Physicality

“No ma, I really have to go, I'm literally walking into the house.” Sophie repeated the same sentence she had said only moments ago to her mother as she unlocked the front door to the house. She listened as her mother sighed before she explained further, “Look, I'm just really busy with everything right now, you know I would come home for this reunion thing if I could. Now I really have to go.”

Without giving her mother any time to get another word in Sophie hung the phone up and balanced the two bags of groceries in her hand as she closed the door with her foot and slipped her phone and keys into her sweater pocket. She set the bags on the counter and began to put a few bags of vegetables in the fridge when Ren hopped up onto the counter.

“What was that all about?” She asked Sophie, reaching into a paper bag, popping a grape into her mouth.

Sophie rolled her eyes at Ren but explained as she finished putting the groceries away, “Just my mother trying to get me to bring Ryan home. You know ma, she creates these little shin-digs just to get me to bring him home.”

Ren shrugged, “So bring him home?”

Sophie laughed lightly before she threw the paper bag out, “The last time I brought Ryan home my parents told me that if I stayed with him they'd never speak to me again.”

Ren laughed, “Sounds like your parents.”

Sophie nodded and turned back to Ren, her eyes glancing around the apartment before she asked, “Speaking of my wonderful boyfriend, where is he?”

Ren shrugged again, hopping off the counter she grabbed her bag from the small table beside the door and said, “Showering I think. I don't know, the guy spends like an hour in front of a mirror, just go look for one and you'll probably find him.”

Sophie chuckled as Ren closed the door behind her, before she made her way down the hall and opened the bathroom door, only to find it full of steam but completely empty. She made her way down the hall, opening the bedroom door slowly, and smiling lightly as Ryan glanced over his shoulder at her. He was standing outside the closet, buttoning up his dress pants. Sophie wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her palms flat on his bare chest, pressed a soft kiss to his shoulder as he said, “You're home early.”

Sophie nodded and said, “Yeah, I wanted to make sure I got to see you before you left for Philly.”

Sophie let go of Ryan and sat down on the bed beside his duffle bag that was stuffed full of clothing, none of which was folded. pi]Go figure. Ryan turned to her and smiled, stuffing another shirt in the bag before he tossed his bathroom things into it, zipping it up and slinging it over his shoulder as the doorbell rang.

Sophie came around the corner a few seconds after Ryan did, and stopped dead in her tracks upon finding a tall brunette woman standing outside the door, a red dress hugging her body tight, her ruby red lips stretched into a smile on her pearly white teeth as she embraced Ryan lightly. Ryan turned, noticing Sophie watching him, and said, “Soph this is Jamie, she works at the pool, she's giving me a lift to the airport. Jamie this is Sophie.”

“So you're the famous Sophie. It's so great to finally meet you.” Sophie nodded and clasped her hand around Jamie's stretched out, waiting, perfectly manicured hand.

“So you're going to the meet with them?” Sophie asked, being sure to take a few steps toward Ryan, smiling lightly as his hand immediately found hers. Sophie watched with almost excitement as Jamie's eyes made their way down to Ryan and Sophie's intertwined fingers, before she looked back at her.

“Yeah, I'm probably the only face this guy is gonna see outside the pool all weekend.” Jamie told her confidently, obviously not caring that the man had a girlfriend.

Sophie smiled only to be polite, before she turned to Ryan, “Have a good trip, and good luck.” She told him, smiling as he nodded and leaned down, kissing her lips softly before he slipped his feet into his shoes.

“See you in a few days, love you.” Ryan told her, finally letting go of her hand before he closed the door behind him.

Sophie shook her head and made her way to the couch in the living room, dropping down on the plush cushions she sighed. She was jealous of a women she had barely even met, yet here she was, cursing and narrowing her eyes even at the thought of this Jamie girl. She had known Ryan had a rep from the pool that travelled with him and a few other swimmers, but whenever he spoke of Jamie she had always assumed it was a male. Never would she have assumed that not only was Jamie a woman, but that she would be that pretty. No matter what the vibe Sophie received from Jamie, which happened to be one of a not so friendly competition for her own boyfriend, she wasn't going to let this Jamie girl intimidate her.

With a light sigh Sophie forced the thoughts from her head, deep down she knew Ryan was faithful, no matter how much he liked to act like he was a bad guy, Sophie knew otherwise. Ren dropped her things on the table when she arrived home a few hours later, and turned to Sophie, “What's up with you?”

Sophie shrugged and stated, “Met Jamie today.”

Ren grinned, “Is he hot?”

Sophie nodded absentmindedly, “She's gorgeous.”

“He is a she? Whoa.” Ren's jaw dropped and Sophie stood from the couch.

“I'm gonna go for a run. Wanna come?” She asked, slipping out of her previous outfit of a hoodie that she knew belonged to Ryan and a pair of jeans into a pair of shorts and an old tank top. She pulled her Ipod holder onto her arm and plugged one headphone in, pressing play as Ren met her outside the house.

