In case you forgot who Charlie was he's the older guy Emma met at Kevin's dads party. I'll add a gif later in the book.
Charlie played by Jospeh Morgan
Before I had left Charlie the night of the party, he had gave me his number in case I ever wanted to catch up. I never texted or called him until now.
I wanted to be around someone who didn't know my problems. I needed a fresh face. Anything to avoid being home.
"I'm glad you called." Charlie says as he appears in front of me.
We had planned to meet at Sally's and I waited a good twenty minutes before he finally showed.
"Hey, nice to see you." I stand up, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Why the sudden call?" He sits down across from me. "Not that I'm bothered by it, just unexpected."
I shrug, fiddling with the straw in my shake. "We hadn't seen each other for almost a month. I wanted to see what you were up to."
"Well I've been in meetings all day. I-"
"I hope I didn't make you leave work or miss something because of me." I interrupt him.
He smirks, staring at me in amusement.
"No, nothing like that." He says. "I'm glad you care though."
"How could I not?" I reply.
"You're something else, Emma."
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"You're different."
I laugh, looking away from him and shaking my head. "That's what they all say."
"I'm not kidding." He chuckles. "Don't believe me?"
"Not that I don't believe you I just can't believe that you would think a girl like me is different." I shrug.
"A girl like you?" He questions.
Before I could answer, a waitress is at our table asking for our orders. Besides getting a milkshake, I waited for Charlie to get here so we could order together.
"Are you guys ready to order?" She asks, looking between us.
Charlie looks at me for approval and I give him a nod before he tells her his order. We both got the same thing, a cheeseburger with fries on the side.
"So," He says. "A girl like you?"
"I'm just a regular girl in high school. You're at this amazing company building something for yourself. There's no way you don't have a special someone in your life." I tell him.
"Well, like you said I'm building something for myself. I don't need any distractions. So, believe it or not there's no special someone."
"I'm sure you'll find someone when you least expect it." I say.
"You're right." He smirks. "What about you? Who's your special someone?"
"Actually," I gulp, thinking of Alex. "My boyfriend and I just recently broke up."
"I'm sorry to hear that, truly." He replies. "May I ask what happened?"
"It's not really something I want to talk about." I tuck my hair behind my ear. "It's just a rough topic."
"I get it, don't even worry about it." He says.
I wasn't going to be ready anytime soon to tell him the truth about Alex. I didn't want him to see me the way I saw myself. Which wasn't pleasant.
Charlie was the only one in my life who didn't know my whole life story and how messed up I was.
"Here you go." The waitress comes back with a cart and our food on it. She places it on the table, along with napkins and forks.
"Enjoy." She smiles ear to ear at both of us before walking away.
For the remaining of our time together, Charlie and I ate while making small talk.
I enjoyed spending time with him and even though he was older I couldn't help but feel some kind of attraction towards him and I knew he did too. We fit well together.
I didn't see myself being in a relationship with him but I did see myself wanting to get to know him more.
He was my distraction from the outside world.
When we finished eating, we walked outside to where he had parked his car and my mind wondered off in the distance to the time I was here with Jax.
"Where's your car?" He asked.
"Uhm, I actually took the bus here." I shyly say.
"Oh, come on I'll give you a ride." He offers.
"Actually, I was thinking we could do something." I suggest.
The sun was just going down and I wasn't planning on going home yet. I hadn't checked my phone since I left my house and I knew if I did I'd have hundreds of missed phone calls. One look at my phone and I'll feel guilty, causing me to leave now.
"Like what?" Charlie asks.
I shrug. "Do you live far from here?"
Charlie shakes his head, trying to hide a smile. "What are you suggesting?"
I shrug, walking to the passenger side of his car. "Lets go see where Mr. Kingsley lives."