Chapter 14
SAM
“Ilove… everything… about this!” Angel all but shrieked from the other side of Sam’s laptop screen.
The following morning, Sam had decided to set up shop at home to work on her book when Angel had messaged her. She was back from her friend’s wedding, so the two immediately hopped on a video call to catch up.
When the topic of the book inevitably came up, Sam gave her the general pitch of what she had decided to work on.
As Sam had walked her through the details, she tried to slyly make mention of the fake-dating experiment with Charlie, so she could better research the romantic elements, and…
well… Angel took the ball and ran with it.
“I’ve always said that you two are absolutely fucking adorable together!” Angel squealed, clapping her hands together excitedly.
Sam pinched the bridge of her nose. “And I’ve always reminded you that Charlie and I are just friends. I needed help getting a better idea of how to build a realistic romance, and Charlie offered to help. Don’t make it weird.”
Angel rolled her eyes. “I still don’t know why you two haven’t just fucked and gotten it over with already.”
Sam, mid-sip of her coffee, rushed to cover her mouth before she had the chance to spit the liquid all over her screen. “Jesus, Angel, a bit of warning before you say shit like that, please?”
“Do you honestly forget that I know you really well?” Angel continued. “I might not be Charlie, but come on!”
“What?” she asked, wiping her mouth.
“You can not sit there and tell me that you don’t still feel a certain type of way toward him and that if he kissed you, which I’m still fucking squealing about, trust me, that he doesn’t feel the same way?”
It was Sam’s turn to roll her eyes this time, and she shifted uncomfortably.
“I told you before, he doesn’t feel the same way I do, so it’s a moot point.
We promised to make it realistic for research purposes, so Charlie’s just being the good guy that he is and is doing exactly what I asked him to do. ”
“Oh God, this again…” Angel groaned as she rubbed her temples.
“What?” Sam exclaimed.
Angel rested her head in her hands and leaned toward the screen. “A wild idea here, but do you think maybe, just maybe, what you overheard him saying back when he was… what… fucking thirteen?… Well, however old he was, that maybe he’s possibly changed his mind since then?”
Sam sighed heavily. Every time Angel brought the topic up, she made the same argument, but Sam knew what she’d heard, and she respected Charlie enough to respect how he felt.
It didn’t matter that they were just teens when he’d said it, and that she’d accidentally overheard him telling his older brother Peter when he’d questioned Charlie on the topic.
His words were pretty clear. She’s just my best friend. Nothing more, nothing less.
It had stung at the time; she could admit that. It still stung on occasion when she herself struggled with her own feelings. She’d hoped that her feelings would fade with time. But, if anything, they only flourished more over the years.
And after he’d kissed her, she’d frustratingly spent most nights since thinking about it.
“The point is,” Angel continued with an exaggerated lull in her tone, “that there is a remote possibility that you’re being ridiculous not talking to him about how you feel. That maybe Charlie only suggested this whole thing because he didn’t want you doing this with someone else?”
If only, Sam wanted to say. If there was anything she’d learned living with her aunt and aunt’s family, it was to never expect more than what was offered. And even then, question why it was offered in the first place.
She didn’t have to expect the worst if she never asked in the first place.
With Charlie, as childish as it might sound, she feared that voicing that long-hidden desire would change everything. Whether for the better—or for the worse.
Her biggest fear was that it would ruin everything.
“I regret ever mentioning this,” she muttered.
Angel smiled and laughed. “Who else are you going to talk to about stuff like this with? You’re like a sister to me.”
An air of professionalism slipped into place for only a moment before she laughed once more.
“Look, I know we don’t live with each other anymore and can only see each other once in a while, but I still care.
And more than just as your agent. We’re friends first. You know that I love you.
I just think that denying something that could be absolute magic won’t make you as happy as you think it will. ”
Sam rubbed her temples to ease the dull ache growing there. “Look, at the end of the day, we have a tight deadline for this book, right?”
Angel sighed, sounding defeated. “Right.”
“So, having someone helping me with, arguably, one of my weakest points when it comes to writing a romance, is really helpful,” she said as she pulled her notebook out of her bag and waved it in front of the screen, “I lost count of how much I’ve written so far just from the two outings we’ve had.”
“Outings? Is that what we’re calling it these days?” Angel chided with a wink.
“My point,” Sam emphasized, ignoring the grin on her friend’s face, “is that these dates we’re going on are really helping me. And me going to that charity thing with Charlie is going to really help him.”
Angel nodded. “That’s right. That’s coming up around the same time as your deadline is. How’s he holding up?”
Sam shrugged. “You know how he is this time of year. He doesn’t like talking about it.”
“True, though I’m sure his parents deciding to throw some elaborate party on the anniversary itself doesn’t help.”
Sam simply nodded in return. “I’m glad I can help at least, even if it’s small, like getting him out of the bachelor auction part of it.”
“Probably won’t hurt just having you there with him, period,” Angel added.
“Anyway,” Sam said, “I wish I hadn’t said anything, but I suppose it’ll be good to have you on board with it since it’ll help with my writing process.”
Angel gave her a sharp wave, a new French manicure briefly flashing on her delicate fingers as she did. “When you guys get married, do I get to pick my own maid-of-honor dress? Or are you gonna stick me in some frilly pink number?”
“Angel—”
“I’ll need a date to your wedding, and I guess Peter will probably be a groomsman, so it would only make sense to go with him.”
Angel was rich for giving her a hard time about Charlie when the long-lasting tension between her and Charlie’s older brother had been going on so long that Sam could feel it from where she was.
But she wasn’t in the mood to go tit for tat at the moment.
Sam groaned. “This is serious! I need to be able to talk about this without you being all weird about it.”
“Fine, fine. You win,” Angel conceded, lowering her voice to a more serious tone as she continued.
“Then if you really want to do this fake dating thing with Charlie, I have a suggestion I think could work for you.” The golden hoops dangling from her ears, accentuated with little white pearls at the bottom, clanged against the side of her neck as they stilled against her.
The change was so sudden that Sam quickly flipped to a new page and grabbed her pen. “Okay, what is it? What are you thinking?”
“Now, this might be a bit more of an advanced activity—but I think with some practice, the two of you could really get some great feedback for a specific part of your book.”
Sam nodded along excitedly. “What is it?”
“It’s the ancient art of sexual intercourse. Try it. I’m sure you’ll love it. I hear it’s been a while for you,” Angel teased, waggling her eyebrows at her and immediately dropping the serious look.
Sam shoved the notebook away from her, snatching up her coffee instead to take another drink as Angel cackled in the background. “You’re the worst.”
“Hey, if it means you might get some good dick out of it at least, what are you complaining about?”
Sam once again choked on her drink, this time so suddenly that it caused her to cough violently as it sucked down the wrong pipe.
“A-are you trying to kill me?”
“No, but if you’re into choking you might want to call—”
“I’m hanging up now. Goodbye!” Sam called out before all but slamming the laptop shut.
Sam really had her work cut out for her.