“I can’t even tell you.” Bekah drained the last of her wine, reaching for the bottle to fill it back up. “To be honest, I don’t have a lot of girl friends. Something about always flirting with their boyfriends. But I figure Chris is so insanely in love with you that you would never be nervous about me, and Charlotte is as perennially single as I am, so we can bond over that.”
“Actually, I think our quiet, overnight assignment editor might be working on the romance front.” Mira smirked over the top of her wine glass at Charlotte and winked.
Dammit, she never should have spouted out all that stuff about Trey. Hell, she definitely shouldn't have had Mira interview him at the fire the day before.
“Oh reeeeallly.” Bekah turned her whole body to Charlotte, all attention now focused on her. “Do tell. I can’t believe you are going to leave me alone and single all by myself.”
“No, um there isn’t… romance. I mean a little talking, maybe. But yeah, just no.” Charlotte sipped out of her glass for something to do, the extra bonus being she had an excuse to lower her eyes from their curious stares.
The cool, white wine slid across her tongue, tart and sweet flavors coating her mouth. She held the sip there for a second, amazed how much she liked the drink. After the one incident with her cousin and the Schnapps, Charlotte had never even had another sip of alcohol, too afraid of losing control again. So, she truly was shocked to discover she liked this wine.
“Good stuff, isn't it? My cousin’s winery up north makes it. And people say Pennsylvania can’t make good wine. Pffft.” Bekah sipped from her own glass again, leaning back into a more relaxed position. “I want to hear more about this guy.”
Charlotte sipped again from her glass, having no idea what to say.
“Well it just so happens I got to meet him yesterday.” Mira piped up, filling the silence that Charlotte left hanging in the air. “Now I am one hundred percent all about my man, but I have to say, holy shit is Charlotte’s Trey hot.”
Sputtering at her word choice, Charlotte coughed and choked a little on her wine. “Not my Trey, just Trey.”
“Oh no, trust me, he is all yours. The man just came off the biggest fire of his career, was trying to hide a reporter and cameraman from his chief, and yet the first thing he asked me was how you were doing and wanting to know all about you.”
This was all new information to Charlotte. She had no idea he had asked Mira about her. Suddenly, Charlotte felt an irrational jealousy that Mira had gotten to talk to and see him in the flesh before Charlotte could. “What did you say?”
Mira’s smile stretched across her face, and Charlotte immediately knew that she had played right into the savvy reporter’s hand. “I told him you are one of the smartest women I’ve ever met. That you had a sixth sense about news. That you had no idea how beautiful or genuinely amazing you are.”
“Did you add that she has the most exotic mix of features ever and could have been a runway model if she had wanted to?”
Charlotte burst out laughing. Surely, they had to be blowing smoke up her ass. But neither women joined her. They stared her down, letting her see the absolute truth in their words, or at least their truth. All of what they said was pure fiction to Charlotte.
“That’s not... I’m not… He’s going to be disappointed now when we meet and it is just… me.”
Both Mira and Bekah gave Charlotte a confused, pitying look, which she hated. She didn't need pity. She was fine with being a mousey, shy, bookworm, virgin. Well maybe not fine, but she’d made her peace with it long ago.
“By the way Mira, you did an amazing job on the story today.” Charlotte crossed her fingers under the long cuffs of pajama sleeves, hoping with everything she had they would let her get away with the subject change.
Thankfully, Mira smiled and nodded her head with enthusiasm. “Oh my gosh, seriously, yesterday was one of those news days that I love. The story was important, no one got hurt, the whole crew came together and put something incredible together.” She arched one eyebrow, giving them some of that sass they’d seen her torture Chris with. “And best of all, we kicked everyone’s ass.”
“Hell yeah, we did.” Bekah clinked glasses with Mira, then reached across the coffee table to do the same with Charlotte.
“I watched your story from the evening shows, too, Bekah. I’ve never seen you get so emotional with a story before. It was very touching.” This she could do. Talk about work, compliment the amazing reporters sitting before her. That came easy.
Bekah crossed her legs under her, setting her drink on the table. “Well, it was impossible not to get emotional talking to all those people who lost everything. And it isn’t exactly the highest income neighborhood. I know a lot of those families are going to be sleeping in shelters for a while.”
Silence settled over the three of them. It was almost awkward sitting there in the elegant apartment while talking about the misfortune of some many just a few miles away.
Almost as soon as the melancholy moment began, Bekah jumped up from the couch, not letting them wander too far down that road. “Hey, you said I could braid your hair. Time to pay up, sister.” Bekah pointed one finger at Charlotte, then spun around to run someplace down the hall.
“I’m pretty sure I never said yes to that idea.” Charlotte yelled after the curvy woman.
“It’s cute that you think that is going to stop her.” Just as Mira laughed out the words, a phone rang from the kitchen.
“That will be the delivery guy at the front desk.” Bekah called out from where ever she was in the back. “Mira, do you mind going down and grabbing it. I swear the night guard undresses me every time I go down there.”
“You mean he undresses you with his eyes, right?” Mira stood from the couch, and started for the door to the apartment just as Bekah emerged from the back with an arm full of brushes, hair spray, and makeup.
“Nope, I mean he always ends up undressing me in the mailroom right before he—”
“Got it. Don’t need the details, sweetie.” Mira’s laugh echoed out the in the hall as she let the door swing closed behind her.
