseling with Emma.
They ate family dinners.
They learned the adult versions of one another.
Adrian had become an investigative architect who specialized in safety failures in public buildings.
Sophia had become a disciplined executive who scheduled grief like a meeting and canceled it whenever work ran late.
One evening after Emma’s school concert, they walked alone through Central Park.
Adrian said, “Vanessa is moving to Chicago.”
Sophia looked at him.
“Are you sad?”
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised her.
“She deserved a relationship where the past was not always sitting at the table.”
Sophia nodded.
They continued walking.
Adrian stopped near a bridge.
“I do not want to resume what we had.”
Sophia’s chest tightened.
He continued.
“I want to see whether the people we are now can build something new.”
“That sounds like a proposal written by a lawyer.”
“I rehearsed it.”
“I can tell.”
He smiled.
Sophia took his hand.
“No secrets.”
“No decisions made for the other person.”
“No using Emma as a reason.”
“Agreed.”
Their first kiss in fifteen years was quiet.
No ballroom.
No shocked audience.
No father watching.
When Sophia told Emma, the girl rolled her eyes.
“You both took long enough.”
Helen laughed.
May you like
The family did not become simple.
It became honest.
