Page 21

CHAPTER 21

Charlie

Cami is stunning tonight. I’m not sure why I expected anything less, but it’s a strange feeling when your little sister’s best friend starts to look like a woman you might be interested in. Strange, and also startling, because Cami Slate is not a woman I’m allowed to want.

Back at her apartment, I didn’t properly prepare myself to see her all dressed up. I didn’t think I needed to prepare myself, but it affected me more than I was expecting. Maybe there’s something about the fact that she dressed up for me that made it more special, I’m not sure. What I am sure about, though, is that I need to get through this evening and somehow convince a multitude of media outlets that she and I are madly in love. Little do they know, I was freaking out over chastly placing my hand on her knee in the car.

Then when we arrived at the New York City Ballet, the overwhelming feeling of anger and possession that came over me when that reporter started making nasty comments about her was surprising even to me. My emotions are all over the place tonight. I can tell Cami was shocked by how aggressive I got, but I wasn’t about to let that man make that comment and not have any consequences. I had Greg, our driver, send his information to Sophie and she’s working on getting his credentials stripped. Sophie keeps a list of photographers and media people that she calls for events like this when we want press. I needed to ensure that he would no longer be on it.

As we make our way to our private box, it’s impossible to ignore the many eyes on us. If the commotion outside wasn’t enough, people do tend to recognize me when I’m in public. Especially when I’m dressed up and in the city.

I place my hand on her lower back and feel her warmth through the satin material, willing my hands to calm as they make contact with her. I lead her onto the elevator and another couple, a man and a woman, steps inside with us. We step towards the back corner of the elevator and they settle towards the front. The woman turns and looks over her shoulder at the two of us, then leans over and whispers in her partner’s ear. He then looks back at us before turning fully and giving me a wide smile.

“Hey, man, are you Charlie Cade? New York Rangers?”

I usually hate getting recognized in public, but I paste on a smile. The whole point of all of this is to get the fans to love me and want me to stick around. I wouldn’t be off to a good start if I ignored this perfectly kind stranger in the elevator, no matter how much I would like to.

“That’s me.”

“I knew it, you’re awesome on the ice. Do you mind if we get a picture?”

“Not at all.”

The man hands Cami his phone and she moves towards the front of the elevator car, while the man and woman come and stand on either side of me. I keep my arms clasped in front of me—I know the tricks people pull—and smile for the camera. The elevator dings just as the flash goes off and she hands the phone back to him.

“Thanks for the picture. Enjoy the ballet.”

“You too. Thanks for supporting the team.”

They walk out and head in the opposite direction from us. Cami is looking up at me with wide eyes and I look down at her in confusion.

“What?”

“It’s so crazy to me when people recognize you. Like, you’re just a normal fixture in my life but to these people you’re a celebrity.”

“I’ve always wanted to be described as a ‘normal fixture’ by my fake girlfriend.”

“Oh, come on.” She swats my shoulder. “You know how much you mean to me.”

I continue to lead her to our box, the hand splayed across her back our only point of connection. There are people everywhere and each time we have to squeeze between two groups her body is pressed close to mine. She sucks in a breath each time we make contact, and I try not to press too close, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. Thankfully we make it to our seats rather quickly and we both have some room to breathe.

Our box is a few levels up above the stage and just a few to the left of the center. There are two chairs placed in the center of it, and they look a bit odd just sitting in the large space. This box could accommodate six, but the attendants fit it to however many people are assigned to it for any given show.

While the box is private, it’s open to the space around us, so anyone can see us from where they’re sitting if they are on the same level as us. I don’t know that anyone in here will recognize me from so far away, but I pull Cami’s chair close to mine just in case, and place my arm around her back. My hand grazes her shoulder and I feel awkward with it just hanging there, so I reach up to play with the blonde strands of hair that brush across her collarbone. She shivers.

“So.” She clears her throat. “How much longer do we have before it starts?”

“Um.” I shake my wrist in order to move my jacket sleeve out of the way enough to look at the watch face. “About ten minutes. Do you need anything?”

“Nope. I’m good.” She fidgets with a thread on her dress and it feels awkward. It never felt awkward with her before all of this, and I start wracking my brain for things to say to get us out of this tension.

“Oh,” she says as she reaches into her purse and pulls out her phone. “We need to take a picture and send it to Lan. I know she’ll be sad she isn’t here, but I think she’d be equally as sad if we don’t send her one.”

