Page 63 of No Fear

“I care about you, Charlie. I think I always have. Yesterday was beautiful. Amazing. I’ve never felt that way with anyone before.”

She sniffled and he cursed. Damn, he needed to see her. “I’m going to call you back on FaceTime.” Before she had a chance to protest he ended the call and initiated FaceTime. When her face appeared, it was clear she had been crying.

“Babe, please don’t cry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m sorry I left the way I did.”

She shook her head. “I’m not upset about you leaving. I knew you had to. I’m just... a little overwhelmed.”

“By me?” he asked with concern.

“By everything. Donnie, I care about you, too, and I swear I don’t regret it.”

“Good. And I understand. A lot happened this weekend.”

“You can say that again.” She gave him a small smile. “My life has been turned upside down and I need to work out where I go from here. Christ, I don't even have anywhere to live when I get back to New York. Seeing you again. Nate. I need to get my things from Simon’s apartment. It’s just a lot.”

Fuck. He hated she might have to see that asshole and he didn’t trust the fucker. He wanted to be there for her, but he had no idea how long this op was going to take. He could be gone for days or weeks.

“You have stuff at your parent’s place, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then there’s no panic to go to his apartment. Wait. I’ll come with you.” He didn't want her seeing Simon alone, letting him have a chance to beg forgiveness. Donnie also didn't want to tell her what Simon had been up to. In her current state of mind, it would be too much to handle.

“Donnie, you don't have to do that.”

“I want to. Let me do that for you. I can drive you there.”

She didn’t answer and they were both silent for a few seconds before Donnie decided it was time to lighten things up.

“So. On a scale of one to ten, how was I?”

Her face broke into a genuine smile, and he grinned. This was better.

“You know how good you were.” She blushed.

“So a ten?” he teased.

She rolled her eyes. “Eight and a half.”

“What? Tell me right now where I lost marks,” he said with mock horror.

“You left without waking me. That was half a mark.”

Ouch. He had. But Charlie was smiling.

“You only docked me half a point for that? What was the full point for?”

“We didn’t exactly... you know.”

“Ah. I guess that’s a pretty good score then.”

“Well, you did leave a note and everything else was more than satisfactory.”

He raised an eyebrow. “More than satisfactory? That’s all it was?”

Her smile widened. “OK, mister sex god. It was incredible.”

Donnie smiled widely. “That’s more like it.”