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Chapter Sixteen:
It was now Friday, and I was starting to internally freak out.
First of all, now that things were different between us since our last planned time together, I was very anxious as to how this meeting would go with Will. Plus, I wondered what we would be doing, and if there would be a ton of his fan girls there. The thought made me gag a little.
Those questions were attached on to the endless list of other possible scenarios for the night. And all my wondering pretty much preoccupied my entire work day.
Scratch that, work week.
"God, this place sucks. I wish there was like a splash of color on the wall somewhere. I mean did you ever know a place could be so boring?" An annoying voice spat, snapping me from my worries.
Don't think about it, it will just annoy you. Think happy thoughts.
"The only thing that gets me up and out of bed in the morning is knowing I get to that fine-as-hell Gavin. Am I right, ladies?"
A chorus of agreement is what fully took me away from my happy place. Goodbye chocolate fountains, goodbye puppies, and goodbye peace and quiet. When I snapped back to reality, I was surrounded by four barely tan walls and six very annoying people. The especially painful voice was Allison's. She was popping her bright pink bubble gum obnoxiously, too, as for usual.
Collin, the pervy intern that hits on everyone, was also there. Along with four other interns that I don't have any interest in getting to know. It's more than enough knowing Collin and Allison, I don't need the extra mind clutter.
"That's complete shit! I can take that guy," Collin said while he shoved a handful of chips into his mouth. There was so many in his hand, though, that when the chips crumpled, little pieces either fell messily on to the table or stuck to his face.
Even though I hadn't been listening to their conversation at all, I accidentally let a chuckle slip out. Gavin would never behave so childishly in public.
Collin's eyes darted to mine before narrowing. "What are you laughing at, blondie?"
I raised my eyebrows at his immaturity, and Allison answered for me. "She's laughing at how completely stupid you sound," she snapped with a smirk.
Collin looked back to me and I shrugged before going back to my salad. This is the first and most likely only time I will agree with anything the red lipped bimbo has to say.
"No she's not! Sophia, tell her how hot and ripped you think I am!" Collin ordered and I made a face.
"Ha ha! She agrees with me. You're a pig, Collin!" Allison insulted, quite weakly I might add.
"Nuh uh!" Collin retorted.
"Yes too!"
I rubbed my temple to ease the growing headache, "Good Lord, you guys, we're grown adults, can you try not to act like five year olds?"
Why must Gavin have meetings and appointments all day? I'm dying here with the absence of intellect and sensibility. I tried to ignore their next comments, and thankfully my ringing phone interrupted them.
"Hello?" I slid to answer my phone without checking who it was. Anyone on the other end of the line would be an improvement from my current company, so I wasted no time answering.
"Hey, Soph," The familiar voice of Will said through the phone.
"Oh. Will. Hey, what's up?"
"Not much, just got out of practice," He informed, and I heard his car door shut like he was getting ready to drive. "I was actually calling about our plans for tonight."
I felt my stomach tense up in to knots, and I got this horrible feeling that he was going to cancel on me. I swallowed to steady myself before answering. "What about it?"
"Well would you mind if we changed it up a bit?"
The knots intensified, "Do you have other plans?"
"What? No. I was just wondering if you'd be okay with just hanging out at your apartment instead of going out to do something," Will assured on the other line.
"Oh okay, yeah that's fine with me," I tried to play it off even though I felt like letting out an enormous 'phew.' The feeling of awful anticipation can be brutal, and when that burden was released, it was a relief.
"Great," Will said, and by the tone of his voice I could tell he was about to say something I wouldn't like. "Aw, Sophie, were you worried I was going to stand you up?"
My face was getting warm, but since he couldn't tell, I scoffed, but made an unconvincingly short argument. "No."
"You so were! You know, that hurts, Soph," Will said, and I could practically feel his smirk through the phone.
"Yeah whatever Will, I'm sure," I said with a roll of my eyes.
He laughed a little, and my own smile started to creep onto my face at the sound. "Alright, I'll be at your place around 6:30. That work?"
I nodded, but when I realized he couldn't tell, I replied "Yeah, that works great."
