Seize The Day

Chapter Two

Taking refuge in the small garden, Sophie was sitting in an old fashioned wooden deck chair, but the autumn sun didn’t make her mind think any easier, and when Bill joined her with a ceasefire gesture of a bottle of wine, she couldn’t focus at all.

                “Sorry mate, I know Vin has wild ideas. But I still think you should go. Raise your head high and then toss them the ‘V’ when they’re suitably impressed!” He seemed deep in thought after filling two glasses and handed her one, then he dropped to stretch out on the similar chair beside her, “what about my brother?”

She sprayed a mouthful of chardonnay across the small courtyard, “what?! Lord Henry Swift on a ‘date’ with me???”

He sighed, “He’s not a Lord!” Bill was indignant.

                “No but he thinks he is! Bill the problem isn’t you! Any woman would be more than glad to have you on their arm...hell they fight over you every night of the week! You’re good looking, funny, and the most charming conversationalist! It’s just the whole going back in time thing. This last year...I don’t know!”

He sipped his wine, kicking out his feet and looking like a country gentleman with his ankles crossed sprawled across the small courtyard they called a garden.

                “Is this to do with your folks? I mean they’ve constantly abandoned you for the greater good!” It was a topic they didn’t cover very often, but he was feeling a little buoyed by the great day he’d had. Throwing caution to the wind he studied her, waiting for a response.

                “So I should be used to it?” Sophie half laughed. A childhood spent staying with relatives or in boarding school was not an overly happy one. “No it’s not that. I am used to that. But, well my brother’s got it all, lovely home, beautiful wife...”

                “She is that!” He nodded enthusiastically, but with Bill it was purely an observation. He was that kind of guy. For Bill this was starting to make more sense. Sophie had taken so many risks, and her brother had shown nothing short of disgust for that. Funny how something quite different makes you reflect on everything.

Sophie raised her eyebrows and his response, then ‘hmphed’, “kids, great job...and he takes every opportunity to remind me of that. I’m just some drop out...he doesn’t get me living here...” She grinned at the sudden drop to Bill’s face, “or me giving up a ‘perfectly good career’. He makes me feel a failure.”

He was smiling, taking it all in the good humour it was meant with, “why do you let him? You know how my brother scorns me! I just laugh at him! And to be honest, what can be better than living here with me and Vin? Really?” And he meant it, he loved living with his two friends, they cared for his home as thought it were their own, they looked out for each other, and they had a symbiosis that many craved.

Sophie sighed, “You’re strong, successful and financially viable. All the things he pulls me up on. Your brother really has no avenue of criticism; after all he sits back and uses your father’s name to slide through life without any effort or work. That’s exactly how my brother sees me.  It’s my weakness and he dives on it like a bird of prey every time he sees me. And I suppose my parents wouldn’t care about what I’m doing, they are all for what ‘feels right’, but growing up, Nick was more like a parent than them, it hurts that he judges me.”

Bill leaned forward and patted her shoulder, “you’re doing the right thing following your dreams Beck. You’re not a slave to the money, you never have been. This will work! How are the plans going?”

Her latest challenge was to submit her idea for the illustration of a series of six children’s books about supernatural occurrences. The publishing company would select the best one and Sophie had spent several hours with the author trying to visualise her ideas. But it was still a lottery. Securing the deal would be a huge coup, and would secure her a decent financial income for the next few years. Then she could concentrate on her real love. Art...for art’s sake.