Home Is Where Your Heart Is

Two and a Half Weeks Later

“Are you completely sure that this is what you want to do?” Vero asked sadly as she was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed in one of Mark and Dorrie’s guestrooms, watching Sophia fold her clothes.

“It’s what I have to do,” Sophia corrected her friend. “He hasn’t called once, he doesn’t talk to me,” she pointed out. “What the hell am I supposed to do? I can’t stay here forever,” she stated. “Dorrie and Mark say its fine, but I feel like I'm imposing,” she admitted.

“Well, I'm going to miss you,” Vero sighed.

“I'm not going that far away,” Sophia shrugged.

“You're not going to be a short drive away anymore,” Vero pointed out. “It’s going to be weird, Pittsburgh won’t be the same without you,” she sighed.

“I know, but…” Sophia trailed off softly.

“I'm just being a selfish bitch,” Vero joked. “Ignore me,” she stated. “Have you thought about calling him?” asked carefully.

“I did,” Sophia stated. “About ten days ago,” she revealed. “He wasn't home or he was screening his calls. Anyway, I left a message, but he never called me back,” she said as she quickly brushed away a stray tear that had rolled down her cheek. Sinking down in the seat in the large bay window, she looked at the tiny, pale yellow onesie she was holding in her hands. “I don’t know how to…” she trailed off. “I thought he loved me,” she admitted softly. “I guess I was crazy to think that.”

“Why would you think that?” Vero asked surprised.

“If you love someone, you can’t just ignore them and their feelings,” Sophia said slowly. “I'm not liberal with my heart, there’s only a tiny amount of people who even gets close enough to get a hold of it and Max is the first guy that…” she trailed off. “That I honestly thought that I could love forever,” she admitted softly.

“If you two just talked…” Vero began slowly.

“My dad left my mum for another woman when I was like four, and that’s the reason why I grew up in St Louis and not Detroit,” Sophia revealed softly. “She had an aunt who lived there and it was an easy choice to go there really. I haven’t seen him since we left really,” she admitted. “Well, I did see him when I was like 10 and we visited my grandmother up in Detroit, it didn’t go well and before, and after, I’ve sort of wondered how you could just abandon your child. How you could just push them out of your mind like that,” she breathed.

“He has never been the one to contact me, no phone calls, no letters, no nothing,” she said softly as a few more tears escaped and she quickly brushed them away.

“Some part of me always hoped that he was a cold-hearted bastard who didn’t know how to love,” she stated. “So that it wouldn’t hurt as much, you know,” she shrugged. “But I must have been wrong, cause Max is really one of the most loving persons I know,” she whispered softly. “I know that a lot of people don’t get to see that, they only see him as a big goofball who can’t take things seriously, but he has a huge heart and it’s made of gold,” she smiled slightly. “He doesn’t want to see his son, and he isn’t talking to me. I guess it’s not that hard after all,” she concluded coldly as she brushed her tears away and quickly got up, busying herself with folding the rest of her clothes.

Watching her friend, Vero could feel her heart breaking for her. They’d known each other for as long as she and Max had been together, about a year, but they had gotten close very quickly, but she had never realized the extent of how hurt Sophia really was. “I'm sorry.”

“You haven't done anything wrong,” Sophia shrugged. “I was the one who was stupid enough to think that maybe Max was actually able to settle down in some one, that he actually loved me. And now I’m the one who is going to have to live with the consequences of that,” she added frankly.

“The guys are giving him a hard time,” Vero announced randomly.

“What?” Sophia frowned confused as she looked over at her friend.

“At practice,” Vero clarified. “The whole team thinks he’s crazy and they are letting him know that, and at the same time they are apparently taking out their aggressions on his,” she half smiled.

“Good for them,” Sophia replied, a hint of a smile across her lips. “Are you sure that you’re going to be alright?”

“Yes, and Dorrie is here,” Vero pointed out. “Don’t worry about it. You go do what it is you have to do and we’ll be fine,” she smiled.

