Charlotte didn’t have any alarms set, yet she was still awoken by the obnoxious ring of her cell phone. She was a heavy sleeper, so she usually set multiple alarms. Charlotte didn’t know any better and tried to ignore the call, realizing almost too late that someone was actually trying to reach her. She recognized the number as having a Jersey City area code, so she figured it would be best to pick up right away.
“Hello?” she asked, trying to sound like she just woke up as little as possible.
“Charlotte, good morning. It’s Kelly. I just thought I’d let you know personally that we decided you would be the best to play Cinderella. How does that sound?” Kelly asked. Charlotte almost wasn’t able to answer she was so shocked.
“That, wow that sounds amazing!” Charlotte replied.
“Great, practice starts this week. I’ll text you a schedule, so you don’t have to worry about writing it down. Congratulations, Charlotte, this is really good!” Kelly said.
“Thank you so much!” Charlotte responded, Kelly hanging up.
Charlotte almost fell running down the stairs as she hunted for her grandmother. She imagined how tragic it would be if she were to fall down the stairs and break her leg. She was confident that she would get the part but hearing that it was actually her role just felt so surreal. This would certainly be the biggest role of her life so far, as it was being performed for the public and was also a paid job! Charlotte felt relieved knowing that she would still be getting some income since Angelo had basically quit her job for her.
“Grandma, where are you?” Charlotte yelled, walking around the house more cautiously this time.
“In the kitchen baby! What’s up?” April asked as Charlotte skipped into the kitchen.
“Grandma, I got it! I got the part! I’m going to be Cinderella!” Charlotte exclaimed.
“Oh honey! That’s incredible!” April said as she walked over to her granddaughter, giving her a hug. “What did Angelo say?”
“I haven’t told him!” Charlotte exclaimed.
“You better call him! He’ll be so excited to know!” Charlotte replied.
She called Angelo, only getting his voicemail on the other line. Normally, if she called him, he’d pick up right away. She started to worry that maybe his brothers being there last night had something to do with his radio silence. She couldn’t let her anxieties get the best of her. Still, she hopped upstairs to her bedroom window to see if anything might be going on at his house.
When she peeked over at his house, she saw a few men step out onto the back patio. She had recognized his brothers from the magazine article she read, but the men that stepped out onto the patio were unrecognizable. She didn’t see Angelo, however.
Charlotte started to feel annoyed that he wasn’t there. She called again and texted him but still did not get a response. Charlotte realized she was being a bit too dramatic. He had just set the standard so high that week by always being there. She was feeling a little strange about their date getting cut short but couldn’t get too lost in her thoughts as she was still reeling from getting the lead role. She headed back downstairs and poured herself some coffee.
She sat down next to her grandmother at the kitchen table and grabbed a section of the newspaper. She loved how her grandmother had the newspaper delivered. She didn’t know many people who still did.
Her grandmother asked, “Why aren’t you at work? When’s the last time you went in?”
“Just last night, grandma!” Charlotte explained. Her grandmother had a hard time keeping up with schedules sometimes. “But I won’t be working there anymore.”
“What do you mean? Did you go and get yourself fired? When your mother hears about this, oh I better call her!” April started to ramble.
“No, I didn’t get fired,” she said calmly.
“So, what, you quit?” April asked.
“Kind of. Yes. I quit. They didn’t treat me right, Grandma. And I need to focus on the ballet. I’ll get paid once it’s over!” Charlotte told her. Her grandmother had agreed to let her live there for free, so the only expenses she had was money to save for next year and whatever it cost to go out. Charlotte wasn’t too worried about that though, as she still had some money saved from her high school job.
“Well if you ain’t working, you want to drive me to the mall?” April asked her granddaughter. Charlotte never needed an excuse to go to the mall, but it would be hard knowing she was on a tight budget. Still, it was a reason to get out of the house, so of course she was willing to go. She wanted to spend some time with her grandmother too.
