A Billion Reasons (Wish 8)

9 - Triste

Click on the picture. It helped inspire beautiful Sofia.

Sofia watched as he walked away. Why did the man intrigue her so much? She had heard all about his reputation more than once. She had mentioned talking to him in the garden and Rosa jumped all over her.

"He's a drunk and a womanizer. Stay clear of him."

She didn't defend him. She remembered how he looked the first time she saw him outside the kitchen. He hadn't looked like any of those things to her. He looked triste, sad.

In the kitchen, the way they so carelessly spoke of him and his past relationship felt wrong. They were not the snobby one percent. Both she and Rosa had been raised to be kind, but her sister hadn't sounded kind.

"I've spoken to him. He's not a drunk. It sounds like this Sloane is the mean one." Martina told a story about how the teenage boy begged her to take him back for days after they broke up.

Rosa told her to get out of a romance book and grow up. She had been harping on her about becoming a nanny. Even her sister didn't know what she was talking about, because she wanted her to work for Sage. Sofia had spoken to Sage, who said she wouldn't need a nanny until she went back to work the following fall. She had almost a year to make it as a model.

Her sister kept telling her she was too old and too fat or her hips were too big or she wasn't tall enough. She planned to prove her wrong, because she had a photo shoot lined up.

After Rosa yelled at her, she left the kitchen and hid in the pantry where there was enough food to feed her family for a year. Sofia had trouble getting used to the excess she observed in the Petersen household. Rosa and Julio acted immune, but Sofia wasn't desensitized. Rosa had forgotten the times papa was out of work and they stood in line knowing their lunch was free, but feeling embarrassed because whatever was ladled onto their plastic tray would be their most substantial meal of the day.

Rosa had gone to the vocational high school and learned to cook. She worked in the kitchen of restaurants, sweating ten hours a day, before she found the posting for a personal cook.

Her father thought she was taking a step backwards. Abuela worked as a maid when she immigrated from Colombia with their father, only a small boy. Her mother's family had been in The States just as long. They were Americans.

No one complained about Rosa's job once she met Julio. He was a good, hardworking husband and father.

Sofia had stayed in high school with the goal of earning a scholarship. The scholarships weren't enough, and she was forced to quit college after two years. While she worked a string of retail positions, customers often asked if she was a model. She took it as a sign she should become one. Why couldn't her sister support her endeavors?

Sofia had spoken up for a man she hardly knew. He was the Petersens' guest, so she shouldn't have spoken to him. Yet she had another conversation with him. Watching him leave, his words turned in her head. Problems, compete, black heart, drunk.

She felt more optimistic about her life. She had a modeling job. She hadn't told anyone. Rosa, her bossy older sister, would tell her it wasn't real because she found it through Facebook. The photographer had a legit site. She had spent hours checking it out.

When Sofia went inside, she planned to get a glimpse of the two baseball players, even if Rosa never spoke to her again. Bea would never fire her sister. She wanted to check on Monty too. Hopefully, he wasn't getting drunk and proving Martina right.

She crept to the ballroom door closest to the private rooms and away from the dining room and bathroom. She pushed the swinging hinge door slightly. Across the room, both men stood talking. Each had their arm around a woman. She studied the one with Lynch. She was beautiful. Although they made a striking couple, she would have looked just as good on Monty's arm.