What About Charlie? (3 page)

Because of that, her beauty or lack there of didn’t concern him. If she had a wart on the end of her nose or two missing front teeth, it still wouldn’t matter. He wasn’t a person who judged his friends by their looks; he judged by their character, their heart. And Charlie was a person of stellar character and a heart of gold. The best friend a person could have.

***

Evan shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that. She’s usually a component in the ending fight, though. No one is going to tell me who I can and can not see on a friendly basis. But the breakups are really about the direction of the relationship, not about Charlie.”

Alan regarded Evan for a moment. “It seems to me that the one woman you should be dating is your hockey buddy.”

Evan snorted incredulously. “Date Charlie?”

“You have a better relationship with her than with any of the women you’ve seen in the past five years. You’re always concerned about her. You talk about her all the time. Not only that, Evan. She truly cares about you. I can see that every time I see you two together.”

Evan held up in hand. “Slow down, Alan. You’re reading way too much into a simple friendship.”

“No, I’m not. What you and Charlie have is much more than a simple friendship. You two have a special bond,” Alan said seriously. “You and she have more in common and get along better than a lot of married people I’ve seen.”

Evan shook his head and said in a tone that ended ending conversation, “We’re good friends, Alan. That’s all.”

Turning his attention to his lunch, Alan nodded and smiled knowingly. “As you wish.”

****

During the hockey game, Evan couldn’t help but think about what Alan had said. Was she truly his match? Was she the woman for him?

He watched Charlie out of the corner of his eye as she cheered for the Blues. Suddenly she jumped up when the Blues made a goal and hugged his neck in excitement. She brimmed with vitality and happiness. Her emerald eyes sparkled, her face glowed. She smiled and sang along and clapped her hands with the songs during the game. She bought them hotdogs, Cokes, and nachos to eat and wouldn’t accept any money when he offered to pay. And to his surprise and pleasure she presented him with a package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, his favorite candy.

It was true that they were very close, that they cared deeply about one another, that they enjoyed each other’s company.

But see Charlie romantically? She was his best friend, his cheerleader when life got tough, his buddy. Was that a good enough basis for a relationship? He shook himself mentally. He was insane to let the idea even cross his mind!

Evan felt confused, something he rarely felt. Damn Alan and his observations! Why did he have to go and plant these thoughts? Why couldn’t he have kept his damned mouth shut? Evan thought angrily.

Admit it, he thought to himself. Alan was right.

He felt an overwhelming sense of irritation and unease. For once in his life, he didn’t know what he wanted; he didn’t have a clear path of what to do.

Charlie’s hand touching his arm brought him out of his train of thought. He turned and looked at her and smiled, determined not to let the indecision swirling around inside him ruin his evening. She tilted her head and was about to say something, then quickly closed her mouth and turned her attention back to the ice.

After the game they took their time walking out to Evan’s car. The crowd was rowdy, caught up in celebration of the Blue’s win. Evan walked closely beside Charlie to make sure no harm came to her. With her so close, the sweet scent of her perfume tickled his nose. Her laughter and excitement over the Blue’s win warmed him.

When they reached his car, he opened her door and waited for her to get settled before he closed it behind her. A few moments later, he was behind the steering wheel.

“You’ve been awfully quiet this evening, Evan. Is anything wrong?”

Evan’s gaze met her questioning eyes. Gold hoop earrings dangled from her ears; her lips were cherry red from the slushy she’d been drinking earlier. A crazy urge suddenly came over him. What would it be like to taste those lips?

Whoa, Evan, he told himself fiercely, get a grip! She’s your friend!

“No,” he said quickly, looking away from her and putting the key in the ignition. “Everything is fine.”

She reached out and touched his forearm just as he was about to start the car. He stilled. “Are you sure? You’ve been distracted all evening. Are you still upset about Liza?”

Charlie’s hand was soft and smooth and warm. Evan looked down at it, her creamy skin contrasting vividly with his darker skin tone. The skin underneath where her fingers touched felt like it was on fire, with the heat rapidly spreading to other areas in his body like a wildfire on parched earth.

Looking back up at her, he carefully schooled his features to hide what he was feeling. “No, Charlie. My relationship with Liza wasn’t at all serious.”

She searched his eyes and then suddenly removed her hand from his arm like, she too, had felt the same scalding heat as he.

On the way to her apartment, both said little. Evan’s thoughts kept drifting back to when she’d innocently put her and on his arm. His reaction had shocked him and left him reeling. It was crazy to think that such an innocent touch could reduce him to this. His insides felt like they were twisted and tied into huge knots.

Why now? She’d touched him like that hundreds of times. She was the same Charlie as yesterday. He was the same Evan as the day before. But he was now seeing her with new eyes, seeing things he’d never seen before. He’d never noticed until now how soft and creamy her skin was, how her big green eyes could bring a man to his knees and how her laughter and smile could brighten even the darkest of times. What was happening to him?

