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Charlie was standing at the sink washing her hands. She didn’t bother to look up or acknowledge my presence.
“So, you’re ignoring me now?” I asked, as she dried her hands and then reached down to rub her hip.
“Hello, Bishop,” she said, emotionless. She turned to walk out her side of the bathroom.
“No apology?” I asked, bracing my hands on the door frame. “Seriously?”
“What exactly am I supposed to apologize for?”
I stared at her in disbelief. “You think it’s okay to just treat people like shit?” I asked, leaning forward a little.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said flatly.
“I bring a date home and you’re so fuckin’ petty that you chase her out of the house?”
“Get over yourself,” she replied evenly.
“You didn’t want to be with me, remember?” I asked, taking a step forward. “You’re too busy tryin’ to save your sinkin’ ship. Remember that conversation?”
Charlie made a noise, her entire body jerking. It was a huff of sound, a sob or a laugh, I couldn’t tell.
“You’re right. You fuck whoever you want,” she replied. She cleared her throat. “While I save my sinking ship.”
“What you did tonight was super fucked up,” I replied, unwilling to end the conversation. How the hell was she acting like the victim here? She hadn’t wanted to be with me. She’d said it over and over and when I fucking believed her and moved on, she sabotaged my fucking date and made me look like a jerk.
“You know, Bishop,” she said with a sigh. “I’m really fucking tired. You wanna argue, you can do it with yourself.”
“Oh, you’re tired,” I said, laughing under my breath. “Must be exhaustin’ bein’ a bitch to someone after you bought the business they worked at for years and then fired ’em.” I knew it was a shitty thing to say, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.
“That’s enough,” Kara snapped from behind me.
I turned to look at her, and in that moment Charlie closed the bathroom door and locked it from her side.
“What the fuck is wrong with you two?” I asked in disbelief.
“You’re being a douche,” Kara said, her voice rising. “Draco asked you to drop it for tonight.”
“I live here, too,” I replied, pointing to myself. “I pay fuckin’ rent. So why the fuck do you and Charlie think it’s your place to tell me who I can have over?”
“You want to get into this now, I see,” Kara said. The sound of footsteps echoed up the stairs. “Alright, I’ll lay it out for you.”
“Dyin’ to hear it,” I muttered as Draco came and stood in my bedroom doorway.
“Your little girlfriend,” Kara said, dragging the last word out. “Is a piece of shit.”
Draco shook his head, but his lips were twitching. He’d clearly come upstairs to stop the argument, but after hearing his girlfriend’s tone, had decided to watch the show instead.
“Yeah, Charlie fired her. Because she talks shit about literally everyone. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or a blatant lie, she does it.”
I tried to imagine Tally being malicious or mean, and I couldn’t, but I remembered Charlie talking about the employee she’d fired.
“She also never showed up to work on time and called in all the fucking time for no reason,” Kara continued. “And yeah, whatever, that’s all water under the bridge.”
Kara stopped, her face red with anger. She was so mad, that her hands were in fists at her sides.
“But considering the fact that she’s been badmouthing Charlie’s business to anyone that would listen, telling people that the cart is infested with mold and rats and God knows what else,” she said, getting quieter and quieter. “If you bring her in this house again I’ll scratch her goddamn face off with my bare hands. Have fun fucking a woman with no face.”
“What?” I asked stupidly. It was taking me a minute to catch up.
“She’s been tellin’ everyone that Coffee Now has all these health code violations,” Draco said flatly, pulling Kara back against his chest. “It’s why Charlie’s been strugglin’ to keep the place goin’ and gettin’ no customers.”
I stared at him in confusion. “Why would you think it’s her?”
“We know it was her,” Kara said sharply. “Probably Mary, too.”
“You got proof?” I asked, still skeptical.
“She didn’t deny it,” Charlie said from the bathroom.
She was standing there, still in her ratty pajamas, a look of complete dejection on her face that I’d been too angry to notice before.
“Of course she didn’t deny it,” Kara said. “She knew that we knew. That twatwaffle.”
“You can still fuck her if you want,” Charlie said with a humorless laugh. “We’d just prefer if you did it elsewhere.”
“Charlie,” I said, something landing hard in the middle of my chest. The fact that she still thought I’d have anything to do with Tally, even after the stuff they were saying she’d done—