Charlotte did get a little nervous about having to drive to the mall every now and then. It was busier than the one at her New Jersey suburb. She was thankful there was still parking at the Newport Center, however. When they pulled in, Charlotte realized it wasn’t going to be that busy since it was a Tuesday afternoon. They got a good spot and walked into the mall.
Charlotte was always amazed at how much larger everything was in the city. It seemed more important, like there was an extra focus put on the stores at the larger city shopping complex. It was a nice day to do some window shopping anyway, as it wasn’t packed with other loud customers. There were mostly just elderly people doing some light exercise around the mall.
Charlotte looked behind her. She wasn’t sure, but one of the men lingering behind looked like one of the guys that had been at Angelo’s house. He was the same height and weight as the man she had seen at his house, but he looked a little older. Charlotte realized that it was so far away that she wouldn’t have been able to guess his exact age, anyway. He was easily as old as her grandmother and looked Italian like Angelo. He had dark features and was wearing the same black pants and gray shirt as the man she saw earlier that day. Still, she couldn’t be certain that it was him.
She couldn’t tell for sure and didn’t want to overthink anything during her vulnerable state. He looked similar to hundreds of other men she saw every day in New Jersey. Why did she think that this man would be following her around? She worried that maybe someone wanted to have her killed so she wasn’t a distraction to Angelo. Perhaps they didn’t trust her or her intentions and worried that she might be a bad influence on him. It would be a strange situation, as he is the one who’s part of the mob. Still, it was clear that in just a week there, she was taking up a lot of his time and attention.
She got distracted by a cute shirt on sale on the mannequin. Charlotte couldn’t help but admit that she was certainly someone who enjoyed shopping. Still, she had to make sure that she wouldn’t spend any of the money she had worked hard to save up. She couldn’t be sure that Angelo would always be there and wanted to know that she wouldn’t have to depend on any man for financial stability.
Losing her job was unexpected, but certainly something that Charlotte wanted to do. She hated having to go into a job that didn’t pay much and treated her even worse. She decided to walk away from the clothes and just follow her grandmother around. She couldn’t let cute tops distract her. When she looked up, she saw her grandmother talking to the man she thought was following them.
“Leave us alone,” she told the man talking to her grandmother, grabbing her hand and leading her away.
“Charlotte, what are you doing?” April asked. Charlotte grabbed her hand and led her out of the mall. She didn’t want her grandmother getting involved in something that might be related to Angelo’s illegal activity. She knew that when she saw that man talking to her grandmother that he might be there to harm or threaten Charlotte. She felt sure of it.
“Charlotte, that was extremely rude of you!” April said once they got back into the car. Charlotte couldn’t stop checking her review mirror on the journey home. She was looking in her review mirror every second, getting confused about who might be following her. She was becoming paranoid and was feeling discombobulated.
“Charlotte, are you going to talk to me? What did you pull me away from Mr. Lisa for?” April asked.
“What? Who?” Charlotte asked. “That man was dangerous.”
“What are you talking about? He lives on Angelo’s street. He’s just a lonely old man,” April explained.
“You know him?” Charlotte asked.
“Yeah, of course. He’s very friendly, always wanting to chat and hangout. Everyone in the neighborhood knows Mr. Lisa. He’s so charming,” April started to trail off.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought he was someone else,” Charlotte explained. She realized now that he had probably been stopping over to Angelo’s for a visit. She became embarrassed that she was probably overreacting about the whole thing. Angelo still hadn’t answered any of her texts, but that was no reason to start to act a little crazy.
****
Charlotte needed a distraction and someone to talk to besides her grandmother. She was stuck in the house during the day, and now that she didn’t have a job, she was scared she was really going to go stir crazy. She got the schedule from Kelly for rehearsal, and that would certainly take up some of her time, but Charlotte still felt she needed other ways to spend her days. She couldn’t depend on Angelo for all of her entertainment that summer. She thought of one person that she wanted to spend some time with.
