Her Last Wish (11 page)

It only took a couple
drinks before I could no longer deny it. I didn’t only care about her. I
wanted
her. Sure, I hated that guy she was with because I thought he was a tool. But I
hated him even more because he had what I wanted most. I just hoped my little
birthday present to her both brought a smile to her face and struck a nerve
with him. I suppose it was my own subtle way of staking my claim on a small
piece of her, even after she no longer carried my child.

I felt some kind of pull
toward the door. It was so strong that I couldn’t resist turning around to look
for what could possibly cause it. As if on cue, in walked Charlie looking more
beautiful than ever. She wore the black dress that I bought for her simply
because I knew she would look radiant in it. In the dim light, I saw the bright
glimmer of the necklace I’d given her only hours before. I smiled to myself.
She at least cared enough about me to wear it.

Unfortunately, that
boyfriend of hers followed in after her. My smile immediately dropped, along
with my heart, reminding me exactly why I was there. I would never have her.
She was his, and I hated him for it.

I turned back to the
bartender and ordered another (much stronger) drink.

***

Charlie

I finished my wings and
tea in relative peace. I could tell that Jackson really wanted to hash
everything out, but I couldn’t handle it. Why try to ruin a perfectly decent
birthday? So I did what I could to not allow that conversation to even happen.
I tried everything from calling the waitress back over for drink refills to
bringing up how awesome those wings tasted … many times over. Unfortunately, I
couldn’t hold off all of the inevitable mess.

“What is
he
doing here?” Jackson hissed.

I looked around. “Who?”

I sighed in defeat once
I found who Jackson mentioned. There would be no saving the rest of the night.
I just knew it. At the bar, an obviously drunken Connor argued with the
bartender over something that I couldn’t hear. I actually hoped he was being
cut off from the liquor. He’d clearly had enough. “I don’t know. Let’s just
leave him be. He’s clearly in the middle of something.”

Seconds later, Connor
fell off the barstool onto the floor. Before I could stop myself or even think
about what I was doing, panic ran through me, and I jumped up and ran over to
him. I could hear Jackson mutter complaints behind me, but I didn’t care what
he had to say at the moment. Connor could have been really hurt.

I knelt over him and
gently brushed the side of his face with my fingers. “Connor!” I called to him.
He lolled his head from side to side. His face was beet red. I wasn’t sure how
many drinks he’d had since we’d been there, and I certainly didn’t know how
many he’d had before we walked in the door. But when I got closer to him, I
could tell it was far too many. I could smell it from quite a distance. In
addition, I was pretty sure he’d hit his head on the way down. “Come on,
Connor! Are you okay? Talk to me!” I gently tapped the side of his face with my
fingers.

“Come on, Charlie!”
Jackson impatiently called from behind me. I could almost feel his anger
burning against my back. I just didn’t care enough to back away.

“No! Jackson, help me!
We need to get him home!”

“You know where he
lives?”

“It doesn’t matter!
Let’s get him out of here!”

Connor’s eyelids
fluttered open, and he unsuccessfully tried to focus on my face. “Charlie?” he
groaned.

“Yeah, I’m here. Come
on. Let’s get you–”

Before I could even
finish my sentence, I was yanked down until his lips clumsily covered mine.
Despite his intoxication, he had a pretty firm grip on me. And despite my
struggles, I couldn’t break free. I sat there in shock. What in the world had
come over him? Was he too drunk to know what he was doing? If not, things had
definitely crossed over into awkward territory. Not that they hadn’t anyways,
of course.

“Enough!” Jackson
yelled, prying Connor off. “Charlie, let’s go!”

“I’m not leaving him
here!” I insisted. “He’s clearly not in his right state of mind!”

I watched as Jackson
fought some internal battle that I supposed I somewhat understood. “Fine,” he
finally decided. He lifted Connor up and carried him outside to his car without
saying a word. I quickly paid our tab and followed him out.

I gave Jackson
directions to the house, but I could tell that he was barely listening to them.
He was far too busy letting the storm brew in his mood. We somehow managed to
get there anyways. By the time we pulled in the drive, Connor had passed out
completely.

I quickly dug through
Connor’s pockets and got his keys. I unlocked the door just in time for Jackson
to stomp by with Connor slung over his shoulder. He threw him on the couch and
then turned to me.

“Time to go,” he
demanded.

“Jackson,” I begged.
“Look at him. He clearly needs to be watched right now.”

“He’s drunk. He’ll
sleep it off.”

“And if he has some
sort of alcohol poisoning?”

“That’s not my
problem.”

I flinched at Jackson’s
heartlessness when it came to Connor. “How can you say that? He’s a person!”

“Look, I’m leaving. You
can either get in the car and come with me, or you can stay here with your
precious professor. I don’t care which. But I’m not staying.”

I shook my head in
disappointment. I hated how he gave me such an ultimatum when Connor was
clearly in no state to be left alone. “I’m sorry. I’m not leaving.”

“Right. Call me
tomorrow if I’m still important enough.” He walked out and slammed the door
behind him.

I stared after him
until I saw the headlights from his car illuminate the front windows just
before they disappeared entirely. I felt as if he had just slapped me. How
could he think that he wouldn’t be important enough? Just because I wouldn’t
leave a drunken unconscious guy to his own fate? Was I supposed to just leave
him incapacitated and hope for the best? I couldn’t believe he would even ask
it of me. Especially not when said drunken unconscious guy also happened to be
my friend.

I was startled by my
own realization. Somehow during the past few months and all the illness and
doctor visits, he
had
become my friend. He was officially more than my
teacher. I supposed that’s where Jackson’s insecurities came from. I actually
cared about the wellbeing of this man.

