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It was a busy day with a new film release, and I ended up staying two hours after my shift to help with the crowd.
With all of the busyness, I didn’t get to see Charlotte at all. We hadn’t talked since last night after leaving the beach, where Olivia invited me to her hotel room. Charlotte had merely encouraged me to go with a smile, but when I woke up this morning, all I could think about was Charlotte and our almost-kiss.
That all went to the back of my mind once I stepped into the busy theater, but now as I left, my thoughts drifted back to Charlotte when I noticed that her car was gone from her usual spot.
I sent Olivia a message asking her if she wanted to meet tonight since she was leaving tomorrow. As I waited for her reply, I decided to do some shopping for Nox, who Noah told me had responded to his new name for the first time.
It was nearly 10pm when I finished shopping, and I was unloading things from the car when Olivia texted me back with an address. I stared at it for a few moments, wondering if she mistakingly sent me the message, but then she called me not long after.
“Oli–“
“Jessssssssss!”
Wincing, I pulled the phone away from my ear and put it on speaker instead.
“Can you come pick me up?” she slurred.
“How drunk are you?” I asked as I carried the last of the stuff from the car into the house.
“So so so drunk,” she giggled.
“Just stay there. I’ll come pick you up.”
She blew out a breath. “You’re the best fuck I’ve ever had, you know?”
Rolling my eyes, I got into the car again and started the engine. “Olivia, don’t go anywhere. I’ll be there soon.”
She giggled again before she shouted, “Oh my god, Charlotte’s –“
Then the call cut off before I could hear the rest. My stomach twisted at the mention of Charlotte’s name. Was she there too? Was she drunk?
I remembered her breath against my mouth, her fingers buried in my sides, and the way her eyes glimmered with laughter and warmth in the night.
My head fell forward on the steering wheel, and I accidentally hit the horn, which was loud enough to jerk me back into reality.
God, this was crazy. I felt like I was going insane.
————–
The house was more like a mansion and a half-hour drive away. It was bustling with a large crowd and music when I arrived, and I felt completely out of place walking up the stone steps in my slacks and blouse.
The door was already wide open, so I just stepped in and glanced around the foyer, not knowing where to even start looking. I decided to call her instead, and Olivia immediately picked up. She was still slurring and didn’t provide much of an answer, but I heard loud splashes in the background. As I moved through the house, I caught a glimpse of the pool lights behind a curtain and searched for the back door.
Drunken bodies stumbled around, and I dodged them as I navigated through the house. Smoke clouded the space, and the mix of colognes and perfumes made me nauseous. I had been to parties before, not something so extravagant and big like this, but I had never enjoyed them. I always preferred staying at home with Noah.
Finally, I found the door to the balcony, and I stepped out just as someone leapt off the railing. I rushed towards him in panic, but there was a loud splash soon after. When I leaned over the railing, I sighed in relief when I saw him emerge from the pool.
There was a loud, familiar voice cheering from the side, and I found Olivia sitting on the edge of the pool, her legs half-submerged in the water. She was sitting next to a couple of people, talking loudly to them before she paused to knock back the rest of the beer in her bottle.
I took the steps down to the pool and quickly strode towards her. Olivia looked up just before I reached her, and a grin stretched across her face.
“Jess, you don’t mind grabbing me another bottle?” She waved the empty bottle in her hand and jumped up to her feet.
Both of our eyes widened at the same time when she swayed, and I quickly rushed towards her just as she tilted backwards. Her hand wrapped around my wrist, but it was too late as she fell back and pulled me down with her.
One second, I was breathing air. The next, I was drowning. Water filled my lungs and burned my eyes. I tried to push up, but there was too much pressure. It felt like hands pushing me down, deeper into the water.
Noah flashed across my mind. Noah, with his sweet smile and bubbling laugh. Noah, when I took him to the aquarium for the first time, and his eyes had widened in excitement and awe. Noah, when I held him for the first time in my arms, his newborn face scrunched adorably as he cried, and I had cried too.
Firm hands gripped me, and I was jerked back into the drowning and darkness. I fought against it, but it was stronger. And then I felt myself being pulled up. The darkness gave way to light, and then those hands tightened around me and pulled harder.
I emerged with a gasp, and coughed out the water from balıkesir escort my lungs. Water still splashed against my face, and I realized with a panic that I was still in the pool. My eyes shot around, dizzy and unfocused, until I felt firm fingers grip my face, and then my eyes finally settled on the face in front of me.