“I would probably get fired if he knew we were out together!” Tina laughed over her salad. Charlotte had only been away from the diner for a day, but she still wanted to get a chance to make sure Tina was still a friend. She had invited her out to a local café for lunch before practice. She was the only girl she had to talk to in person who wasn’t related to her. She still texted and called a lot of her friends from school, but it was already getting harder to keep up with them. It was the summer after graduation and things were changing for Charlotte, fast. “You have no idea how much Pablo hates you right now!”
“I can’t say I’m too broken up about that. I’m so relieved to have gotten out. I couldn’t imagine having to work there all summer!” Charlotte said. She realized she was telling that to a girl who was going to be working there all summer. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t, you know, I didn’t mean anything by that.”
“It’s ok, I know what you mean. Things certainly haven’t turned out the way I thought they would,” Tina said. “I sure as hell did not think when I was your age that I would still be working for Pablo. I hated him just as much as you did. But, it was too hard to move away. I wanted to go to New York City too. I guess it’s just easy to fall into a routine, you know?”
“I get what you mean,” Charlotte said, not sure how to respond. She was just thinking about how she hoped she wouldn’t end up like Tina.
“So, how’s your boyfriend? I’m so obsessed with my car, you have no idea,” Tina explained. Charlotte still couldn’t believe that he had given Tina an entire car.
“I don’t know if I would say boyfriend, but, he’s good. I think,” Charlotte replied.
“Uh oh, that doesn’t sound good,” Tina responded.
“It’s just so hard to know how to feel sometimes,” Charlotte explained. “Like, I can’t tell what’s the truth and what’s just my insecurity.”
“Well that’s just being young,” Tina told her. “The older you get, the less you care about the small stuff. You start to learn what’s important and you don’t have to second guess so much anymore. Don’t worry, you’ll grow out of it.”
“Easy for you to say, but what if I don’t? What if I only get worse as I get older. I mean, I’m not totally insecure, it’s just, Angelo’s an intense person. I really like him and don’t want to mess things up,” Charlotte said.
“Look at you! So serious after such a short period of time. You can’t be so paranoid,” Tina explained. “Needy girls are not cute.” Charlotte watched as Tina shoveled a fork full of salad into her mouth. She looked at Charlotte while she chewed.
“I’m not needy!” Charlotte said, annoyed that Tina was being a bit insulting. She suddenly didn’t feel hungry any more.
“You seemed stressed, and why? Because you need some sort of validation from him. Just try to focus on yourself! That’s all I’m saying,” Tina said. Charlotte suddenly regretted bringing her out to lunch.
When Charlotte got home, she looked out her back window like usual, a ritual that had started to form every time she walked into her room. It had been several hours since she texted Angelo, and he still hadn’t responded. She thought about what Tina had said and wondered if she was being a bit needy. She was young, and this was only her second relationship. She still wasn’t fully dependent either. She started to wonder if she actually liked Angelo or if she was just feeling reliant on him.
Then, she remembered his smile. The way he could make her laugh and how good it felt when they touched. She knew that she was feeling something for Angelo. Maybe that’s why it was so hard to picture if things didn’t work out for them. It made her sick to think that he might be losing interest.
Charlotte didn’t like to feel needy. Tina was right, it wasn’t an attractive quality. Still, Charlotte couldn’t help but have anxiety over what would happen between the two. Adding that on top of her nerves about the upcoming recital was really making Charlotte a wreck. She wasn’t normally like this. She was a perfectionist, so anxiety wasn’t an unfamiliar state of mind. Still, it had been a while since she felt this messy over something! Was it because she was falling in love? She didn’t even want to eat.
There was a knot in Charlotte’s stomach that would just not go away. She just wanted to see her phone light up with his text. She just wanted to know that he was still there. Charlotte was starting to get worried about how much she was having an issue with their status. This was not healthy.
She had to get ready for practice. It would give her something to focus on. Charlotte had to remember that she was valuable on her own and didn’t need to rely on a man for her happiness. She was still drawn to Angelo, but it was time to push that to the back of her mind and head to practice.
