Be Careful Who You Trust

Chapter 12

We arrived at the place that brings me peace the most. It was a cafe/bookstore called Books and Beans, as in coffee beans. Ever since I was a little kid I loved books, I spent long nights reading and even got in trouble for being up late trying to finish reading my books. I couldn't help it, reading helped me escape reality. Reading was like a plane ticket to my next adventure. Mary and I entered the cafe and I saw her eyes widen when she saw how beautiful and big the place was. You can smell the coffee as soon as you open the door. I asked her if she wanted to order anything and she asked for a hot chocolate. While I ordered I told her to get us some seats away from all the people. I got her hot chocolate and went to look for her, she was in the romance section. There were a few beanbags there so we used those as our seats. "This place is amazing!" she said, "how did you find it? I can see why this place would bring you peace. It has two of the things you love the most, coffee and books," she smiled. "I used to come here with my grandpa before he died. We both loved reading so much and when he passed away  I would come here because it brought back so many memories I had made with him. I'm glad you like it. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous that you wouldn't," I told her. "I do, I love it. It's so cozy, plus who doesn't love the smell of coffee?" she inhaled deeply. She drank her hot chocolate as we walked between the rows of books. She asked me who my favorite author was and I told her it was Dean Koontz. "Oh my god! Didn't they make a movie out of his Odd Thomas book?" she asked, "Yes, they did. I actually named my first car after one of the characters in the book. Her name was Stormy. Yes, my car was female," I laughed and felt a little embarrassed to admit that. When we stopped laughing she said "I missed this, just the two of us hanging out, laughing about random conversations we had. Do you remember that? When we used to work at the liquor store close to your grandma's house and we'd go visit her sometimes because she made us the most delicious food." I did remember, I missed it too. "Yeah, that was fun. What happened? Did you really fall so hard for Lucas that you had to stop talking to Sophia and I out of nowhere? You literally dropped us like we never meant anything to you," I said, not wanting to argue, just wanting to know the truth. "It wasn't like that Alex, It's just, I had been single for so long and I needed some affection. I wanted someone to give me the attention I couldn't ask from you because Sophia was in love with you. Lucas felt like a safe place, he made me feel like I didn't have to compete with anyone else for him. When we barely started dating he was such a sweetheart, then about three weeks ago he started changing and I didn't think anything of it. I thought maybe it was the stress from work. We hardly spoke anymore, he didn't kiss me like he used to, if anything he would turn his head so I''d kiss his cheek instead of his mouth. He didn't touch me anymore, I started to feel so unwanted, at work he started ignoring me. Then I noticed the way he looked at Sophia and the way she looked at him. That's why the night he didn't answer his phone I decided to go to the office, because I had a gut feeling that he would be there and she would too and I guess I was right." I didn't know what to say, I wanted to tell her that I had feelings for Sophia too, that we had grown so close that I missed every second she was away from me.

"Everything is so complicated now, I wish we could go back to the way things were, maybe I would've grown a pair and told you I loved you," I was frustrated and overwhelmed. We left the cafe and headed to my apartment. She wanted to spend more time together. I opened the door to my apartment and, to my surprise, Sophia was there. "How did you get in here?" I asked. She was looking at Mary, who was smirking and seemed to be happy Sophia saw us together. "You left the door unlocked, and since you called out I wanted to come check up on you. I guess I should leave now," she grabbed her purse off my couch and walked out, I followed her. Mary tried to hold me back, but I pulled my arm away from her. "Sophia, wait! Sophie!!" I yelled, she turned to look at me, tears on her face.

"What do you want Alex? Are you going to make an excuse to me as to why you called off work to be with your boss' girlfriend? Don't bother. I'm tired of always being second to her," she said. "They're not together anymore actually," I said stupidly. "Oh, so now that they're not together anymore, I am no longer needed to entertain you. Ok, got it," she said sarcastically. "I didn't mean it like that, I'm not doing anything wrong here. You're the one fucking your boss knowing your best friend was dating him," the words shot out of me like a bullet intended to hurt. Her mouth fell open, her eyes wide in disbelief, "Is that what she told you? She has some nerves. All I'm going to tell you is be careful with Mary, don't believe everything she says," Sophia said as she got in her car. Those last words she said reminded me of what my abuelita told me, she said to make sure I could trust Mary. "Can I please take you home? I can't do this, I need to be alone," I told Mary. "It's fine, I'll call an uber," she looked annoyed. She left and I sat on my living room floor, I was so mad at myself because I had fucked things up with the only girl who ever gave me the time of day, she loved me and I ruined it. Yes, Mary said she had loved me too, but only after she broke up with Lucas. I was like her last resort, her rebound. I text Sophia to apologize to her, I wanted to talk to her and figure out what she meant when she said not to trust Mary. Why couldn't I trust her? Why would she lie about Sophia and Lucas?

I had a sleepless night, I kept tossing and turning, looking at the clock. At least I was going to see Sophia at work and maybe we'd get a chance to talk there. I could go into her office and pretend we were talking about work in case Lucas walked in. Later that day I got to work and noticed her car wasn't in the parking lot. Maybe she was going to show up late so that we wouldn't run into each other. I sat on my desk, opened my emails to see what I needed to catch up on and saw that I had an email from Lucas, he had sent it last night. I opened it right away and read it. In the email Lucas mentioned that Sophia wasn't coming to work today and that I needed to catch up on any unfinished projects we had. He also joked about us catching a bug since I had called absent the day prior. The whole day at work I was busy with all the work I had to finish, it kept my mind occupied. Frank came to my office when it was time for lunch to ask if I wanted to take lunch with him. I agreed and left my office. Frank was talking, but for some reason I couldn't concentrate on what he was saying. All I could do was nod in agreement and pretend I was listening. I had forgotten Frank had said he was friends with Sophia so I asked him, "Hey is Sophia ok? Have you talked to her today?" He swallowed a piece of sandwich he had in his mouth and said, "I don't talk to Sophia, I only met her because I started working here thanks to Mary." this is not what he had told me the first time I met him, "You said you got this job because Sophia told you her boss was looking for a receptionist," I told him. "Did I say that? Hmm I don't recall," he said and chewed another mouthful of sandwich. I stopped eating and wondered if Mary put him up to this, if Mary had told him to tell me Sophia was his friend just to add to the story of her being involved with Lucas. When lunch was over I tried to finish what was left of our projects so that I could leave on time and head to Sophia's house. I needed to talk to her and find out the truth of whatever was going on.