Page 59 of About That Pact

“Where are you?” Charlotte asked Rachel.

“I had a work convention this weekend in Florida. Don’t try to distract me. Why would you even consider not going to Vegas?”

“Wait, don’t start without me!” Jada yelped as she ran back into the room with bags of food.

“I don’t want to see him.” Charlotte was proud of how stern she sounded. It had only taken her all week.

Jada popped a fry into her mouth. “How about you answer a different question. What do you want? Is your goal to never see Rafe again?”

There was silence, even from Rachel’s end.

Charlotte took a bite of her burger, hoping the lack of conversation would make one of them start talking to fill the void. That didn’t happen.

“I miss him,” she confessed.

Jada nodded, and Rachel said, “I’d miss him too. That man is hot.”

“That’s not it. I mean, of course I miss the sex, it was the best sex of my life, but I miss more than that. Like our conversations, the way we just get each other. He isn’t afraid to push me out of my comfort zone. It’s like he completely understands me and accepts it. He doesn’t freak out at my neurotic need to schedule everything. And with my work obsession, he suggests other things for me to do so I have a life outside the office. It’s why I have so many hobbies now.”

“Hobbies?” Rachel sounded confused.

“Let her talk through it,” Jada shushed Rachel.

Charlotte stared at her milkshake. “It’s like Rafe wants me to be happy and did what he could so he can be part of the equation.”

“Jada, I think you need to ask her the question she always asks us,” Rachel suggested.

Jada stared Charlotte down. “Look, five years in the future, what do you see?”

Charlotte groaned. “I can’t believe that’s the question I ask you guys.”

“A lot,” Rachel added.

She didn’t need to think about what she saw in her future. It was Rafe.

It had always been Rafe.

“You know what you need to do,” Rachel said her piece and hung up.

Jada grabbed her stuff and headed to the door to leave. “Go get him.”

IT TOOK AN hour after Jada left before she finally got the nerve to call him. It had taken that long for her to go through every possible outcome of her talking to him. Finally letting go of the fear he was going to tell her he hated her, she took a deep breath and called.

“You okay?” Rafe gruffed into the phone when he answered.

Okay. It was promising he answered. It showed how he still cared about her. All of this was good.

“Uh…yeah. I’m okay,” she fumbled. Not her most confident response, but hearing his voice made her heart race.

Silence stretched between them. The little hope of him caring slowly disappeared as neither of them spoke. Not that it was his fault. She had called him, so she should be the one to say something. It was just that she was now circling back to all the negative outcomes of her calling. Nervousness was taking over.

“Did you need something?” The humor that always shined in his voice was gone. It was like she was more of a headache to him. There had to be a way to fix this, what they had.

“Kind of,” she said. “I was thinking maybe we could hang out.”

“What?” He didn’t sound amused.

It wasn’t like she could take the words back.