Charlotte’s hazel eyes were steady and calm against the backdrop of everything else.
“Jess, you’re okay,” she said, her voice as firm as her grip.
The pressure in my chest lightened, and I sobbed out in relief. Immediately, she moved in and wrapped her arms around me tightly.
“It’s okay,” she whispered into my ear. “I’m here, Jess. I’m here.”
I buried my face into her neck and cried harder.
————–
Apparently, I had only been in the water for less than a minute. Charlotte hadn’t been far away when she saw Olivia and I fall into the water, and she immediately jumped in when only Olivia came back up.
Thankfully, no one had noticed what had happened, and when Charlotte and I came out of the pool, fully clothed and drenched, no one blinked an eye either. It sent a shiver through me.
The water seemed to have sober Olivia up a little bit too. While she didn’t apologize for dragging me into the water, she was quick to rush us upstairs into a bedroom to change.
I asked her if she knew who the room belonged to, but she merely shook her head and said she didn’t even know who the house belonged to. Charlotte had scoffed at her answer, and that was when I noticed the tension between the two of them. They didn’t look at each other the entire time, and Olivia was quick to leave after dropping us off.
The walk-in closet was expansive, to say the least. I was overwhelmed as I looked around at the different fabrics and colors, and I felt bad at the thought of taking someone’s clothes and dirtying it.
Charlotte seemed unbothered, however, and when I turned back to her, she had already stripped out of her shirt and pants, leaving herself in nothing but a matching set of black bra and underwear. My eyes ran over her tanned skin, taking in the sight of her toned stomach and the way her legs flexed as she reached up to unhook a shirt from the hanger.
As she began to turn back towards me, I quickly averted my gaze to the shirts in front of me and grabbed the first thing my eyes landed on, which was a pink blouse. It was hideous.
“That’s not you at all,” Charlotte breathed out a laugh, and I felt her presence land beside me. Still very much pantless and shirtless, she reached over me to thumb through the clothes until her fingers paused, and then I felt her arm brushed against my hair as she reached up to unhook the shirt. She spun around, and I reluctantly turned to meet her gaze, making sure to keep my eyes raised. “This is more like you.”
It was a simple sleeveless shirt, black and plain with no frills or ruffles. She was right. It was more like me.
I took the shirt from her hands, and she hung the pink blouse back up.
“And…” Charlotte stepped around me as I pulled my shirt off, her eyes searching the pants section. “Ah, here we go.”
She spun around with the selected pants in hand and paused. Her eyes fell to my chest, which I suddenly remembered was covered by a white bra. I looked down to see my nipples, still hard from the cold water, poking through the bra, which had grown more transparent from being wet.
I looked back up and caught her cheeks beginning to flush before I quickly pulled the shirt on. Charlotte cleared her throat, her eyes dragging back up to my face as she handed me the dark jeans.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, and she gave a single nod before turning away.
It was quiet for the few minutes that we finished changing. The jeans were a little loose and long on me, so I ended up rolling up the ankles. My shoes were still wet, so I just picked it up along with my clothes and walked barefoot back out to the bedroom. I dropped them on the floor and sat down on the windowsill as I waited for Charlotte to finish.
Part of the pool was visible from the window, and my body tightened when I remembered the feeling of drowning. Charlotte had held me for I didn’t even know how long as I cried, and she still held onto me when we followed Olivia here.
“Are you okay?” Charlotte’s voice snapped my attention over to her, where she stood in the closet’s doorway. She had chosen a striped skirt to go with a plain, white v-neck sweater.
I nodded slowly. “Thank you. I didn’t get to say it before, but thank you.”
“Of course, Jess, I–” She took a step towards me, her fingers twisting together. “I’m sorry Liv dragged you here.”
I shrugged offhandedly. “It’s okay. She seemed really drunk, and I wanted to make sure she got back safe.”
“But you know you don’t have to do that. You could have called me, considering she called me here anyway,” Charlotte said as she frowned.
I was beginning to get the feeling that she was upset, but I didn’t bartın escort know from what.
“It’s honestly fine, Charlotte,” I said carefully, gauging her reaction. “Did I do something wrong?”
