Yours | ✓

23 | Welcome to the File

Meredith smiled as Sophie's statement. "How did your parents meet?" She asked whimsically.

"My mom was a waitress in a restaurant, near my dad's college," Sophie said with a laugh. "He caught her reading a customer's palm and was intrigued."

She instantly gushed. "That's so cute! Is that why your dad named the diner after your mom?"

Sophie looked at her with confusion, but she nodded, nonetheless. "Yeah. She actually ran it for a bit, but she wanted to get more into helping people. Giving them closure and stuff."

Meredith furrowed her brows at that, but instead of questioning it, she turned to me and asked. "I already know how your parents met but... I love hearing it," she said, grinning, like the hopeless romantic she was.

"How'd they meet?" Sophie asked, turning her chair so she was fully staring at me.

I bit back a smile as I looked to my lap, my hands now fiddling over my leather pants. "They met in college, too. He was a big sports person, since he played basketball with Darius," I said, looking at Sophie with a smile. "He caught her making out with her current boyfriend and they kind of started... hating each other."

"Dad was a joker," I smiled sadly, remembering how playful he'd been growing up. "After they graduated, they became friends and fell in love. Dad would take her star gazing and mom grew flowers in their backyard. When they had Chris..."

I shook my head, remembering how dad told me the story while we were outside, looking at the sky.

I wanted to do so much with my life, but the second Chris was born, I knew being a dad was all I wanted to be. And when I saw you smiling at me, right after you were born, I was ready to give up anything to see it again.

My heart tightened at the reminder, but hearing Meredith's longing sigh got me out of my mind. "Why are you so in love with love?" Sophie questioned with a scrunched nose.

"How can people not be?" Meredith retorted, smiling as she looked to the side. "Knowing that there is someone who can love you. All of you."

"Especially true love. Honest to God love," she chuckled, shaking her head as she now stared at her lap. "Do you ever just have an instant attraction to someone? I've always wanted it. But I've never found it, in the twenty-two years I've lived."

I bit my lip, feeling a shiver running through my body. The thought of Liam instantly made my body react, and I couldn't help but listen to her rambling.

"I want someone to love me unconditionally. Katy Perry said it best, you know?" She whispered, looking back to us with such hope in her eyes.

When she turned to me, I sucked in a breath. "I see how Liam looks at you. How you both are together..."

She didn't continue, but I knew what she was going to say.

"What if I'm not his?" I blurted out.

Both of them tensed, as I watched as Sophie slowly turned to me, brows furrowed. "What if I'm not Liam's... you know, true love," I muttered, looking to my lap again.

Neither of them said anything, so I forced myself to first meet Sophie's waiting gaze. "You're kidding, right?"

"Liam doesn't even look at other people, let alone girls," Meredith commented next, bringing my attention to her. "He doesn't even... have emotion, without you around."

"That's not—"

"It is," Sophie stopped me, narrowing her eyes. "Mon, you didn't see how he was before you came back to town. He was a ghost. Never saying anything, hiding himself from people. He's said more these past few months than the last two years."