“You know we can’t lose Ada,” Eliza hissed, still whisper-shouting. “How many times have we asked you to leave her alone? How many times have we made it clear that we can’t run the bar without her?”
“You just have to stick your foot in it, don’t you?” Will growled. “You have to fucking step in it. You can’t help yourself.”
Charlie’s jaw ticked, but he kept his cool. I couldn’t, though. I couldn’t let this go on.
“Wait,” I said quietly, holding up a hand. I’d never had to whisper to argue with people before. It added a super strange dynamic to the conversation and forced everyone to listen closely instead of jumping into speak over everyone else. “Charlie didn’t like... trick me into dating him. I know what I’m doing. I chose this.”
“Ada,” Eliza said, sounding as disappointed as humanly possible. “You, of all people, know better.”
I shook my head, feeling foolish for how I’d behaved in the past but also knowing there wasn’t this thing until we’d become these people. Charlie and I couldn’t have stood by this decision five years ago. Even one year ago.
“I did know better,” I confessed, taking Charlie’s hand and holding it tightly. “For a long time, I knew better. I stayed away from Charlie. I let him do his own thing. I... I kept my distance. But Charlie isn’t the same guy he was five years ago. He’s not even the same guy he was eighteen months ago. And I think if you guys paid attention to him at all instead of just writing him off because you think you know everything, you would see the kind of man he’s become. You would see how amazing and capable he is. You would see that I’m not settling for someone who doesn’t deserve me... I’m lucky enough to be with a man who makes me want to be worthy of him.”
Eliza and Will blinked at me. Even Lola looked like she was struggling to understand what I was saying.
“Ada,” Will pleaded. “Please don’t—”
“And please,” I said, cutting him off in a voice just above a whisper, “don’t assume I don’t know my own mind. Or that I’m not perfectly capable of choosing what’s best for my life and the bar. I have never abandoned Craft. No matter how bad it’s been.” I pointed a finger at Will. “And trust me, it hasn’t always been Charlie’s fault. So don’t make assumptions about me or about Charlie or about what I will or will not do based on totally fictional outcomes you’ve made up in your own mind.” I took a settling breath and met each of their sincere gazes. Then I dropped my voice to a whisper again. “I’m happy. Like really, really happy. Happy in a way I genuinely didn’t know was possible. So back off and let Charlie and me figure this out on our own.”
Eliza looked wounded, and Will still looked disoriented. It was a big day for him, though, so he deserved an extra layer of empathy.
“We’ll go,” I told Lola. “I’m so sorry about—”
She laughed. “Oh, you don’t have to explain them to me. I super get it.”
I laughed too, then. “Noted.”
Edison stepped forward and waved goodbye. “Well, I’m personally rooting for you guys,” he said, reminding me so much of Charlie I could only shake my head. “And hey, I don’t know you at all”—he looked at Charlie—“but you sound like a really great guy. Congrats on the, uh, girlfriend.”
“Thanks,” Charlie told him, shaking his hand. “She’s a big deal. I’m a lucky guy.”
“I’ll call you later,” I told Eliza. “Please don’t stay mad at me for this.”
“I’m not mad,” she pouted, sounding mad. “I’m processing.”
“Love you guys,” I told them. “Congrats again.”
“Don’t call me tomorrow,” Charlie warned them. “Unless I’m FaceTiming my niece, I don’t want to hear from you assholes. Listen to Ada and get your shit together.”
Eliza’s face contorted with anger, and she lunged at him. “Oh, that’s real rich, Ch—”
We closed the door behind us before she could whisper him into submission. Not that she could have, but she wasn’t likely to run out of steam anytime soon.
We slunk back outside and stayed quiet all the way home. Not that there was a lot of space to chat on the motorcycle. But the quietness felt more than atmospheric. It was bone deep. Heart deep.
Charlie stayed the night again, although I felt his tug to leave me be. To give me space. But I held his hand as he walked me to my door and tugged him inside.
It was after four in the morning. We were tired. And overstimulated. And there was a lot to process from the night.
But I threw my arms around his waist and held him for a long time. Just like that. Just in my kitchen. Just the two of us.
“The only regret I have is that I didn’t trust you sooner,” I told him, still whispering. “Don’t let your brother and sister get in your head. They don’t know anything.”
His rumble of laughter vibrated through me. “I’m used to their shit. I was worried they’d gotten in your head.”
I shook my head against his chest. “You’re more to me than their opinions.” I looked up at him and smiled. “You’re more to me than anything else I’ve ever known. I don’t know how you did this, Charlie, but it’s not even a conversation for me. I choose you. I want you. For now. And the future. And however long this lasts.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and looked down at me with the same kind of adoration and wonder Will had stared at his baby with. Only obviously, it was a little different because I wasn’t his child. Weird. Moving on.
