Chapter 12: My Baby Girl Has Grown Beautifully

This is Lance's POV. . .

I'm so excited today. I asked Sophie's Mom for permission so I can take her back in our family's vacation home. Every summer, she spends her vacation at our place. That playful and cute girl oftenly disturbed my painting sessions back then. Still I found her so adorable. She will never let me finish my drawings unless I accompany her to play and walk outside our home until sunset. She calls me Big Brother and would always pinch my cheeks and will laugh so sweetly.

Today we arrived at the house smelling the rich aroma of coffee being brewed by Auntie Laura. We took our brunch and sets out to re-explore the beautiful surrounding with greens and fragrant flowers. She look stunning on her bandana wrapping around her delicate head. And despite the face mask, she still looks charming with her bright and smiling eyes. I felt a pang of sadness upon remembering the very reason why she has to wear that head cover and mask. I was such a fool for cutting my ties with her all these years thinking she'll be better off with someone else. Despite knowing about her feelings for me eventhough she has not really confess it to me, I still chose to hurt her while I'm feeling the same way towards her.

After my family migrated to America, I thought we'll really have a blast and have a wonderful life there. But troubles had strucked my Dad's business and had gone bankrupt. My Mom was diagnosed with a terminal illness adding more to our despair. I don't have a choice back then but to work and support our expenses. I tirelessly jumps from one job to another as to make sure I'll pay my tuition fees on time. Sophie as persistent as she is, sent me emails almost every day, but I'm too tired to respond back. There's so much going on with my life at that time and I thought I don't have any amount of energy to entertain her childish stories and talks. Until one day I decided not to respond anymore despite her countless messages. I began to be slowly being engulfed by depression as days goes by specially when my Mom passed away at an unexpected time. I lost my will to survive almost discontinued my dream of becoming a Doctor. I felt like I also lost the right to face her anymore. Then one day I came accross a very good friend way back from my highschool days. That person had helped me get back to my feet and brought me to his uncle who is a psychologist. I was able to get through depression. It was like a miracle as my Dad had also recovered after loosing his business and Mom. He started trying again some business opportunities and succeeded in every venture that he tried. I found myself back again at pursuing my dream. One fine day when I was on my way to school, I bumped into a lady at the sidewalk. Both of us were surprised upon recognizing each other. It's Sophie's Mom. She told me that Sophie had already graduated from college and is already a licensed Engineer. I told her I'm so happy and I told her I'm sorry for not connecting all these years. I am at the last year in my specialization degree and hoping to finish well in Oncology. After that, I told her I might have to go back home and visit them. We had gone our separate ways in good terms and she had given me Sophie'a social media accounts in case I would want to reconnect. I tried to check Sophie's social media accounts because it's been years since I last saw her. I saw her photo in one occasion which seems to be a company gathering and was mesmerized by how much she changed. She wore a royal blue evening gown and her face glows beautifully. Once again, the feelings that I thought would have been buried deep down along with our past memories comes back to life and seems stronger than ever.

"Hello Lance. . . are you done?" I heard her whisper and my mind had gone back to the present time. I was so into my thoughts and feelings that I almost forgot that I'm holding her in a warm embrace. "Oh sorry, I thought I'll doze off". I jokingly responded. I released her, held her hand and we walk side by side as we explore and rekindle our childhood days one more time.