“Yeah, but they called Lola in to help out tonight since you took off.” He shrugged. “They won’t notice I’m not there.”
“I’m pretty sure they’ll notice.”
“Jonah and Eliza are there too. It’s like a horror movie, honestly. Night of the Double Dates. Not my vibe.”
I was smiling again. Absently, I touched my cheek, finding it hard to believe Charlie was making me smile. “Sounds terrifying.”
“The stuff of nightmares.”
He held up my keys and dangled them at the door. I’d forgotten he had them. “Uh, okay, I guess. It’s messy, though. Due to all the moving today. No judgment.”
He pulled the door open and held it for me after I’d used my key. “Take a moment here and imagine what my place looks like. Go ahead, take all the time you need.”
Laughing, I led him toward the elevator. “You’re just trying to make me feel better. I know you’re secretly a clean freak.”
“Lies,” he insisted. “Dirty, filthy lies. Someone’s trying to ruin my reputation.”
“Yeah, right. You come off as the devil-may-care bachelor, but I would bet twenty dollars your closet’s color coordinated.”
“Who told you that?” he demanded, sounding surprisingly mature for how playful he was being. “They’re lying.”
“I knew it,” I gloated, glancing at him over my shoulder. His eyes twinkled, and there was a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. I turned around again before I accidentally ran into the wall.
“Eff Tits? What kind of kinky motherfu—”
“It’s my neighbor,” I told him in a stage whisper. “I’m not sure he understood the whole last name concept.”
“That’s not an accident,” he insisted.
“Jeff Titsle. He’s religious.”
Charlie snorted. “You should probably tell him.”
“Youshould probably tell him,” I said. “There’s no way I’m knocking on my fortysomething neighbor’s door and explaining the birds and the bees to him.”
We were both laughing pretty hard by the time the elevator doors closed.
“Sexual deviants aside, this building is way nicer than mine.”
“We got lucky and grabbed a move-in special when they first renovated. But the rent has gone up every year since then, and now, they’re citing hardship post-pandemic. Anyway, they’re basically trying to take nonconsensual advantage of my bank account.”
“Well, Will said they were planning on paying you more.”
The elevator doors opened, and we walked side-by-side to my apartment door. Charlie was holding conversation, but he was also taking in every detail of the hallway and building.
“I need to have a conversation with you guys about what that really means. Like actual dollars and cents. But also my rent is going up next month, on the first. And I think y’all are a ways out on the second location yet. I don’t know what to do to bridge the gap.” I put my key in the door and opened it, letting Charlie into my personal space for the first time in five years. “I’ve thought about looking for a second job, but—”
“That’s a terrible idea,” he said quickly. I opened my mouth to argue, but he added, “Ada, you already work insane hours at the bar. You can’t just work all day and all night. No place, no matter how nice—and I’ll admit, this place is beautiful—is worth killing yourself over.”
I stood with my back to my front door, watching him walk around the living room, kitchen, and small eat-in space that I’d turned into a little office since Adleigh and I usually ate at the island or on the couch.
“It’s more than this place, though. I don’t want to move away from my gym. Or the farmers market. Or Taco, Taco, Taco. I freaking love their—”
“Tacos?” he guessed.
“Queso,” I said just to be contrary.
He smirked and poked his head in Adleigh’s now empty room. “Plus, it’s a bitch to drive a long way away after the bar closes. I did that for a long time, and there were several nights when I thought I would fall asleep at the wheel.”