When they reached Charlie’s apartment, he walked her to her door as he usually did. Under the faint porch light, she smiled up at him, pleasure filling her eyes. “Thanks for the great evening, Evan.”

He returned her smile. “I enjoyed myself as well.”

“Evan, I know I’ve told you before, but I can’t thank you enough for the season hockey tickets you bought me for my birthday. I have had the best time.” She looked away from him. “I know they cost a lot.”

“Charlie, the tickets were something I wanted to give you because I knew you would enjoy them.”

She bit her lip as Evan witnessed a rare flash of uncertainty cross her features. “They cost so much, Evan. I can’t afford to give you things like that though I wish I could.”

Evan touched her chin and forced her to look up at him. “Listen, it’s not the cost of something, Charlie. It’s the joy you feel in giving and the joy in receiving. Just enjoy it. That’s all I ask.”

Evan watched her run her tongue across her lips. Flames of desire that he had thought he extinguished just minutes ago began to flare once again. All he could think about was tasting those lips.

“Thank you, Evan. I really mean it. You’re a great friend. I don’t know what I did to deserve a friend like you, but whatever it was, I am thankful that you are my friend.”

“Charlie, I should be the one saying that.” His eyes softened and his fingertips lightly traced her jaw line. “You’ve given me more than all the money in the world could buy,” he said softly, his lips coming within mere millimeters of hers. His heart thudded in his chest as if he’d run a marathon. His thumb gently touched her bottom lip. “Charlie, you’ve given me more than you’ll ever know.”

Damn he wanted to kiss her!

Charlie Johnson was wide-awake. Finally resolved that she would not fall back asleep, she opened one eye, focusing on her beside clock. The large red numbers read 4:30 am. She had been tossing and turning all night long, trying in vain to clear her mind. So she could sleep, she had tried to tell herself her sleeplessness was caused by the excitement of going out on her first date in six months. But Charlie knew deep down that wasn’t it at all.

Her thoughts drifted to Evan. Something was wrong. He wasn’t acting like himself. At lunch yesterday she knew something wasn’t right; she had passed it off as overactive imagination.

But last night at the hockey game, she had definitely known something was wrong. He had been quieter than usual. He was never quiet at a hockey game.

But it was more than that. It was the way he had looked at her. His eyes had been soft and they seemed to be trying to read her mind, peer down into her very soul. Several times during the game she’d caught him staring at her, his spring-leaf green eyes unreadable. It had unnerved her and made her feel extremely self-conscious.

And then when she put her hand on his arm in the car, like she’d done a hundred times before, she instantly knew, for whatever reason, things were different between them. The energy was different. His eyes had been warm and they had flared with appreciation and heat, and as quickly as it had been there, it had disappeared.

Not only did his reaction shock her, but her own reaction surprised her as well. Though she hated to admit it, she had liked the way he had looked at her. The sexual awareness that was suddenly between them excited her. She had felt beautiful and desirable and totally sexy.

She could still feel the soft warmth of his fingertips tracing her jaw line, his thumb tracing her bottom lip. She could still see his eyes boring into hers. And she could still feel her heart hammering from the intense desire coursing through her body. The confusion she felt then was still with her now, even more so.

What did he mean? Why had he looked at her that way? What had come over him?

Charlie had told herself a hundred times during the night that she had been imagining things, that she was reading way too much into totally innocent gestures. Evan was acting strangely simply because he’d broken up with Liza and that’s all there was to it. But a little voice kept reminding her it wasn’t her imagination at all. He definitely had wanted to kiss her. And to her surprise, she had very badly wanted him to. Evan was so very good looking. Hot as her friend Amy would say. What woman would not want a man who looked like him to kiss her?

Suddenly, Charlie’s excitement regarding her upcoming date with Adam all but disappeared.

Why did this have to happen now?

****

Adam Nelson was by far the handsomest man Charlie had ever dated. His hair was dark and thick, his features perfect in every way. He was articulate and funny and very smart. During their meal of hamburgers and French fries, Charlie learned that he was a photographer and traveled constantly, often out of the country. He’d never been married and had no children, his nomadic lifestyle precluding him from doing so.

After eating, they sat talking, sipping on coffee.

“What type of photography do you do most? People, current events, scenic?”

“I’m mainly a fashion photographer,” he said leaning back in his seat. “I cover fashion shows in New York, London, Paris, Milan. I do photo shoots for magazines like Vanity Fair and Cosmopolitan. And when I’m traveling from one job to the next, I take pictures of the countryside and the people that live there.”

“I had a friend who covered the first Gulf War in 1990. He was severely traumatized from the experience – charred bodies, pieces of shredded bodies on the desert sand, dead women and children. It was horrible. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for a long time after that. He couldn’t sleep, could barely eat. He quit covering those types of events and is now doing fashion photography as I am.”