"I'll bring the food. See you then," Will said as we disconnected the call. I set my phone back on the table with a small smile on my face as I thought about seeing Will tonight.
Why am I even so happy about this?
"Who was that?" Allison asked, nosy as ever.
I jumped a little, mainly because I forgot I was in the room with all them. Also, her squeaky voice just has that affect. I shrugged, "No one."
"Well you're smiling like an idiot, so it must have been a hot guy," One of the other girls interns noted. Who the hell was this chick, even? I haven't paid her any attention before, meaning she must not be completely incompetent at doing her work. Now, though, she was annoying me with her interpretation of me.
"Now she's blushing!" Collin said. Damn that blushing! So inconvenient.
"It was no one!" I exclaimed as I slammed both my hands on the counter.
"Oh Sophia, you're so obvious," Allison commented with a snarky grin.
I had no response but to stick my tongue out at them all. Naturally, they made fun of me and called me a hypocrite for acting immature. I had no response, because I saw their point, but they did egg me on to react as such.
But who cares! I'm hanging out with Will tonight. That has me in a great mood. So I tuned them out and thought about all the possibilities of tonight.
*****
"You know it's fine if you stay for a while," I told Elise for the umpteenth time. Yet, for whatever reason, she still thought she had to leave for Will to come over.
"I already told you, I'm leaving. Chris wants to meet and have dinner or whatever," She rolled her eyes at the situation while she pulled on her sweater. "Besides, it's only ten after and I'm meeting Chris at 6:30, so I have to go." I sighed in resignation. "Plus, would you really want me here if you and Will decided to kindle your old relationship and get all hot and heavy?"
My face burned, "God Elise, knock it off!" I said through my humiliation while smacking her in the arm. "I take it all back, leave."
She laughed, "I'm just saying!"
Before I could say something else dramatic, someone buzzed our apartment. I dashed to answer before Elise could humiliate me further, "Yes?"
"Hey, it's Will."
I turned to Elise, and back to the intercom, quite impressed that Will was actually early this time.
"Hey Will, come on up."
"Thanks. Oh wait, is your roommate there?" He asked. Right on cue, Elise ran up next to me.
"Um, yeah. Why?" I didn't get an answer.
"What the hell! Was that his way of asking me to leave?" She was truly offended, but I couldn't help but see the humor. Serves her right, justice is sweet.
I shrugged and brushed past her, hiding my smile. It was only a matter of moments before there was a knock on our door. Elise sprinted to answer it before I had the chance.
Yikes. I forgot how fast paced Elise gets when you tick her off.
She yanked the door open, "Look, Mr. Big Shot, I know that..." She completely trailed off, and I was confused. But when I got to the door, I saw why. A pair of gorgeous, baby blue eyes were in the hall, accompanied by Will's brown ones.
"Hey Sophia!" Andrew greeted me by lifting me off the ground into a hug.
"Hey Andrew," I chuckled as he set me down. When he did, I took in his appearance. Sure enough, he was still as smoking hot as before. Yum. Looking at Elise, I saw that she was ogling at him more intently that I was. If I gave her a bowl of ice cream, she would have sprinkled him on top and scooped him right up.
"Hey Soph," Will said as he gave me a smile. His smile seemed unsure though, and I couldn't help but feel like it was because he didn't know if he should hug me or not, and I certainly had no guts to do so, so instead I gave him a smile.
We all stood in the hall in silence before Will spoke up. "So, um, Andrew here was begging me not to leave him alone tonight, so I invited him to join us. Andrew this is Elise, Elise this is Andrew." I glanced to Elise and saw the star struck look in her eyes had not faltered. I smirked.
"Nice to meet you," Andrew smiled charmingly.
"And you," Elise said, and I was actually surprised by the amount of confidence her voice held. She is a naturally confident person (without being at all arrogant), but the way she could still sound so sure of herself while in a trance was something that impressed me.
"So, would you ladies mind if we joined you for the night?" Andrew asked.
Elise and I looked to each other, and even though we both knew the answer would be yes, we wanted to stall for a moment so we wouldn't seem desperate. We feigned having a debate with our eyes between us, before responding, "Sure."