Charlotte’s lips tightened as her eyes hardened. My stomach twisted uncomfortably. I hated when she was mad at me, and even more so when I didn’t know what I did to upset her.
Charlotte took a couple steps towards me, her frown deepening. “It’s not that. It’s just…you are just so infuriating sometimes.”
Infuriating.
The way she said it, the restrained anger in her voice. It sliced across my chest, and unable to hold her gaze, I dropped it to my lap.
I opened my mouth to apologize, but then she spoke again.
“How can you let Olivia treat you like that?” she snapped, her voice trembling with so much fury as if she was losing control of it. It was so rare for Charlotte to lose her composure. She was usually good at hiding —
But wait.
I slowly looked up to meet her angry gaze again and was surprised to see her standing just a few feet away. When had she shifted closer?
“Olivia?”
“You are not her girlfriend, Jess. You don’t fetch her a beer when she demands one or come pick her up from a party straight after work. She is an adult. She can get her own beers and get an Uber home.” Charlotte’s hands waved around as she began to pace. I continued to stare at her with shock. “She doesn’t respect you. She’s just stringing you along and using you for –” Her face flushed, but she still didn’t stop pacing. “For sex. She — I heard her talking to someone earlier, and it just…god, Jess, you just take whatever people give you, and you hold it all in even though I know it must hurt.”
She was saying so much, which she usually did when she was on an emotional rant. I loved seeing it because she was usually so composed, and it made me feel special that she trusted me enough to let out her thoughts like this.
But now I was so confused because it seemed like she was mad at me but also more mad at Olivia, and I still didn’t know what she was so angry about.
“What did you hear Olivia say?” I decided to ask because perhaps that was what led to all of this.
Charlotte rubbed her hands down her face. “I–It’s nothing you need to hear.”
“Just tell me.”
“I don’t want to tell you,” she said stubbornly. “You’re just going to overthink and internalize it, and everything she said was not only rude but also not true at all.”
“Charlotte, please,” I sighed, and she stopped pacing to look at me now. “Just tell me. I can take it.”
The angry lines on her face softened just a fraction. “Then promise me you won’t take what she said seriously.”
It was so ridiculous I wanted to laugh, but she still looked serious so I suppressed my smile and nodded.
Charlotte looked down at her fingers as she fiddled with them and took a couple of more steps towards me. “I heard her say that you were just a good lay and that there wasn’t anything serious going on between you two. She made some comments about your job and other things that I–“
“Like what?”
Charlotte chewed on her lips as her eyes flickered to my patient ones, and she let out a long exhale. “She said she wouldn’t be with someone who dropped out of high school and works at a movie theater.” Then Charlotte quickly stepped even closer, her eyes wide with so much concern that it made my stomach flutter. “But Jess, all of it is just nonsense, okay? Olivia has always been a bitch.”
I really wanted to make a comment about her cursing, but the pang in my chest made the joke died on my tongue.
I didn’t expect anything Olivia said to be hurtful because she was right after all, but it affected me more that Charlotte heard all of that. I didn’t know why, but it did.
“But she’s not wrong,” I said quietly, and Charlotte’s gaze sharpened. I looked away. “I do make minimum wage at a theater, and I did drop out of high school. I had a kid at eighteen, which I love Noah and I don’t regret having him, but I don’t always have time to go on dates or parties. This is the only week in the year that I can do things like that, and I still worry about him. I worry if he’s having fun, if he’s safe even though he’s not that far away, and if he misses his bed. I’m not the sort of person who people date or settle down with.”
Did it suck that I couldn’t do all of that? It used to hurt more, but I had long accepted that I wasn’t normal nor was my life. I had attempted relationships with other women, but it never worked out. Laura didn’t want to settle down, Katie didn’t want a relationship other than sex, and Olivia was the same.
I was the problem, and it was…fine. I had Noah, the band, and now Charlotte. They were all I needed.
Warm fingers grazed my cheek, and I looked up as Charlotte settled her palm against it. I expected to see pity, but her gaze was much warmer and enflamed. The knot in my chest slowly began to unravel.
“You are exactly batman escort the person anyone would be lucky enough to settle down with,” she said vehemently, and a lump formed in my throat as I held her gaze. “Who the fuck cares if you work at a movie theater? You have a great kid, a job, and a home all while pursuing music on the side. Also, you got your GED, not that it’s anyone business, but you didn’t have to do that but did it anyway. You are a super, super, super amazing person, Jess, and if no one can see that, then that’s their problem, not yours.”
