Finding Love Again

Chapter 16

The next few months were great. Cody moved all of his things in, we loved living with each other. We shared household expenses and took turns cooking, which was a great change as Matthew never cooked and living on my own had meant it was me or take away. Once he was settled in we had his family over for dinner, we even had both our families over for a barbecue for Easter celebrations. Funnily enough, Jill got along with my mum instantly. Although her and I relationship was on much better terms these days, we even discovered that we have a mutual love of baking and started a bake off competition for every family dinner. The rest of the family loved this competition because it meant they got to eat all the cakes and then vote. Neither of us were upset if the other won, because we were both pretty good so everyone got to enjoy. We had even had Hayley stay over a few times just to hang out with us, or Ash if we picked him up from a big night of drinking. I never imagined my house, our house, would be bustling with so many people. I loved it! Matthew never liked people coming to our home, but I love entertaining. Sarah and Tom were also still seeing each other, we often went out as a group of four. My life, all in all, was as great as it had ever been. 

It was now a Friday and Cody had joined me on my lunch break. We were totally lost in conversation at a table in the cafe I worked at. It didn’t take a fool to see we were clearly a couple just watching us at our table. I had my back to the entrance so I didn’t see when they entered. I was just finished the last bite of my schnitzel roll when I sense a presence beside me. I looked up and nearly choked on my food to see Matthews sister Chantelle and his mother Liz standing beside us. Chantelle, as usual, looked ready to murder me. Liz had a much softer look on her face, sad looking really. 

“Nice to see you have moved on from my brother. Didn’t he mean anything to you?” Chantelle immediately spat at me. 

“Chantelle,” Liz pleaded. “You promised to be nice, she hasn’t done anything wrong.” 

“Uhh hi Chantelle, Liz. Nice? To see you...” I was slightly speechless, but hadn’t forgotten my manners or that j was in my place of work with customers around me. 

“So who’s this?” Chantelle probed, pointing to Cody. 

“Cody. My boyfriend, Cody meet Chantelle and Liz, Matthews family, if you haven’t worked that out yet.” He nodded, not entirely sure how to approach this situation. 

“Nice to meet you ladies, I’m sorry but I’m going to have to get back to work.” He got up from the table, eager to leave the situation and understanding that his presence probably wouldn’t help. He gave me a kiss on the head before leaving, “talk to you after work babe, good luck” whispering the last part. 

“Sophia, we came to talk. We hoped you would be here. Are you able to spare us any time?” Liz said nicely, a relief given the way Chantelle was still looking at me.

“I’ll just speak to my boss, we aren’t busy and maybe I can finish early. Take a seat, do you want anything to eat or drink?” 

“Maybe just some waters for now.”

“Sure, I’ll be back in a moment”. I walked towards my boss, she had seen the situation unfold and told me not to even worry, go and talk with them. I could make up my hours another day. I got us a couple of glasses and a jug of water. What on earth could they want to talk to me about? Our lives knowing each other ended when Matthews funeral was over. The last time I saw them was at the court case for the driver who killed Matthew. He was jailed as he was over the alcohol limit and that’s what they determined to be the cause of the accident. 

“Here you are. So, not to be rude or anything, but what are you doing here?” 

“How are you doing?” Liz asked, but before I could answer Chantelle spat out “Clearly she is great! She has moved on without a thought at all for Matthew!! By the looks on her f*******: and i********: it’s like he never even existed, never mind they were going to be married!!” 

“Chantelle enough! I told you to be nice, otherwise I would have come by myself!” In order to break up the hostility I decided to answer the question. “I’ve been good Liz, I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t ok for a long time, I just existed day by day, but then I met Cody and it’s like I found happiness again. I will never be sorry for being happy, but just because I’m with Cody doesn’t mean I will EVER forget about Matthew. He saved me when I needed saving.” Liz smiled at that answer, Chantelle just scoffed. “Everyone deserves to be happy darling. We miss having you around though.” 

“Thank you for saying, but you must understand that to see any of you just brings me sadness.” 

“Yes, we do.” We all fell silent for a moment. I could tell Liz wanted to tell me something more but she was holding back. So I asked again, “so I know you didn’t both come here for a catch up, why are you here?”

“It’s about the driver Sophia.” Chantelle answered. I looked confused, “what about him? He was arrested and is serving an 8 year sentence.”

“Well that’s just it. He has appealed his sentence, he wants reduced time. Can you believe it? He killed Matthew with his actions and he wants LESS time?!?” Liz put her hand on Chantelle’s arm, calming her down. “The appeal is next week, the lawyer needs us to appear and give our victim impact statements. He can’t get a reduced sentence! He took a life!”

“Omg. Well yeah, of course I’ll be there. I agree with you on this one Chantelle.” 

“Good. So you should! Even if you have obviously moved on.” 

I pursed my lips. I dealt with this girl for so long and I was no longer ready to listen. 

“Look Chantelle, I will be there for the appeal hearing. I will do what I have to for Matthews sake. You need to understand something though. Matthew and I, we didn’t break up, he is gone. I was left with my entire world as I knew it shattered, I didn’t and haven’t just switched off my feelings. Yes, I’m with Cody now, I love him and he makes me incredibly happy, but it doesn’t meant that Matthew won’t always have a special place in my heart. But he DIED Chantelle! I can’t be miserable my whole life. I DESERVE to be happy and I’m going to be! I can’t mourn him for the rest of my life, he wouldn’t want that! He would have wanted me to be happy, to one day marry and have the kids he and I couldn’t have. You need to understand this. Now, if that’s all that you came here to say, you have my number and you can text me the details of the hearing. I’ll talk to my boss and make sure I’m not working. Goodbye.” 

With that I got up from the table, leaving them with their jaws hanging open at the fact I finally stood up to Chantelle. I went out the back of the cafe to the kitchen, then making my way out to the back alley. I needed to calm down. My boss followed me out to make sure I was ok. She hadn’t heard all of the conversation but she heard enough. I explained it all to her, of course she said I could take whatever time off I needed. She went inside to check they were gone before I came back inside. The coast was clear so I gathered my belongings and headed home. Cody would want to know about their visit, I would tell him everything as we didn’t hide things. I called my mum on my way home to tell her and ask her to come to the appeal with me, I imagined I was going to need her support. Until I got home and stood in the silence of our home I hadn’t realised that this appeal meant I would be seeing not only all of Matthews family, but also the man who killed him. Everything came back to me, the memory of that night, the knock on the door from the police, viewing the wreck of Matthews car, the funeral, the original court case. All of the feelings of loss and loneliness took over my body and I sunk to the floor and let the tears flow. I was still slumped on the kitchen floor when Cody arrived home. He picked me up and carried me to our bed, just letting me cry while hugging him. He didn’t ask any questions, didn’t say anything, he let me cry until I was ready to talk. 

“The drunk driver is appealing his sentence,” I sniffed as I spoke. “I have to give a witness statement”. That was all I said for the moment. Cody still didn’t ask any questions, just held me. Finally the tears had stopped, I looked up at him, his eyes full of concern and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. “Thank you. I’m sorry for breaking dow..” “shhhh. Don’t even try to say sorry.” He stopped me from apologising with another soft kiss. “All the emotions and the memories, after seeing Liz and Chantelle, it all just came back.” 

“Babe, it’s ok. You went through a big thing. I think I’d be more worried if you were acting normally and like nothing happened.” We stayed like that a bit longer until I decided I should shower and Cody went to grab us some take away for dinner. How was I so lucky to have such an amazing man who was so ready to accept my past even when it comes back to slap me in the face like this. Now I just had to get through the appeal next week.