"Great!" Andrew said excitedly as him and Will welcomed themselves into our apartment.
I pulled Elise aside for a moment, "What about your plans with Chris?"
She waved me off, "Whatever. He's a jackass, and I'm pretty sure tonight would have gone to hell anyways."
"Does this have anything to do with Andrew?"
"What? No! So what if he's hot..." She trailed off and I laughed. "This will be way more fun, I can already tell." I had to agree with that.
"Pizza should be here soon! We ordered it on the way, gave them the address for here," Andrew informed us as we joined them in the kitchen.
I chuckled, "Did you two just assume we would let you stay?"
"Well, duh. You'd have to be crazy to turn away two, sexy professional baseball players," Will winked at me while taking a step closer. He entered into my personal bubble, close enough that I could smell him. And may I just say that damn that boy smells fine.
"Did you boys have a plan for what we were going to do?" Elise asked, causing Will to take a small step back and away from me, allowing me to breathe more regularly. I hadn't realized my cardiac pattern was off until he wasn't as close.
Andrew shrugged, "A movie and pizza?"
"What kind of pizza is—" Before I could finish, Will cut in.
"Don't worry Soph, we ordered you your black olive. I didn't want get beat up like last time," He admitted with a smirk. I chuckled and elbowed him in the ribs, even though I was actually very contented that he remembered what kind of pizza I like.
"There's a movie rental place down the street, we could just go rent one," I suggested.
"I'm cool with that," Andrew agreed.
"Great! I'll go get one," Will offered, causing me to instantaneously look up to him. He looked down at me, and then smiled before adding, "Sophia will come with me!"
Why the hell am I getting butterflies from that? We're just friends. Only freshly acquainted again. This isn't rational, obviously.
"Okay, so Andrew and I will wait for pizza and get everything set up, Sophia and Will are going to get a movie and we will all meet back up here in about a half hour, depending on how many other loners with no social life are also renting movies tonight. Ready? Copy that? Break!" Elise rattled everything off in about five seconds under her breath before charging out of the room to God knows where.
Andrew watched her go with a small smile on his lips. "She's cute," He said before walking after her blindly, seemingly amused.
Will turned to me, "Shall we go?"
I laughed, deciding Andrew and Elise were old enough to handle themselves on their own. "We shall." Will opened the door for me and followed behind as we went out.
"Aren't I a genius?" Will asked as we entered the open elevator.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What?"
He rolled his eyes, "Elise and Andrew!"
I thought about it. "Wait, you brought him on purpose?" Will nodded. More thinking. "For Elise?' He nodded again.
Silence.
"That's fantastic!" I shouted as the elevator hit the ground floor.
Will laughed, "I know."
"This is great," I commented again as we entered the outside air. It was a lot chillier than I expected. "I'm impressed you—"
"Here, you can wear this," Will interjected as he shrugged off his sweater and gave it to me to put on.
"It's okay, the rental place isn't that far away," I declined.
He rolled his eyes, "Just take it."
"Thanks," I said as I pulled my arms through the sleeves. Immediately, I was enveloped by Will's comforting warmth and delightful smell form earlier.
"Come on," Will said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me along. I really didn't mind the hand holding, not at all actually. But one thing was wrong.
"Will, we're going the wrong way."
He smirked down at me, "Yeah I know. We're taking the long way there."
"What?" I asked, confused.
He laughed, but still stopped, "Just come with me, Soph. We're going to go on a little adventure."
I stared at him for a moment, trying to process what he was saying.
"Come on, ten years ago you would have never thought about it this long. Are you in?" He asked, with a hopeful and charming gleam in his brown eyes.
A smile cracked from my lips, "What are we waiting for?"
"That's my girl," He said with excitement before once again pulling me behind him.
I suddenly felt warm and fuzzy for three reasons. One, I was wrapped up in Will's sweatshirt. Two, his hand was holding mine. And three, he called me his girl for the first time in five years.
And one thing I knew for sure was that tonight, tonight would definitely be interesting.
Watch out, New York. Hide your children. Lock your doors. Will and Sophia are back in business.