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“Sofi?” came Austin’s voice through the phone.
Sofi put the phone on speaker and let it fall beside her.
“Say what you have to say,” she said, feeling Leia’s presence by her feet once more.
“I’d rather say this to your face,” Austin said quietly.
“I’d rather you’d called me sometime during the last four weeks,” Sofi bit back.
Austin sighed. “That was fair.”
Yeah it was.
“Austin, I’m giving you five minutes,” Sofi said. She’d never spoken to Austin this harshly before. But she needed to get this done and then move on. She had to move on.
“I love you, Sofi,” Austin said.
No! No, no, no, no, no. He didn’t do what he did and then say he loved her. Wait, he meant as a friend. The way he’d always loved her.
Sofi’s heart clenched even as her stomach felt a bit more at ease.
“I get it. We’re best friends. You don’t want to lose me. We are so good just as we were. Did I miss anything?” Sofi spouted, kind of wishing she could throw the blanket back from her face, but then she’d see Austin, who was surely still in the window. And she couldn’t handle that.
“You missed everything, Sof. Because I said Iloveyou,”
Sofi realized she hadn’t been mistaken the first time. He was declaring his love for her. Over the phone. To be fair, the phone part had been her doing. But if it weren’t for last night . . .
An image of the gorgeous blonde nearly climbing into Austin’s lap filled every corner of her mind. It was too easy to recall. It would be with her for life. Yes, she’d seen Austin with other women. She’d even seen him kissing others. And though it had always caused her sorrow, this was different. This was after he knew what the sight would do to her. And instead of talking to her first, he’d gone on a date. Wait, why was he on a date if he loved Sofi? His actions didn’t jive with his words and Sofi suddenly knew what she’d already felt deep inside. She could no longer trust Austin.
“I get that you don’t want to lose me. Losing you will torture me more than I can say,” Sofi said, her voice cracking as she imagined life without Austin. “But you can’t just say things you don’t mean.”
“Sofi, I mean it. I swear to you. I went on that date to make sure all other women were out of my system. I was planning on coming over right after. To tell you everything.”
“You had to go on a date?” Sofi needed clarification even as she wanted this call to be over.
“I had to make sure my feelings for all other women were gone. I couldn’t commit to you and then back out. I needed to be positive my heart was only yours forever. I couldn’t do anything halfway. I had to give my all to this. To you.”
“And you could only know after going on that date?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds ridiculous, but it made sense at the time. Sofi, I can’t hurt you. I would never. It was why I had to be more than one hundred percent.”
“And yet you did,” Sofi’s soft words were hitting a nerve if Austin’s intake of breath was any indication.
While he was stunned she continued, “I was more than one hundred percent about you without dating any other guys.”
“You dated Bash—”
“While you dated the whole of the state, Austin. You’ve had hundreds of women to prove to you over the years if what you felt for me was real. Why this date? It makes no sense.”
“Do you think I’m lying to you?” Austin asked, the distress in his voice clear.
“I don’t know what to think, Austin. You were the one man I was sure would never injure me. Now I’m not sure of anything,” Sofi said.
He’d said he loved her. It was everything she’d wanted to hear for so long. But after last night her trust and belief in him had been destroyed, and his words were no longer enough. Sofi wouldn’t trust mere words even if her heart screamed to give him another chance.
“I’ve never lied to you.”
“You’ve also never wounded me like this. You had to know what that would do.”
