14. Elijah
If you had told me I’d be spending my Saturday afternoon helping the woman I pulled over move furniture into her apartment, I wouldn’t have believed you for a second. Yet here I am, packing furniture into one of my brother’s vans for her. I can’t help but be annoyed by Lucas’ lie, because he assumed the worst in me. I feel like he is portraying this warped image of me as some grumpy asshole. Okay, he might have that opinion of me because I behave that way sometimes, but if he had told me the truth, I still would have helped. I’m not a complete monster, I just like things done a certain way. I also didn’t like Lucas’ little game with not telling everyone the connections. He thought he was being clever or maybe he was trying to show off to Charlotte. I’m not sure which is worse; the thought of my brother one upping me or that he might be interested in Charlotte. There were definitely some words that needed to be had between us.
We finished loading everything up and I recognised the address was just past our family house on the outskirts of town. It wasn’t a terrible area to live in, but it wasn’t exactly the nicest. I was called out to one of the apartments next door a few weeks ago and they looked like no one had worked on them for years. I could only hope the one Charlotte was moving into was better. She deserved a decent place to live with her son.
“You shouldn’t have lied to me. You know I would have helped regardless,” I said to Lucas as we hopped into the van. He smirked at me before turning the engine on.
“I know you would have. It was pretty obvious from our dinner the other night you had a thing for her, but I get a kick out of winding you up,” he said as he pulled away from the lot.
“I don’t have a thing for her,” I spat back defensively. I hardly knew her other than the fact she clearly listens to music in the car too loud and makes a pretty decent coffee.
“Oh, you don’t?” he asked, mockingly. “Oh, cool. So you don’t care if I ask her out, then?” My head snapped towards him instantly. I could feel a slight twinge in my chest at the thought. I clenched my fist trying to bury it down.
Lucas laughed at my response, but didn’t press me any further on the matter. Instead, he filled me in on the information he had been withholding before. How Alice and Charlotte met, her son was named Theo, and he was the new best friend Violet was so excited about. Although it all felt like a strange situation, it made me happy that Alice and Violet had made new connections. We always worried about Violet making friends, but I worried about Alice, too. Her split and impending divorce have been hard on her, although she won’t divulge much to Lucas and I. I was grateful she was building a support system around herself. Although she grew up here, too, she didn’t seem to be as outgoing as she used to be when we were younger.
We arrived at the apartment and scouted out the logistics of bringing the furniture in, which luckily didn’t seem like it would be too difficult. The apartment was in better condition than the one I’d seen nearby, but it wasn’t great.
It was a small space and felt slightly cramped with the four of us in there, even without the furniture. Lucas had told me she was currently staying at a hotel so I guess for them this would feel like a palace.
I had that uneasy feeling as we were unloading again. The feeling that there was so much more to this than I knew about. This place was barren and Charlotte seemed to have hardly anything with her. I would have thought we’d make a trip to a storage facility or something for the rest of her stuff, but it never happened. I thought back to when I pulled her over, there was hardly anything in that car, either. A few bags on the trunk at most. Why would they move into a new town with so little? Everything about it just felt rushed. Once we loaded all the furniture in, we set about trying to put some of it together. Alice and Lucas were in usual fashion, arguing about who was better at something. This time it was who was better at putting a bed together. I needed a break from the bickering and found Charlotte in the kitchen. I immediately hated the fact that I frightened her. Seeing her flinch because of me was like a dagger to the heart. Something isn’t adding up. I made a mental note to grill Alice about what she knows later.
I pushed the thought aside and focused on the present. This was the first real moment we had alone together since I pulled her over. It felt right to apologise. I don’t regret pulling her over, but I do regret the way I spoke to her and made her feel. She clearly has Theo’s best interests at heart and I didn’t have a right to question that.
There was something as well about the way she held herself. The way she spoke was confident, but my instincts were telling me that confidence was fake. She was putting on some kind of show for our benefit. It made me wonder what was really going on under that smile.
“Definitely, why don’t we start again?” I proposed. I have never been great at first impressions. “Hi, my name’s Elijah. Nice to meet you.” I held out my hand for her to shake.
“I’m Lottie. Nice to meet you, too.” She laughed, taking my hand. My eyes fell on both of our hands as I shook hers gently. I could feel the same comforting warmth from her touch as I had in the café.
“I’m surprised you go by Lottie; you seem more like a Charlie to me.” I’m not sure where that came from, but it had been on my mind since Lucas first called her Lottie. It was a nice name, but it just didn’t feel right to call her that. Charlotte felt too formal. When I looked at her, there was something about her that just felt like Charlie was more her.
“Could you give me a hand grabbing some of the bags from my car?” she asked. The change of subject wasn’t lost on me. I nodded and followed her out of the house to her car. She wasn’t kidding when she said she didn’t have much–there were just a couple boxes and a suitcase in there. I watched as she went to lift one of the bags out, clearly struggling with the weight of it. I moved over, reaching out my hands to grab the handle.
“I’ve got it,” she said sternly, pulling it closer to her chest.
“No, you don’t,” I replied, grabbing it back out of her hands, my hands brushing against hers as I did.
“And who are you to tell me what I’m capable of carrying?” She crossed her arms against her chest as she spoke, lips pouted in annoyance. If she wasn’t extremely irritating, I’d probably have thought she looked cute.
“Because I have eyes.” She rolled hers at me in response. This wasn’t exactly how I wanted our fresh start to go. Before she could respond, Alice came out the front door.
“I’ve been looking for you two, everything’s all set up inside. I was thinking maybe we could all get dinner at End Zone? It has a cool arcade in it, too.”
“I feel a bit old for going to an arcade on a Saturday night,” I grumbled.
“Well, the arcade is more for the kids, Eli.” Alice paused. “And Lucas,” she said, shaking her head.
“I heard arcade, so I am in.” Lucas popped his head out of the door.
“It’ll help tire Theo out and I have zero interest in cooking tonight, so count us two in,” Charlie said, grabbing a slightly lighter box from her car. My siblings’ eyes both turned to me.
“Vi will be very upset if she finds out Uncle Eli didn’t want to come spend time with her.” Alice raised her eyebrows at me. Apparently, she wasn’t above emotionally guilting me into coming.
“Fine, I’m in,” I said, pushing past them to bring the box inside.
We finished unloading the rest of the car before heading back to return the van and get dressed for dinner, agreeing to meet everyone else there.
“I am proud of you,” Lucas said as we drove back to our place.
“For what?” I questioned.
“I don’t think I heard you say one mean thing today, that’s quite impressive for you. I feel like at one point I almost saw you smile.” I only offered a grunt in response to his words. “I think you’re going soft, Officer Weatherston,” he teased.