Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ATHENA
I opened and closed my mouth a handful of times, standing in front of Charlie with tears in my eyes. The elevator doors shut behind me, and I gulped down all my words.
What do I say to him? Right here? Now?!
“Athena,” Charlie whispered again.
After shuffling next to him, I turned toward the elevator entrance. The lights above the door lit up with every passing floor, and I desperately needed it to hit ours now. I didn’t know what to say to him.
At Derek’s place, I’d had him call me an Uber almost immediately. He told me he would pay for it, too, since I’d left my belongings at Radiant and that I could pay him back later. So, I had been driving around Pittsburgh for the past hour while an old guy listened to me cry.
Never once did I think about what I would say to Charlie!
“Athie,” Charlie said, taking my hand. “I’m—”
My first instinct was to pull away. So, I folded my hands together and shifted from foot to foot, my heart pounding so loudly that I could barely hear the sound of his voice. I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do …
But I didn’t want to blindly fall for his charm.
As soon as he started talking, as soon as he touched me, I would melt.
And that couldn’t happen tonight. I needed answers so badly. I needed to know that he and Nadia … that they were … a couple, so I could forget all about him and about the way he made me feel—because what had I been thinking?
Honestly? He was waaaaaaay out of my league, and I couldn’t date a porn star. No matter how good of friends we were. We should just be friends and nothing more. That would solve all my problems.
I glanced up at the door.
Floor seven. Floor eight.
We were whizzing up to our floor, yet time seemed to move so slow.
Floor nine. Floor ten.
Just two more.
Floor eleven. Floor—
Before the 12 could light up above the door, the elevator suddenly stopped. I glanced at the door, waiting for it to open, but instead, the elevator remained stagnant. I pressed on the button for the twelfth floor several times, but with no success.
Charlie tapped on the Door Open button, and nothing.
“It’s stuck,” I muttered to myself. “Why is it stuck?”
God, this is just my luck!
All I had wanted to do was sink into my bed and cry myself to sleep, not get stuck in an elevator with the man I loved, who obviously didn’t love me back if he had been at a sex club with the girl he was supposed to sleep with!
Tears welled up in my eyes again.
“Don’t cry,” Charlie cooed, hitting the Call button. “We’ll get out of here.”
He didn’t know I wasn’t crying because of this. Or maybe he did. I wasn’t going to ask.
My gaze landed on his hand as he pressed the button again. His knuckles were covered with dried blood.
What happened?
He had just been at Radiant with Nadia. Why were his knuckles bloody? Had he gotten into a fight with someone?
“Hello. How can I help?” the operator said through the speakers.
Charlie glanced back at me, but I looked away. “We’re stuck.”
“We’re aware of the issue, and we’re working on fixing it as soon as possible.”
And with that, she didn’t say another word. Charlie stepped back and took a breath. I crossed my arms and glanced over at him, and he looked away right after our eyes locked. He scratched the back of his head and shuffled his feet.
“Did Derek touch you?” Charlie said, breaking the silence.
“Derek? No.”
“Are you sure?”
I glanced down at his bloody knuckles. “Did you hit him?”
“Are you sure he didn’t touch you?” Charlie asked again, ignoring my question.
Which meant that he’d totally hit Derek. It must’ve been right after I left because I hadn’t been gone from Derek’s house for more than an hour, an hour and fifteen minutes tops. Had he tracked me down after spotting me at Radiant?
“He didn’t touch me,” I said, and then he went silent. “So, did you record your scene?”
He snapped his gaze to mine. “What?”
“Don’t play stupid with me, Charlie,” I said, tears trembling in my eyes. I balled my hands by my sides and finally turned toward him. I really didn’t want to hear that he had, and I didn’t want him to lie to me, but we had to talk about it at some point. “Nadia.”
His blue eyes widened. “You know who she is?”
“Of course I know who she is!” Tears fell down my cheeks. “She only shows up in the comments of every single one of your videos, saying how she can’t wait for you to finally be inside her.” A sob escaped my lips, but I pressed them together. “So? How was it?”
“I didn’t do a scene with her,” he said.
While I wanted to believe him, I didn’t … I couldn’t.
“You’re lying,” I whispered. “You’re lying to me.”
Charlie moved closer and gently grasped my elbow. “Athie, I—”
I shook my head and tightened my crossed arms. “You slept with her.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“You were at a sex club with her, Charlie!” I exclaimed, staring up into his sea-colored eyes. My feelings were all over the place right now. My chest hurt. My eyes burned. “How can I not think that you slept with her when I see the guy I love at a sex club with a girl who’s prettier than me?!”
“She’s not prettier than you, Athena. Nobody is prettier than you!” Charlie, who had been staring down at me with so much conviction that I might actually believe him, suddenly paused, his eyes softening. “Wait … what did you just say?”
I opened my mouth to say it again, but then realized that I had … I had stupidly told him that I loved him. And all this jealousy definitely screamed that I loved him more than a friend. But he … I …
“What do you mean?” I whispered.
His features softened. “You said that you … that you love me?”
After I gulped down all my fear—because this was the worst thing that could possibly happen—the elevator doors slid open. When they did, I turned on my heel to run out as quickly as possible. I needed to get out of here, to get some air.
It was all stuffy with feelings in here.
But before I could step outside the elevator completely, Charlie seized my wrist, tugged me back inside, and pressed his lips against mine.