“It’s my job to worry now,” Sophia smiled as she glanced over at the sleeping baby. “I'm a mum,” she whispered as she looked back over at Vero before grabbing her bag and gently kissing her son’s forehead. “Mummy loves you, be nice to Aunt V,” she whispered before hurrying out of the room and the house, driving away in her black Audi.

Glancing down at the heavy watch on her arm – a Christmas present from Max – Sophia sighed revealed as she saw what time it was, she still had time to get done without being noticed, which was exactly what she was hoping for.

Stepping out of the car, she looked up at the familiar building and she took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her hair before she walked across the street and jogged up the steps to the thick glass doors leading in to the tall apartment building. Nodding politely at the woman standing in the lobby, she walked straight for the elevators and pressed the button marked 14.

Using her own key, she slowly opened the door to the apartment and carefully slipped inside, jumping about a mile as she heard the sound from the TV coming from the living room. Cursing under her breath, she knew that she had no choice but to face whoever it was, because she had no extra time to spare.

Running her fingers through her hair once again and cursing herself for not remembering their rolling schedule of off-days, she walked further into the apartment and froze as she saw Max come walking up the steps from the living room.

“Soph!” he exclaimed surprised as he saw her. “What are you doing here?” he wondered, taking in her appearance, finding that not much had changed since he last saw her.

“I needed to get some of my things,” she said softly as she looked at him, her heart slowly breaking. Tearing her eyes away from him, she walked passed him and down the hall towards the bedroom they’d shared since they moved in together.

Noticing that he didn’t follow her, she closed her eyes for a moment before stepping inside of the large walk-in-closet. Looking around, she smiled softly, their sides was as polar opposite as they themselves were; his side was a mess, things hanging crookedly and laying strewn around the area whilst hers was color-coordinate and looked a bit like a department store. Collecting the clothes and things she needed, she neatly put them in one of the masses of duffle bags that were stored in one of the closets.

Walking into the bedroom, she glanced around before grabbing some other things and placing them in the bag too before she picked it up and headed back down the hall, finding Max still standing in the middle of the hallway, seemingly not having moved since she last saw him.

“How are you?” Max asked hurriedly, feeling very pathetic for not finding anything better to say as she walked passed him.

“I'm good,” Sophia shrugged as she looked over at him, fidgeting slightly with the shoulder strap on the bag. “I have to…” she said slowly a she backed towards the door, only to stop by the table they had fought tooth and nail over whether or not they were going to actually have it. Reaching into her purse, she dug up an unused pair of keys and dropped them on the table before removing the key to the apartment from her normal keychain and placed it next to the others on the table.

“What are you doing?” he frowned as he took a few long strides towards her.

“I figured you’d want these back,” she stated. “It’s the keys you gave me to your cottage outside of Montreal and to this place,” she explained before she gave him a half smile and walked over to the door, stopping right before opening it and turning back towards him.

“I just want you to know that I get it. I mean, I don’t, but at the same time, I do,” she rambled slightly. “I love you and I can just hope that you loved me half as much as I love you. I really didn’t know, you know,” she stated. “I would never keep something like that for someone, especially someone I love. And I know that it’s scary and crazy and just all around huge. But I’m just as scared as you are, if not more so, but I don’t have any other choice than to deal with this. I can’t just turn my back on my own son, so, I'm just going to…” she trailed off as she forced her tears away.

“I hope you have a nice life, and that you win that Cup some day,” she said honestly before pushing the door open and walking out to her car.

Dropping the bags in the trunk, she barely managed to get in behind the wheel before the tears started rolling down her cheeks. Her heart was breaking in a way she had never experienced before and for the first time she really believed that she would never be able to glue it back together again.

Collecting herself, she whipped her tears from her cheeks and took a few deep breaths before pulling away from the curb and driving down the street, not noticing that Max was watching from the balcony above the street.

Seeing her drive down the street and out of his life, a lone tear slid down his cheek just as she turned the corner and disappeared from sight.