Page 76 of Thirsty
Charlie blinked, his eyes going wide. “No, I know,” he said. Lorenzo realized he was shaking finely, his muscles jittery with adrenaline. “I’m just saying—”
“Well don’t,” he said harshly.
“Don’t...what?”
Maggie quietly left the room, and Charlie leaned back over the couch to try to reason with him. “Lorenzo—”
“You are meddling,” Lorenzo hissed.
“I’m—we’re just talking,” Charlie said defensively.
“Behind their backs,” Lorenzo said. He knew it was a rationalization, but he was angry—so angry—and he was willing to hold on to anything, regardless of whether it made sense.
“I was just asking her opinion—” Charlie started.
“No,” he said, “you’re trying to—you’re trying to shape this situation to your own desires.”
“Lorenzo—”
“And I know you think you’re helping, but you’re not,” Lorenzo said. “This isn’t your business.”
“I know it’s not my business. But I can—I can do this,okay?” Charlie said earnestly. “I mean, this is what my—my thesis is about. I write about relationships and interpersonal stuff just like this, and I can help them sort through their issues. I’m good at this.”
“No, you’re not!” Lorenzo barked.
Charlie’s face went blank with shock and hurt, and Lorenzo instantly wished he could take the words back. But he couldn’t, because he was still scared. This was what had scared him about Charlie the last time they’d known each other—that he was smarter than everyone else, and he knew it. That he would try to butt in and control things.
And heknewthat version of Charlie had probably never existed, and that that wasn’t what was going on now. But he couldn’t shake the fear, and words just kept tumbling out of his mouth. “You think this is fun!” he shouted. “And I know you think you want to help, but you get too—too—and you end up ruining things, just like when you told Olivia to leave me!”
Agonized embarrassment hit him like a freight train. He stiffened and turned his back on Charlie, mortified. What waswrongwith him? He felt like a child—bringing that upnow, out of the blue...
And then he heard Charlie’s voice, quiet but distinct: “I was right.”
Lorenzo froze. He turned to face Charlie slowly. “What did you just say?”
Charlie stood up from the couch and walked around to stand directly in front of him. “I was right to tell Olivia to leave you.”
Disbelieving—furious—Lorenzo said, “You apologized for that. When we first ran into each other, you—”
“I know,” Charlie said firmly. “And I—I am sorry that it hurt you, but—”
“I can’t believe you are taking back your apology,” Lorenzo thundered. Charlie was still talking, his voice ramping up, but Lorenzo kept shouting over him. “—and are standing here before me to say—”
“She wasn’t into you!” Charlie shouted.
His harsh breathing was deafening in the silence that followed.
“I know I was—I was a dick about it back then, and I shouldn’t have been,” Charlie said, his chest heaving. “But Olivia came to me, talking about her future and her life—and then she said she felt like shehadto try the long-distance thing with you. And I could tell that her heart wasn’t in it.”
An echo of heartache twisted in Lorenzo’s gut; shame and anger and a perverse, aching need for Charlie to keep talking. “And yeah, at the time I was probably only thinking about Olivia, not about you,” Charlie said. “And I told her not to be with someone if she wasn’t all in. But you deserved better than that too.”
Lorenzo shuddered. Charlie took a step toward him. “You deserve someone who wants you. All of you,” he said quietly. “You deserve someone...who can’t be dissuaded by some bullshit advice.”
Lorenzo husked out a laugh. Charlie took another step closer, cupping Lorenzo’s face in his palm. “You deserve...”
Lorenzo waited, hanging on every expression that flickered over Charlie’s face. He could swear his heart was pounding.
No, pounding was what human hearts did. His seemed to be trying to writhe and spasm and pour its way through his dead rib cage straight to Charlie.