It was lonely walking to practice. The day was cloudy and reflected Charlotte’s emotions. She should have been happy after their amazing date on his own yacht. Still, seeing his brothers there so angrily really put a wedge in her nerves. It just reminded her of the truth of their situation. She was young, he was dangerous. It just didn’t seem like it would work out between the two, but Charlotte wanted that more than anything. Charlotte hoped that practice would cheer her up but stepping into the theater only made her stomach twist further.
Charlotte stumbled a lot during the first rehearsal. Perhaps her getting the lead role was going straight to her head. She worried about her performance. What had happened to her drive since the audition? Was she letting her insecurities about Angelo get to her that bad? She couldn’t find the energy to perform at her best and she wasn’t memorizing the moves easily. She started to feel overwhelmed and wondered if she wasn’t ready for this responsibility. Did she push herself too hard? Was she at her breaking point?
Kelly didn’t make things easy for her. Charlotte was suddenly realizing she wasn’t in high school anymore. Kelly wasn’t afraid to lay into her and criticize every last move. She was being a good coach, but Charlotte was certainly used to more sympathetic instructors who weren’t as critical with their teachings. Kelly was laying into everybody, but especially Charlotte. She thought she was going to pass out and wondered how she was going to make it through the rehearsal. Her chest was getting tight, and it was getting harder to breathe.
Her muscles felt tight, and her stomach wouldn’t settle down. She knew she had to run to the bathroom. As soon as Charlotte made it to a toilet, she threw everything up. She had barely eaten that day, only picking at a salad during her lunch with Tina. Still, it felt like everything inside of Charlotte’s body was coming up. She just wanted to be at home and in her bed. Charlotte was loving everything that had happened since her summer started, but the bad parts were a little too much for her to handle. She wiped the vomit from her mouth and did her best to recollect before heading back to the stage. As soon as she opened the door, Kelly was standing there.
“I’m calling practice today. I think everyone needs to go home and think about if they’re really in this or not,” Kelly told her.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me today,” Charlotte told her. The energy was low from everyone, but Charlotte was only making it worse.
“Did I make a mistake in casting you?” Kelly asked. Charlotte’s heart dropped. That was the last thing she wanted to hear.
“No. No I promise you,” Charlotte told her. “I won’t let you down again.”
Kelly just looked at her and walked away. Charlotte felt like she was going to throw up again and ran into the bathroom. It was just a false alarm. She walked to the sink and splashed her face with cold water. She let her hands fill up with water and took a long sip. She looked in the mirror. Charlotte wasn’t liking what she saw. Everything felt different and strange. She didn’t feel right.
Charlotte hoped that he would be there waiting for her when she left practice. She had checked her phone, but he still hadn’t responded. She didn’t want to have to walk home alone again. Practice was bad enough that day. She would have to get back into the mind set of working hard. It was a good first week of summer, but she had to get more serious now. She couldn’t let high school insecurities get in the way of important opportunities for her future. She collected her things and headed out of the door.
If Charlotte’s heart dropped any further, she was sure it would have fallen right out of her body. There wasn’t anyone waiting for her. Instead, she had to walk home alone again. Charlotte wasn’t so sure she would be able to do that all summer. She had rehearsal three times a week for two months, so walking home alone every time wouldn’t be ideal. Charlotte still had to remind herself that it could be a possibility, and that she would have to be OK with that.
She felt scared again. Every time she saw someone walking across the street, she thought they might be staring at her. What had gotten into her to make her so paranoid? Charlotte needed to get herself together quick. Perhaps living in the city and having to walk home alone at night would make her more independent. Walking around in New York City alone would surely be worse. One of her friends had stated that if you hadn’t gotten mugged, you weren’t a true city-person. That had happened to Charlotte, but luckily, she had Angelo to help her.
She didn’t want to feel so defenseless. She thought back on the night that she was attacked. She wondered what happened to that man. Charlotte hoped that Angelo had done something to make sure he never hurt another girl again. Did Angelo stop all women from being attacked, or was it just something special about Charlotte?
