“Charlie, call me back,” I say to her voice message for the third time since she left my place yesterday afternoon. “I’m getting worried.”

I waited outside her Poli-Sci class, but she never came out. She’s usually with Tatum afterward, but he’s got a redhead hanging off his arms as he walks out of the building.

He frowns when he sees me. “What do you want?”

“I’m trying to find Charlie. Have you talked to her?”

“Wouldn't tell you if I had. You hurt her. Lucky I don’t give you a beat down.”

The redhead gasps, looking between us. But even as she feigns shock, I see her gaze run down my body appreciatively.

I hold back the eye roll that I want to unleash on both of them.

“Charlie and I are good.”

“If that was the case you wouldn’t be here asking me where she is.”

He has a point. But even though I knew she was upset when she left my place, I thought we had made strides to make things work.

I walk toward Charlie’s dorm, calling her again, and cursing when it goes straight to voicemail.

“I don’t know why you’re ignoring me...” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Okay, I get why you are. But don’t ignore me, Charlie. We can work through this. I...”

I need her. It’s pathetic, but it’s the truth. And yet as I walk down the hall of her dorm toward her room, there’s a pressure on the back of my skull. Maybe it’s a premonition, a knowing. Whatever it is, I hesitate before knocking.

When the door opens, I have a second of hope, before I see it’s Daphne and not Charlie on the other side.

“What do you want?”

I’m getting a little sick of people asking me that. Treating me like I’m the fucking devil himself.

“I need to speak to Charlie.”

“She’s not here.” The blonde crosses her arms and glares daggers at me.

“Do you know when she’ll be back?”

“No.”

More silence, more daggers.

“Look, I know you’re trying to protect her, but I’m worried. She wasn’t in class today, and Charlie doesn’t skip—”

“She’s gone, Spencer.”

“Gone?” My heart sinks. “Gone where?”

She hesitates before sighing and answering, “Home.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter? You need to leave her alone. She’s gone. If she wanted to talk to you, she would have called. That she didn’t, proves she doesn’t want anything to do with you.”

“Please, Daphne, call her and tell her I need to talk.”

Daphne purses her lips. “No way, I’m not letting you stress her out at a time like this.”

I’m so pissed I could punch a wall. Turning, I head for the stairwell. There is no getting through to Daphne.

As I walk toward the landing, I am so consumed with Charlie that I bump into someone. “Shit, I’m sorry,” I say as I knock a bucket of cleaning supplies from the woman’s hand and onto the floor.

“Oh it’s fine,” she says, reaching for the bucket the same time I do. We knock heads.

“Fuck, sorry.” I hand it to her, feeling like I’m on the verge of fucking tears.

“Hey, are you Spencer Beckett?” she asks.

I nod, running a hand over my neck. “Yeah, sorry again.” I start to walk away, but she calls me back.

“You were dating Charlotte, right?”

Were.

No. Are. At least if I have a say in it.

“Yeah.” I turn to her. “You’re friends?”

“Yeah, I’m Jill,” she says, sticking out her hand.

I register the name and remember Charlie telling me it was Jill she traded work shifts with sometimes.

“Have you heard from her today?” I ask.

I almost tell her that she won’t call me back, but I bite my tongue, hoping she’ll unknowingly give me information. Unethical maybe, but what would anyone expect from Spencer Fucking Beckett? I work people, isn’t that how I got this bullshit nickname in the first place?

Jill gives my arm a sympathetic squeeze. “It’s awful, isn't it? To have her mom back in the hospital at Christmas? And today she texted saying she wasn’t coming back next semester. It makes me hate the one percent.” She grimaces after that last line, then gives me an awkward smile. “No offense.”

I raise my hands. “None taken.”

Jill exhales. “But a girl like Charlie shouldn’t have to drop out to help pay her mom’s medical expenses.”

“No,” I say. “She shouldn’t.” My mind is swirling with ideas. I’ve got to get Charlie back here. She shouldn’t carry all this on her own.

But she would say that is exactly what privileged Ivy League royalty would say.

Jill gives me a half-smile. “Well, try and have a good Christmas. Once the campus clears out tomorrow, I’ll be on cleaning duty.” She lifts her buckets and gives me a small wave goodbye.

Jill is going to be cleaning the dorms all winter break. Charlie is going to be keeping vigil at the hospital. And me? My family celebrates Christmas with a decadent brunch with their closest fifty friends and then rings in the New Year in a Manhattan penthouse.

Except maybe not this year.

This year I am finding Charlie Hayes.

Kissing her wasn’t enough. I need to date her, to prove to her I am more than Princeton Charming.

I am her happily-ever-after.

She just doesn’t know it yet.