Chapter 11
As the night wears on, I have a second drink. The bar is hot and musky with the sweat of too many bodies pressed together. Mark meets a girl named Florence with a bouncy ponytail and a group of friends who cheer them on when they take shots, and then I get pulled in and I’m downing something called a Brain Damage that tastes like its name.
The lights in the room grow brighter, the music louder. I feel loopy and happy and completely free. It’s ’80s Night, and Florence I are dancing, and when ‘Word Up’ comes on over the speakers and Cameo instructs us to Wave your hands in the air, like you don’t care, I do it. And I don’t care. I don’t care about anything but this night. The laughter and the ease with which it comes. There’s no tension left in me. No thought about tomorrow or the day after that, or returning to Colorado, back to my empty apartment and alienation from my mother’s new family.
Florence grabs my hands and we spin, and when she lets me go I twirl across the floor and bump into Charlie, my chest pressed against his. He catches me. I look up at him, and he’s smiling, like seeing me this happy, laughing, losing myself, fills him with joy. I lay my head on his shoulder and inhale his spicy scent.
“You’re really nice, you know that?” I slur. “You’re not a douchebag at aaalll . Like, not even a little bit. The first time I saw you, I thought you would be such a douchebag.”
He laughs, and I feel it vibrate through me as holds me against him.
“And you smell, like, really good,” I add.
A small voice tells me that I’m going to regret this. But the voice is coming from somewhere far away, and I don’t have time for it right now. I’m having too much fun.
I wobble a little, and Charlie steadies me. “Maybe that’s enough Brain Damage for you tonight.”
“I’ll damage your brain,” I say.
“I’m sure you will, Mini.”
He ushers me over to the bar and asks for a glass of water, which he makes me drink. And then he asks for another, and he makes me drink that too.
I make it halfway through the second glass before setting it down on the bar with a heavy clunk. My motor skills aren’t operating at full capacity. “I can’t. Too full.”
In the far corner, Florence is now sitting in Mark’s lap with her tongue down his throat, and he’s eagerly reciprocating.
“It’s late,” Charlie says. “Maybe we should go back.”
He's looking at me with some concern as I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. I’m suddenly very, very tired. “ Mmmkay ,” I answer, just happy to be here with him steadying me.
He takes me by the shoulder, an arm wrapped around me, tucking me into him, and we head towards the door.
“We’re out!” he calls to Mark.
Mark unplasters himself from Florence just long enough to nod and give a thumbs-up before returning to her mouth.
The cool air of the night contrasts so strongly against the sweltering heat of the bar that I shiver when we step outside, and Charlie tucks me deeper against his side as we walk. There’s a dull ringing in my ears from the loud music, and when I talk it’s too loud.
“Thank you so much for taking me with you tonight!” I yell at him.
“I’m glad you had fun.” I can hear the smile in his voice, even though I can’t see his face from this angle.
“You’re just…. you’re special, Charlie.” Stop talking, the voice in my head commands, and it’s louder now. More insistent. Loud enough that soon I’ll have to start paying attention to it. But not yet.
We wander up the street at a leisurely pace. The water in my system is doing its job, and I begin to sober up. We reach the circle and cross the street. We walk the path with the benches. Someone is asleep on one, and Charlie tucks a bill beneath their boot.
“And you’re so nice.” I add to my inventory of his qualities. I blink. “I already said that.”
Charlie stops walking and pulls me down onto a bench next to him.
“You’re probably too drunk for me to ask this, but how are you feeling about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” It takes me a moment to remember why I’m here. And then the heavy stone in my stomach returns. “Oh. Tomorrow.” I scowl. “Tomorrow sucks.”
“I’m sorry,” Charlie says quickly. “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
I sigh heavily, leaning into him because while my head is slowly clearing up, my inhibitions are still totally collapsed.
I sigh, “It’s okay.”
A man and woman walking a dog pass us. I wonder idly, through the drunken fog, why they are walking a dog in the middle of the night.
“I don’t care about tomorrow,” I declare. “Fuck tomorrow.”
Charlie chuckles, and his stomach tightens under my hand where I have it placed. I’m totally indiscreetly checking out his abs.
He looks down at me, and I catch his eyes. I’m fully prepared for him to lean in and kiss me. This is it. Here we go. I tilt my head up.
“I was thinking,” he says.
“Yeah?” I answer in my best husky half-whisper.
“What if I came as your date? To the wedding.”
I sit up abruptly. The voice in my head is now yelling at me at full force.
“You want to be my date?”
Charlie sits up straighter. “I’m not trying to come on to you or anything.”
I manage to stop myself from pouting at him in disappointment, but just barely. The voice in my head relaxes a little, but not much. It’s very concerned that I’m embarrassing myself.
“I was just thinking that, dealing with all of it—with your ex and your mom and the whole debacle—might be easier if you had someone in your corner.”
“You’re in my corner?”
He grins and nods. “I’m definitely in your corner.”
I chew my lip. I obviously want to bring a handsome, well-dressed man with me to the wedding. But I don’t want to use him to make Rob jealous, and I don’t want to make him go out of his way for me.
“Aren’t you here working?” I give him a suspicious look that makes him laugh.
“Tomorrow is Saturday, Daisy. And even in my profession, we’re allowed to go eat dinner. And then there’s Sunday. All I have to do tomorrow is go over some documents and reply to my emails.”
“Very, very boring documents,” I add.
“Yes, very, very boring documents. But the boring meetings don’t resume until Monday.”
“On Labor Day?”
He chuckles. “And surrender all those billable hours? Unthinkable. But I’m free and clear and fully available as a plus-one until then, if you’ll have me.”
I give him a very sober look now. “You’re being serious?”
“I am.”
“You want to put on a suit and talk to a bunch of stuck-up strangers so that I don’t feel uncomfortable?”
“I want to do all those things so that you don’t feel uncomfortable, and so that you don’t have a total breakdown. You should have seen the look on your face after your dinner tonight.”
I stare at the ground for a minute, my blurry thoughts attempting to weigh the pros and cons of this proposition.
Charlie is hot as hell: definite pro.
I’m developing a crush on Charlie that will almost definitely get worse if I spend more time with him: con. I think.
I won’t have to stand there talking Rob and Gabby alone: big pro.
When the couples’ dance is called, I won’t be sitting in a chair by myself: another big pro.
“You’re sure?” I ask, looking back up at him.
He nods, totally serious.
I nod back. “Okay.”
Charlie gives me an easy smile and gets up from the bench and pulls me up with him. “Alright, it’s a deal. Beamer and Mini are going to tear that wedding up, and you won’t even remember that Rob is there with his hot new girlfriend.”
“Hey!” I protest and give his chest a playful slap.
“I didn’t say you’re not hot, Daisy! There can be more than one hot woman in a room.”
“Ugh.” I grumble. “You just don’t understand women.”
He laughs. “I already knew that. You all are totally crazy.”
We walk back to the hotel mostly in silence. It’s a comfortable silence. Like we are just both here, together, thinking our own thoughts, and that’s completely okay.
When he hits the button for the elevator I don’t freak out, because I know now he’s not going to put the moves on me, and when we reach our doors, we grin at each other as we each swipe our key cards.
“Goodnight, Mini,” he says.
“Goodnight, Beamer,” I answer.
And we both vanish into our rooms.