"So you thought she called him?" Jace scoffs and I shift my gaze from the punching bag in front of me to him. 

"Yes, I'm an asshole, thank you for the unnecessary reminder." I glare at him before throwing another punch onto the bag. 

"Well did you apologize?" 

"Can you breath?" I ask him and he hesitantly nods. 

"Exactly," I mumble as I continue punching the bag in front of me. 

"Oh, did you get the cinderella necklace?" he asks. 

"Yeah." 

"Great, she's going to love it." 

"Yeah, whatever," I mumble. 

"Well, I'm going to take off, good luck with Soph." he says walking out my gym. 

The image of Sophia between Trey and the door floods my mind, causing me to beat the shit out of this bag. 

I spend a good hour in the gym, I walk out, sweat dripping down my body. I need a shower. 

"Axton!" I roll my eyes from the familiar voice. I should have killed Corbin when mom left us alone in the park when we were five. 

"What?" I ask, turning around to see him, for the first time in months. 

"Bro, I missed you! What you say about giving me a minor position, just part-time," he smirks and at this point, he looks like a good punching bag. 

"What do you say about leaving and never calling me again?" 

"You ungrateful son of a bitch! I give you my company and you refuse to offer me a position?" Is this asshole serious? 

"First of all, you're under my roof so lower your fucking voice, and you and your shitty father forced this company onto me, I saved it after you two almost lost it. So it's my company. Now it's mom's birthday, so pull your fucking self together and don't ruin it for her." I walk away to my room. 

My mind wonders about when Sophia was dating Trey, she was really happy at first. But a while before that, I was planning on telling her how I felt, I knew she felt the same way, who wouldn't? Sophia and I have this connection, that you can feel even when we're at the other end of the room. We have that chemistry that I always tried to deny, because well, she was my best friend, but now she's so much more. 

Even three years ago when I got my shit together, I was so ready to ask her to be my girlfriend. 

Flashback. 

"Why are we at Tiffany's?" Jace asks as we walk in. 

"Shut up, you'll see," I tell him. 

"Mr.McKay. Here's your order, wrapped and ready." I'm handed the bag which I paid for a few weeks ago. 

"Is that for your mom?" Jace asks, clearly confused. 

"No, my grandmother." I tell him. 

"Isn't she..." I sigh as a gasp is heard from him. 

"You're going to confess to Soph!" 

"Took you long enough," I mumble as we walk out of Tiffany and Co. 

"Man, I got to get a suite." he mumbles. 

"For?" 

"Your fucking wedding man!" 

"Slow down Jace." He chuckles. 

"You know it's going to happen." 

---

"Can you take this blindfold off now, please?" Sophia asks me as I lead her through the flower garden. 

"Not yet!" I tell her and she whines like a child. 

Today was Sophia's nineteenth birthday. I was also going to ask her to be my, girlfriend, yes I know, Axton McKay? one girl? Doesn't sound right. 

But sure as hell feels right. 

"Don't move," I tell her as I undo the blindfold. 

"Happy birthday Soph." I kiss her cheek as she smiles at the decorated garden. 

"I love it." she says through tears. Fuck, why is she crying? 

"Why are you crying?" I ask clearly not sure what you're supposed to do when someone starts crying after a surprise. 

"Because this is so sweet." she chuckles, hugging me. I think that's the second hug I've ever had.

"You're sweet," I tell her and she smiles. 

We sit and have dinner, but her phone keeps blowing up. 

"Don't you wanna check those?" 

"No, they're questions for my Instagram live tomorrow. I'm sure it's going to be based on you." she rolls her eyes. 

Fans have been making way more edits of us, I even saw us holding kids. It looked so fucking real. 

"Read some," I tell her and she looks up at me, before unlocking her phone. 

"Hi Sophia, are you and Axton dating?" 

"How does Axton smell?" 

"Have you and Axton done the dirty?" I look up to Sophia and she's full-on laughing. 

"Finish them!" I chuckle telling her. 

"That's basically what all the questions are!" she laughs. 

I grab her phone, looking through all the responses. 

"What about risking a friendship, like Jace's friendship, for a relationship?" I ask her, but I lie, the question used me as the example. I slowly slip my hands into my pockets, about the retrieve the box. 

"I'm not willing to risk a friendship of so many years for a relationship, what if it doesn't work out you know?" she says and my heart drops. 

"True." I tell her, handing her the phone back. 

My hands slip out of my pockets, empty. 

She isn't willing to risk a friendship and that's okay. 

Still hurts though. 

"Let's go for a walk hm?" I ask and she nods. 

End of Flashback. 

Yep, I was going to ask Soph to be my girlfriend. But it wasn't the right time. That shit fucking hurts. But I wasn't going to make her choose me or our friendship. 

Stepping out the shower, I get into my suite. Unfortunately, it wasn't designed by Sophia. 

I take a look in the mirror, good enough. 

I can't help but think about what would happen if I did ask Sophia that night, and if she said yes. 

We would be dating, us against the world. Just the two of us. I walk to my closet, opening the safe at the end of the wall. I take the black jewelry box out and I open it, revealing the ring. 

I sigh. 

My room door opens and Jace walks in.