“Okay.” She took the baby from her brother’s arms. “Go and find me as many blankets as possible and bring them in here. You’re going to have to buy a crib tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” He looked at her with wide eyes. “Sophie already had one picked out I think, I guess we can just get two instead.”
“Yeah.” Ella’s voice was soft. She felt sorry for her brother but he was the one who had gotten himself into this situation. Why didn’t men think sometimes?
***
Ella left thirty minutes later and Sophie still hadn’t arrived back at the apartment. She wasn’t worried as she could only imagine what Sophie was going through. She must be devastated. Ella knew that she wouldn’t have handled it half as well as her friend and she promised herself that she would stop being selfish and would be there for her friend. Heaven knew that Sophie was going to need her more than anything right now.
She walked into her apartment and sighed at the musty smell resonating from the kitchen. She hadn’t tidied up in ages and it smelled like she must have left something old out, which was now rotting. She looked at the fruit flies flying around and bit her lip. She knew that she needed to clean up but she was just so tired and stressed. She had tried to be upbeat and happy so that Max wouldn’t feel bad but she was still pretty devastated and heartbroken. No matter how she tried to tell herself that Joseph was bad news, she just couldn’t stop thinking of the way his eyes lit up every time they were together. The way he had made love to her slowly and gently and the way he told her he loved her, and that he wanted to be with her, that she was the one for him. How they’d laughed watching ‘The Simpsons’ on TV and taken turns trying to imitate Bart’s voice. She’d believed him when he said he was leaving his wife and wanted to marry her. She’d believed him when he’d pledged his undying love for her. But it had all been a lie. What a fool she had been. She looked in the kitchen one last time and walked slowly to her room. She’d deal with the kitchen in the morning.
She walked straight to her laptop and turned it on. She paused for a moment before typing in reallove.com quickly. The bright cheerful website beckoned her to create a profile and meet her soul mate. Photos of happy and gorgeous couples told her of their perfect relationships and urged her to also sign up to meet the love of her life. She laughed at the irony of the fact that here she was Ella Van Harkel, beautiful and rich socialite about to join an online dating site. People assumed she could have every guy she wanted and that her life was perfect but that was far from the truth. She figured she had nothing to lose by signing up, even if she only met losers. That wouldn’t be different from any other guy she had met in real life.
“Hmm, a name, a name,” she mused to herself. “What should I call myself?” She didn’t want to put a name that would let people know it was her but she didn’t want to be off the track either. “Princess-to-be?” she thought out loud. No, no, that sounded like a little kid. “Columbiagrad?” she thought. No, that wasn’t even true. She hadn’t even graduated as of yet. She sighed; this was going to be a long arduous process if she couldn’t even think of a name. She wished Sophie were here, so that they could sit back laughing and drinking wine as they filled out the questions. She sat back and remembered that Capri had given her her card, before she could stop herself; she pulled her phone out and called her.
“Hello?” Capri’s voice was friendly and welcoming.
“Hi Capri? This is Ella, we met earlier today at the park.” Ella’s voice was hesitant.
“Oh of course. How are you, Ella?” Capri sounded genuinely happy to hear from Ella and she smiled.
“I’m good. Well I’m just okay.” She laughed self-consciously. “I’m actually signing up for reallove.com and was wondering if you could help me?”
“Oh that’s awesome.” Capri laughed. “Sure, I can help. What did you need help with?”
“Everything.” Ella laughed. “I’ve never done this before and I have no clue what to do and how honest to be.”
“Oh I felt that way when I first started as well.” She laughed. “Can I call you back in ten minutes? I can put Leroy to bed and then we can go through the process.”
“That sounds great.” Ella laughed happily. “I would really really appreciate that.”
“No problems. I’ll call you back on this number?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Ella hung up and sat back suddenly feeling light. She was happy that she had made what she felt was going to be a good friend in Capri. And Capri had no idea that Ella was rich. And she still liked her. It felt good to know that she could make friends that were real and sincere and liked her for who she was. She supposed that was why she and Sophie were such good friends. They’d been friends for so long that Ella knew that Sophie was not interested in her money or status. Not like the girls in high school. Who’d only cared about comparing holiday homes, designer handbags and trust funds. Aside from Sophie, Ella didn’t really have any other good friends. Ella sighed because she knew the same was true for Sophie. Ella had monopolized her time and friendship and Sophie was nothing if she wasn’t loyal. She had no one either. She was most probably off somewhere by herself crying and devastated with no one to talk to. She pulled her phone out to call her friend again but it went straight to voicemail. She closed her eyes and prayed that her friend was okay. She would never forgive herself if something happened to Sophie.
On the other side of town, Capri was sending a text message to her contact. “Ella called and she’s joining the dating site. I’ll send you her screen name as soon as I get it. Please make the deposit into the Chase account. Thx.” Capri stared at the phone in her hand and felt a moment of guilt but then she saw Leroy’s bed in the corner of her room and she knew she didn’t have the money to feel guilty. She had a job to do.
Chapter 6
Sophie
It was nighttime but all the lights made it seem like it was early afternoon to Sophie. She had a love-hate relationship with New York City. There were times when she felt like she couldn’t believe how lucky she was to live in this wonderful happening city. But there were also times that she just wanted to leave. Times when the lights annoyed and the constant crowds of people made her feel invisible. What a feeling—to be surrounded by so many people but to feel completely and utterly alone. She watched some German tourists cross the street excitedly pointing at a yellow cab. She laughed to herself; she had been excited to see the cabs when she first came to the city as well. It seemed to be such a long time ago now. She decided to go and sit in the park to think. It’s the place that she and Ella had always gone when they wanted to distress.