“You said fuck.” I couldn’t help but point it out now, and she scowled.
“Jess, I’m serious.”
I laughed. “I know, Charlotte. I believe you, and I…” I swallowed tightly as I felt tears prickle my eyes from the warmth that had bursted through my chest during her rant. “Thank you. For saying all of that.”
It meant a lot more that it came from Charlotte, and I realized now that I was more worried about how she thought of me or if she shared the same thoughts as Olivia. I didn’t care what Olivia thought of me. I barely knew her.
But with Charlotte, everything mattered.
Suddenly, I was engulfed by her when she leaned in and wrapped her arms around me. Her hair pressed against my face, and I liked that I could still smell her perfume despite the chlorine.
“She won’t bother you again,” Charlotte murmured against my ear, and my eyes began to flutter shut before I registered what she said.
“Hold on, did you say something to her?”
Charlotte slowly pulled away, her eyes already alert and ready with a defense. “Well, I wasn’t going to just let it go!”
“Char–“
“She was straight up disrespectful, Jess, and I would never be able to live with myself if I let her continue to use you while saying those stupid things behind your back.” She placed her hands on her hips with finality and raised a brow as if she was challenging me to argue against her.
I couldn’t possibly argue against something that made my heart beat a million times faster. Instead, I disguised my emotions with a grin. “Thank you for defending my honor.”
Her cheeks flushed slightly, and my grin widened. Leave it up to Charlotte to feel embarrassed after being her amazing self.
Something crossed her face, however, and she chewed on her lip. “I’m sorry if you really liked her, and I ruined things for you.”
A laugh bubbled up my throat. “She and I were just having sex. It wasn’t serious at all, and we both knew that.”
“Oh.”
“I am sad that I won’t be able to have sex with her anymore,” I sighed dramatically. “She was fun despite being a bitch.”
Charlotte turned away, but I caught the red on her cheeks deepening. “You’ll find someone else.”
“Maybe,” I scoffed lightly. “Maybe I’ll just go back to Laura.”
She suddenly spun around, her eyes narrowed into tiny slits, and I eased back against the window when she stomped back to me.
“I did not just do all of that for you to go straight back to Laura,” she snapped.
“What’s wrong with Laura?”
“She’s not good enough for you!”
I frowned. “She’s my friend, Charlotte. I know she seems a little over the place or whatever, but she has been there a lot for Noah and I.”
“I’m not saying she’s a bad friend. I swear that’s not what I meant,” she exasperated. “I’m sure she is a great person, but you need someone who wants to be with you and Noah in all of the ways that matter. Someone who’s stable and present and –“
“What, someone like you?” I blurted out, and Charlotte’s eyes widened at the same time as mine.
“I — that’s not –“
“Relax. It was a joke,” I muttered even though my face felt so hot, and a pang shot through me with her rejection. “Plus, you’re straight, so obviously I was joking.”
“Right,” she exhaled, and I averted my gaze to the floor. “All I’m saying is you deserve someone just as amazing as you.”
I just nodded and hoped that she would leave or change the topic because I didn’t have the energy for it anymore.
“Jess, please say something.”
“I don’t know what else you want me to say,” I snapped. “I’ve given up on love a long time ago, and the last thing I need is you harping in my ear about finding the right person and all that when it just isn’t in the cards for me.”
She sucked in a sharp breath and then expelled it. “You can’t honestly mean that.”
“There is no one for me, Charlotte. I’ve tried, and I’m tired of trying.” My eyes snapped back up to meet her stunned ones. “I know your heart is in the right place, but it’s not that serious for me anymore. I’m –“
Charlotte ducked her head and pressed her lips to mine.
Feeling exploded through my body and overloaded my senses. I was frozen still, my eyes wide open as I tried to register how Charlotte’s lips had ended up against mine. But then just as quickly as it started, her lips began to slow, growing more hesitant and stiff. She began to pull away, but I wasn’t ready to let her go.
As my mind finally caught up, I let my eyes flutter shut, wrapped an arm around Charlotte’s waist, and pulled her closer. Her lips grew firm against mine again, and I widened my legs for her to lean against the sill between them.
I traced her lips with my tongue, and to my delight, she responded and parted them for me.
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