Page 107 of Perfect Enough

“Just go back inside, Josh.”

“Wait! Will you stop for a moment so we can talk?”

Turning to face me, she narrowed her eyes. “Nowyou want to talk? You seemed to be enjoying your talk with the woman you were dancing with. Why don’t you go back inside and chat withher? I don’t want to hear anything you have to say right now.”

I grabbed the door. “Sophia, please wait.”

“Why? You asked for space, and I gave it to you. You told me to leave your home, and I did. I’ve reached out to you, and you’ve ignored me. Why should I keep waiting? Clearly, you’ve moved past the stage of wanting to be alone, since you’re here tonight…but I wasn’t the person you wanted to be with.”

“That’s not true.”

She placed her hands on my chest and pushed me away from the car. “I’m going home. I should never have come out tonight,” she said.

“Come back to my house, please?”

Sophia slowly turned to look at me. “Why?”

Confused, I replied, “What do you mean, why?”

“Why do you want me to come back with you, Josh? Is it because you feel guilty for something?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong. It was just a dance.”

She nodded. “Maybe so. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that you’ve been ignoring me. I know the pain you’re feeling. Trust me. But I wouldnevertreat you the way you’ve treated me, not in a million years.”

I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry, Sophia.”

When she said nothing, I opened my eyes to findhersfilled with tears. My heart, or what was left of it, shattered.

“I’ve got an early morning tomorrow. Good night, Josh.”

I placed my hand on her arm and said, “Please, Sophia. Don’t leave.”

She drew in a deep breath and slowly let out. Gripping the door harder, she kept her face away from me as she spoke. “You’ve ignored all my texts. The only reason you’re even talking to me right now is because you think I’m upset about seeing you with another woman. And you’re right, I am.” Her eyes met mine. “And I’m sure it was innocent, the dance you had with her, and whoever else you might’ve danced with tonight.”

“No one else. And I only danced with her because she wouldn’t stop hounding me.”

“Yes,” she said softly. “It looked like you were having a miserable time.”

I closed my eyes again, briefly, then looked at her. “Sophia, she was talking to me about grief and how I needed to talk to a therapist. She’s a grief counselor herself, here on vacation from New York. It was just…different talking to her.”

“Well, don’t let me keep you from returning to your conversation.”

“Sophia,” I said as she slipped into the car and shut the door. “Please…pleasedon’t do this.”

The car started, and she began to back up.

“Sophia!”

Without so much as giving me a backward glance, she drove off.

Chapter Twenty-Five

JOSH

I stood on the porch outside Grams and Granddad’s house and stared at the front door. Drawing in a deep breath, I knocked, and then opened it.

“Hello?” I called out, waiting for someone to reply.