It had been seven minutes.
Usually, two minutes wasn't long for Charlie because serving food always felt like time ran too fast. But Sid had been gone for two minutes—now three—more than what he promised, and she was getting antsy.
Two more minutes passed. Charlie finally stood up, no longer willing to wait. She cleared the table, threw the trash in the bin, deposited the tray beside the water station, and then headed back to O-Beer the Counter to return the bottles.
"Did Sid like the recommendation?" Feliz asked as she set aside the empty bottles.
"Yeah, he did. Thanks again."
"I'm glad. By the way, have you been reading the NomCom group chat?"
Charlie shook her head. "No, I haven't been keeping up since we're short-staffed the past week. Did I miss something important?"
"Oh," Feliz said, dragging the syllable a little bit longer than it was supposed to. "Well, no, nothing really important. But when you do get the time to backread, let me just warn you that people have been shipping you and Sid the past week."
Ah, nothing really escaped the NomCom group chat. A little ache of longing bloomed in Charlie's heart. "We're not together." Yet. Ever.
"Oh no. Soren's going to be so disappointed that it's not real."
Join the club, Soren. "He helped me out the past week, but Mira's going to be back tomorrow."
"That's nice of him." Feliz paused, looking at her thoughtfully. "You okay? You look like you could use another drink."
"I'm just tired." Charlie shrugged. "And maybe I could use a stronger drink."
"Well, Dr. Do's is just there."
She was sure NomCom's speakeasy would have something for her, but there was something else she wanted more than that. "Maybe next time. Anyway, I'm going. Thanks again, Feliz." Charlie knocked twice on the counter before turning to leave.
It had been nearly twelve minutes now since Sid left Charlie, and she was half-tempted to go home and leave him, just to give him a taste of his own medicine. But the need to know the answers was stronger, so she started walking, scanning the tables to find Sid.
Charlie was almost at the bridge way when she felt her shoe loosen, and she knew that the laces were undone again. She crouched down to tie them again, grumbling to herself at how much trouble these had caused her. If the laces didn't keep untying themselves, then she wouldn't have literally fallen for Sid. Maybe she wouldn't be agonizing over him tonight.
"It's all your fault," she said to her shoelaces out loud, pulling the knot tighter with extra force. "You and that dating app."
"Uh...Charlie?"
She stood up and found Toby and Raffy standing before her, their faces looking so grim that she couldn't help but feel a stab of worry. "Is everything okay?"
"We need to tell you something."
"Did something happen?"
"Hm, no, nothing happened," Toby replied. "We're just here to apologize."
"For what?"
They looked at each other and seemed to have a silent argument that had them nudging and pointing. Finally, Toby rolled his eyes and faced her again. "We haven't been very truthful to you. We've actually known you before we met today."
"Oh? Where did we meet?"
"That's the thing," Raffy said, chewing his bottom lip. "We met you, but you didn't meet us."
"What, did you find a previous feature for Wraps & Roll somewhere or found my social media profiles? That's okay, too." It had happened before.
"No. We met you in KiligFinder."
Oh, okay. Maybe that's why they were being so awkward. "Did we match?"
"No, you matched with Sid." Toby let out a breath. Charlie couldn't help but notice that his ears were slowly turning into a bright shade of red. "But it wasn't him. It was a profile we made for him." He pointed to himself then at Raffy.
Charlie frowned. "I don't understand."
Raffy rocked back on his heels, looking very pained. "Toby and I have been worrying about Sid for a while since he's always working, and doesn't seem to have time for himself, so we thought we'd urge him to date. But he wasn't taking our advice, so I had the idea to set him up with someone."
"But we know that Sid won't go for anyone in our circles," Toby continued. "So we created a profile for him on KiligFinder, thinking that once we find a good match, we'll set up a date and tell him to go. We met you and thought you were perfect for him."
Well, at least she had his friends' approval. Charlie exhaled. "And then what happened?"
"When we told Sid about the date, he said he didn't want to go because we basically lied about him." Raffy sighed. "And of course, he was right. It didn't matter that we had good intentions; we shouldn't have done that in the first place. Sid made us delete the profile. But because Toby and I didn't think all of this through, we forgot to send you an apology."
