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“A friend of a friend.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “Since there’s two, you can invite a friend.”
“Wait. I can’t take this.”
“No, please. This is a thank you for your help. I really need you to accept it. Please. For my peace of mind.”
“Thank you,” he said, putting it away into his bag. Charlie’s smile was sweet, and he couldn’t help but think there was something more to her visit today.
“So…What did you need to talk about?” he asked. “Is everything okay?”
She bit her lower lip then, which caught his attention. Why did she look extra good today?
“Yes, everything is fine. Everyone’s healthy…” she trailed. “Well, there’s one thing.”
He waited.
“I don’t know where to start. This is a little awkward for me and I am so sorry if I sound like a screwball, but I didn’t know how to respond then,” she muttered, barely audible enough for him to hear. “I just reacted, and don’t know how to take it back. But Ithink this may work out for the better! If you want to see it that way… then–”
“Hey, slow down,” Rick interrupted. “You’re rambling. Start from the beginning.”
She paused, blew out a breath, then blurted out, “I may have led people to believe you and I are an item.”
Rick blinked. “What?”
“It just happened,” she said helplessly. “My girlfriends were so supportive of my choices after the wedding. Encouraging, even! They thought it was so… liberating of me to go for what I wanted. To leave my wedding and the life someone else carved out for me, and chase after something so different. They thought you were such an unusual but spicychoice. That I rarely date guys like you, but how you would be perfect for me on this fresh path I’m taking. And then my mother attacked me–”
“Your motherattackedyou?”
“—well, more like ambushed me while I was leaving from work, getting on my case about the wedding. About how I’m running out of time to find a husband. So I reacted! She set me off. I told her I’d already found someone, and he was quite a catch. She got so worked up, and I don’t know why–I enjoyed it so much. For once I am in control of something for myself and she couldn’t stand that she couldn’t change it.”
As Charlie continued to blather her train of thoughts like a rolling film overheating, Rick had to piece the riddles together.
So far, he understood her girlfriends liked the idea of them being a couple, that he was aspicy, and that her mother didn’t. He didn’t know what to make of this information, where she was going with it, and why he should be involved, but one fact remained: he was stillinvolved.
“You said you were going to handle it,” Rick cut in. “I asked you to iron out all the misunderstanding of what happened. What happened to that?” They discussed the gossip about her weddingbeing called off for him, and she agreed she will take care of setting it straight.
“I did, I know, but things kind of took a weird turn. Even my brother was rooting for me,” she said. “Somehow, in my head, it became a good idea.”
“A goodidea?” he repeated. “How is it a good idea? People think I’m the asshole who seduced you away from your fiancé.” Shit, was he going to get sued, like Alex warned about?
“No, it’s not like that. They like you, Rick. It’s some weird fantasy they’ve got in their head that you saved me from what would be a tragic fate,” Charlie said. “You’re like the knight in shining armor.”
“That’s romantic and highly delusional,” Rick remarked sardonically. “But in real life, Charlie, it doesn’t work that way. Why couldn’t you tell them the truth?”
“I tried, but they wouldn’t believe I would leave a good catch like Matt if it wasn’t for something better.”
Okay, that was one way to butter him up. The implication that he was the better catch lowered his irritation, but it didn’t make the situation less ridiculous.
“They wouldn’t believe that you just want a life for yourself that has nothing to do with getting married?” he asked.
She sighed. “If it was really that easy, I wouldn’t have such a hard time.” Charlie’s doe eyes found his. “I know this is asking a lot from you, but since you’re single, maybe it wouldn’t be as bad?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
She swallowed. “I was thinking we could play this out.”
“Play…this out.”
“Yeah, act like we’re dating. We’re both single, so we’re not hurting anyone else. People will stop bothering me with my love life if I already have someone. I’ll just really need you to come with me to a couple of dinners or gatherings, and I promise I won’t attend many.And, it’ll be on your time! How does that sound?”
