My Little Secret

(Ivan Radcliffe)

I saw Sofia putting the books back into the shelf when I arrived at Absolem.

"Hey" I say and walk closer to her. She smiles at me and looks happy that I was there.

"Give me ten minutes and I'll be done with this." She says and gets back to rearranging the shelves.

I had been thinking about what Bryan said and I had felt awful. I wondered why he wanted me to get back with Catherine. Maybe he thought that she was more fit for our family. Bryan was careful about things like that.

I needed to tell Sofia what I felt before Bryan did something. I did not think he would, but it was always good to be prepared for the worst. I had to tell her the truth about things before I told her what I felt. I did not want Bryan to use anything against me when it came to Sofia. Besides, I wanted us to have a fair chance.

"What's going on" she asks me, standing in front of me. "I've been standing here for two minutes now; you were deep in thought." She says looking worried.

"Uh.. It's nothing. Family, stuff." I say and she nods in agreement.

"Hey, you never told me about your family." I ask her as we go out. It was raining heavily.

"Stay here for a while?" she asks, I nod. "Um, I don't know. My parents died when I was young. I have

no siblings. I used to live with my cousins, then Simon kinda adopted me. He says I remind him of his granddaughter. She died when she was ten. She had pneumonia." She says and sighs. "I do miss having a family. A brother, a sister maybe. But I've got Poirot." She says and manages to smile.

I wanted to hold her hand and tell her that things were going to be fine. This restriction, to not be able to hold her, was killing me. We look at each other and our eyes meet. We look at each other longer than we should have.

"I have something to tell you Sof." I tell her. "Me too." She says.

"You go first." I say and she nods.

"The thing is, when I touch someone, I have a glimpse of their life. I kinda snoop into their thoughts, it's out of my control. I know, it's weird. I just.."

"It's fine! Sof.. I know." I say. It was time she knew.

"You know what?"

"I knew about your instinct Sof, your powers, I knew about this all this while. I was actually going to use it in one of my stories. Catherine and I, look I'm sorry. This was a long time ago."

"Wait, what? What do you mean you knew? How? Nobody knows about this except Simon." She says looking confused and angry.

"I was at Absolem, I came to take the book and I hear Simon and you talk. I initially got close to you to get to know you, for the story, but as I got to know you, I couldn't." I say and look at her.

She looked shocked and sad. What had I done? Putting her through this felt awful. She said nothing.

"You need to know this. The truth of things."

"Why? Why tell me now?" she asks, still sad.

"Because I can't do this Sof, this no contact thing. Every time you're upset about something, I want to hug you, comfort you and tell you it's going to be okay. Every time you get excited, I want to pick you up and pull you closer." I could feel her face flush. She had turned red.

"But most importantly, when you're happy about something, or talking about something you love, and your eyes are glistening and you talk about it passionately, I want to pull you closer to me and kiss you." I manage to say.

"Maybe you should" she says and comes closer to me.

I bend forward and feel my lips brush against hers. They were so soft and tasted like grapes. My hands in her hair, they were so silky and soft. My left hand on her neck. Her face smelt of fresh strawberries. My favourite. I kept kissing her, I didn't want to let go. I could feel my heart racing. I could feel the spark and passion.

I look at her, "Sofia Malitz, I like you very much. Hate me all you want, but I'd rather be able to do this" I say and push her hair behind her ear and move my fingers on her cheek, "than hide the truth from you."

"Shut up and kiss me." She laughs and says and pulls me closer.

In that moment, I was hers.