35. Right Here Waiting
THIRTY-FIVE
RIGHT HERE WAITING
Charlie sat back down on the bench.
The nebula was still going, the room still warm where Reyna had been standing. Her hair was mussed from where Reyna's hand had been in it.
Jesus, you matter to me.
The truest thing anybody had said to Charlie since Helen's deathbed, and it had come out of Reyna Solas in the dark, four inches from her face, with tears on it.
Charlie, I—
Two words and then an alarm. And then the moment disappeared when Reyna walked out of the room.
Charlie sat in the light of the nebula rolling over her.
She wanted to get that moment back so much that it was making her sick.
Because underneath the wanting was the part she couldn't look straight at, because whatever Reyna had been about to say, she hadn't gotten to say it, and there was no rule anywhere that said she'd ever try again.
She picked her datapad up off the bench.
She opened the music program and scrolled, just as she'd done after every night that left something gnawing in her chest. Her thumb stopped when she saw the song's title.
"Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marx. One of the songs on the last mixtape Katie made for her. One of the last songs Earth ever gave her.
Charlie knew exactly what it was about. That was the whole reason. A person going wherever they needed to go, and the other staying put, waiting for them, however long they needed to.
She added it to her playlist and set the datapad down.
Then she stayed right where she was. And she would stay as long as Reyna needed her to wait.