Chapter Three
2270 Words
Immediately, they got to the main area of the coffee shop, Wilson offered Charlotte a handkerchief. Without hesitation, she collected it and he took it as a cue to give her space to cry.
After about ten minutes of her crying and thinking about all that happened in private, she washed her face and came out to meet Wilson seated in the empty coffee shop.
Wiping her face one more time with the handkerchief, she walked towards him. He was gazing out of the window and that finally gave Charlotte a good opportunity to look at him.
He was dressed almost the same way as he was in the morning, the only difference being the colour of his shirt. He didn’t have his sunglasses on and as a result she could see his black hair, dark eyes alongside well defined facial features.
“Um,” she requested his attention on getting to him. “Hi.”
“Hey,” he immediately rose to his feet on spotting her. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” she replied, managing a smile. “Back there…thank you. Really.”
“It’s no big deal,” he dismissed her thanks. “How are you though? Are you really okay?”
She nodded.
“Are you sure?” he looked at her. “Do you want to maybe, talk about it?”
“No,” she shook her head. “There’s nothing to talk about. Everything that happened probably happened for the best. I should have actually broken up with him long time ago. He has always been such a jerk.”
“Oh.”
“Oh, sorry,” she quickly apologized, covering her face. “I’m bothering you, am I not?”
“No, no. it’s fine.”
“Oh,” she bit her lip. “Thank you.”
He nodded in response and a short-lived silence quickly fell between them.
Charlotte looked at him and he seemed just as lost on what to say next as she was. As he stood, he adjusted his tie and Charlotte couldn’t help but catch the price tag on his shirt sticking out.
“Right,” she quickly broke the silence. “I wasn’t expecting to see you anytime soon.”
“Admit it,” he smirked. “You were hoping to never see me again.”
“Well,” she lightly chuckled and feared her next question. “How did your meeting go? Seeing that you’re here…”
“You’re right,” he replied. “Why else would I be here?”
“So…”
“I’m now by a couple of million dollars less not as rich as I’m supposed to be,” he dramatically let out.
“Oh-”
“Have you ever lost millions of dollars?” he continued. “Especially when you shouldn’t have?”
“No,” he hung her head low. “I’m sincerely sorry. I know it’s all my fault so-”
“No!” he quickly interrupted her. That wasn’t his plan. “It’s not your fault. Not completely.”
“How can I make it up to you?” she looked up to him to ask. “Can I make it up to you?”
He looked at her and she still looked distressed. Maybe not as distressed as when her ex was around but the look was still on her face.
He wondered what he could do to distract her thoughts. Apparently, she wasn’t interested in arguing about how him supposedly losing millions of dollars wasn’t her fault as she just quickly put the blame on herself.
“As for that,” he gave her a quick look. “I’ll think about it. For now, just get me a nice cup of coffee.”
Mumbling an ‘ok’, she left his presence and walked over to the counter to make his coffee. Wilson managed to peep from his seat, watching her as she made coffee. She still wasn’t smiling as she made it. She moved around, grabbing cups, bottles and spoons, the look on her face screaming exhaustion.
After a while, she brought the coffee and placed it on the table in front of him. As she did that, she turned to leave, Wilson quickly holding her by the arm.
“What?” she asked in a soft voice, looking at Wilson’s hand wrapped around hers.
“Sit,” he said, letting her go. “You should be here while I drink my coffee so I can give you direct feedbacks.”
“Oh,” her voice lacked enthusiasm as she took a seat opposite him. “Okay.”
“Well here goes,” Wilson raised his cup, watching her stylishly. “I’m about to taste it.”
“Mhm, it does taste good!”
“I’m glad you think so,” she replied him, her gaze fixed on her hands placed on her lap. No matter what he said, her replies were monotoned and her gaze just never seemed to leave her lap. Realizing he wasn’t helping matters, Wilson quickly finished his cup of coffee and got up.
“Thanks for the coffee,” he said, handing over the empty cup to her. “I’ll definitely be coming back to have some more.”
He stood back and watched her clean the cup then stacked it up. When she was done, she walked round the shop, cleaning it and finally locking all the windows.
“Um, won’t you be heading home?” she asked him. “It’s late already and I need to close for the day.”
“Of course. I will,” he got up and walked towards her. “I was waiting for you. I’ll drive you home.”
“What?” she looked surprised. “Why would you do that?”
“Because,” he thought of a good enough reason. “It’s late and you only stayed this late cause I insisted on you making me coffee and waiting until i finished it.”
“Oh, that’s nothing.”
“No, it’s not nothing,” he moved closer to her. “It’s late and you- Just let me drive you home.”
She looked directly at him in the eye and few seconds later, looked away. “Okay. Thank you.”
He took out his car keys and they both walked out of her shop. She waited behind to lock up one more time while Wilson headed to his car to open the passenger’s seat for her.
She thanked him and stepped in. Quickly, he walked over to his side and got in.
