Bitterly Sweetly (Completed)

Chapter Three: A Bad Omen and The Late-Night Guest

For years she had been cursing herself for what she did that night to Max, and she had been hoping to meet him again and apologize. But since that night no matter how much she tried, she never got to see him or hear from him, until today.

This guilt, for ten long years, had been eating her up from the inside, day and night. And now that her wait was over, now that Max was back, she would have to find a way to talk to him, to apologize.

Her heart had hoped for him to forget everything in all these years, but clearly that was not the case. The way he ignored her this morning just proved how still very much mad he was. Now, she just hoped that this anger was at a bearable level and she still had the chance to mend their friendship.

Sofia looked heavenwards and sent a silent prayer. But that very moment, the files that were kept on the shelf behind her quite clumsily chose to come crashing down aiming her head. 

Shrieking, Sofia dived sideways. And the files missed her skull by an inch. The dust that fell along covered her in a cloud and back-to-back sneezes blasted out of her mouth.

No more than a couple seconds later, the door was slammed open and Simmy followed by almost all her other staff barged in.

"What the freak happened?"

"Has the ceiling collapsed?"

"Are you alive?"

"Do we need to call an ambulance?"

While her over dramatic employees made her ears burn with their endless explosions of inquiries, groaning, Sofia picked her butt up the floor.

It was definitely a bad omen.

But at the same time it also reminded her of a sweet memory, too.

Memory of the day when in her school's library a stack of books fell on her due to her reckless browsing. On the floor she had laid disoriented for a minute or two as a heavy history book shook her skull. Out of nowhere, Max had come to her rescue then and as he dug her out from the grave of books, days of their somewhat friendship finally and truly began. Despite their families being close--her grampa being Robert Wilder's mentor, she and Max never really were more than formal. They'd seen each other occasionally since childhood but only became friends when Robert enrolled Max into the public school Sophia went to. Robert wished for his son to toughen up, which was not happening in city's most lavish private school. It surely worked wonders on Max's otherwise demure dispositions and eventually formed a friendship between them.

However, just like all the wonderful things on earth, those days too came to an end at some point. 

Sofia let out a long breath feeling the loss ache in her chest.  

And with many hands of fussing people coming forth to assist her, she raised to her feet.

And the day passed by with old memories, insecurities and a certain Max Wilder corrupting her useless mind.

--

"Yes, I know, he's back, Neil." Sofia fiddled her fingers, voice anxious as she spoke on the phone.

Neil was Max's cousin and a year younger than her and Max. But despite the age gap he was still a close friend to her.

"Max stopped by your house then, didn't he?" Neil seemed to be relieved. "Finally you both had that talk. Thank God. So, are all your issues solved now? Back to being friends?"

Walking around the desk she paced back and forth as far as the tiny space of her office allowed her to move. She was careful, however, not to go near the shelf, in fear that a pile of files would again crash on top of her head.