“Well, I, for one, am amazed and grateful to see you beyond the walls of the foundation. It’s a comfort to have you fighting for us politically, but on a personal level, I find it a bit alarming that I believe you may actually have a bed in your office,” Lily semi-joked, squeezing Charlotte’s hand again before dropping her own back down to her side.
“Mm-hmm,” Sutton hummed in agreement. “It’s a couch, but it serves the same purpose.”
A smile tugged at her lips, and there was a joke present in her voice, but something feltoffto Charlotte. It did not help her resist the sinking feeling she’d had aboutthemover the last few days.
“Oh, god, that’s even worse.” Lily laughed, knocking her shoulder lightly against Charlotte’s in a little ribbing. “We, the concerned citizens, should pitch in for a cot at the very least. Throw a fundraiser for your back.”
“Speaking of the fundraiser, do you mind if I steal Lily for a few?” Zeke asked, and Charlotte couldn’t have been more grateful.
“Not at all,” Sutton and Charlotte answered at the same time, nodding their goodbyes for the time being.
They watched Zeke and Lily go for a few seconds before Sutton turned to face Charlotte, asking, “What are you doing here tonight?”
She almost wanted to laugh at the bluntness of the question—because thatwasSutton. That forthright need to know and asking point-blank to satisfy that curiosity. It had always been one of her favorite of Sutton’s qualities except, perhaps, in this moment.
The emotion was unfamiliar… Embarrassment? Was that embarrassment? Yes, it crept through Charlotte’s stomach, making her want to squirm, but she refused to, holding her head high instead.
“Well, if you recall, this was a cause my grandmother cared deeply about, and thus, it’s something I’d like to be involved in myself, when possible. And tonight I found myself with no plans, which made it possible.”
It wasn’t necessarily a lie, so that was great, really.
Sutton stared at her in question, slowly tilting her head again. “You didn’t mention it on the phone earlier.”
Charlotte cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Right. I—wasn’t actually aware of it, given that Maya manages the preliminary rooting through my emails and my schedule.”
Once again… not necessarily alie…
Sutton stared at her, hard, and Charlotte could tell she wasn’t entirely buying what she was selling. Even if someone else might—even if most people would have—Sutton didn’t.
And damn it if Charlotte didn’tenjoythat, on one level.
Pleasure glowed under the twisting of knots in the bottom of her stomach, like she was being caught out for being some desperate, needy… person.
A slow smile pulled at Sutton’s lips then, and Charlotte knew even before Sutton spoke that Suttondidsee this for exactly what it was. “You came here tonight for me?”
The blood roared in Charlotte’s ears as she saw the two options presented to her: the road of honesty and the road of… less honesty. Maybe, in the past, she’d have chosen otherwise, but she felt different now.
Charlotte huffed out a breath, baffled, one of her hands falling to her hip as she rolled the other in the air. “We had sex four days ago!”
Never let it be said that Charlotte Thompson couldn’t be forthright as well.
Her actual volume was a controlled whisper, but Sutton’s eyes still widened, her mouth falling into an alarmedOas she blushed deeply.
“Charlotte!” she hissed, reaching out reflexively and gripping Charlotte’s hand in her own.
“I whispered,” she reminded Sutton, still whispering, in her own defense. Charlotte was constantly aware of the people around her and what was being said and what could be overheard; she was confident in this.
“In a room full of my coworkers!” Sutton tugged the hand she was clutching, leading Charlotte out the main doors and down into the hallway. She then turned into a different hallway for even more privacy, where the lights were dimmed and the sounds of the event were a distant din.
“Why did you say that?!” Sutton asked as soon as they turned the final corner, the blush on her cheekbones still so very prevalent as she rounded on Charlotte.
“Why did I say that we had sex?” Charlotte asked, certain her stare was incredulous but not as incredulous as she was feeling.
Sutton nodded sharply, eyebrows high on her forehead as if she was totally baffled.
Which, honestly, made Charlotte feel even crazier. She crossed her arms and angled her head up to stare at Sutton as the words clawed up her throat.
“Because wedid. We had incredible sex, and then I spent the night with you, and everything seemed like it went well. There were no freakouts, no tears, no apologies, no verbal or visual regrets.” She would know; she’d gone over it in her mind ad nauseum.
