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‘Four years,’ Scott replied, pulling me out of my thoughts.
‘Congratulations.’
‘Thank you,’ Kimberly said. ‘I heard that you have just gone through a divorce yourself. I’m sorry.’
I stiffened in my seat a little, but thought I hid the reaction well. I took a sip from my wine and nodded. ‘Yes, that’s true. Are you in the PR business as well, Scott?’
Chewing his food, he shook his head. ‘That’s the Davis family thing. I’m actually a high school teacher.’
‘That’s great,’ I commented, only half-listening to him as my gaze kept going back to Charlie. She was half out of her seat, reaching forward to get the salt shaker, which is when I noticed Susan gesturing at Charlie to pull up her shirt at the front so she wouldn’t show cleavage. Then for some reason she looked at Scott and then at Kimberly.
I watched as Charlie quickly plopped her ass back in her chair, looked down at herself, then met my eyes. I kept watching as a little colour reached her cheeks, then she quietly fixed her shirt and sat up straight. I kept the conversation with Scott going and asked a few random questions about being a teacher to steer the attention away from Charlie.
It was a little into the dinner and Douglas had already asked for another piece of lasagne from Charlie. Watery and salty, my ass. The more minutes passed the angrier I got on Charlie’s behalf. It was a little comment here and a little comment there in passing and it was really starting to get on my nerves. Sometimes she just ignored them, but even when she tried to respond it almost looked as if nobody actually heard her.
I rubbed my temples and tried to get rid of the headache I could feel coming in. ‘I’m very uncomfortable with the way you’re treating Charlie right now.’
Douglas laughed off my comment as if I hadn’t just spoken.
‘Oh, she is fine. It’s great you’re dating again, Charlie,’ Kimberly said, offhandedly as she kept eating. ‘I’m glad for you. You took a long time after Craig, even though he wasn’t even that into you, but I hope at least this time you’ll find someone who’ll stick around and someone who is available, of course.’
Charlie must have had enough, because she finally dropped her fork down and it made a loud clinking sound against her plate.
‘Kimberly,’ Scott said softly and his wife frowned at him.
‘Are you kidding me?’ Charlie blew up. ‘Do you honestly think this is something you should speak of in front of my colleague? Somebody I’m working with? Your colleague? Should I just start asking you about your marriage problems? Because I can definitely do that.’
‘Charlie, enough,’ Douglas cut in in a firm voice.
‘Enough?’
When her voice broke a little, I looked up from my plate and noticed that her eyes were filling with tears. I made fists of my hands under the table and barely held myself back from going to her side and taking her away from her family, just leaving everybody behind.
‘That’s nothing to be ashamed of, Charlie,’ Susan cut in. ‘You’re who you are, like you said, and you’re set in your own ways. So maybe you won’t find someone you want to be with for the rest of your life like Kimberly did so early. I’ve been alone for what? More than twenty years? I’m perfectly happy.’ She reached and put her long, thin fingers over Charlie’s hand. ‘You don’t have Kimberly’s looks so it’s hard.’
Kimberly smiled, probably thinking it would go unnoticed, and I watched in shock.
‘And if you don’t want to live alone anymore, you can always come back and live with me. I don’t even know why you wanted to move away when you didn’t really have to.’
I couldn’t take my eyes away from her and watched as a single tear finally fell from her eyes and trailed down her cheek. I’d never turned over a table in my fucking life, but that’s exactly what I wanted to do in that moment. I was about to get up, punch someone and physically get Charlie away from here, but she beat me to it. She slowly pushed her chair back and stood up as everyone including me watched her.
She looked over at her dad. ‘I’m sorry, Dad. I have some things I need to work on since I left the office early to come here and cook. I think it’s best if I leave now.’
‘Charlie, don’t be ridiculous.’
‘Please, enjoy your dinner. Goodnight.’
And then she just walked out of the dining room. A few seconds later I heard the front door quietly open and close.
Kimberly’s sigh drew my attention first. ‘I didn’t mean anything by my comment. I was happy she was putting herself out there again. I don’t know what I said wrong.’
Douglas put his fork and knife down. ‘Charlie can be… a little too sensitive sometimes,’ he explained to me. ‘I hope you won’t think badly of her. She is great at her work. I’ll have a talk with her tomorrow.’
