Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
SOPHIE
Me
I need to borrow the plane. In the next hour, if possible.
Spinning around my room like a tornado, I haphazardly toss things into my suitcase, cursing my inability to keep my shit contained.
I’ve only been here for one night, and every surface of the room is covered in my stuff.
Why I needed to bring six outfits for the interview when I already knew it would be the pink pantsuit is a mystery, as is the reason I thought ten pairs of underwear was the appropriate amount of underwear for a two-night stay.
In retrospect, five pairs of pajamas was also probably overkill, and I could have left the two bathing suits at home. The pink mini dress too.
Where did I think I was going?
I have no idea, but I know where I’m going now, and that’s right the fuck home.
Tonight, if possible. Although every sign right now points to that being not possible, that just isn’t going to work for me.
When my phone dings with a message, I pounce on it, breathing a sigh of relief.
My dad will fix it. He can fix everything.
Dad
Sorry, Soph, the plane is in Pittsburgh.
“What the fuck?” I mutter. The plane is never in Pittsburgh. It lives in San Francisco and makes special trips to Pittsburgh when my dad gets a wild hair to travel somewhere, usually to visit my brothers and sister when his empty nest starts feeling extra empty.
Me
What’s it doing there?
Dad
I was planning on taking your mom to the beach for an impromptu weekend away.
Me
It’s Tuesday.
Dad
I was planning ahead.
Me
How can a weekend be impromptu if you were planning ahead?
Dad
I’m an enigma, Soph. It’s part of my charm.
I stare at my dad’s message, trying to figure out what the fuck he’s talking about, but my brain is tired, and all I want is to get to Tyler.
The second Luke told me I was choosing between right and right, it was like a switch flipped in my brain, and I felt stupid for being so angsty about this in the first place.
There is only one right for me, and it’s the one where I get to be with Tyler.
To build a life with him. Where I get to run the foundation my dad built and gave to me.
Where I can drop by my parents’ house on a random weekday and have family dinners and margarita nights with the girls and where I’m surrounded by family, friends, and all the love in the world.
There isn’t a job in the universe worth giving up the life I’ve built—the life I have waiting for me if only I can get the fuck home and grab it.
As soon as I walked out of MasterLab an hour ago, I started looking for a flight home, but obviously there wasn’t a single one that would get me to Pittsburgh in time for birthday night, and that’s unacceptable to me.
Asking my dad to use the plane is something I literally never do, so of course the one time I need to play the daughter of a billionaire card, that option isn’t available.
“Dammit,” I huff, twirling a tinsel-threaded curl around my finger and forcing my brain to think.
When my phone dings, I flop back on the bed, wincing when I land directly on the Vitamin C serum I was sure I lost in this room, the sharp edge of the square-shaped bottle digging into my back.
Why did I bring Vitamin C serum with me when I have literally never used a serum in my entire life?
No one knows. Pulling out the bottle and tossing it into the open suitcase on the floor, I turn my attention to the phone.
Dad
Any particular reason you need it?
Me
Because I need to get home to Tyler. I’m not taking the job, and I never should have come out here when what I really want to do is spend birthday night with him, but I can’t do that when I’m stuck a zillion miles away.
Dad
Knew it. Your mom owes me a hundred dollars.
Me
For what?
Dad
We knew you weren’t going to take the job. I had you realizing it the second you walked into the building today. Your mom thought you would ruminate a few more days before you turned it down.
Me
You knew?
Dad
Of course we knew. Your place is here, Soph, and not just because of Tyler. Because this is your home. It’s where your family is. It’s where the job you love is. You were never leaving.
Me
You couldn’t have maybe told me this before I ended up alone in California on my birthday when everyone I love most in the world is on the other side of the country and Tyler and I are missing spending our birthdays together for the first time in almost twenty years?
Dad
This was something you had to figure out on your own. It’s shit timing, but if we told you what we thought, you would always wonder if you made a mistake by listening. Now you won’t.
Sorry about the whole plane thing though.
Me
Yeah, that is not ideal. You don’t have a rich, powerful friend out here with a plane I can borrow, do you?
Dad
I didn’t even have rich and powerful friends when I was rich and powerful.
Me
Why do you have to be so wholesome? If you were a little more cutthroat, you might have at least one asshole billionaire friend who could lend me a plane so I could go tell Tyler a million times how much I love him.
Dad
You mom likes me that way [winky faced emoji].
Me
Ew. No. Definitely not.
Dad
Hey, Soph?
Me
Yeah?
Dad
Are you happy?
Me
In this moment?
Dad
I was talking more, in general. Existentially.
I smile, thinking of Tyler. Of movie nights and grilled cheese and the way he looks at me like I’m the only person in the world.
How he’s my other half. My best friend. My purveyor of jelly beans and icy Dr Pepper and the person I want to be with for the rest of my days.
And as annoying as it is that I’m stuck here where he’s not, one more night doesn’t seem like that big of a tradeoff when I have the rest of my life to never be without him again.
My thumbs start moving before I realize I’m typing.
Me
Yeah, Dad, I’m really, really happy.
Dad
That’s all we want for you.
Happy birthday, Soph. We’ll call later when your mom is home from work.
Me
Can’t wait to see your faces.
Dad
Likewise, kiddo. Love you.
Clicking out of my dad’s message thread, I hit the button to video call Tyler, needing to see his face, but the call rings out, so I click over to my messages and start typing.
Me
Hey, so the thing is, I tried to get an earlier flight home so I could be there for birthday night, but the airlines hate me and my dad’s plane is in Pittsburgh for some reason and my dad doesn’t even have one single billionaire friend with a plane because he’s the good kind of billionaire who helps people and shit.
Which I usually love except for today because that means I can’t get home to you, and I hate that.
I miss the shit out of you, and I wish we were together right now. My birthday sucks without you.
I blow out a breath and stare at the screen, waiting for the dots to bounce. And then I wait some more. Tyler almost always responds to my messages right away, and he rarely doesn’t pick up the phone, so of course today is the day for both those rare occurrences.
Love that for me.
When ten more minutes go by and he still doesn’t answer or call me back, I exit out of the messages with a huff, opening my music app instead.
Because when the love of my life is on the other side of the country and I can’t be with him on my birthday and I made a massive career decision but still feel like my life is on hold until I can get home and get it started, there is only one thing to do.
I hit the song I want and bounce off the bed.
Rummaging through my suitcase, I crow in victory when my hand closes around the handle of my hairbrush.
I pull it out just as the first notes of “Defying Gravity” come blaring out of my phone speaker, and, holding the hairbrush to my mouth and channeling my inner Elphaba, I start to sing.