As the words sunk in Jen realised that she needed to see Sophie. She deserved an explanation... Well as much as Jen had one.
Quickly grabbing her shoes and a jacket she turned to James "I need to see Sophie. I have to go after her"
"What will you say?" James asked with concern as he watched his friend rush out the door.
"I've no idea!" And with that Jen closed the door behind her and ran down the stairs and onto the street. Jen quickly scanned the street and just saw the back of Sophie turning out of sight. Jen started running down the street to catch up with Sophie. As she got nearer Jen called out Sophie's name.
Sophie turned round and as she saw Jen jogging towards her, her face turned to anger.
"Leave me alone!" Sophie shouted at Jen and turned to carry on walking. Jen was close enough to be able to reach out and grabbed Sophie by the wrist, pulling Sophie back.
"Sophie...please!" Jen pleaded. "We...we need to talk".
Sophie swung round and close up Jen could see she was crying.
"What more do I need to hear Jen?" Sophie asked "I mean from where I'm standing it seems to me that I'm just a back up. Second best. Second best to your precious Tilly!" There was so much venom is Sophie's voice when she said Tilly's name.
"Sophie" Jen pleaded again "let's go somewhere and talk about this. I...I'm sorry you overheard that conversation, it's ...it's not what you think."
"Really?" Sophie shot back at Jen.
"I heard you Jen. I heard you say that I don't mean the same to you as Tilly meant to you. I heard you say that you wouldn't risk your life for me, like you had for her."
Jen opened her mouth to speak, but Sophie continued. "And you know what? That fucking sucks to hear." Sophie's bottom lip was quivering with emotion.
"I thought you were my future. I thought you had changed and was finally opening up, Moving on"
"I was!" Jen pleaded
"the other day at the hospital when we were waiting for your test results, I would have stood by you no matter what. If they had said you had brain damage... I would have been there for you. Where was Tilly then huh?"
Jen reached down to try and take Sophie's hand, but Sophie was having none of it.
"Get your hands off me!" Sophie spat at Jen. "I'll stay round my friends house tonight and then will pick my stuff up tomorrow and then that's it. I never want to see you again. Do you understand?" Sophie was now crying and there was nothing Jen could say that could make the situation any better. She knew she had messed up. She knew she had massively hurt Sophie and she felt awful about that, but she couldn't deny the feelings she had felt seeing Tilly again. Jen knew Tilly was out of bounds, getting married in just a few weeks, and so there was no hope of them being together again, but she knew James was right. Sophie just didn't mean as much to Jen as she should have. It took seeing Tilly again to realise that.
Jen admitted defeat and walked slowly back to her flat. What a mess. Once back home she couldn't stop thinking about Sophie and how bad things had ended. She went to bed, but couldn't sleep and so she went down to the studio in the hope that she would be able to concentrate on some work. As she switched on the computer she saw the answer phone light flashing indicating 2 new messages. Jen leant over and pressed the play button as she scanned her email. The first one was from a supplier confirming a delivery date. Jen scribbled down the date and deleted the message and played the next message.
Beeeeeeeep. Next Message left at 12.16am on Tuesday 26th. Then silence. Jen waited. She could hear breathing so she knew someone was there, and then she heard the voice again.
"Ummmmmm Hi. Errrrrr this is a message for Jen. Jen Gilmore" Jens heart was beating so fast. Oh my god. Tilly had called her!
"Jen it's ummmmm it's Tilly. I ummmm well I just errrrr wanted to see if you were ok. You know...after the other day?"
There was a long pause. Jen thought Tilly sounded a bit drunk. She felt the butterflies in her stomach flutter as they used to all those years ago. Jen took a deep breath and told herself not to read too much into it, she told herself that it didn't mean anything, that Tilly was just being kind and calling to see if she was ok. That was all. Nothing else.
"Anyway... Ummmm I've been thinking that ummmmm well,you know, that errrrrr maybe we could meet up!"
Jen couldn't believe it. Tilly actually wanted to see her. Oh god. Oh god. Her heart was now beating overtime.
"I ummmm, oh fuck it... Jen I...I need to see you. Call me. My number is 07515408371...ok I ummm I'd better go. Ummmm bye"
Beeeeeeep end of messages.
Jen replayed the message over and over again, smiling like a small child... She could help herself. As she wrote down Tilly's number she noticed her hand was shaking with excitement. Only Tilly Evans did this to her!
Jen checked the time. It was 2.30am. She knew she shouldn't text so late, but she was totally buzzing and had to respond instantly, thinking to herself that Tilly would pick the message up in the morning.
On the other side of town Tilly was in bed, sleeping off the alcohol and oblivious to the fact that she'd left her phone downstairs. Kate who had just finished a long shift at the hospital and was about to switch off the lights and climb the stairs to join her girlfriend in bed when she heard Tilly's phone beep indicating a message. Kate looked around the room and saw the phone on the coffee table. Who on earth was texting so late? As she went to pick it up to take it up to Tilly she saw the first line of the message.
2.31am Pink photos (Jen)
Hi. I'm so pleased you called. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you.
To be continued - not sure when as back to work now. Hope everyone had an amazing new year. Happy 2014.