I went back over to the
couch and lifted Connor off the cushions. He groaned as I wrapped his arm
around my shoulders. He was heavy, but I managed just fine. It wasn’t too far.

“Charlie,” he said
weakly.

“It’s okay, Connor. I’m
right here, and I’m not leaving you.”

I helped him into his
bedroom and laid him down as carefully as I could. I rolled him on his side and
propped a pillow behind his back to keep him from rolling over in case he threw
up. I didn’t want him to choke on it. I pulled off his shoes and covered him
with his blankets.

He fell asleep before I
even finished getting him comfortable. Once I was satisfied that he would be
safe and as comfortable as possible, I dropped into a chair near the bed and
stood watch for the night.

Chapter Sixteen

Connor

When morning came, I
was surprised to find myself in my bed with fresh water on the nightstand. I
had no memory of ever making it home, let alone to bed. In my history of
barhopping, I had never been in a state of mind to remember things like water.
I always woke up wherever I’d crash landed the night before with some obscene
level of a hangover, covered in my own sweat and shame.

My biggest shock was to
see Charlie curled up and asleep in the chair within arm’s reach. She looked so
beautiful and innocent that I felt undeserving of even the image. She was
perfection. I, on the other hand, was a disaster. But suddenly, it all made
sense. I was always too big of an idiot to remember those things, but Charlie
wasn’t. She was the kindest, most thoughtful person in existence. And she’d
taken care of me when I certainly didn’t deserve it. In fact, I should have
been taking care of
her
.  I took one of the blankets off my bed and
wrapped it around her, before going about my usual morning routine. It didn’t
make up for it, but I hoped it showed some appreciation, even if she wasn’t
awake to witness it.

As I washed off the
grime from the bar, I wondered what she could possibly be doing over at my
house. Yeah, I knew she had been taking care of me. But how did she get to my
house and why? How did she even know that I needed looking after? Did something
happen? I woke up fully clothed, so I assumed that if something had, it wasn’t
anything I’d kick myself for not remembering. I worried that I’d done something
extremely stupid in front of her, but it was time to face it. Of
course
,
I had. I had allowed myself to get so drunk that I couldn’t remember, and she
had been there to witness the occasion. Clearly, that was stupid enough to make
any regret on my part completely justifiable.

And then I had a few
flashes of memory. Not only was I drunk, I was
embarrassingly
drunk. I
fell and woke up on the floor at the bar to her beautiful face, another vision
I didn’t deserve. And everything went blank from there. It didn’t take much to confirm
that she had taken care of me when anyone else would have walked off. She
probably should have.

After my shower, I
pulled a clean pair of jeans on before walking out into my bedroom. I didn’t
want to startle her with random male nudity from the moment she opened her eyes,
after all. Fortunately, she was still sound asleep when I walked out. She
looked exhausted, clearly due to having been up until who knew when just to
make sure I was taken care of. I felt that much more guilt for being the cause
of her sleeplessness. She was carrying my child. The last thing she needed was
to pull an all-nighter of
any
kind. Plus, it had been her birthday. I had
ruined it for her.

I hurried out of the
room into the kitchen in an attempt to make up for it.

***

Charlie

My nose woke me up to the
most magnificent smell. It immediately brought me back to days at home with my
mom. But when I opened my eyes, I was nowhere near home. It took me a few
minutes to remember that I was in Connor’s room.

I groaned as I sat up.
Clearly, sleeping slouched in a chair wasn’t the best of plans. But it was
almost more comfortable than sleeping in a bed with my growing belly. I looked
over at the nearby bed to find that Connor was no longer there. How long had I
been asleep?

I stood up as slowly as
my patience level would allow. I found that standing up quickly as of late meant
a very dizzy drop back into whatever I had just gotten up from, so I did my
best to avoid it. Once on my feet, I walked out of the bedroom and into the
living room. I followed my nose to the nearby kitchen.

When I got there, I was
met with a smiling Connor and a plate of waffles with strawberries and whipped
cream. I tried not to stare at Connor’s shirtless chest and did what I could to
ignore the unwanted and inappropriate thoughts that happened to stray into my
mind. I had never seen him so casual, before. But he was certainly nice to look
at. In the end, I decided that just appreciating the view wasn’t the worst
thing I could do. As long as I stopped it there, of course.

“Good morning,” he said
with a grin.

“Good morning,” I
replied, a nervous scratchiness to my voice. He gave a small laugh, so I
assumed he noticed. But I was beyond grateful that he didn’t say anything about
it. That was all I needed. More awkward conversation. “What is all this?”
Fortunately, that question came out more stable than my greeting.

“It’s my apology.”

“Oh?”

“I behaved very stupidly
last night, and I know it probably upset you.”

“You mean because I’m
about to hand you a baby that you will need to care for, but you apparently
decided it was okay to go and drink until you’re no longer able to remain
conscious?” The words kind of spilled out, but I was surprised to find that I
meant every single one of them. I had apparently stewed on them all night, even
though I hadn’t noticed at the time. “I’m sorry,” I quickly added, genuinely
surprised by my sudden irritability. Was that what hormones did to people? “I
shouldn’t have said that.”

He smiled reassuringly.
“No, that’s exactly what I expected you to say. And it’s a legitimate concern.
I promise you that it will never happen again. I swear it. I’m done.”

“How can you be so
sure?”

“Because I’ve thought
really hard about it this morning and realized that I need a better way to deal
with my problems.”

“What problems could
you possibly have that would make you want to drink until you can’t even sit on
a barstool without falling over?”