Too Late To Want Me Back

Charlie stood outside Mark’s apartment door with a small paper bag in her hand. Inside the bag was his favorite takeout from the Thai place down the street. It had taken her nearly thirty minutes to pick it up after closing the restaurant, but she had wanted to surprise him. The last few weeks had been rough, and she knew she had been distant lately. Between the restaurant bills and the constant stress, she barely had time to breathe, let alone spend time with her boyfriend. Tonight she wanted to make up for that. She shifted the bag slightly, adjusting the containers inside so they wouldn’t spill. The hallway outside Mark’s apartment was quiet, the kind of silence that came late at night when most people had already gone to bed. Charlie knocked gently. No answer. She frowned. She knocked again, louder this time. Still nothing. “Mark?” she called through the door. Charlie hesitated for a moment before trying the handle. The door opened easily. He must have forgotten to lock it. “Mark?” she called again as she stepped inside. The living room lights were dim, only a lamp near the couch casting a warm glow across the apartment. His jacket was tossed carelessly over a chair, and the television screen reflected faintly in the dark window. Charlie stepped a little further into the apartment. “Mark, I brought—” Her voice faded. Something felt wrong. Her eyes moved slowly across the space until they stopped near the couch. A pair of gold high heels sat neatly beside the coffee table. Charlie stared at them. She recognized those shoes immediately. Sophia had worn them to dinner just last week. Her stomach tightened. Maybe Sophia had stopped by earlier, she told herself. Maybe she had just left. But before the thought could settle, a sound drifted from down the hallway. Charlie froze. At first it was faint, a soft laugh, breathless and careless. Then came the creak of the bedframe, slow and unmistakable. Her fingers tightened around the paper bag in her hand. A woman’s voice, low and breathless. And horribly familiar. Charlie felt her heart begin to pound so hard it seemed to echo in her ears. Slowly, she walked toward the hallway. The hallway light was off, leaving the narrow space dim except for the glow spilling from Mark’s bedroom at the end. The door was slightly open. A thin strip of warm light stretched across the floor. Charlie stopped a few feet away. She could hear everything now. A breathless moan. Then a woman’s voice. “Oh my God, Mark,put it in…all of it–” Charlie stopped breathing. She knew that voice. She reached for the door and pushed it open. The scene inside froze time. Mark sat against the headboard of the bed, shirtless, his hands gripping the waist of the woman straddling his lap. Her dress had been pushed up around her hips, her long hair falling forward as she leaned over him. Sophia. Charlie’s best friend. For a moment no one noticed her. Mark’s hands slid along Sophia’s hips as she moved against him, her fingers tangled in his hair as she moaned with pleasure softly. Charlie’s fingers loosened. The paper bag slipped from her hand and hit the floor with a dull thud, the containers inside spilling open. The sound finally caught their attention. Sophia turned first. Her eyes widened. “Charlie—” Mark looked up the shock flashing across his face. The room fell into a sudden, heavy silence. Charlie stood there staring, at the tangled sheets, at Sophia scrambling to pull the blanket over herself, and at the man she had been dating for two years sitting half-naked in bed with her best friend. “I brought dinner,” Charlie said quietly. Her voice sounded distant even to her own ears. Sophia slid off the bed quickly, clutching the sheet around herself as she stepped forward. “Charlie, wait—this isn’t—” Charlie let out a hollow laugh. “Not what it looks like?” Sophia hesitated, clearly unable to finish the sentence. Mark ran a hand through his hair, irritation already creeping into his expression. “You weren’t supposed to come over tonight,” he muttered. Charlie blinked at him. “Excuse me?” “You said you were working late,” he said as he stood from the bed. “How was I supposed to know you’d show up?” Charlie simply stared at him, struggling to process the words. She felt the reality of the moment closing in on her chest like a tightening band. She looked at Sophia again, her voice quieter this time. “You’re my best friend.” Sophia dropped her gaze. Mark sighed impatiently. “Look, this isn’t as dramatic as you’re making it.” Charlie turned toward him slowly. “You’re sleeping with my best friend.” He shrugged as if it barely mattered. “You’ve been impossible to deal with lately. All you talk about is that restaurant, bills, problems, suppliers calling every five minutes. It’s exhausting.” The words struck deeper than the betrayal itself. “And honestly,” he added, “that place is going under anyway.” The room fell silent. Charlie looked from Mark to Sophia. Charlie bent down slowly and picked up the overturned takeout container. Noodles had spilled across the carpet, the dinner she had brought for them lying in a ruined heap. For a moment she just stared at it. Then she let the container fall back to the floor. Neither Mark nor Sophia spoke. Charlie turned and walked toward the door. “Charlie—” Sophia called. Charlie didn’t stop. She walked out of the apartment, down the hallway, and into the cold night air before the first tear finally escaped. Two years with him. Ten years of friendship with her. Gone in a single night. Charlie pressed a hand to her mouth as the sob broke out of her chest, the sound raw and uncontrollable. The two people she trusted most in the world had just destroyed her. Charlie shouldn’t have been driving. Her head was still spinning from what she had just seen at Mark’s apartment. The road ahead blurred every few seconds as she tried to focus on the narrow street leading toward the restaurant. Then she had to stop. A dark sedan was parked across part of the lane, blocking her path. Charlie sighed sharply and put the car in park. “Seriously?” she muttered. She stepped out and walked toward the sedan, ready to knock on the window and ask whoever was inside to move. But as she got closer, she slowed. The windows were fogged. Through the glass she could make out movement, two silhouettes tangled together in the front seat. The woman was half turned toward the driver, one hand gripping the collar of his shirt while his arm circled her waist, pulling her closer. Their mouths were locked together. The woman let out a soft moan between kisses before leaning in again, her fingers sliding into his hair as she pulled him back down. Charlie stopped beside the car, staring for a second longer than she meant to. Of course. Of course this was happening tonight of all nights. She knocked sharply on the window. The movement inside stopped immediately. A moment later the driver’s door opened and a tall man stepped out, adjusting his jacket as if nothing unusual had just happened. His expression showed clear irritation at being interrupted. Behind him, the woman in the passenger seat fixed her hair and checked her lipstick in the mirror. “You’re blocking the road,” Charlie said bluntly. The man glanced at her car, then back at her. “You could have waited.” Charlie let out a short, humorless laugh. “I just spent ten minutes watching my boyfriend sleep with my best friend,” she said. “I’m not in the mood to sit here while strangers finish whatever that was.” The man studied her for a moment. Without responding, he reached back into the car and moved it forward a few feet. “There,” he said shortly. Charlie didn’t thank him. She turned and walked back to her car, irritation bubbling in her chest. Of course the road had to be blocked. Of course the people inside the car had to be all over each other like the world didn’t exist. Charlie slammed her car door harder than necessary and pulled away. As she drove past, she caught a glimpse of the man getting back into his car, the woman already leaning toward him again. Charlie tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “Unbelievable,” she muttered under her breath. As if tonight wasn’t already bad enough.