Page 22 of The Do Over
“What?” Andrew bent and cocked his head so he was looking at her, no matter how she tried to turn her face away. “You sound upset. Did I do something wrong? I’m sorry I haven’t spent much time with you. I promise that I’ll take two days after the honeymoon to catch up with you.”
And that made Sophie feel like the bad guy. She shook her head.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. I should be happy that you’re happy.I’mhappythat you’ve found your happily ever after.”
“Then what’s wrong? Signs I’ve been missing?”
Sophie looked away.
How was she supposed to tell her brother that the man she had feelings for, did not want anything serious with her? The talk about a commitment that they had two days ago, sleeping on the same bed in a motel, had been replaying in her head since then.
“How did you know that Emily was the right one for you?” She asked instead, turning to look at him. “You always avoided the topic of love. You never cared to date in college and when you graduated, you stayed away from women for a while. Then you met Emily last year and you’re getting married already.”
Andrew chuckled fondly.
“Oh. This is what has been bothering you?”
It wasn’t, but she nodded.
“Uhm…I wish I had a straightforward answer, Sophie. It just happened. One day she was the friend I called at random times because she had a good sense of humor and—” he laughed, “the sex was amazing the few times it happened. But we had this long call one day and after it, I realized I wanted her.
“Not just over the phone or the few times we hooked up. I wanted to wake up next to her every day and tell her what I felt, not through a device that could only convey so much. I wanted to hear her laugh in real-time and for as long as I could tickle her fancy. Turned out that she felt the same way too. That’s all.”
“Although,” Andrew added, “we fought a couple of times. But whenever we fought, we made up quickly. I think that was an influencing factor too.”
It was even harder than she thought. Didn’t she have the same relationship with Jack? Maybe they didn’t make up immediately but when they weren’t being petty with each other, they made each other laugh. He had always made her laugh.
And she knew from experience that sex between them was good. Why—
“Sophie.” Andrew touched her arm.
“I almost had sex with Jack,” she blurted, realized it was out there, and shrugged. “Well, we did go a long way until we realized we didn’t have protection. I’d have slept with him, though.”
“Oh.”
The look on Andrew’s face suggested he wasn’t too pleased. “What?” She questioned.
“It’s not up to me to tell you what you can or cannot do, or ask you not to sleep with my friend if you’ve decided that it’s what you want to do,” he said.
Sophie wanted to hear his thoughts and reservations.
“Tell me. Everything.”
Andrew took a deep breath, adjusting himself in a sitting position so he was turned towards her.
“Okay. Here goes. You know that Jack lost his wife, right?”
She nodded.
“A car accident. They were driving home from an outing and she was in the passenger seat. It was snowy and Jack couldn’t see well enough that he wanted to pull at a shoulder. Apparently, another car had the same idea and it didn’t speed ahead of them, just went at the same speed and slammed into their car as it slipped on the ice.
“His wife died in the hospital.”
Sophie didn’t know the details of how he lost his wife and hearing it from Andrew made his words, and his tone, while he was talking to her about commitment make sense.
“Damn.”
“Yeah. But that’s not all. He’s been in a bad place since then, cutting off communications from everyone. I had to send him multiple emails and called a lot of times until I got him to answer. That was how I told him about my wedding.”
