James
I almost didn’t send Sophia anything. I almost let her go without a word. Now, as I watch her ship depart, I’m thinking I should’ve. I only made this harder for her.
It can be called manipulative—the footage I sent her of that little cam. But I don’t care. I’ve kept my distance. Given her space. And she deserves to know how much I love her.
How much she means to me.
But it seems even that my love coupled with the news of Aquarius’s sale wasn’t enough to make her change her mind.
I know she’s been going to the post office every morning. Her friend Alana had been a great wing-woman for this surprise. I told her the deal—that I was a workaholic of the worst degree and Sophia wasn’t going to stand it. When I told her I was selling the company, she agreed to help. Sophia must’ve left out the danger I put her in. I’m thankful she did.
But Sophia’s had that stupid hat for hours. Same with the email. And… nothing.
Maybe she hates my timing. It was a little cruel of me to choose to ask for her heart last minute, but it wasn’t until I heard that she was going on a billionaire’s research trip that she forced my hand.
I’ve been working nonstop to get the business sold since that night in Quebec. Plus, Cody had to plummet twenty-four stories down his apartment’s stairwell. That unfortunate accident took some planning to put together.
Why’d I try to be grand and romantic? I should’ve just called. Put my heart on a platter. But maybe my bartering would’ve been worse for her. This gave her the clearest choice.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I take it out, ready to hurl it into the sea, but I flinch back in surprise when I read the caller ID.
I throw the phone to my ear. “Sophia.”
“,” she says. Her voice is weak. Broken. “I’m sorry about Quebec. I’m sorry I walked away. That I didn’t fight.”
“It wasn’t your job to fight.”
“You don’t have to sell your company.”
“Maybe I want the money.”
I hear her laugh, and I smile.
“I just got your package,” she says.
“You just got it? But the post office had it this morning. I was hoping you’d get it before you boarded.”
“It went directly to the boat once it docked.”
“Shit.”
“It’s okay. They won’t let me off, but it’s thirty days. That’s not bad, right?”
“You’re two hundred feet from shore. I can hire a fast boat and pick you up.”
“What? You’re not in New York?” Sophia asks.
“I’m on shore, snowflake.”
Suddenly, the sounds of shuffling and movement come from the line.
“Sophia? Sophia?”
She doesn’t respond. I’m watching the boat when I see a figure appear on the upper port deck.
I’m standing on a jetty of rocks that sticks out into the sea. I’m a hundred yards from the pier that the boat left from. I raise my arm in the air. “You see me?”
“I see you,” Sophia says. “Listen, Claude Bernard is insane. I don’t think he’d stop the boat to let me off even if you reached me.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m hiring someone to shoot the fucking engines.” My heart is pounding. I’m walking farther up the jetty towards the boat. She’s right there. I can see her.
“I wish, . It’s okay. I won’t be long.” She almost laughs, but I can tell she’s crying. “Remember when you told me love was just a chemical?”
“Of course.”
“You’re so eating your words when I get my hands on you.”
“Sophia, there are things left out of that letter. Things I didn’t think would be fair to put in front of you when you already had a difficult decision to make.”
“Like what?”
“That I’ve dreamt of you nearly every night for the past three months. And those dreams, they’re not that strange kind where you don’t know where you are or what you’re doing. They had clear themes. Purposes. They’re dreams where I hold you. Rescue you. Love you. Ridiculous dreams of a man so totally in love, it’s almost boyish. I fell in love with you in the night.” I smile. “And when I would see you in the day, it was like seeing a celebrity. The star of my nights. A beauty… unbelievable…”
“I’ve dreamt of you, too.”
“Your eyes, your smile. They were even more gorgeous in reality than in the theater of my imagination…” I choke on my words. “I love you, Sophia. I love you more than mere chemicals could ever explain.”
There’s nothing but silence on the other line. The warm Caribbean wind flutters my suit coat.
I stare at her. From this distance, there’s not much more detail than an outline of the woman I love.
“Oh… … Fuck this.” The line goes silent.
“Sophia?” I say. I turn my phone and see the call has ended. I watch her straddle the railing on the third deck and climb so she’s on the other side.
“Sophia!” I shout.
She’s thirty feet over the water. And if she jumps, she’s two hundred feet from shore. The water is calm, but what if there are currents?
“Sophia, don’t—” But my words aren’t reaching her anyway. I freeze as I watch her leap from the deck. Time stands still in the second it takes her to disappear into the water.
I throw my suit coat off. I’m not even thinking as I jump off the rocks and into the warm water. I swim furiously, stopping only to keep her bobbing head in sight.
“Sophia!” I shout, taking in a mouthful of saltwater.
“!”
My arms and lungs burn by the time I can make out her facial features, and she’s switched from a breaststroke to a tired dog paddle. She looks childish. Wet. Afraid. Her dark hair is soaked and tight against her skull.
“Sophia,” I say with relief as I pull her to me and kick to keep afloat in the water. We stay like that for several seconds as we catch our wild breaths.
“I can be dangerous, too,” Sophia says.
“That was just stupid.”
She looks right at me, her eyes mere inches away from mine. “As stupid as spending thirty days without you?”
“Perhaps not,” I say, and we kiss slowly. The water is warm but cold on our lips. Our kiss is passionate. Salt. The taste of Sophia.
It’s only broken as we both hear shouting and turn towards the boat. Bernard is pacing up and down the deck where Sophia jumped. We can’t tell what he’s saying, but he looks furious.
“Hold on,” Sophia says and gives him the finger, followed by a salute. This seems to make him even madder.
We watch him pace a little longer before I squeeze Sophia’s shoulder. “We should get back to shore. A little secret… I’m afraid of sharks.”
“, are you telling me you wouldn’t just beat up a shark?” she says jokingly.
“I’m kind of at an aquatic disadvantage here.”
I move so our heads face the same direction, out to sea, and then I hold on to Sophia with one arm and begin to swim backwards. We do this until we can stand in waist-deep water.
But we don’t walk up onto the beach. Instead, I lift Sophia up by her thighs so I’m holding her, and we kiss.
Again, the kiss doesn’t last long. It’s interrupted by the sound of sudden cheers and applause.
The posse of press and bystanders who had been watching the boat depart from the pier have run to the beach. A few are taking pictures.
They must’ve seen Sophia’s dive.
“I don’t want to be famous again,” Sophia says.
“Tell me about it. I was about to fuck you,” I say, smiling.
She slaps my shoulder. “We could still give them a show?” She looks at me naughtily.
“Yeah, keep it PG?”
She shrugs and leans back in for a kiss. “Maybe PG-13,” she whispers.
We kiss slowly. My heart throbs with such force, I almost want to look down to see if it’s making the water ripple.
People are cheering, and I don’t care that others see me as a hapless, soaking wet romantic.
I try not to think of the irony. That it was snowflake who melted me .