Twenty
Perched on her kitchen barstool the next morning, Charlie lifts her coffee cup to her lips and takes a small sip. The taste of vanilla and cinnamon is sweet and comforting on her tongue.
When her phone chimes, she experiences a jolt of surprise at the name on her screen.
Quinn
Hey
She frowns before picking it up.
Charlie
Hello. How was the rest of the party?
Quinn
Stuffy. I want to apologize for last night. I overstepped in the garden, and I’m sorry if I was too pushy or aggressive. I never want you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with, especially in a public place
She stares at the words in stunned silence. She wants to respond, Apologize for what? For burrowing under my skin and making me feel something I’ve never felt before?
Before she can respond, there’s another chime.
Quinn
Also my dad is a fucking asshole
She smiles, glad he’s not there to see her flush.
Charlie
I appreciate you saying that, but I wasn’t uncomfortable. I enjoyed it—or I would have had we not been interrupted
She hesitates before adding,
Also, parents can be assholes, and it’s okay to think that
She abandons her phone for a moment to retrieve her laptop from her bedroom, and when she returns, his reply blinks up at her.
Quinn
That’s great to know ;) For future experiments, obviously
Warmth suffuses her belly, and she sits back down on the barstool.
Charlie
Obviously
Quinn
I never asked, what are you doing for break?
Finals are next week. Charlie feels both prepared and not, but that isn’t unusual for her, a chronic overthinker and overpreparer. She and Wes agreed at the end of their last LSAT prep session to put tutoring on hold until the start of the next semester.
Charlie
Staying here, working at the clinic, planning the expo. You know, desecrating the sanctity of God and all that
Every year, her parents ask about her plans, but she hasn’t gone home for Christmas since she was a sophomore after she told them about her job.
They spent the remainder of the week in tense, painful silence after her parents yelled at her for supporting a clinic that goes against the will of God.
She’ll call her mother on Christmas, but it’s hard now that her parents treat her like a stranger in her childhood home.
Quinn
Well, I’m proud of you, Rogers
She sighs, the walls she’s built around her heart starting to fracture.
Charlie
Thanks, Quinn
Quinn
Try to do something fun. Take an edible and eat an entire tub of ice cream. Really go crazy!
Charlie
Ha ha. Very funny. Make sure you study
Quinn
Shan’t
Charlie
Please?
Quinn
Only because you asked nicely :)
She shakes her head, setting her phone down.
A moment later, Syeda’s bedroom door opens, and she slumps into view. Her dark hair is pulled into a messy ponytail, her eyes red-rimmed and puffy. She’s wearing an oversize pale-blue sweatshirt and matching joggers.
Charlie regards her with concern, and when Sy’s dark eyes meet hers, they fill with tears.
“I think—” She stops, her lip trembling. She tips her head back, blinking rapidly up at the ceiling, and then her face crumples. “I think Bri and I broke up.”
Sy covers her face with her hands, and her shoulders shake. Charlie springs from her chair and wraps her arms around her.
Later, after she’s coaxed Sy to the couch, draped the crocheted blanket over her, and prepared her a cup of coffee just how she likes it—“You’re too good to me, Charlie Rogers”—Sy gives her a watery smile.
“I couldn’t do it,” she admits softly, her hands wrapped around her mug. “I don’t want to hide who I am.”
Charlie tucks a loose lock of hair behind her friend’s ear.
“You shouldn’t have to.” She knows how loyal and strong Sy is when she decides she loves someone with her whole heart.
“The right person won’t want you to hide who you are.
The right one will love you exactly as you are.
But you know this isn’t about you, right?
Bri just has some things she needs to sort out. ”
Sy sniffs, hastily brushing away an escaped tear. “I know that.” She shoots Charlie a shaky smile. “I do know that. Deep down. But it still sucks.”
Charlie nods in understanding. Because she fears this, too. What if she is too much, and her heart breaks again because she lets down her guard with the wrong person?
The ghost of Sy’s familiar playful smile returns. “You know what this means, right?”
“You’re going to force me to be your wingman when we go out? You know I’m awful at that.”
Sy shimmies her shoulders. “Well, yes, that, and yeah, you are, but what I mean is that we get to spend the holidays together!” She had planned to go home with Bri because her parents are visiting extended family in England.
Charlie grins. “I’ll take that.”
After Sy finishes her coffee and excuses herself to take a long, hot shower, Charlie sends an email to Carolyn, Diana, and Victoria about meeting Betsy and Senator Masterson last night.
She sends a follow-up to the senator before pulling out Betsy’s card.
Plans unfold in her head, a to-do list already manifesting—small, bite-size steps toward her goal.
Gathering the courage she found last night, she dials the number.
“Hi, Betsy?” Charlie grins wide enough to be heard through the speaker. “This is Charlie Rogers from the party last night. Is now a good time to chat? I’d love to talk to you about the Great Sexpectations Expo.”