Chapter Three

Sophie picked the journal off the floor before sending an annoyed look at her imp. "Seriously, Iggy, I let you out of your cage to breath, not to knock all my things on the floor." She sighed, placing the journal onto her desk and letting the imp slide its way onto her hand. She walked over to her bed and placed it there, ignoring the rancid smell. 

A knock sounded at the door and she turned her head to see Edaline standing in the doorway. "You have a guest here," Edaline told her, smiling. 

"Who?" Sophie asked, confused. She hadn't set any plans with her friends, she actually hadn't talked to any of them since they all opened their matchmaking scrolls. That had been a fun day, it was the first time in a while all her friends sat in one place, but afterwards it felt awkward for her to call them back. The closest to talking to one of them was when Dex called her and invited her over to hang out, but she had work that day and couldn't make it. 

"It's Keefe," Edaline said, smiling. "I haven't seen him around and took the initiative to invite him over." 

"Mom!" Sophie's eyes widened. 

"Don't give me that 'Mom,' Sophie." Edaline rolled her eyes and moved to sit next to Sophie. She took Iggy out of Sophie's hands and placed him back in his cage before taking a seat next to Sophie on her bed. "I'm not stupid, Sophie. I see the way you stare at him when he talks. How you look at him like he holds all the answers to the universe. I know most of the world thinks you're with Fitz, but I also see the way you look at him. I see the loving eyes of a friend, not the passionate eyes of a lover." 

"Mom-"

"You don't need someone to tell you any of this, you already know," Edaline continued. "I'm not going to force you to take any leaps just yet. I'm not going to force you to start anything with him, it's not my place and I doubt you want to start a relationship knowing you had to rely on others to start it. You need to start it yourself, I simply invited your friend over and he's waiting downstairs. Go get him." 

Sophie stared at Edaline's back as she walked away. Her mind buzzed at the thought that her parents, or at least Edaline, noticed the way she acted with Keefe. She thought she hid her liking him well, but apparently she could only hide so much. She decided to quickly change into something more comfortable before finding her way downstairs where Edaline was feeding Keefe a small snack. "Hey," she greeted, smiling. 

"Hey," Keefe replied before taking a bite of his food. "So, what do you want to do today? I'm free and for your pleasure." 

Sophie rolled her eyes at the way he worded that and grabbed his arm. "Come on, we can go chill by the tree." She turned to say something to Edaline but instead saw Edaline wink and wave her off. "We'll be-"

"You're an adult, Soph. Go out and do your own thing," Edaline immediately cut her off. A thought popped into her mind and she finished saying, "But dinner will be in three hours if you want to make it." 

Sophie gave her mom a wide smile and then made the small trek to Calla's tree with Keefe. They both leaned against the tree, sitting closely together. "So, no one has heard from you for almost two weeks. Where have you been?" Keefe looked at her.

Sophie shrugged. "Busy," she stated simply. "I love my job, I really do. It means the world to me that I get to ambassador between the council, the people, and the black swan, but it gets tiring. It's a lot of traveling and then when I'm not traveling I'm locked in my room doing paperwork. Lately my room feels more like an office than a room." She turned to him. "What about you?" 

Keefe shrugged. "My job gives me a lot of leeway, I mean I just design paintings to help decorate people's homes. I have a lot of free time but with everyone having jobs that keep them so busy, my free time is more of a bother." 

Sophie frowned, thinking of how busy everyone was. "It's weird thinking there was a time where all of us saw each other every single day when now I'm lucky to see even one of you once a week," she said. "I mean, in a way I miss when we were younger. I know that everything was rough, and we almost died majority of the time, but I miss the feeling of sitting there knowing that if I would die that day it would be saving my friends." She sighed. "I sound so stupid." 

"No, you don't. I miss being best friends with everyone too," Keefe replied. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I miss the fights we all had that somehow brought us closer, I miss the moments where something would happen and it would feel like the world would stop, I miss standing there knowing there could be a chance I'd loose my life but I had amazing friends who would do everything to make sure I wouldn't just like I'd be doing the same for them." 

"Exactly," Sophie agreed, leaning her head against him. "I don't miss the actual fighting, I miss the moments with my friends when I felt the closest to them. Now everything is different. We don't see each other everyday, I don't know what exactly is going on in their lives. Like, I barely know what Tam and Linh are doing career wise." 

"They're pretty secretive about it, actually," Keefe told her. "Don't feel bad. But, hey, you did miss out on one thing." Sophie looked at him, confused. "Tam got himself a girlfriend." 

"What?" Sophie stared, confused. "Did he ask Biana out?" 

Keefe shook his head. "That's a story for another day," he chided. "But no, he asked out this girl from his list named Syden Mayfair. She's actually pretty cool, pretty much like a female me, but she's a brunette so I got her there." Keefe pointed to the blonde hair laying on his head. "Plus, she's a guster not an empath." 

"You've met her?" Sophie questioned. 

Keefe nodded. "I met her before Tam did, actually. She went to Foxfire, her sister Aviana had a huge crush on me." He grinned. Sophie rolled her eyes and looked down at her glove covered hands. Keefe's eyes traveled down to see what she was looking at. "Have you ever taken those off to do something and forgot to put them back on so you accidentally gave someone a boost?" Keefe asked curiously. 

Sophie shook her head. "Not really. I only take them off for emergencies, I don't even take them off when I go to sleep."

Keefe took her hand in his own and she couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to have a life of holding his hand. She could feel the blush rising up on her cheeks and decided to look away. "You know there's something we haven't talked about," Keefe stated. 

"The fact that Tam got a girlfriend before you did?" Sophie offered lamely. She laughed at the face he made before saying, "What haven't we talked about?" 

"Our lists," Keefe stated simply. "You were on mine and I know I was on yours." 

"Oh." She looked down at the ground and started to play with the grass. "You were my number three," she informed. 

"Five," he replied for her. 

It was silent for a moment before Sophie decided it was time she take a leap for herself. "If the list was anything close to personal, they would have put you at number one for me." Keefe snapped his head to lock eyes with her in shock. He stayed silent longer, and she found herself wishing she hadn't said anything. 

Finally he spoke up. "Um, the same for me." 

Sophie nodded, not being able to help herself. "Yes, if the people in charge really knew you they'd know to put you as number one on your own list." 

Keefe sighed. "I thought we were having a moment there, Foster." 

"We still are," she replied, smiling. 

He grinned at her. "So, where does that take us?" 

"Here," she replied. "Just us hanging under a tree with feelings for each other that I know I don't want to ignore anymore. How about you?" 

"I've never ignored my feelings, you should know," he told her. "How long? I thought you were with Fitz."

She shook her head. "The whole world thought one thing but me and Fitz agreed on another about a year ago when I told him that I wanted to be with you." She turned to him. "I'm sorry I took so long to tell you." 

Keefe grinned. "I would've waited forever for you to tell me if that's what you needed." 

---

i wrote this chapter five times to get it perfect but idk i think this was the best option even if it's not perfect. ofc in version 3 they kissed so beggars can't be choosers. 

syden will come into play later. she is a character created by the reader who named this book for me, actually. i'm excited to play around with her some more.

okay so now chapter questions:

1. are you sad i didn't pick version 3 where they kissed?

2. are you happy with how they've gotten together? 

3. do you think them being together is rushed?  

i already established sophie's feelings and i think the entire universe knows keefe's so i didn't think it should take all that long for them to get together, besides i'm only planning to make this one book so i didn't want to waste ten chapters of them simply getting together, but also getting them together in chapter 3 does seem a little risky ig. thoughts?

sorry the author's note is so long i told myself i wouldn't get carried away with those this time lmao.