Cami, Alana, and I usually go to the ballet together every Christmas. It’s a part of our list of traditions we do together, but this year with her gone she encouraged us to still go together. She doesn’t know that the occasion is doubling as our first fake date, but what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.

I do remove my arm from around Cami’s shoulder, so there isn’t any suspicion, and she awkwardly smiles at me. I lean in next to her as she takes the photo, then watch over her shoulder as she sends it in our group chat with my sister.

Cami

We miss you!

Bestie Friend

Noooo I’m sad!!

Cami

Don’t be sad. We aren’t having any fun right Charles?

She looks up at me, then at my jacket pocket, then back at me, and then back at my pocket. Finally, I give in and pull out my phone.

Me

No fun at all. Your friend is a bit of a meanie.

Sis

You take that back right this second.

Cami

You heard her

Me

I will do no such thing.

The lights dim a few moments later, and we both put our phones away and resume our earlier positions. The longer we sit through the ballet, the more comfortable both of our bodies become. She leans her weight into me and I let my hand relax on her shoulder, brushing my knuckles back and forth over her arm. When the lights rise for intermission, it’s like a spell breaks. We both straighten and look around as if we have no idea where we are.

“I think I want a glass of wine,” she says while standing and smoothing down her dress.

“Yeah, a beer sounds good.”

We stand and awkwardly both go for the exit of the box at the same time. She steps behind me as I also step back to let her go ahead, then we both step forward and bump shoulders, before we look at each other and break out in laughter.

“This is—” she says through laughter.

“It’s a lot,” I finish for her through my own chuckle.

“It’s fine, we’re not doing an awful job.”

“Not at all, come on let’s go.” I usher her forward when I pull open the door and she goes out ahead of me, much more graceful than moments before.

We make our way out into the crowd and, as expected, everyone takes this opportunity to grab drinks or a snack. Thankfully, the boxes have their own lines for concessions, but even those are hectic.

“Why don’t you stay here and I’ll get the drinks? That way you don’t have to mess with the crowd.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” I lean forward and brush a kiss over her temple, then turn away and head for the line. I curse under my breath as I do, because that felt all too natural. Much like that kiss I gave her when I left her house the other night. I cannot get used to giving this woman meaningless kisses. I absolutely cannot.

I give myself a pep talk as I wait in the line. I remind myself that this isn’t real. She’s just helping me out and being a good friend and I cannot let the lines get blurry. The more I do that, the more it’ll hurt in the end. The goal is for no one to be hurting when this is all over.

I grab our drinks after about a ten minute wait and turn to head back to Cami. Intermission is only fifteen minutes, so we don’t have much time to get back to the box.

As I approach her, I notice a man standing across from her. He’s speaking and she has something like a smile on her face, but her arms are crossed around her body like she’s giving herself a hug. She looks uncomfortable and annoyed and it doesn’t seem like this guy is taking the hint. I quicken my pace and slide up next to her, holding her wine out in front of her.

“Here you go, sweetheart.” She looks up at me and I immediately see relief in her eyes. I slide a hand around her waist and pull her back to my front, wincing at the way she stiffens before melting into me. We have never been close like this before. “Hey, man, I’m Charlie, her boyfriend. Who are you?”

“Whoa, I’m sorry.” He holds his hands up in surrender. “She didn’t say anything about a boyfriend.”

“Not like you’d listen if I had.”

He looks taken aback at the fact that she would interject. He seems like the kind of guy who would tell his wife to ‘be quiet honey, the men are talking.’ I settle in behind her, offering my silent support.

“It’s not my job to tell you I have a boyfriend within the first five seconds of you speaking to me, but it is your job to take a hint when it’s extremely obvious I don’t want to speak to you.”

“Whatever, bitch,” the man says under his breath as he turns. At that, I decide that while she can absolutely handle this on her own I wouldn’t mind providing some physical reinforcement, but she stops me by placing her hand on my chest and applying a bit of pressure.

“Don’t, he isn’t worth it. Let’s go back up and watch the rest of the ballet. This is too good of a night to let someone like that ruin it.”

“Fine, but for the record I am dying to kick that guy’s ass.”

“I know you are. Down boy.”

She turns and takes my hand, leading me back to our box.