I think we should talk about tonight. And… just, in general. Let me know whenever works for you?
Charlotte—2:51 a.m.
To be perfectly honest, darling, I don’t imagine I’ll be getting much sleep. You can come whenever you’d like. I’m staying at the Fox and Hyde, room 3501
Sutton had thoughtthat her New Year’s Eve—well, she supposed it was now New Year’s Day, technically—couldn’t get any more surreal, but as she approached Charlotte’s hotel room at three thirty in the morning, she found that it most certainly could.
Somehow, by the end of her conversation with Regan, she’d found a determination inside of her to face Charlotte. To facewhateverthis was.
Which was why she was here right now instead of trying to get whatever fitful sleep she could manage and then coming to see Charlotte in proper daylight. Instead, she’d taken a quick shower to feel as refreshed as possible; hugged Regan, who had agreed to stay over in case Lucy needed anything; and had borrowed her dad’s car to drive to Charlotte’s hotel.
She took a deep breath, lightly rubbed her palm against the bag that was settled on her hip, and raised her fist to knock on the door.
Only to startle slightly, pressing her hand over her heart as the door opened before she could actually knock.
Charlotte stood in the entryway, no longer in her sleek, stunning, black suit; no longer with her hair beautifully curled and swept up, like it had been at the party. And seeing Charlotte standing there in her foyer, next to her mother, had shocked Sutton to the core. The sight of her had made her heart stutter in that inevitablegod, she’s beautifulway before reality had set in.
The reality that she was figuring out how to break things off.
And now, as she stared at Charlotte a foot away from her, long, brown hair pulled into a high ponytail, wearing joggers and a sweatshirt with no trace of makeup on, her heart did the exact same stutter.
Before the reality set in, again, and she took a deep breath. “Hi.”
Charlotte gave her a small smile. “Hi.” She moved backward, pulling the door open to let Sutton walk by her. “Come on in.”
She did as she was directed, looking around the lavish suite as she did so. Fox and Hyde was a luxury hotel, and Charlotte was staying, of course, on one of the top floors. Even as she heard Charlotte close the door to the suite, she didn’t turn around.
No. Amid the insanity of the night, Sutton had, somehow, in the morning hours where clarity was typically the last thing available, found a purpose.
She headed for the far side of the suite, toward the large windows overlooking the city, bypassing the side of the suite that had the large, king-sized bed, the barely mussed covers telling her that Charlotte, similarly to herself, hadn’t even truly attempted to sleep tonight.
Charlotte spoke from where she followed a few steps behind her. “Sutton, about what I said earlier?—”
“I’m not here to talk about that.” Sutton cut in quickly, her heart leaping at the ghost ofThen I won’t. She turned to face Charlotte again. “At least, not right away.”
She didn’t know what to make of the firm yet hesitant tone Charlotte was using either. Shewasn’tgoing to think about it, not right now.
Charlotte slowly winged an eyebrow up. “Then, what exactly are you here to discuss with me at nearly four in the morning?”
“Before we potentially get into that…” Sutton had to clear her throat as she gestured to the bag at her hip, then at the desk and chairs in the office/living area of the suite. “I want to finish our interviews, for your biography.”
Her own words hung between them as she stared Charlotte in the eye, feeling like she could see the cogs turn in Charlotte’s constantly processing mind.
She watched Charlotte swallow heavily before she slowly worked out, “You want to finish our interviews for my biography, at my hotel at four in the morning, because you want to be able to completely break this off.”
Sutton’s stomach twisted at Charlotte’s words—at the meaning in them and at the despondent way Charlotte sounded as she spoke.
“I don’t—” She broke off, rubbing her hand over her stomach. “I don’tknow, Charlotte.” Her voice fell into a whisper as that same uncertainty that she’d been steeling away so easily cut right back in. “All I know is that I want to have everything professionally as neatly tied up as possible before things get any… blurrier.”
It seemed crazy, really, to think that things between them could be blurrier than they already were, but Sutton truly believed that if anyone could manage to muddle things further, she and Charlotte could.
“Please,” she beseeched her.
Charlotte’s lips pursed tightly closed, and she was obviously in thought. She finally nodded, then blew out a deep breath. “All right, then.”
The slightest edge of relief slid through Sutton as she sat in one of the plush armchairs, taking her phone, notebook, pen, and tablet out of her bag. Charlotte sat in the chair across from hers, crossing her legs and smoothing her hands over her thighs as she shook her head back.
Somehow, Sutton thought, as she lifted her notebook and pen up to rest on her lap, Charlotte managed to seem just as put-together and prepared in this moment as she did during their meetings in her office on Capitol Hill.
