Page 140 of The One I Hate
“I helped you get your dream,” I say. “Yes, it wasn’t the best way to do it. But I helped make that happen for you. Seeing you happy and thriving and getting everything you deserve, that’s all I want for you. Even when you hated me, I wanted you to succeed. And you know what? I’d do it again. Because you getting everything you want in life is all that matters to me.”
There, the cards are on the table.
And Charlie isn’t saying a thing.
This isn’t like the eerie silence from a few minutes ago. No…this feels like the part of the storm where you think it’s over, only to get slammed by one more flood.
Charlie stands up, and I follow, but she quickly holds her hands up to stop me. “No. I need some space.”
“Space?”
She nods. “For months now I felt like absolute shit for not letting you explain yourself to me. That for fifteen years we wasted time because of a miscommunication. And here this whole time you were straight up lying to me. A lie you don’t even feel bad about.”
“Charlie, I didn’t mean it like that…”
I see the tear fall from her eye and that is my undoing. “Simon Banks never says anything he doesn’t mean. Isn’t that right?”
I hang my head.
“Exactly. You finally told the truth. That you lied to me. For months. I…I just need some time.”
Charlie starts walking out of the living room toward our bedroom. “Where are you going?”
I feel my own tears welling as I watch her crying, standing in the hallway and looking so broken.
I did that. I broke her.
The thing I would have done anything to prevent, I did.
“I’m going to go to the apartment.”
“Whatever you want.” I quickly say before realizing that she shouldn’t be leaving. “No. I’ll go there. You stay here.”
“No, Simon. I need to be away. I just…I just can’t be here right now.”
“For how long?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know, Simon…I don’t know.”
Charlie turns without another word and walks back to the bedroom. Twenty minutes later, with a bag in her hand, she leaves without saying another word.
I thought my heart hurt earlier. But that was nothing compared to now.
Because this is what it feels like when your heart is shattered.
And you only have yourself to blame.
Chapter 33
Charlie
“Boss Lady. We need to eighty-six eggs for about an hour while I run to the store and grab a few dozen.”
I turn to Mike, my head line cook. “What do you mean we’re out of eggs?”
“It means we’re out of eggs?”
That can’t be right. I march into the walk-in cooler, knowing that I’m going to see dozens of eggs on the shelf where they are normally stored. Except when I walk in, it’s empty.
