Chapter Five
Theweekhadturned into chaos. Ozzie was desperately trying to catch up from being gone for so long, but it was a losing battle. He hadn’t seen Sofia since Saturday night, and he missed her. The time they spent together was amazing, but he didn’t really know where they stood. His life was complicated, given his parents and their insistence that he marry Monica someday, he felt like Sofia needed to know about all of that before they took things any further, so he had planned to take her out on Tuesday and explain things more clearly. That didn’t happen, though. One of his teens got arrested that night and he had to go down to the station to help his mom get everything straightened out. Sofia was more than understanding, but now she still didn’t know about this whole other half of his life and they were leaving for a long weekend in New York.
He pulled up to her apartment and parked his Land Rover as close to her door as he could, expecting she’d have a bunch of luggage they would need to get hauled into the car. Once again, she surprised him when she answered the door with nothing but a small carry-on bag and a smile.
“Hey are you ready?” she asked as he leaned in to kiss her cheek.
“I am. Is that all you’re bringing?”
“What else do I need?”
“I don’t know. I guess I just expected more bags, that’s all. My mother packs two and a carry-on for an overnight trip to the Keys.”
“I think I have everything. I thought I’d get my dress pressed when we check into the hotel, so I just packed it in here with everything else.”
“Remind me never to question you again,” he said, giving her a wink and taking her bag from her while she locked up, then followed him to the car.
“This is yours? It’s so fancy.”
He laughed, “I have a weakness for things that drive. This baby is rather new and holds everything me and Sammy need, so it’s perfect.”
“Where does he stay when you are out of town?”
“Normally with one of the kids from the center. They all fight over him when they know I have a trip coming up. This weekend he’s with one of the girls and her mom. Since her mom works nights, he keeps her company.”
“I can’t wait to meet him. I mean... if you ever decide you want me to, that is. He just sounds pretty awesome and I haven’t been around a dog in such a long time. I always loved them, but you’ve seen the size of my apartment. Only little dogs would like it there, and honestly I’m scared I would step on a little dog so big dogs are more my thing, so if the chance arose that I could meet Sammy, that would be really cool.”
Ozzie reached over and placed his hand on her knee. She was nervous and he could tell. He learned it was more than just her rambling, but she tapped her knee or bit her lower lip as well.
“I would love to introduce you to Sammy. We will need to make some time to do that when we get back.”
Her smile was distracting, and he needed to look back at the road before they ended up in an accident before they even got on their flight. “You never told me where we were staying.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot. Some hotel my brother bought out for the weekend... the Diamond... no wait, The Sapphire. Yeah, that was it.”
Ozzie’s foot caught the break, and they lurched forward before he shook off his shock and righted the car.
“What was that? Are you alright?”
“Yeah... I just thought of something.”
“Okay... anyway, it’s some fancy place, I’m sure. My brother is a bit of a bigwig in his industry and makes a ton of money. Bella, his fiancée, is always complaining about how over the top he goes with things. She’s really cool. I think you’ll like her.”
He could hear the words she was saying, but was having a hard time processing everything since she told him they were staying at one of his father’s hotels. There are probably a thousand hotels in New York City and it just figured her brother would buy out one of the ones owned by his family. As he drove, he was mentally kicking himself that he didn’t ask earlier. He needed to call and warn the staff. The last thing he wanted was to be outed in front of her family. Sofia seemed hesitant over money and he didn’t want it to come between the two of them, as they were still getting to know each other. Even when he planned to tell her about Monica, he had no intentions of telling her about his family business. The relaxing weekend away he was hoping for was going to be more stressful than he planned.
“So, can I ask you a question?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“I know you said you’d come as my date for the wedding and all, but would it be too much to ask for you to kind of pretend that maybe we are dating? Also, do you think we could leave out the whole matchmaker thing? I know it sounds crazy. It’s really important to me they don’t think I’m as nuts as I seem.”
“Sofia, this weekend is for you. I can be whoever you need me to be and I promise your family will not think you’re nuts... maybe a little silly at times but never nuts,” he said smiling at her and reaching for her hand.
They drove in silence for a bit and he realized how much he was starting to care for her. It was comforting to be around someone who just got him. “How about this? I’ll tell them we met at the coffee shop. You were so radiant, I simply had to ask if I could join you. Then I’ll tell them about how your closet tried to eat you, so our first date got derailed by home improvements.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would. In fact, I will. I know we haven’t known each other very long, but I promise you that everyone will adore you. You have an energy about you that just pulls people in and if they don’t see that, they are crazy.”