Page 35 of So Not My Type

A blush swept Sophie’s cheeks as she laughed. Maybe it was from the room heating up, or the coffee, but her giggle was high-pitched, and squeaky, and completely adorable. But then she snorted, and Ella lost it, her belly jiggling from hearty laughter.

This was fun.Fun.Ella could not remember the last time she had actual fun. Hour one melted into hour two, and the sun bored through the window as it lowered. Rustling papers, and a smattering of really terrible drawings and phrases, filled the whiteboard. Some shifted in their seats while a few hopped on the counter, dangling their feet. Others had their heads on the table, fighting off sugar-induced naps.

Sophie pulled a leg up on the chair and rested her chin against her knee. Her laughter slowed to a soft grin, and her eyes turned glossy. She stared out the window, like in a trance, and her tongue swept her lip. The way the flecks of hazel in Sophie’s green eyes sparkled, and the tiniest uptick of her lip, made Ella want to know her thoughts.

A few people left the room, suppressing yawns as they lagged to their last meeting of the day. The conversation winded down, and soon only Sophie and Ella remained. Ella looked across the space, with napkins, crumbs, and plates scattering the conference area. “I’m going to throw up.” She held her belly, the sugar gurgling her insides. “I ate so much.”

“Ugh, me too.” Sophie groaned and rested her forehead on the table. “I need milk to neutralize the monstrosity, but I can’t even think of adding any more to my stomach.”

A yawn tore through Ella. She stood and tossed plates and napkins into the garbage. “All this sugar has knocked me out. I’msooootired.”

“Same.” Sophie joined her in cleaning and combined the doughnuts into one box. “I know you don’t drink coffee, but want to grab a Coke or something?”

Ella grabbed a sanitizer spray from the corner and wiped the counter. “No, I can’t have caffeine. It’s a seizure trigger, so I try to avoid it.” Definitely too much sugar. She wouldn’t normally have divulged that so casually.

A little nod, a quirk of a smile, and no follow-up questions was Sophie’s reaction and Ella appreciated it. Sophie probably didn’t care. Not that sheactuallydidn’t care… but she was probably disinterested in what it was like to have epilepsy. Which was good. So far, Sophie hadn’t treated her any different, except maybe being a little nicer, which Ella contributed to their truce.

Sophie stretched on her toes, her arms reaching for the ceiling. Her shirt lifted, and the smooth white lower belly at the corner of her hip stuck out. Ella bit the urge to bury her fingers into the dip in her hip, just to see if it was as soft as it appeared.

Oof.Too much sugar, too little sex, and a lifetime of repression. That was what this was… this burning want to have Sophie lift her arms just a tiny bit higher, just a little longer. She wiped the counter down one last time, forcing herself to focus. She was here for one reason only: finish this job so she could move on.

THIRTEEN

SOPHIE

Temporal lobe, generalized seizures, tonic-clonic, cluster, absence… Sophie’s eyes burned. After crashing hard on Friday from a self-induced sugar coma, and using Saturday for chores, errands, and catching up with Maya, she’d spent most of Sunday researching everything she could on epilepsy. And the more she learned, the less she knew.

It wasn’t Sophie’s place to ask questions or find out what type of epilepsy Ella had. However, her urge to learn more consumed her. What was it like the first time she had a seizure? Did it hurt? How could a kid handle that, go to school, and deal with all the shitty social pressure that comes along with being a kid? How was college? How often did it happen?

Sophie continued reading as the metro bumped down to the office.Focal onset aware. People can be awake during a seizure? After hours of reading yesterday, she definitely understood that what she knew as a “grand mal” seizure was now called a tonic-clonic seizure, and not every person with epilepsy had these types of seizures.

The bus pulled up to the corner, and Sophie hopped off. She turned the corner and saw Ella making her way up the sidewalk, and Sophie’s heart skipped a beat.Skipped a beat?She breathedthrough the sensation. Since last week, it felt as though a barrier had broken. The lines, the boundary, had somehow blurred, and Sophie loved it. She saw glimpses of a personality that she hadn’t known existed, absorbed sparks and tingles she hadn’t felt for years. Ella had made her laugh, hard, on Friday, and it felt damn good. And she wasfunny. Who knew? She played off her deliciously devilish innuendos as playful and innocent, but a flash, something twinkly and mischievous, sparked through her gaze, and Sophie went home desperate to know more.

And it didn’t help that the vision of Ella saying “licking glazed fingers” had seeped somewhere deep and warm into Sophie’s subconscious, producing pretty incredible dreams Friday night. Although, admittedly, it might have just been the sugar eating at her brain cells.

“Ella! Hey!” Sophie called out, and increased her steps.

Ella turned around and smiled, anddammit. Now the skipped heartbeat took a lunge and morphed into thumps.

“Hey!” Ella pushed her glasses up with her index finger and moved toward Sophie, with a full, white-toothed smile.

Maybe it was how Ella walked, or because she was at an incline, but Ella had a bounce to her step that Sophie hadn’t seen before. In fact, Sophie could swear Ella was damn near jumping.

Damn, she’s pretty adorable.

“I was thinking about you this weekend. I almost sent you a text,” Ella said as she joined Sophie.

Hmmm.Sophie kept her face neutral, refusing to show how much she thought of Ella over the weekend as well. She sincerely doubted Ella had the same thoughts as Sophie did, or prompted the same internal energy. “Oh yeah? Got visions-slash-nightmares of project plans in your head.”

Ella let out a soft chuckle. “No. I was wondering if you recovered from Friday. My dad and I stopped at Alki Bakery on Saturday, and I couldn’t even imagine having any more sweets.”

Sophie held the building door open for Ella. “Man, he must have a gut of steel. I had to stop by the grocery store on Friday and grab some Tums. My belly hurt so bad.” They stepped into the elevator and ascended. “But I think it was good to go through that exercise. So many ideas got tossed around, something must have sparked the team.”

The office was still, even more than usual, and the motion-detected lights flickered alive. Sophie tossed her bag on the chair next to her and pulled out her red marker to cross off the date on her calendar. Twenty-five days left until launch. Her stomach lurched into her throat. So much still had to be done, but at this point, most was out of her control. She could confirm statuses, mediate, set timelines, and funnel information. But she wasn’t a creator.

“What’s on the agenda for today?” Ella asked as she plugged in her laptop to the docking station.

Sophie turned on the monitor. “I have to clean up all the notes I took on Friday morning. Honestly, I should’ve sent those Friday night, but after the doughnut fiesta, no one was going to look at them.” Talking about delayed notes caused a pinch in her chest. After the massive working hours the last several weeks, and gorging on sweets, the last thing the team was going to do was review anything she sent. But she needed to send them ASAP, because as soon as 9:00 a.m. hit, the team would need the information to continue with their work.

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