He requested one particular song and I couldn't do it for him. The piano is situated in the glass corner. All windows, the rain just pouring down the glass and I wondered why he was twisting screws this morning and then I saw why. Earrings on the kitchen counter.
Someone I know?
Sophie.
Nice.
I stopped trying to play altogether, getting up abruptly. I thought I saw a flash of amusement cross Caleb's face but it was gone as quickly as it arrived and replaced with what I could only place as guilt or maybe sadness, even. He maintained convention even as I managed to knock over the bench but John jumped a thousand feet from his place at the island reading the paper, having been asked to stick around for an hour in order to take me home. John reacted. Further proof that Caleb isn't human, though he can be prone to devastating emotion. Maybe he just learned that from me along the way.
He asked if I needed anything, a question so loaded with innuendo I broke into a sweat.
I was tempted to ask him for juice in a glass bottle so I could break it off at the neck and jab it into Caleb's wretched, inhuman soul, putting it out of misery for good, but I resisted and said nothing, hands beginning to flutter. I shoved them behind my back.
Would you like to talk about why you're so unsettled today, princess?
No. (There's no way he doesn't understand how I feel about her.)
Good then, because we have quite a bit to accomplish today.
I don't want to be here when she comes back.
What?
I just told you. I don't want to see Sophie.
You won't. I sent her home this morning. I'll courier the earrings out later.
So why did she come here?
She had a meeting and so we went for dinner. Bridget, what is wrong with you?
Nothing.
Is she a rival?
What? No? She can have you if that's what you mean.
Something isn't right with you.
She just..
What is it, doll?
We really need to get some work done. The children will be out soon.
He paused and smiled gently at me, leaving the smile in thin air, bending his head over the stack of invoices between us. Subject closed. A molecule of grace and a reprieve, in spite of his attempt to feign polite ignorance. My feelings about Sophie are none of anyone's business, Caleb included. Hell, BEN included. I can't explain it and so I just don't.
I just don't want Jacob's ex-wife to enter into my life in any way, shape or form, in person or in passing mention. Is that too much to ask? I came to that conclusion last time I saw her and I'm fine with my decision. And you all know how forgiving and permissive I am, so this didn't come easily. Don't make it any harder than it has to be.
