Made with Love

BUZZZZZZZZ!!!!!

Phoebe jumped a mile high as the arrogant alarm on her cell phone buzzed away, reminding her to get up. She was about to throw it across her king sized bed when she realised what day today was. It was THE day. The one she had been meticulously planning for the last 3 months. The day she finally got back the only person she had ever, truly, loved...

As her heart rate returned to "anxious excited", she took a few minutes to just savour the joy of having successfully reached today. She appreciated the fact that, at any time, her plans could have gone awry. She didn't have the best track record where Sophie was concerned.

Her mind drifted back to the day she had walked out on Sophie. Well, she hadn't really walked out on her. Phoebe had been dragged away from Sophie, kicking and screaming. She remembered the confused look on Sophie's face as her father dragged her away from the love of her life. She remembered how Sophie had begun to cry. She remembered the helplessness she had felt at not being able to fight back, but how could she? She was only 17 when she had been abandoned by everyone in her life, all because of Sophie.

Her boyfriend had been so angry when he learnt about her precious Sophie. He had given her an ultimatum, and when she had chosen Sophie, over him, he was furious. Her parents had demanded that she end it, but how could she? How could Phoebe end something so beautiful? How could she hurt someone so innocent? So Phoebe refused, and fled her home, thinking that someone else would definitely take her in, but she was out of luck. Her parents were rich, and they were influential. They had forbidden anyone from helping her, even friends.

So Phoebe and Sophie ran as far, and as fast, as they could. During those cold months, living on the street, with barely any food to eat or anywhere to call home, love sustained them. All that mattered to Phoebe was that she and Sophie were together. Unfortunately, their relationship was short lived.

Her father caught up to her, eventually, and dragged her away from Sophie. He tossed her on a plane and sent her off to complete her final year of High School under the strict supervision of her uncle and aunt in a small town in England, thousands of kilometres away from her home and her love in Durban, South Africa.

Those were dark years indeed, but Phoebe had a plan. She would focus on her studies, she would pass her Matric year with the highest honours and complete her four years of Tertiary Studies, then, when she could finally stand on her own two feet, she would go back and find Sophie.

Phoebe was awakened from her dark daydream by the alarm, reminding her that those days were behind her. It had taken 19 years but she had finally found her darling Sophie.

As she got out of bed and began mechanically going through the motions of her daily routine, her mind drifted back to the years of searching and failing to find Sophie. As she brushed her teeth she remembered how she had hired Tom, her private investigator, five years ago when her parents had died and (being their only child) she had become the sole heiress to a legacy of window dressing and unhappiness, but it had also come with a substantial amount of money and assets that had assisted her in finally getting some professional help in her search.

Her parents had refused to help her in life, but their money would now help her in death. The irony was not lost on her. She thought back to the long years that Tom had looked for Sophie. If he hadn't become such a good friend and stopped charging her after the first 6 months of searching, Phoebe would have thought that he was deliberately prolonging the search to continuing extorting money from her.

However, Tom's failure during those years was finally justified 4 months ago when he had discovered why he had been unable to track Sophie down. It turns out that Sophie had moved, and changed her last name, 3 times in the 19 years since Phoebe had been forced to leave her. She had travelled almost as much as Phoebe had, and had just moved back to Durban that year.

Phoebe's heart had leapt at the news, could it be that her love was looking for her as well? But she dared not hope. As the fear crept slowly up her throat, filling her mouth with a metallic taste, she formed a plan. She would have Tom watch Sophie from a distance to gauge whether or not Sophie would welcome her back. She realised, even then, how “stalkery” that was, but she felt that it was the only way forward.

Tom had run surveillance on Sophie for a month and discovered her enrolment in a Pastry School not too far from Phoebe's family home. When Phoebe learned this, inspiration struck!

She contacted the head of the school and informed him that she would love to start a scholarship fund at his institution and begin funding a few new development projects. He was delighted and so their business relationship began to blossom. It took a further 3 months to put all the necessary legalities in place, but, last week, everything had been finalized and it was time for Phoebe to start collecting on her investment.

She suggested to the Dean of L'école de Pâtisserie (seriously, who names their pastry school "The Pastry School"?) that it would be a good idea for the students to come up with their own unique cookie recipe and showcase those cookies, to the faculty and their peers, at a cookie exchange that she would host at her family home. The Dean was delighted and so Le grand échange de biscuits became the event for the school for this weekend.

Phoebe walked downstairs and decided to check in the preparations for today's event. She was amazed at the transformation of her parents dreary old brandy room. In just 2 days, the events company that she had hired had magically upgraded the room to look like a rustic cafe, modern but with an old world charm. Everywhere she looked, exposed brick and rustic wood and metal furniture gave the old room a sense of class and purpose. Chalkboards, sporting the name of each student, sat on individual tables, black hooded ceiling lamps hung above the coffee bar, and the room smelled of fresh roast and vanilla chai.

Phoebe was certain that the event itself would be a success, but she still felt cold beads of sweat on her scalp when she thought of facing Sophie after nearly 20 years. Her own love had not waned in that time, it had grown stronger and sturdier, but would it be reciprocated? She would have to hope that it would be.

As the students filled in, Phoebe stood aloft, waiting and surveying the crowd. She had made it clear to Dean John that she did not wish to address the students directly, but rather, that she would be engaging with them on a one on one level. Dean John completed his address and allowed the students to set up. The idea was that they would each bring 5 dozen of a cookie of their own creation.

These cookies would be exchanged with other students and distributed among faculty and benefactors to the school, each student would then get to taste the creations of their peers in a social setting, free of competition, so that they could get to know each other better, and on a personal level. The faculty and benefactors would also be able to judge the talent and character of their students.

Phoebe pretend to casually mill around, wandering through the room, chatting to various students, until her roving eyes found Sophie. She looked just like her admissions photo, big brown eyes, beautiful wavy waist length black hair, and a smile that Phoebe had waited 19 years to see. It took all of Phoebe's strength not to run up to Sophie and envelope her in a bear hug, but she restrained herself, not wanting to scare the poor thing.

She reached her destination, after what seems like a lifetime, and gently tapped Sophie on the shoulder, interrupting her conversation with a fellow student. Sophie looked at her slightly confused, with her head titled a slight angle, as if asking, "How can I help you?"

Phoebe had expected this. Of course there was no way Sophie would recognise her, after all, Sophie had been only a few hours old the day that the nurse had taken Sophie from her arms while Phoebe's father had dragged Phoebe away kicking and screaming for her baby girl.

Phoebe smiled and said, "You don't know me, but my name is Phoebe James, I'm your birth mother and I have spent a lifetime looking for you. Would you give me a few minutes of your time?"

Sophie's smile faltered for a minute, just long enough to sink Phoebe's heart, then she beamed at Phoebe with tears forming in her eyes. "You found me!" She declared, wrapping her mother in a hug that seemed to last forever, but ended much too soon.

As they spent the rest of the day talking, laughing and crying, they happily munched away at the cookies that had brought them together, and Phoebe realised that the stiff, orthodox old house that she had hated, had finally become a home.