“Whoa. You okay?” Derek’s hands shot up to her shoulders to keep her steady. “You don’t look so good. Here, sit down.”
“Caleb was right,” she mumbled, more to herself than to him. “I am an idiot. This whole time, I thought...”
“Jesus, sweetheart. You’re shakin’ like a leaf.” He started running his hands up and down her bare arms. “It was just a misunderstanding, Charlie.”
Continuing to stare mindlessly out at the water, Charlie felt like her soul was being torn apart from the inside out.
“Seriously, Charlie. Snap the fuck out of it. You’re starting to scare me.”
“I screwed up,” she said woodenly. “I screwed everything up.”
“It’s okay. It was a simple mistake, that’s all. Anyone else probably would’ve thought the same thing if they’d seen Kim and I like that.”
“No.” She shook her head, the first tear escaping. “Y-you don’t understand.”
“Then, explain it to me. Please.”
With tears now free-falling down her face, Charlie slid her gaze to his. With gut-wrenching regret, she told him the rest.
“After I saw you through the window, I drove off.”
“Where’d you go?”
“You were there, with her, and I didn’t...” She licked her dry lips. “I didn’t want to go home to an empty house. So, I just drove. I was crying and upset, and I wasn’t paying attention to the road. I took a curb too fast and lost control of the car.”
Derek cursed under his breath.
“Thankfully, I got it back, but not before I went off the shoulder and into some mud. I ended up getting the car stuck.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
She laughed humorlessly. “And say what? That I’d lied to you about why I couldn’t make it to dinner? I was in love with you back then, Derek. Had been for forever. I was planning to tell you after dinner that night, but then...” Charlie looked away, swiping at her tears. “I already felt humiliated enough. I wasn’t about to call and ask you to come get me unstuck.”
“You realize, if you had, we could’ve straightened this whole mess out right then, not eleven years later.”
“I know.” More tears fell, and she fought the urge to completely fall apart. “Trust me, no one understands that better than I do.”
Sensing there was more to her story, Derek asked, “What happened after that, Charlie?”
She sniffed. “I got out to see if I could get myself unstuck. Of course, I couldn’t. I was still standing there, hating the thought of calling my dad and asking him to leave work to come help me. Then, this car pulled up behind mine.” She smiled sadly. “At first, I thought it was you, but then I saw his face.”
“Who was it, Charlie?”
She swallowed hard. “Caleb.” Charlie met Derek’s tortured stare and whispered. “That was the night I met my husband.”
****
