For the second time in just five minutes, Cora felt her cheeks get hot.
“I want to explore this with you, Cora.” He reached out and placed his hand on top of hers. “I hope you do, too.”
Is this really happening?she asked herself.
“I do,” she said quietly, avoiding meeting his eyes. “I thought that was pretty obvious.”
Charlie cleared his throat. “But I want to lay it out for you. I’m not one hundred percent ready to end it with Madison. She’s been gone for a month, I can’t dump her the second she gets home.”
Cora narrowed her eyes.Fail.
“So anything that happens between us has to stay quiet for now. I’ll end it with Madison when the time is right, but I can’t do it now, okay?” He smiled winningly at her and placed his hand on her knee.
Cora roused herself so that his hand fell away. “I’m not comfortable with anything happening between us until you guys are broken up.”
His smile disappeared like a dry leaf in a bonfire. “Jesus, Cora, why?!” He sounded angry.
“Because that’s ... what I think is right. Girl code, I guess. Do unto others.” She shrugged her shoulders to suggest nonchalance, but inside she railed against her own honor code because she desperately wanted to taste him again.
Charlie collected himself. “Okay, okay. I get it. So let’s do this: if you get overcome like you did at my house, you have my blessing to jump me. Wait—let’s do one better.” He held up his hand, as if getting ready for testimony. “I swear the next time we kiss, it’ll be because you made the first move. Do you agree to these terms?”
“I agree. Which means there will be no kissing for the foreseeable future.” She paused for a beat. “Do you have a timeline?”
“For what?”
“To let Madison know ... how you’re feeling?”
“Oh, that,” Charlie answered, sounding as if he had already forgotten about the next step. “Um, not really. Her birthday is next month, so it would be uncool of me to do it before then...”
Fail!
Cora snapped. “Listen, I have my own terms, so let’s dothis:rather than sneak around and feel bad about it, let’s say good-bye for now. Once you’ve figured out what you actually want, you can get in touch with me. Okay? That makes more sense to me, since you’re sort of up in the air about it.”
“Are you mad? You sound like you’re mad at me.” He cocked his head and looked at her with sad eyes.
“I’m not mad, I just don’t want to be the other woman.”
Charlie laughed at her. “Oh my God, Cora, never! Something real is happening between us. I care about you. Seriously.” He took both of her hands in his.
“Thank you.”
“That’s all you have to say? ‘Thank you’?”
“For now,” Cora replied coolly. She downed the rest of her drink in a single unladylike gulp. “I should probably head out.”
“Okay, I get it. You’re punishing me. But you do still want to come to the gala, right?”
She paused before answering to try to find the logic in the thoughts tumbling in her head. She had just laid down the law about how things were going to proceed between them but she was about to negate all of her tough-girl talk. “That’s different. We’ll be with a group of your friends, and Madison knows about it. And now we have rules, right?”
Charlie laughed ruefully. “Oh, we have rules, all right. You made that very clear.”
He was playing along like a champ. Cora wondered how long the ruse would last. She reached into her pocket and threw a twenty on the bar. “Drinks here are expensive. My contribution.” It was a final test. Was he a gentleman? Her heart sank when Charlie didn’t hand it back to her.So many fails tonight,Cora thought.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” Charlie asked, bordering on pleading.
“It’s better if I go. We both know that.”
He nodded. “I’ll walk you out.” He turned to the bartender. “Hold my spot, I’ll be back in a minute.”
