Chapter Nineteen
Harper ran as quickly as she could. She even borrowed an umbrella from the front desk as she ran back to the room carrying a trash bag that held Franky’s hospitality kit, four questionable glasses of wine that were really plastic goblets of red sealed with foil, and two plastic-wrapped cheese platters.
Another term that was used loosely since they were nothing more than a few slices of cheese and a bag of pretzels.
She’d also snagged a bag of potato chips, a bag of peanut M&Ms, two granola bars, and a deck of cards.
She was still completely drenched when she swiped her key card and made it into the oasis of their room.
Her feet stopped moving, words of greeting dying on her tongue as she saw Charlie on the floor next to Franky.
In the few minutes that she’d been away, Charlie had snuggled in with her, and somehow, they’d arranged themselves so that Franky’s head was in Charlie’s lap, and Charlie’s torso was draped over Franky’s.
It was the most adorable thing Harper had seen in a long time.
She tiptoed around the room, putting the cheese in the mini-fridge, setting out Franky’s borrowed bed, pouring kibble into a small bowl.
They were so darn cute, she didn’t want to disturb them.
And she could see that Franky’s shivers had subsided as she’d nested with Charlie, despite the storm still raging outside.
She took off her clothes and donned one of the robes.
She thought about running her clothes to the laundry, but she didn’t want to do it until she could also dry Charlie’s.
It would also be rude to leave Charlie sitting on the floor, snuggling her dog, in soaking wet clothes.
She honestly was a little surprised that Charlie hadn’t changed before she’d sat next to Franky, though that might have made sitting on the floor a little awkward.
So instead, Harper hung her clothes in the shower and busied herself around the room, arranging and rearranging the dry food, hoping Charlie might start to wake up without waking Franky.
A crack of thunder shook the room, and Harper couldn’t believe neither of them stirred, so she sat on the floor, her back against the bed and lightly shook Charlie’s leg. “Charlie,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Absolutely no reaction. She couldn’t believe Charlie was sleeping so soundly. It had been a really emotional day for her, so maybe this level of checking out made sense. Yet, Harper didn’t want Charlie to sleep on the floor in soaking clothes. The thought made every one of her muscles ache.
She said her name slightly louder and shook her ankle a little harder. Still nothing, so she tried again, this time with her hand just below Charlie’s knee. Charlie blinked her eyes open slowly and looked around as if she had no idea where she was. Not entirely a surprise.
“Hey, you,” Harper said softly, trying to not startle her.
“Hey,” Charlie said, her voice gravelly.
“I wasn’t expecting you to hunker down with Franky on the floor when I left you earlier.”
“I wasn’t, either, but here we are.” She shrugged as she sat up without dislodging Franky’s head from her lap. “I was just sitting down for a sec, and then…” She shrugged again.
“It happens. Franky’s snuggles are pretty amazing.”
Charlie’s eyes went wide as she said, “Oh, so you already…” She swirled a finger at Harper’s robe.
“I was pretty drenched when I came back, so I was desperate to get out of them. Once you change, I can take all our clothes to the laundry.” When Charlie didn’t say anything immediately, Harper said, “If you want to. You don’t have to.”
“No, no, that sounds great. I just don’t want to disturb poor Franky since it’s still storming so violently.” She scratched behind Franky’s ear.
“That’s fair. Well, we can sit here for a few minutes and see if the storm starts to die down.” After a few moments watching Charlie scratch Franky’s neck, Harper wasn’t sure what to say, so she asked the question burning in her mind. “That seemed to go pretty well with your parents, right?”
Charlie took in a deep breath and exhaled, puffing out her cheeks. “It did. It went better than I’d been expecting.”
Harper took in her pensive face and said, “So why do you look so…forlorn?” She hoped Charlie would want to confide in her, but she also didn’t want to push.
“I feel like such an asshole. I hate myself for what I’ve done over the last few years. It’s pretty shitty.”
Harper took a second to revisit their lunch and subsequent hours of chatting after they’d finished, but Charlie’s parents hadn’t seemed to lay any blame on her. “I don’t think they were mad at you?” she said, the question present in her tone.
“They didn’t seem to blame me, but they should. And I’m both relieved and upset that they don’t. I’m due some anger and hurt, and they didn’t show it.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure what to do about that.” She closed her eyes and tipped her head back against the wall.
“Shouldn’t you let them decide if they’re angry or not?” Harper said, not fully understanding the feelings Charlie seemed to be wrapped in but wanting to support her however she could.
“It seems like it, but…” She shook her head as it rested against the wall and sighed.
Harper scooted closer until their legs were touching. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”
Charlie lifted her head again. “They didn’t like the firm I worked for on Wall Street.
Well, they didn’t like that I worked on Wall Street at all.
They thought it was a bad idea when I took the internship and tried to convince me to come back to Florida and work at a bank in Jacksonville.
But I was determined. My parents are both college professors at the University of Florida, and while we weren’t destitute by any means, we also weren’t wealthy.
And I wanted to be wealthy. Not billionaire level, but I wanted to be able to wear nice clothes and take trips whenever I wanted to wherever I wanted, which wasn’t possible on a college professor’s salary. Even a pair of college professors.”
Harper shook her head. “It’s a ridiculous failing that the educators of our country are paid so poorly.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Charlie laughed sardonically.
“But the really ridiculous thing is that, even though I have more money than I could spend in two lifetimes, I didn’t have time to spend any of it.
I worked ninety hours a week, never taking a day off.
I barely slept. There was fairly regular drug use amongst my peers, but I only ever partook in the nearly legal ones, and I weaned myself off those a decade or more ago.
Never anything hardcore, and nothing stronger than caffeine pills for a long time, though I don’t think my parents believed me about that.
However, looking back, they clearly had a reason to be worried. ”
Harper sucked in a breath before she realized what she’d done.
She tried to school her features, as drugs were nothing she had any experience with, and she’d grown up as a part of the supposed Drug Free Class of 2000, not that the marketing campaign had actually worked for the broader generation, but it had for her.
Even when her classmates were taking speed to help them stay awake to study, neither she nor Kelly had ever partaken.
They’d just slogged through, keeping each other awake as best they could.
And she thought that when Charlie had mentioned drugs a few weeks ago, she’d made it seem like she hadn’t partaken at all.
“I probably sound ridiculously naive, but what are nearly legal drugs?”
“I’m sorry. That was a silly way to phrase it.
I was referring to Adderall, which is prescribed to a lot of people but not me.
It’s for ADHD, which I don’t have, but somehow, the pills were always available.
It’s a gross lifestyle and a gross culture, but at first, I just wanted to belong, so I did it for longer than I should have.
” Charlie looked at her with wide eyes. “But please believe me when I tell you that I haven’t done them in more than ten years.
I was popping caffeine pills like they were candy for seven or eight years, but you can get those at the gas station.
I knew that wasn’t healthy, either, and I’d even stopped those pills and the sugar-free energy drinks three years ago.
I’m not proud of myself for any of it. I’m not proud of the pressure I put on the junior bankers to produce and work ninety-plus hour weeks.
And I’m not proud of how I slowly pulled back from my parents as they continued to question my commitment to a company that asked so damn much of me. ”
“So you just slowly…drifted away from them? But not because of the Adderall or caffeine or whatever?”