"Then we met you. We wanted to tell Sid that it was you, and we wanted to do it as soon as possible so we could also apologize to you, but Sid beat us to it...and now we're here." Toby lowered his gaze, and his ears were really red now that if Charlie wasn't so discombobulated right now, she would've found it amusing. "We're really sorry, Charlie."
"Yeah, we're sorry, Charlie. Sid didn't ghost you; it was all our fault. So please don't be mad at him."
This was a lot of information. And a whole lot of apologies. Their guilt was so heavy that they could hardly keep eye contact. But now it made sense why things didn't line up, why Sid didn't remember those conversations, why eventually it started to feel like she was talking to a whole new person—because she was.
Charlie crossed her arms and leveled a glare at the two men before her. "So basically, you two catfished me."
"That's exactly what Sid said...but it sounds even more terrible coming from you." Raffy sighed. "We got too worried about Sid that we didn't think of how it would affect him or you. But that's not an excuse. We really shouldn't have done it in the first place."
"Raffy and I would understand if you never wanted to see or speak with us again, but please don't take it out on Sid," Toby said. "We had never seen him like this until you. He really, really likes you, Charlie."
She shouldn't have been surprised because he did already ask her out earlier, but hearing it said out loud again still gave her a thrill. "He does?"
"I really, really do."
Charlie turned around slowly, and behind her stood Sid, hands in his pockets, looking at her with a hopeful expression.
"I'm sorry it took me more than five minutes," he said.
She crossed her arms again, more because of the way her heart started racing at the sight of him. "Lots to discuss with your friends?"
"You bet. And I know they've already apologized, but again, I'm sorry for what my friends did."
"Adults, am I right?" Charlie said wryly, finally cracking a smile. "But all of this," she continued, uncrossing her arms and waving it slowly toward him. "You really are Isidro Agustin, 27 years old, youngest in your family and friends, running a very profitable and quite philanthropic business that is not yet an empire."
Sid nodded. "That is true."
Charlie took a deep breath, her voice coming out low, almost uncertain. "And you like me."
"That is also true." He took a step closer to her, the beginnings of a smile finally showing up in his eyes. "Charlie, if I had known that Toby and Raffy were setting me up with you, I would've gone on that date."
"Really." Her heart leapt when he looked at her, pushing her to take a step toward him. "But...to be honest, I think I like how we ended up meeting this way."
The smile in his eyes has grown, forming the tiniest little nose scrunch. "You know what? Me too."
Sid started to close the space between them, but Charlie held up a hand to stop him when she remembered something. She turned to Toby and Raffy, still standing behind her, their eyes wide and wary. "We still have some talking to do. But I appreciate your apology. Don't do that again, ever. Okay?"
The two guys sagged with relief, nodding and thanking Charlie. They were still talking about promises of unlimited free coffee, paid gas for a farm trip, and dinner, but she had already turned back to Sid.
"And now I believe you were asking me something earlier?"
Sid's face brightened as he finally took a step closer to her. "Go on a date with me, Charlie? No ghosting this time, I promise."
She gave him a shy smile. "Yes, I would love to."
Then Charlie was in Sid's arms, the sound of his laughter tickling her ears, sending a delighted shiver down her spine. His warm and comforting scent did not do much to calm the hammering of her heart, but it was okay because she knew this was where she rightfully belonged.
"I really want to kiss you right now," Sid whispered. "But my friends are watching."
Charlie looked over her shoulder and saw Toby and Raffy leaning against the railing, trying—but failing—to look busy with their phones, even if their eyes kept glancing their way. "Maybe we should let your adults have their fun," she replied, turning back to Sid.
"You sure?"
"Well, sometimes the only way to get rid of the adults is to do what they want us to do." She grinned. "And you know this means we'll also kiss in front of my adults, too, right?"
Sid reached up to tuck a stray hair behind her ear, cupping her face gently as he said, "Well then, we better make it good."
The last thing Charlie saw was Sid's confident smirk before her eyelids fluttered closed. She still heard his friends cheering for them in the background as her lips met Sid, but soon they and the rest of NomCom disappeared in their kiss.
THE END