She wondered if he was a womanizer and had just been playing Charlotte. He certainly could have done that. After being able to wrangle up the dinner cruise for Charlotte, she was sure he was capable of anything. How many times had he done that for other women? Was he still doing that for other girls?
People had seen them together around town. It wasn’t a secret anymore that they were into each other. Charlotte had tried to deny it at first, but there was no stopping their attraction. She hadn’t heard any other rumors about Angelo and other girls, but who would really tell Charlotte anyway? Despite all of these thoughts, Charlotte felt deep down that Angelo wasn’t really capable of hurting her like that. He was so genuine when they talked. She could feel connected to him emotionally just with a physical touch. Things felt magnetic, and right. Charlotte needed to just stop all of those thoughts from flowing through her brain. It was everyone else talking, not Charlotte.
At least her grandmother would be waiting for her once she got home. Charlotte wondered what it would be like to live alone, and if she could handle returning to an empty house. although her grandmother was pretty strict, it was still nice to be around her so often. She reminded Charlotte of her mother. They had the same smile and eyes, the most comforting parts of their personality.
At the very least, Charlotte was feeling blessed that she had this time to spend with her grandmother. It was meant to be a punishment, and her grandmother even knew that. Still, Charlotte didn’t want to miss an opportunity to get closer to the matriarch of her mother’s side of the family.
“Was practice good sweetie?” April asked.
“No, actually. Kelly wasn’t very pleased with me and I just wasn’t doing my best. There’s nothing else I can really say about it,” Charlotte responded.
“Oh honey, I’m sorry. I’m sure it was just first day shivers,” April said.
“Yeah maybe,” Charlotte responded. She thought about Angelo and how if they had just been able to talk for a moment that day, she would have felt so much better. She didn’t like knowing that either. He wasn’t supposed to just be someone to make her feel better.
“At least you know that if today was your worst, you could only do better, right?” April asked.
“I guess so,” Charlotte said, laughing. “It was just a weird day.”
“Oh, you might feel better knowing this! I went for a walk earlier and saw Mr. Lisa,” April said. “I told him you mistook him for someone else and that you didn’t mean any harm. He thought it was funny!”
“Well that’s good at least,” Charlotte said relieved. She had forgotten about the whole thing but was glad to know that he didn’t think she was a monster any more. “I think I’m just going to shower and head to bed now.”
“OK, sweetie. Don’t be too hard on yourself! Don’t say anything to yourself you wouldn’t say to a friend!” April said, trying to be helpful.
“Thanks, grandma,” Charlotte said, laughing.
Charlotte was looking forward to her cry in the shower. She was going through a lot. Adulthood was hitting her hard and fast. She had to be responsible for her own problems now. She couldn’t rely on other people forever. Still, she knew that her attraction for Angelo was more than just dependency. She just wanted to crawl into his chest the rest of the night.
She blasted the shower all the way to hot and let it hit her sore muscles for a while. She knew she only had so long before it would turn cold, so she rubbed down her body with soap as fast as she could. She stayed with her back turned to the showerhead until it started to get cold. She slipped out and pranced back over to her room.
She didn’t want to look out her window, but it’s not like she just couldn’t. She peered through the curtains and didn’t see anything. Even though that didn’t make her feel better, she wasn’t sure what she could have seen that would have been any better. As long as he wasn’t having a huge house party that he didn’t invite her to, there wasn’t anything that she could really be mad about.
She wanted him to be looking out his window. She wanted to go back to before his brothers were there. Everything seemed perfect then. Something about them just gave her a bad feeling. She knew they were family, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t trouble.
Her heart was gone. She was feeling lonely and defeated. How could she have been feeling like she was flying just last night? Just as quickly as things turned magical for her, they turned sour again. She just wanted Angelo back in her arms, feeling his heart beat against hers. Knowing how bad it hurt when he wasn’t around was a sign that Charlotte was falling for him.
