Home Is Where Your Heart Is

A Week Later

Groaning annoyed, Vero pushed herself up from the couch in the living room and shuffled out to the front door, ready to give the person a piece of her mind for interrupting her and Marc’s movie night. Pulling the door open, she froze slightly as she saw who was standing there.

“Max?!” she exclaimed surprised. “What are you doing here? Come on in,” she motioned as she moved away from the door, letting him step inside of the large house. “We’re in the living room,” she informed him as he shrugged off his jacket and soon followed her through the house, Marc greeting his longtime friend as they reached the mentioned room and they both sat down in the large couches, Vero taking her previous place curled up next to her fiancé.

“Do you know where Soph is?” Max asked suddenly after a moment of silence, Marc and Vero not really knowing what to say to open up a conversation with him. “I need to talk to her about something,” he added.

“Oh,” Marc let out surprised as he looked over at his fiancée.

“I mean, I know she’s your best friend V, so I was thinking you probably know where I could find her.”

“Max,” Vero began slowly as he looked over at her. “Sophia left.”

“Well, do you know when she’ll be back?” he asked obviously.

“No, I mean, she left,” she corrected him softly as she watched his face fall. “She left.”

“What are you…?” Max trailed off, not really sure if he wanted to hear more.

“She left Pittsburgh,” Vero stated frankly. “Maybe even the state of Pennsylvania, she didn’t say. She just felt that…well, that since didn’t have any other ties here beside you, and she didn’t want to keep running into you, or see you with other women and read about you in the papers every day, she might as well just leave,” she continued. “She didn’t say where…”

“St Louis,” Max interrupted her. “She’s gone back home.”

“How would you know?” Marc questioned, still feeling torn between his two friends and the obviously stupid decision Max had made.

“You know that the only reason she was even here is me,” he said softly. “She never had any plans of leaving St Louis if it wasn't for meeting me,” he sighed. “After we met…she quit her job and moved here for me, to be closer to me since I couldn’t come to her as often as I’d like,” he mumbled. “Once she told me that she’d move straight back if it wasn't for me.”

“She never told me that,” Vero noted.

“She’s a very private person,” Max agreed as he looked out through the windows where some stray snowflakes were falling down from the sky. “She doesn’t really let people get close to her.

“She let you close,” Vero felt the need to point out as he slowly got up and walked over to the large windows, only to stop as he noticed a new picture that was standing on the mantel piece. Rounding the table, walking close, he froze mid-step as he saw Sophia smiling back at him from the frame. Her blonde hair was styled to perfection and her blue eyes were sparkling as she was holding a tiny, dark-haired baby in her arms. “Is that…?”

“Yeah, that’s your son,” Marc confirmed evenly, watching the emotions crossing his friend’s face.

“What did she name him?” Max asked softly.

“She hasn’t sent the papers in yet, but she has signed Patrice Maxime on the form,” Vero revealed softly. “She told me she was having doubts as to the last name.”

“He’s adorable,” Max whispered as he picked up the photo and ran his finger over the baby’s face, his son’s face.

“It was bound to happen,” Vero half-smiled. “I mean, look at his parents, with those genes, they couldn’t be anything less than adorable,” she pointed out.

“The picture is about two weeks old,” Marc told him. “When we talked to her the other day, she said that his eyes are lighter, more like hers and he definitely has your nose.”

“How is she doing?” Max asked embarrassed, ducking his head as he could feel his friends’ gazes on his back.

“How do you think she’s doing?” Vero questioned icily, remembering how much she hated what he had done. She still couldn’t understand how he could abandon ‘the love of his life’ when she needed him the most.

“She’s hurting, but she’s Sophia, she’s not letting anyone know it or how she’s really feeling,” Marc stated frankly.

“Do have any idea how much you actually hurt her?” Vero felt compelled to ask, remembering the conversation she and Sophia had left just before she left Pittsburgh. “She doesn’t even believe you ever loved her. Like a friends with benefits kind of love maybe, but no the sort of love she has for you.”

“I Do love her!” Max exclaimed as he spun around to face his two friends.

“Well, congratulations,” Vero snarled. “It doesn’t matter any longer, because she doesn’t believe so anymore. She feels foolish for even thinking that you could love a girl like her,” she stated.

“She said that?” Max asked, feeling a whole new kind of devastated.

“Yeah,” Vero nodded simply. “She’s more self-conscious and broken than anyone of us can ever imagine. She’s excellent at hiding it, and you were one of the few people she actually let in. And you broke her,” she trailed off as she looked at him. She could see from just looking at him that he really did love her friend. Now if only Sophia could have seen the same thing…