Chapter Twenty-Four
At the end of the day, Charlotte’s various emotions churned together inside her gut until she couldn’t distinguish one from the other. The pride at having survived her first day as the assignment desk manager bled into the anxiety over Trey’s secrets. The desire to see him mixed with the fear of confronting him.
Despite his assertion she should wait for him after work and they could go back to her place together, Charlotte decided she needed time alone. The past few weeks she’d come out of her shell, made friends, took chances, pushed through the fear. But deep in her soul, she would always be an introvert, no matter how many times she faked otherwise. Solitude cleared her mind, fed her soul.
Normally, to be alone she would simply go home. But that is where Trey would go when he discovered she had left without him. Instead, she headed to a small cafe she’d never been to before. She passed it everyday on her way into work and often thought she’d like to check it out. It was all mismatched tables and chairs, chipped tea cups and old street signs. There weren’t any fancy coffee flavors, but shelves upon shelves of loose tea in every variety lined the mirrored wall behind the counter. Cases boasted vegan, allergen free pastries, and the artfully bored college kid running the register reassured her that no one would bother her with fake small chat.
Charlotte ordered a pot of mint tea, and sat in the back corner furthest away from the door and windows. For an hour, she simply sat and thought. No computer, no phone, just went over everything in her head. Wrote down a few notes about odd behaviors Trey had exhibited. Theories as to what could be going on. In the end, she knew the only way to find the answers were to stop asking for them, and instead demand.
Feeling at once recharged and still anxious, Charlotte got back in her car and drove to her apartment. Her phone had a dozen missed calls, and twice as many texts from Trey. She ignored them all, knowing he would be waiting outside her door.
As she pulled up to her apartment building, Trey leapt from his SUV and sprinted to her door. Before she could even shut the engine off, her door was open, and Trey’s strong hands were checking her over, though what he could be looking for she hadn’t a clue.
“Trey, what is going on? What are you doing?” Charlotte batted his hands away, ignoring the rush of hormones his touch never failed to induce.
He backed away, pacing in a wide circle with his hands on top of his head, and his face pointed to the now darkening sky. “You weren’t at the station. Didn’t answer my calls or messages. I thought something had happened.”
Frustration pushed everything else inside her aside. The ever-present anxiety that shimmered beneath the surface forgotten in favor of anger. Something she had never really indulged in.
“I need answers, Trey. Now. I’m not waiting anymore. I’ve been patient. I’ve tried to understand and to not be too clingy. But you’ve been like a constant shadow the past week. Before that you disappeared. I may not have as much as experience at relationships at you, but I know what you’ve been doing here, jerking me around, is not okay.” Charlotte wished the temperature outside was colder, below freezing, so she could she the puffs of air forced from her lungs at her tirade. Some physical, visible proof that she did have a backbone, and there was no faking it.
“Sugar, let’s go inside.” Trey tried to place his hand on the base of her spine, to guide her inside, but she pushed his hand away. “Please.”
“We are going inside, and you are going to tell me everything.”
Pivoting on her heel, she stomped into the apartment building, climbed the stairs, and stormed into her apartment. She needed something to do with her hands. Something other than the rising tide of anger in her chest to focus on. Weasley weaved between her feet, and she bent over to scoop the cat up. With a swipe of her hands, she gathered his food and water bowls and scrubbed them out, all the time feeling more than hearing Trey enter behind her, close the door, and stare at her from the other side of the kitchen counter.
“I saw you today.” The words popped out before she knew she would say them.
“Where?” True confusion laced Trey’ voice. He obviously had no idea what to do with this version of her. Well he could join the club.
The cat’s bowls sparkled in a way they hadn’t since she brought the ornery feline home. Dumping them back on the floor next to a confused looking Weasley, Charlotte grabbed his kibble and the ground beef she’d made for him the night before, stirring together his nightly meal.
“At work. On video. You were yelling at a teenage boy. I couldn’t hear what you were saying, but the look on your face.” Task down, Charlotte finally allowed herself to turn and face Trey head on. She wasn’t sure what she had expected when she looked at him, but it wasn’t absolute terror. “If you had looked at me like that while tearing me a new one, I would have been cowering in a corner. Why were you talking to a kid that way?”
The only sound in the apartment were the pleasured grunts of Weasley’s eating, totally oblivious to the drama unfolding during his dinner.
“You aren’t going to say anything? That fire was well out of your zone, and they didn’t call in backup. Why were you even there?”
No answer. Instead, Trey crossed the apartment and slumped onto her couch, face cradled in his hands. Twin desires rose up in her, and she stood frozen in the archway separating the kitchen from the living room debating which to go with.
One half of her desperately wanted to comfort the man she had grown to care so much about. He obviously held an enormous weight on his shoulders, and she wanted to relieve him of some of that burden.
The other half wanted to slap him upside the head. To yell and scream and push like she had never down before in her life. She’d never fought for anything of her own. Instead accepting whatever had been given to her. But this man was worth fighting for, even if she was fighting the man himself.
In the end, self-preservation won out. “I think you need to leave, Trey. It’s obvious you aren’t going to tell me what’s going on, and I can’t allow myself to be… kept in the dark. I’ve spent too much of my life thinking I didn’t deserve things like respect, honesty, affection. But you helped me see otherwise. You and my friends. I’m not going to sit here and pretend nothing is going on when I damn well know it is. I saw proof with my own eyes. Just you tell me what it is that I saw so my mind can stop with the jumping to conclusions.”
Once more, he stayed silent. A single tear rolled down her cheek, knowing that they stood on the precipice of something. It could be a beginning, or it could be the end. Trey just had to make up his mind which way he would go.
Just as she was about to turn and head back to her bedroom to change, Trey whispered something beneath his breath.
“What?”
Trey looked up, the white of his eyes now run through with red veins, his usually warm brown eyes tortured. Imprints of his teeth lined his bottom lip. “I said it’s all my fault. The fires. I’m the reason behind them. Well, part of the reason at least.”
Confused, Charlotte crossed to him, settling on her knees before him. She gave him no choice but to look her in the eye as the story came spilling out.
“I told you my parents took in foster kids when I was a teenager. There were a lot of kids that came through our house. Some for short stays, others longer. There were some rough cases in the bunch. The system isn’t always pretty, even though the majority of people really do just want to help.”