He would have known what to say to make her laugh and cheer her up. if they could have celebrated together in the first place, she might not have even had a bad practice. She decided it was best to stop looking out the window and try to sleep the day off. Tuesdays were never good anyway.
She turned around and there he stood there, looking right at her. He had a black eye and a bandage wrapped around his knuckles. He was holding his side like he was in pain.
“Charlotte,” he said, walking towards her. He grabbed her face and kissed her hard.
“Angelo!” she said, tearing up at the site of his wounds. They kissed for a moment longer. She felt terrible that he was hurt. Then she remembered how he had told her he was going to put his criminal activity on the back burner for her. She remembered the gun he had brought over and everything he did to make her nervous to be with him.
“Where have you been?” she asked angrily.
“It’s been a challenging day,” he explained.
“Yeah, it has been,” she said with an attitude. She could only feel sorry for him for so long. Maybe he deserved to have those bruises. Charlotte didn’t want to be too harsh, but she didn’t want to go easy on him anyways.
“My brothers. They haven’t been very happy with me,” he told Charlotte. “They decided to remind me what might happen if I decide to leave.”
“Your brothers did this to you?” Charlotte asked, mortified. “Angelo, I’m so sorry.”
“They took my phone too. They sent people to watch my house, but they finally left. I’m so sorry, Charlotte,” he told her. She felt terrible. She had been overreacting the entire day when in reality, she should have been supporting him after he was brutally attacked by his brothers.
“So, what now?” Charlotte asked.
“We talked. Everything’s fine,” Angelo responded with a fake smile. Charlotte could tell he was lying, but his response showed that he didn’t want to talk about it. “I’m sorry if I made you feel abandoned.”
“I’m the one who abandoned you,” she told him. “Don’t feel like you need to protect me all the time. I don’t want to depend on you.”
“I can’t stop that feeling. I’ll always look out for you, Charlotte,” he told her.
They kissed softly, Charlotte worried that she might hurt him if they went too far. She grabbed his sides and led him gently to the bed. She laid down, pulling him over top of her.
He slid off his pants, pushing them under the bed with his foot. Charlotte didn’t see that his gun was in his back pocket. She also hadn’t seen how Angelo and his brother’s “talk” had really gone. They attacked him, hoping that the beating would remind him how much worse things could be if he left and they caught him.
Angelo had received worse, but it was never easy getting that treatment from a family member. Sebastian had punched his eye and Francesco kicked him once he fell. Angelo had agreed that he wouldn’t let them down anymore. It wasn’t what he wanted to do, but he needed to in order to protect Charlotte. He couldn’t walk away even though that was the only thing he wanted to do.
Charlotte felt guilty. She didn’t want to make Angelo feel bad. She knew that he had so few options. If Angelo hadn’t been raised the way he was, he would be a different person. Charlotte needed to remember this when she was being so judgmental about his lifestyle.
She felt so insecure sometimes, and having someone to lean on, who she knew she could count on, made it a little easier to know that everything was going to be OK. Her parents had put so much pressure on her as a child that she created that high standard for herself. This started to reflect itself in her relationships. If someone walked away from her or chose not to be with her, she saw that as a great flaw in herself. She took it personally and imagined that she needed to change to be a better person. Charlotte realized that she needed to work on that.
With Angelo, it was better. He never made her feel insecure. Instead of breaking her down, he would only build her up. She realized that she would be the worst enemy to the relationship. Those doubtful thoughts made her self-destruct too often. If she couldn’t complete something in the first place, then there wouldn’t be the chance for failure later on, after her hopes had been built.
When she kissed Angelo, those thoughts were gone. He leaned over Charlotte on the bed and she peeled her towel back, revealing her wet and dewy body. Angel started to kiss her skin, still smelling clean like the soap she had rubbed all over her smooth body. He kissed her legs, slowly inching closer to her vagina. He spread her lips with his fingers, slipping one in while he kissed her clitoris. He spent some time there until she was pouring wet. He ran his fingers up her side and kissed her neck.
She grabbed his side hard, causing him to let out a howl.
