Page 5 of Love in Tandem
At four-thirty in the afternoon, the restaurant wasn’t busy, part of the reason Charlotte had chosen this time. The other part definitely had to do with the half-price margaritas.
Charlotte slid into the vinyl booth across from her parents, and they both immediately frowned.
“What’s wrong?” her mom asked.
“Does she know?” her dad murmured.
“Know what?” Charlotte said.
“You look like you’ve been crying.”
“Is that blood?” Dad asked.
Charlotte dipped her gaze to her shirt, deflecting Mom’s statement. “Nash hit me in the face with a basketball. In a way, it was very endearing. Where’s Sophia?”
Charlotte had promised Sophia she wouldn’t give Mom and Dad the money without her. “Just because I’m a broke college student and can’t afford to chip in a single cent doesn’t mean part of this gift isn’t from me.” Who was Charlotte to argue with that logic?
“She’s talking to Rick.” Mom pointed to where their church’s youth minister sat at a table with his very pregnant wife and toddler daughter. “He’s probably asking if she can help chaperone the youth group’s canoe trip. I heard they were looking for more volunteers.”
Charlotte shuddered. “Better her than me.”
Mom smirked. “Pretty sure Rick crossed you off that list with a Sharpie when I told him about the time you pepper-sprayed a park ranger during our one and only camping trip.”
“He should have identified himself better. I thought he was a bear.”
“Clearing his throat outside of the tent. Yes. We remember.” Mom tugged her sweater further over her shoulders. Her dark hair had grown back in, albeit more gray, and she’d regained all her weight, but the battle with cancer seemed to have staked permanent claim over her ability to stay warm. Charlotte wouldn’t be surprised if she was wearing three additional layers beneath her cardigan and button-down denim shirt, making her look closer to fifty-seven rather than forty-seven.
“Well?” Dad rubbed his hands together, his lifelong career as a mechanic evident in the grease stains on his fingers. “Does it feel good? Another school year under your belt?”
Charlotte reached for a chip, debating how much to divulge. Might as well get it out there. “It didn’t end like I hoped it would.”
“Because of the basketball?” Dad said.
That actually made Charlotte laugh. “No. I wish. More like because the grant money may not come through.” She was still clinging to hope that somehow the whole thing would fix itself by the end of next week.
Mom straightened. Dad stopped rubbing his hands. “Oh no.”
“What does that mean for you?” They both spoke at the same time.
Sophia plopped into the open space next to Charlotte, her large gold hoop earrings, dangly bracelets, and sparkled headscarf somehow cute and trendy. If Charlotte attempted the same accessories, she’d look like Captain Jack Sparrow’s love child with a fortune teller.
“What does what mean for you?” Sophia said. “And why does everyone look like someone died? I was only gone for a minute. Oh wait. Is it because of what weekend this is?”
“Is that why you were crying?” Mom asked, then elbowed Dad in the side when he whispered, “What weekend is this?”
“You guys, I’m fine. I know this weekend is Ben’s wedding and all, but it’s been two years. I’m completely over him. His name doesn’t even cross my mind.” Except for six percent of the time. Charlotte fisted her napkin, wishing she could strangle her conscience for always being so nitpicky about the truth.
Fine. Six percent of the time Ben’s image might breeze through her mind. But that didn’t mean she was hung up on the guy. She wasn’t. At all. She’d moved on. She had.
So why were her parents and Sophia looking at her like she hadn’t?
“I wasn’t going to say anything, but I actually have plans to see someone this weekend,” Charlotte blurted out before her conscience could stop her.
It wasn’t technically a lie. Charlotte did plan on seeing someone. The fact that someone was Frankie Avalon and Charlotte planned on seeing him on her living room flat screen as she worked her way through her favorite Beach Party movies shouldn’t matter, should it?
Based on the hopeful gleam in her mom’s eyes, the wariness in her dad’s, and the skeptical squint in Sophia’s, it probably did matter.
Charlotte smoothed her napkin on the table in her best nonchalant manner. “Who knows if it’ll lead to anything serious. He’s just a friend. An old friend.” Who may not even still be alive. “I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
