‘You needed the rest.’
He sat up properly and rubbed his face with his hands.
‘Go and splash some water on your face, if you like. Dinner’s in the oven. It’ll be ready soon.’
Charlie looked at me. ‘Dinner?’
‘Yes. I was cooking anyway so I did a bit extra. Unless you have plans.’
He shook his head. ‘No, no plans. Apart from more sleeping. Are you sure you have enough?’
‘Yep,’ I said, getting up. ‘I’m just going to check on it. I’ll be back in a minute.’
Dinner was looking great, maybe a couple more minutes. I grabbed some plates out of the cupboard, gathered cutlery and poured iced water into two glasses, returning to the living room to place them on the coffee table. Charlie was nowhere to be seen but I could hear the tap running in the bathroom and guessed he had taken my advice to go and wake himself up a bit with a splash around. I put the cutlery down and turned to find Charlie coming back in.
‘Anything I can do?’ he asked. He looked a little brighter than he had done earlier and had obviously run his wet fingers through his hair to tidy it up. It wasn’t as perfectly done as it usually was, but I sort of liked it for that.
‘Nope. All done. Just sit there.’
‘I could get used to this.’
‘Ha! Unless you’re thinking of employing someone, I shouldn’t.’
Charlie looked up from the sofa and smiled. ‘Thanks, Libs. This is really nice.’
‘You haven’t tasted it yet. You might want to reserve praise until then.’
He gave a little shake of the head. ‘You know what I mean.’
‘Hmm, five-star hotels can be so tiresome.’ I raised an eyebrow. ‘I hate having all that cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing done for me.’
‘Granted. That bit isn’t too bad. But it’s not the same as being with friends. Having someone to talk to.’
‘You’re hardly Chatty Cathy at the best of times. Besides, you said you went out partying so don’t give me the hard-done-by act.’
‘Once. I went out once.’ He grinned. ‘And I apologise for not being “Chatty Cathy”. What would you like to talk about?’
I gave his shoulder a gentle shove. ‘Don’t apologise. It’s how you are. You wouldn’t be you if you were all chatty like Alex.’
‘That’s true.’ Charlie moved his fork minutely to the left on the table. ‘He always was far better than me with that sort of thing. I imagine there isn’t a shortage of conversation on your dates.’
I gave him a look. ‘Are you saying I talk too much?’
‘No… I…’ He cleared his throat and then looked back at me. ‘I’m just saying you like to talk.’
I could see the mischief in his eyes and narrowed my own at him. He gave me a smile. I flicked him with the tea towel and headed back into the kitchen to get dinner out of the oven.
25
Two hours later, after we had eaten and watched a film on Netflix, I could see Charlie’s eyes looking tired again.
‘Come on, you.’ I gave him a nudge with my shoulder. ‘Go home and go to bed.’
Charlie gave a stretch and scratched his hair, yawning and nodding at the same time. He stood, and I followed as he made his way to the front door.
‘Thanks for the goodies. We’ll go through them tomorrow.’
‘No problem. Thanks for the food. And the use of your couch.’
