"Hey, can you send an email around to a supervisor from each department to say I'm calling a meeting at 3." Sophie asked as she paused at her assistant, Naomi's desk. "Oh and can you get Todd on Skype too. He should be at the London offices, if he actually showed up today."
After her phone call with Aaron, she had tried to push all of her frustrations off and throw herself straight back into work. However, in the back of her mind it was all she could think about and no matter how much she tried to forget it, his tone of voice and immediate distaste was still very prominent.
"Sure! Any particular reason you want me to note?" Naomi glimpsed up from the laptop screen with a smile on her face.
"Um, yeah. I want to see what they think about expanding the offices and studio here."
"Expanding?"
Hovering by her office door, Sophie couldn't help but smile as she knew she wouldn't have got away with the questions. Naomi had become a very close friend and that meant she always liked to be kept up to date on everything.
There was very little she didn't know when it came to Sophie's business, even the things that were not really in her job description to be aware of.
"Yeah... I'm just thinking about packing up in London and just doing everything here." Sophie explained and watched as Naomi's face lit up.
"Wait, so that means..." She began before she was immediately cut off.
"It doesn't mean anything yet, Naomi. It's just an idea." Sophie sang before heading into her office before she could ask anymore questions.
When taking a seat at her desk, Sophie let her eyes wander around a room that had been the initial home to so many ideas. This office, alongside this whole building had been something she had put so much time and effort into planning exactly how she wanted it to be.
When building this business, she knew this would be a home for so many people during the working hours of the day and she wanted to give it the right feel. She wanted it to allow creativity and passion. She wanted it to allow her employees so feel comfortable and as though they were a team and she had succeeded at that. It was beautiful.
"Soph." The voice of Felix was heard as he poked his head around the door.
Looking over at him slightly startled, Sophie flashed him a questioning look while she waited for him to continue.
"Your new collection just arrived. You're going to want to see this."
"Are you kidding? But it's early!" Sophie immediately jumped to her feet before charging out of her office doors.
Felix began jogging just to catch up with her fast speed and couldn't help but smile as he watched her genuine excitement. He knew how much she was loving being back here, fully involved in the atmosphere of her work.
"Oh my Gosh, oh my Gosh, let me see!" She charged for the boxes that were currently being piled up by the delivery men.
Not wasting anytime in grabbing the first one, she laid it out on the table before ripping it open. Felix leaned over her shoulder as she pulled out the first item and her eyes lit up at the dress hanging delicately from a black suede hanger.
No words left Sophie's lips for a moment while she just took in the shimmering glittered material before her. This particular dress had been one she had designed months ago and spent the whole of her short maternity leave tweaking with until it was perfect. Therefore, to finally see it in real life sent a wash of emotions through her.
"It's stunning Soph." Felix admired as he reached out to touch it and watched as a huge grin appeared across Sophie's face, proving she was happy.
Everything single design she brought to life always sparked so much pride and excitement within her, no matter how many times she did it.
"I love it. So so so much!" She beamed before passing it over to Felix and digging in her pocket for her phone. "Hold it up for me. I need to send a photo to Phoebe."
Doing as Sophie said, Felix made sure to hold it out at arms length to refrain from being in the photo himself.
"She's going to want one for sure!"
Snapping the photo, Sophie looked to her friend with a proud grin across her face which expressed so much genuine happiness.
"And she's definitely going to get one!"
**
"So she wants you to move out there... for good?" Zaiden clarified as Aaron leaned back against one of the cars he had previously been working on.
"Yeah, we're having this same argument all over again."
"Well shit, man. What about the kids, would they go?"
"I don't know. Phoebe, would agree but I don't know about the boys." Aaron began with a sigh. "Even if they did agree, we'd be making them pack up school here and start fresh in some place they don't even know."
Although Aaron knew that getting an agreement out of the kids would be a much easier task than himself, he still didn't see this whole situation as right. They were all fully settled and used to life here so making them start fresh would be a huge change.
"It just pisses me off as she makes it seem so easy, when it's not." Aaron continued to argue his point, as though his friends were going to disagree with him. "She has everything out there, she has lived in that city for 5 years before but I know fuck all about it. I doubt it's the kind of place I could get a job like this and I don't want to get dragged into her kind of lifestyle out there, it isn't me."
"I'm not taking sides..." Nate began, knowing right now was a bad time to be going against Aaron's views on this. "...but surely you knew this all was a possibility when you got with Soph and got back with her too."
"Well yeah but I thought we had come to some kind of agreement when she moved back here. We had another baby together!"
"Yeah she moved back here but she never seems to be all that happy about it."
Although Aaron knew that Nate was right, he had been trying his hardest to pretend he hadn't seen it for a long time. He always knew that New York was where Sophie wanted to be. If it hadn't been for the kids and him she would have stayed out there.
He also knew that if it hadn't have been for him reaching out to her during that last year of her living in New York, things between them would have never rekindled. Sophie was happy out there, she had created a whole life for herself while Aaron had been holding onto something here in Brighton that they previously held together.
Things had ended up working out for them in the end with her moving back here to create their 'happily ever after' but realistically that never really happened.
Although they were happily back together with a brand new baby, Sophie didn't feel like she had done in New York. She felt like she had taken 10 steps back from where she wanted to be and as though she was sinking into a life that wasn't for her.
She felt as though she was losing everything she had worked so hard for and losing touch with the woman her mum had brought her up to be.
Deep down Aaron knew that. He had watched her put on a brave face as though everything was fine and as much as he wanted to mad at her for making everything about her business again, he knew he couldn't be.
He didn't want her to be unhappy. He didn't want to be the one to hold her back, as he had always promised he wouldn't do that.
He realised now that New York was always going to be home to Sophie. She had a whole life out there for her and Brighton didn't hold the same warmth that it used to. No matter how much she tried to make it work and get back to how it used to feel in England, Sophie could no longer accept it as her forever home.
Professionally she was on a whole different level and somewhere like Brighton couldn't keep up with her anymore. London didn't even feel like enough and that meant she was crying out for the one city that had taken her heart since she had made that visit one Christmas.
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