The two started off at a slow pace, which was when Ren brought up, “So how exactly did you meet Jamie?”

“She showed up at the house, apparently they were driving to the airport together. She made it perfectly clear that she was spending most of her time with Ryan this weekend too.” Sophie told Ren, stopping and bending down, retying her shoe lace before the two continued.

Ren laughed, “She seems great. You know, you should just dump Ryan and move his crap out.”

Sophie turned to Ren and raised an eyebrow, Ren had never really spoken ill of Ryan since Sophie and he had started dating, sure there were little quips here and there about him, but nothing of this nature. Sophie suppressed her sigh, the last person she wanted to defend her relationship with Ryan to was Ren, so instead she said, “Why would I do that?”

“Maybe it would make him see that whatever he's so obviously doing with her is wrong.” Ren told her, adding after a pointed look from Sophie, “Come on Soph, even if they aren't sleeping with each other, judging by what you just said, he's done something to make her think he might be interested in her.”

Having never thought of it this way Sophie stayed silent and the two finished their run in an awkward silence all the way home, until Sophie excused herself to shower. She stood under the running, burning hot water for a long time, not doing anything other than staring at the wall. Sure there were times when Ryan lead girls on, but it wasn't as if he knowingly did it, the guy simply had to smile at a girl and she was falling at his feet, it's the type of guy Ryan was. Sophie couldn't just turn away from what Ren had said, because deep down she knew there was a possibility that Ryan knew exactly what he was doing.

Heaving a sigh Sophie dragged herself out of the shower, tied a towel around her torso, before she left the bathroom and went into her bedroom, rooting through her drawers for something comfortable to wear. Finding nothing but silk nightgowns Sophie grumbled, before she moved to the drawer next to her, opening it she smiled and pulled one of Ryan's shirts out from it. She crawled into the bed, deciding that heading to bed a few hours early wouldn't hurt her any.

Her phone buzzed noisily on the nightstand causing Sophie to close the magazine she was flipping through and reach for it, smiling when a picture of her and Ryan came up on the screen of her Iphone. She pressed talk and held the phone to her ear, grinning larger as Ryan's deep voice came on the other end, “I miss the last thing I see before I go to bed at night when I'm at home, because it's so breathtakingly beautiful.”

“Yeah, I bet you miss the grey wall huh?” Sophie asked him with a joking tone, making Ryan laugh loudly.

“Oh yeah, totally. It's such a nice shade of grey.” He told her with another soft chuckle before he added, more seriously, “I miss you beautiful.”

Sophie smiled, “I miss you too handsome.” The two fell into silence for a moment before Sophie asked, “So how was the trip?”

“It was good, boring plane ride. But they have a really nice facility here, and Jamie even said that I've got a real good shot at making the 2012 team.” Ryan told her, oozing excitement. Sophie forced a smile on her face, proud of Ryan, but it was the way he so casually dropped Jamie's name in the conversation that bothered her.

“I never had any doubts in you.” Sophie told him as she laid down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling fan turning round and round.

“I know, it's just nice to hear it you know?” He commented, leaning back in his own bed, kicking his shoes off his feet, letting them thump onto the hotel floor. He waited a few seconds before he said, “I was thinking that when I got back, maybe we could go on a date, a real date?”

Sophie's lips turned up into a smile, “I'd love that.”

Ryan nodded slowly knowing Sophie couldn't see him, a smile on his face, before he said, “I miss doing that stuff with you. I miss taking you out, mostly because every time we used to go out, you would amaze me with how gorgeous you are, and I realize that over and over every day.”

Sophie was confused, that was for sure, this wasn't like Ryan at all, but she wasn't going to bring this up and most likely ruin any chance she had of Ryan being the same guy he was three years ago when the two had began dating. It wasn't something she was ready to do, she liked this version of Ryan, it was the one that came out very rarely. Briefly she wondered if he was doing all this because he was feeling guilty of something, but pushing that thought aside Sophie said, “You need to come home, because this bed is way too big without you.”

Ryan chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, “I'm not used to sleeping alone you know.”

Sophie smiled, “Me either. In fact, I hate it. Therefor, you should come home.”

“I wish I could. But I'll be home in two days.” He told her, turning as the hotel room door opened. Ryan caught a glimpse of who walked in, before he said quietly, “Listen babe, I should get some rest, big meet tomorrow and all. I'll call you after it alright?”

Sophie nodded, turning onto her side, before she said, “Okay. Night Ry. Love you.”

“Love you too.” He told her softly, before hanging up and tossing his phone beside him on the bed.

Sophie brought her legs up to her chest, and set her phone on the nightstand, before she let her eyes fall closed with a trace of a smile on her face. If there was one thing she wanted more than anything at that exact moment, it was for the next two days to go by fast, because all she could think of was having Ryan's arms wrapped around her again. There was something about him that made her feel immensely better, but most importantly there was something about Ryan that made her feel safe, and alive at the same time.