Her home address was a short distance away and a familiar route for Wilson so they were able to get there in about thirty minutes. The ride was silent, neither of them uttering a single word, obviously both having different things on their mind. Charlotte’s head was rested on the window and every time Wilson sneaked a glance at her, she exhaled.
They finally got to her place and Wilson had to pat her to inform her.
“Oh, thank you,” she unclasped her seatbelt. “I’m grateful.”
“You’re welcome.”
“And,” she continued. “About earlier, I’m really sorry.”
“You don’t have to be,” he replied. “You’ll be making it up to me so you don’t have to be sorry anymore.”
“Eh?”
“I will definitely be back,” he said with a wink. “To have you make it up to me.”
And with that, he turned his car on and drove off.
---
“I’m so glad you finally broke up with him.”
Charlotte watched her best friend react to the filtered version of the story she told her. All she could tell her was him harassing her and her just standing up to him and suggesting they broke up. For unknown number of reasons to even her, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her best friend Wilson Locke had shown up and played hero.
Rachael would probably have screamed at the mention of it. It still seemed surreal to her and Rachael would definitely make it seem like a reality and would quickly help to put all sort of ideas in her mind.
On the other side, she was still responsible and felt guilty about him losing millions of dollars. He had made his intention to have her make it up to him and her heart pounded at the thought of what he might ask for. He couldn’t be shameless enough to ask her for money when he obviously had a lot of those already and that only made her more and more anxious on what he might eventually ask for.
“He doesn’t deserve you the tiniest bit!” apparently Rachael wasn’t done expressing how glad she was on her breaking up with Jackson. Though they dated for over a year, she never liked him throughout the whole period and never failed to show it. Now that they had officially broken up, she just couldn’t contain her excitement especially cause Charlotte was the one who broke up with him. “You’d better not even try to talk to him if he crawls back here to talk to you.”
“I wouldn’t, Rachael.”
“By the way,” Rachael drew closer to her. “You aren’t really sad, are you? You don’t miss him or wish things turned out better, do you?”
“No, I’m fine Rachael,” Charlotte laughed lightly. “I was a little down yesterday but I’m okay now. We broke up long ago already. I just needed to officially say the words out.”
“I’m happy for you, love.”
“Now can we stop talking about him?”
“Yes, yes,” Rachael quickly said, a smirk finding its way to her face. “Did Mr. Wilson Locke come back here yesterday?”
“What?” Charlotte stuttered. “Oh, n-no, he didn’t.”
“Ah, is that so?” Rachael stared at her. “I guess he’s meeting went well then. Aw, lucky you.”
Luck was far from being on her side.
But her best friend had no idea so she simply said, “I know right?”
---
Wilson’s thoughts were continuously interfering with his work.
He tossed the unattended file on his table, groaning. He had always been serious with his work and rarely had things lurk around his mind so much that it began to interfere with his work. But he just couldn’t get Charlotte’s face as she cried out of his head.
He wondered how she was fairing. If she had cried even more tired from pretending to be fine in his presence. If she had been so exhausted from crying and hadn’t even gone to work.
The thoughts weren’t stopping. They kept on coming, in different patterns and taking different ways to show up.
He looked at the pile of unfinished work he had to do and sighed. He couldn’t even afford to take a quick pause to go over to check on her without coming back to wish he didn’t leave.
He would just have to finish as soon as possible.
Sitting up, he massaged his wrists and grabbed the file he previously tossed away. He opened it and quickly got engrossed in work.
Like it was already foreplanned, immediately he dropped the last file that needed his attention, his phone rang.
Shifting his attention, he picked up his phone and saw an incoming call from his mother. Hesitating for a while, he picked it up.
“Mum.”
“Wilson, dear,” her voice was enthusiastic from the other side of the call. “How are you, son?”
“I’m fine, mum,” he replied her, getting up to tidy his desk and prepare to leave the office. “How about you?”
“I’m great, son.”
“That’s nice,” he paused to say. “Um, why did you call?”
“Can’t I call just because I missed my son?”
“I miss you too mum but we both know that’s not the case,” he resumed clearing his desk. “So why did you call?”
“To congratulate you,” she said. “We heard about the contract you bagged yesterday. Congrats son.”
“Oh,” that fairly made sense. “Thanks mum.”
“And to celebrate it,” she continued. “I decided to hold a little family dinner. Come over immediately you get off work.”
He knew her call was too peaceful to end like that. “Mum-”
“Your brother’s coming too,” she cut him off. “And I don’t want to hear any excuses from you. We’re family and I need you two to remember that.”
“Mum-”
“That’s all. I’ll be expecting you and you better not try to come late.”
Before he could say anything else, he heard her hang up on him.
He dropped his phone on the table and groaned. He should have known better than to pick up her call so easily.
He stared at the finished work for the day on the table, suddenly wishing he had stalled and spent more time on them. That way, he’d at least have a valid reason to get to the family dinner late.
But as he was done for the day, he had no choice but to go home and anticipate a very awkward family dinner.
- Writer
