At that, Charlotte tenses up. She purses her lips and tries to look casual, but under Lou’s prying eyes she knows she’s too late to hide her reaction. With a sigh, she drops her head. She had already been on the brink of tears before she sat down, but hearing Riley’s name now makes it worse. Trying to shield her emotion from Lou, she dips her head lower and covers her face with her shoulder. She appreciates Lou not making any attempt to physically touch her for comfort.
When Lou doesn’t say anything, Charlotte peeks up at her. She then realizes that Lou hasn't looked away, so she quickly averts her gaze again.
“You look like you’re about to say ‘oh honey,’ and I do not like it,” Charlotte says, the sound muffled against her arm.
“Oh, honey,” Lou sighs right on cue, making the both of them smile weakly. “I don’t know, you tell me. Is this an ‘oh, honey’ kind of situation?”
“More like an ‘oh, I shouldn’t have mentioned her, here’s a drink’ kind of situation.”
“Yeah…” Lou drawls, and her feet shuffle in the sand. “She can be an intense woman to be the first to fall in love with,” she eventually continues, almost inaudibly.
Charlotte sharply whips her head up, the embarrassment of her watery eyes immediately forgotten.
“What?!”
Lou meets her gaze head on—her expression challenging, but not antagonizing. It’s more like an invitation to be honest.
When Lou doesn’t say anything, Charlotte snaps: “Care to explain?”
Lou smiles knowingly, and does break eye contact this time. Staring at the horizon, she calmly says: “I don’t think I need to. I’m not blind, Charlotte, nor am I an idiot.”
“Then I must be the idiot, because I have no idea what you’re—”
“Are you going to keep this up for another hour, or can you put your big girl pants on for me so we can skip this whole spiel?”
Charlotte opens and closes her mouth, unintentionally mimicking a fish. Between her and Gabi, Lou has always been the softer person. The good cop. So witnessing her break character and use tough love on her, is throwing Charlotte off guard.
“Gabi has rubbed off on you,” she points out.
“I’m sorry Charlotte. But someone has to help you with this, because whatever’s going on between you and Riley almost set the hotel on fire and I would still like to get married here,” Lou says, her words still harsh but her voice friendlier this time.
“So why don’tyoutalk to her?” Charlotte deflects swiftly, but Lou doesn’t let up.
“Oh, I am going to. And she will be quaking in her flip flops when I’m done with her. You, unfortunately, peeled yourself off of her first, so here we are.”
Charlotte grumbles low in her throat. She doesn’t like how cornered she feels, right by the vast ocean. After a few seconds of silence, she reluctantly asks: “Does Gabi know?”
Lou laughs. “Does Gabi know?” she repeats, and laughs again, louder this time. “Gabi has been bugging me about the 20 bucks I owe her for weeks. Months.”
“Months? What the hell did you bet on?” Charlotte wants to know, half offended and half intrigued.
“On you and Riley having feelings for each other.”
Charlotte lets out a dismissive, disgusted sound, a little too loudly to be taken seriously. “Even if that were true, which it isn’t… How could you even prove that?”
“Because,” a loud voice behind them says. “Gabi is also not blind, not an idiot, and unfortunately, most certainly not deaf.”
Lou and Charlotte quickly turn around, both surprised to see Gabi herself leaning against a rock, taking them in from a distance, her demeanor more determined than Lou’s. The moment they notice her, she pads closer.
“And I’m going to be honest. Going off of the sound, it makesmewonder what Riley is capable of in bed. Lou just won’t agree to putting her on my hall pass.”
Shit.
It’s clearly meant to be a joke, but neither Lou nor Charlotte laugh due to Gabi’s intense energy. She walks up to them and hikes up her dress to sit down next to Charlotte on the other side.
Gabi and Lou look at her expectantly, waiting for a mortified Charlotte to say something.
“So if you’re here,” Charlotte croaks, looking at Lou. “And you’re here now too,” a nod to Gabi. “Then whose dinner party is everyone attending?”
