Burn // Charlie Weasley

14. (Don't) Put Up a Fight

Walking into the office Monday morning, Gabi didn't know what to expect. She had avoided Charlie all of Sunday and kept herself secluded in her cabin, but she had a job to do and couldn't avoid him forever.

The way he ended their conversation was too ominous for her liking. What sort of questions did he have? They must have been about Draco, right? Charlie made it clear he didn't like the younger lad, so he was probably just interested in figuring out what she was doing with him in New York.

So Gabi held her breath as the elevator doors opened and she stepped onto the third floor. Again, she wasn't sure what to expect but if she were to make a guess as to how this morning would go, it wouldn't have been that she'd find Cameron sitting on the edge of his desk, engaged in a lighthearted conversation with Charlie and Simon.

But there the three trainers were and Charlie was...laughing?

Gabi approached them slowly, not wanting to interrupt their conversation but she was certainly intrigued now. What the hell could have been so funny that Charlie, the man who looked like he was in pain when he smiled, was laughing?

She pulled off her jacket and tossed it on the couch, stepping around Simon to sit at her desk. Cameron smiled at her, and nodded his head towards the coffee cup on her desk that he brought her, but said nothing as to not cut off Simon who was in the middle of a story.

"...came back in and started crying. What the hell was I supposed to do?"

"I would have walked out," Cameron shrugged.

"I wouldn't have even waited for her to come back," Charlie added.

It wasn't like Gabi was eavesdropping, but the three of them were right by her desk and it wasn't like they were being quiet either. She was attempting to sort through the work she had to get done today and it was harder to tune the trainers out than she thought.

And she really couldn't ignore them when Cameron dragged her into the conversation.

"How about you, Gabi?" He asked. Gabi glanced up for only a brief second, her glasses falling to the bridge of her nose. She didn't like the feeling of three sets of eyes on her.

"I have no idea what you guys are talking about," she said, which was true. Gabi barely caught the last little bit of what they were discussing. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to be part of the conversation anyway with Charlie's stare burning holes into the side of her head.

"Worst date you've been on," Cameron told her. "Simon had a pretty strange dinner this weekend with a girl who wasn't actually single but just- how did she even put it?"

Simon chuckled, "She hadn't broken up with her boyfriend yet, just in case."

Gabi's jaw dropped. She didn't have any words to say about that sort of thing, but Simon didn't seem hurt or offended by his date, he seemed to find the situation quite humorous.

"So?" Cameron shifted along the edge of his desk to face Gabi. "Worst date. Go."

Gabi only waved the idea off and pulled out the New Arrival documents she had been working on on Friday, "I really don't go on dates that often. I don't think I have any horror stories, sorry to disappoint."

She expected Cameron to rebuttal that or tease her to share anything. In fact, Gabi wouldn't have been surprised if Simon felt comfortable enough to push her into doing a deep dive on her dating history. But what Gabi didn't see coming was Charlie rolling his eyes and walking away from the conversation, muttering under his breath even though they could all hear him.