Those words reassured her. He was right, she told herself. Now that she was here, she couldn’t ruin the next month by second-guessing her decision to come. What she needed was a hot shower and a nap so she’d feel human again.
How long before Charlotte & Julian arrive?
She checked her watch.
An hour and fifteen minutes.
Have you eaten anything?
Only what they served on the plane. I’ve been holding off because I thought it’d be fun to try pizza in Naples after everyone gets in. Did you know that Naples is the birthplace of pizza?
I didn’t, but that means you have to try it. Want me to find you a place?
If you’re sure you can’t sleep.
He was the planner, could find anything on the internet in half the time it took her.
Gino e Toto Sorbillo has a lot of great reviews. It’s sixteen minutes by taxi, but I’m sure the airport will have some lockers where you can stash the luggage until you come back to catch the train.
I’ll see if I can talk Charlotte and Jules into it.
They really should try the pizza while they had the chance. She didn’t know if they’d be able to get back to Naples before they had to fly home.
Thanks for looking after me.
Always. Let me know if you need anything else. ;)
She smiled at his response. He took care of her and was always so kind and generous about it. How could she ever let a guy like him go?
She couldn’t. But if she wasn’t going to have the children he wanted, shouldn’t she let him build a family with someone else?
chapter 9
Charlotte hadn’t seen Sloane since Christmas of the year before. Julian had been in the Netherlands on an important shoot—an assignment commissioned by a magazine or TV network—when Sloane and Ben had come for the holidays. Charlotte had tried to spend time with her that week, but they’d barely seen each other. It’d been strained and awkward even when they did get together, setting the foundation for their falling-out that March over a potential girls’ trip.
That Christmas, Sloane had invited Charlotte and Cliff to the neighborhood party her mother was putting on, but Cliff wouldn’t go. In his defense, he’d played two basketball games that week. In the last one he’d been fouled hard and knocked to the deck, which had left him scraped and bruised. Yet he’d managed to attend all his friends’ Christmas parties that season. He just hadn’t been interested in what he considered a long evening spent tolerating people who were only eager to talk to him because he was a professional athlete. He said they’d pester him for signed jerseys or sneakers or Lakers tickets.
Charlotte had never believed those at the party would ask for anything. But she’d known they’d be eager to get to knowhim, which meant he’d have to be “on” all night, smiling, talking and laughing with strangers he didn’t care to know in the first place. He found that unpleasant and taxing, so she hadn’t pushed him too hard. Instead, she’d told him she’d go on her own and make up an excuse for him. He’d said that would be fine, but then he’d called her only an hour after she arrived, complaining of a headache and asking her to go the drugstore and bring him some ibuprofen.
He could’ve had it delivered. He knew she was trying to spend time with old friends. But he always turned to her to make him feel better, no matter what was wrong. He’d just wanted her to be with him. It was one of those rare nights when he didn’t have anyone else to entertain him, and he hated to be alone.
Or it was possible, she supposed, that Sloane’s interpretation was the correct one, and he’d wanted to force her to choose between them.
To make up for it, she’d asked Sloane to lunch the next day, but then Cliff said he’d already invited her to play tennis with him and his friends. He loved that she was a good player—she’d spent a lot of time at the club while her mother was coaching—and enjoyed having her help him win. They could beat almost any other couple, and he found that especially fun if they were playing his teammates.
In an effort to try to please everyone, she’d invited Sloane to join them at the club instead, and she’d agreed. But once Sloane arrived, Cliff had completely ignored her. Charlotte had once again felt torn between them as she struggled to make up for how Cliff was behaving.
Sloane had ended up leaving the club early, and later that night they’d had a heated phone call about Cliff, part of which he’d overheard. He’d said her best friend had no right to talk shit about him, and yet Charlotte could see that Sloane had a point. It wasn’t what Cliff had said or done. It was what hehadn’tdone. But sins of omission were more difficult to hold him accountable for because he refused to understand why anyone would have a problem with him.
“She’s just trying to make trouble,” he’d said, over and over again.
At least she wouldn’t have to face that anymore, Charlotte told herself as she spotted Sloane waiting for her and Julian beyond customs.
As soon as Sloane spotted them in the crowd, she hurried toward them. “There you are!”
“I’m sorry about the girls’ trip, how Cliff behaved at the tennis club at Christmas, what he did when I was at your mother’s party and... all of it,” Charlotte said as they embraced.
“Forget it,” Sloane responded. “He demanded far more than he should have from you.”
