64. Chapter 64
Chapter 64
Aiden
L ouise had her phone pinched between her shoulder and cheek as she struggled into the kitchen, arms laden with shopping bags. I straightened from where I’d been bent over the sink, snapping off my rubber gloves and setting the pork I’d been scoring to one side.
‘Yes, of course! Wednesday night! Celebration Station!’ she cheered, shimmying in place to the chorus of groaning plastic.
Reaching forward, I held her in place, sliding the plastic handles off of her tightly pinched forearms, shaking my head at the pink-purple hue of her fingers. Jesus. What the hell had she bought?
I lifted the bags to the counter, the heavy thud when bag met marble barely interrupting Louise’s squeals of excitement. Turning my back on her overly energetic display, I started unpacking.
‘Okay, byeee,’ Louise sang, her happy sigh signalling the end of her call.
‘You do know it’s Monday, right?’ I grumbled, opening the pantry to pack away the dark soy only to find a newly opened one already on the shelf. Squinting over my shoulder at the groceries laid out on the counter, I frowned. I already had most of this.
‘You do know you’re not ninety, right?’ Louise snarked back, moving to refill the kettle. I rolled my eyes—with my back to her, of course. I wasn’t in the mood to get pinched if she caught me.
‘Celebrating something?’ I asked, not bothering to hide that I’d overheard the end of her conversation. If she wanted privacy, she could bloody-well go home.
‘Yeah,’ Louise answered brightly. ‘Charlotte quit!’
She quit?
I bit down on the question, shoulders tense as I forced myself to continue shelving the groceries I didn’t need. I hadn’t spoken to Charlotte since she’d left me in her living room on Friday night, and I fucking hated it. I knew what had happened, what that prick had done, and the thought of her going through it made my chest ache.
I don’t think I’d ever experienced a blood boiling rage until that moment, and all I’d wanted to do was to go up there. To go to her. To make sure that she was okay. I had to see it with my own eyes. I’d already reached the elevator by the time Louise reached me, throwing her arms around my legs and locking me into the koala cling she’d perfected as a child.
‘Becky’s got it,’ she’d said, pinching the tender part of my underarm, reminding me of what I already knew to be true. I’d been the one to let Becky in the night before, to receive her begrudging thanks for taking care of Charlotte until she arrived.
It had taken every ounce of self-control to leave the apartment that night. I’d wanted to tell Becky that I’d stay, that I’d take care of Charlotte. But the idea of telling anyone else how I felt before I spoke to Charlotte felt wrong. And so, no matter how badly I wanted it to be me upstairs and at her side, I left and kept my distance, waiting for Charlotte to make the first move.
Okay, the second move.
I’d sent her the playlist last night, and she’d blue ticked me.
God, I felt like such an idiot for that, but I’d had to do something for fucksakes. And Charlotte loved music.
I guess some juvenile part of me had hoped that she’d listen to it and reach out. That she’d listen and realise that she was in every song I listened to—and even some of the ones I didn’t. She was everywhere. She was everything.
And I was supposed to just leave her to deal with all of this on her own? Yeah, fuck that.
‘You get the rest, Lou,’ I tossed back at her as I made my way to the front door.
‘What about the—’ she called after me.
But I was already gone.