“I’m so sorry!” she said, getting too lost in the moment to realize she had dug her fingers into his bruised side.
“It’s ok, I just need to lay down,” he said, falling onto the bed. She started to kiss lightly where he was wounded, slowly working her way down to treat him just the way he had for her. She slipped off his underwear. He wasn’t as hard as he had been the other few times when they got to this part, but Charlotte just saw that as a challenge.
She slipped his entire penis into her mouth, feeling the head hit the back of her throat. She worked this area for a while, running her free hands up and down his legs and around to his butt, pushing him even deeper inside Charlotte’s mouth.
He yelled out again, this time in pleasure. She lifted her head up and put a finger to her mouth, reminding him that he needed to be quiet. She took him all back inside her mouth, him doing a better job to hide his pleasure. Charlotte realized she would have to stop if she wanted to experience any of him that night.
She crawled on top and slid Angelo’s hard penis deep into her body. She lightly bobbed up and down, careful to not put any pressure on his side. She was being as gentle as possible, and surprisingly, this made it even harder for her to last.
“Oh, Charlotte, I’m not going to make it,” he told her as she slid up and down. Normally, she would have slowed down even more to make sure that they both came together, but that only made things feel even better for Charlotte. She just stopped altogether, sitting on his lap with him entirely inside Charlotte. They sat their frozen for a moment, every movement, no matter how small, electrifying her body.
She lifted herself up and down onto him and he moved his fingers to her breasts. She placed her hands over his and bounced up and down, faster with every stroke. They both got closer and closer to orgasming, Angelo being the first to drop. She felt his warm semen fill her up as she came as well. She grabbed the towel she had used to shower with, still sitting on the bed. She wiped Angelo and herself off before throwing the towel on the ground and falling next to him.
“Did I hurt you?” she asked sweetly. It was clear they both had a good time, but she still wanted to make sure she hadn’t made his injuries any worse.
“Not at all,” he told her reassuringly.
“I forgot to tell you, I got the part,” she told him cheerily.
“Are you serious? I knew you would, I knew it. You’re so amazing!” he said, leaning in and kissing her. “Charlie, I’m so proud of you! You have no idea!”
She kissed him again, lingering for a bit to soak up every last second of his kiss. She grabbed his hand, remembering that it was bandaged.
“What happened to your hand?” she asked.
“Well, I might have punched a wall,” he replied. “I know it was stupid, but I was feeling pretty angry after my brothers left,” he told her.
“Well, I mean, rightfully so. That’s awful what they did to you. Are they going to be upset if they know we’re seeing each other?” Charlotte asked.
“No. Don’t you worry about a thing. I learned my wall-punching lesson,” Angelo responded. He didn’t normally have a temper but knowing that his brothers had so much control over him made him unmanageably angry. They hadn’t mentioned Charlotte, and Angelo knew they wouldn’t care as long as he kept doing what they asked. Angelo had thought is own brothers would let them out, but he knew that wasn’t going to be as easy as he hoped.
Charlotte leaned up and kissed Angelo’s hand, sliding down to give his side another gentle kiss before turning over. He followed her, wrapping his arms around her once again. This was quickly becoming their favorite cuddle position. Charlotte just loved being held by him more than anything. There was something so comforting about being wrapped in his arms.
She was wary about being too dependent but knew that she didn’t have to worry about that. He made it fairly clear that he was always going to be there. She just worried that his brothers might get in the way. She was more worried about what her brain might do to their relationship. It wasn’t going to be an easy summer, but Charlotte was going to fight for him, for them. Charlotte didn’t know how to accept failure, so she decided that it just wouldn’t be an option at all.
She couldn’t let their love fail. It was the only thing that had made sense to her in a while. There was no way she was going to let it slip out of her hands. Nothing felt better than being right next to Angelo, hearing him breathe and feeling his heart beat. His warmth was the energy that kept her going. She feared she might freeze to death without his body next to hers. No matter what happened that summer, she knew that falling in love with Angelo was going to be the best part.