Page 36 of Charlie Sunshine (Close Proximity #2)

FOURTEEN

CHARLIE

The late afternoon sun is fading to a delicate twilight as Misha and I round the corner and spot our group waiting by the fountain as arranged. They’re dressed like us in jeans, coats, and sky-blue T-shirts emblazoned with the name of the epilepsy charity that we’re supporting tonight.

“Alright?” I call out, and they turn to grin at me. Not all of them are smiling, actually. As we get closer, I see Felix is shooting glares at his ex-boyfriend who is standing next to Zeb.

“Oh my God,” I breathe. “Did you ask Max to the charity walk?”

Misha shrugs a bit too casually. “I told Zeb it would be alright. I didn’t realise Felix was coming too.”

I look at him sceptically. “ Really ?” I ask.

He huffs indignantly. “How is it that you don’t believe me, Charlie? That’s hurtful.” I stare some more, and he breaks. “Okay, Zeb and I arranged it to see if we can get them to talk.” He looks at me. “Did I even sound remotely truthful about Felix?”

I see-saw my hands. “Not to someone who knows you.” I pause. “You know, people like your cousin, Felix. ”

“Great,” he groans. “He’s going to kill me and knowing him, it will be slow and exceedingly painful.”

“Felix is lovely. He wouldn’t do that.”

He looks at me in consternation. “Have you actually met him?”

I bite my lip. “Okay, he would do that.” I cheer up. “At least he isn’t going to be cross with me. I’m going to try to move away from you so he doesn’t think I was involved in the plot. I hope that’s okay.”

A smile flits across his full lips. “Thank you so much, Charlie. I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate your support.”

“We are a full-service organisation,” I intone.

“I know,” he says, his eyes darkening.

We’re both thinking back to when I’d blown him earlier, kneeling in the hallway and taking him into my mouth as soon as he came in from work.

I shake my head reprovingly, and he smiles, the white of his teeth gleaming.

We reach the group, and Jesse grins at us. “Alright, people? What’s in the bag, Charlie? Is it alcohol?”

I give him an exasperated look. “No. The last thing we need on a charity walk is to be drunk.”

“Really?” His vivid face is alive with laughter. “I’d think it would be a requirement. Like having an ambulance on standby for when we collapse with exhaustion.”

“It’s a slow walk through London, not a marathon through the Sahara Desert,” Zeb says, shooting a wary glance at Felix and Max who are hissing something at each other.

Jesse follows his gaze and sighs. “Zeb. When you decide to meddle in other people’s affairs, you really should be fully prepared for everything that comes your way.”

“ Everything ?” Zeb asks, giving the two men another uneasy look.

Jesse shrugs. “Everything. This is Felix we’re talking about. You should really start to cultivate a sense of self-preservation, lover. Especially at your advanced age.” He laughs as Zeb glares at him. He reaches up for a kiss which the older man willingly supplies.

I smile at the two of them. I’d been sceptical when they got together.

Zeb is gorgeous, but in addition to being his boss, he’s older than Jesse and seemed extremely set in his ways.

However, Jesse’s natural charming exuberance had worked its spell, and the two have been inseparable since they got together.

They look very right together, like two jigsaw puzzle pieces that have snapped into place.

I open my carrier bag and pull out the glow sticks I’d packed. “Thought we could wear these,” I say cheerfully.

Misha groans. “Can I just register my displeasure with this idea? It’s bad enough that we have to walk through London when there are a multitude of taxis that could drive us wherever we want to go, and now we have to do it looking like a relic from a rave in the nineties.”

“You can certainly register that thought as long as you’re aware that I’m going to completely ignore it like the rest of your whingeing.” I smile widely at him. “Get your glow on, Misha.”

He laughs, grabbing a stick and giving my hand a squeeze before wrapping the stick around his wrist where it glows in vivid colour in the darkening night.

He pulls me close. “I’m doing this for you and I hope it’s suitably appreciated later,” he says in a low voice, and I swallow hard before smirking at him.

“I will be so appreciative that I’ll be struggling to walk tomorrow,” I whisper and his eyes flame.

“Promises, promises.”

I step away to offer the rest of the sticks to the group, only to find them silently staring at us, including Max and Felix, who have abandoned their fight.

“What?” I say nervously.

Jesse folds his arms over his chest. “Don’t ‘what’ me, Charlie Burroughs. For shame. What’s going on between the two of you?”

“Erm,” I falter, looking at Misha. We haven’t made a contingency plan for this. We haven’t said it’s secret, but we equally haven’t been racing to tell everyone.

He gives me a long look, and I can’t decipher his expression, but then he turns to the men.

“Charlie and I are together,” he says simply.

“I would request that you keep the piss-taking to a minimum, but the intense realism that’s a major part of my personality tells me that you load of twats won’t be able to comply with that. ”

“Not at all,” Jesse says mournfully. He shakes his head. “I’m just not very good with any form of authority.”

“A fact that we’re all very aware of after existing in the same workplace with you for years,” Felix says tartly.

He’s wearing very skinny jeans that cling to his thin figure, and his T-shirt is knotted sassily at his hip rather than hanging loose like everyone else’s.

He’s also, for some reason, wearing heart-shaped red sunglasses.

His hair is its usual tumbling mess, and I smile at him.

I’m very fond of Misha’s sassy younger cousin.

He grins back at me. “So, you and Misha are together now?” I nod, and he turns, snapping his fingers at Zeb. “You owe me a hundred quid.”

Zeb makes a resigned face and digs in his pocket for his wallet. “Okay, but I need to check the betting book to see whether you’ve won that much. I’m sure the odds changed this week.”

“The book? ” Misha echoes in disbelief. “Have you been betting on Charlie and me sleeping together?”

Jesse laughs. “Of course they fucking have. It’s obviously very boring in their office since I left.”

“Boring or bearable?” Felix says.

Max laughs. It’s a warm and infectious sound that fits the tall, wide-shouldered man. He has a crazy air of effervescence about him. A naughtiness that’s infectious and makes everyone smile back at him. Everyone apart from Felix, who just shoots him an enigmatic glance.

“I can’t believe you’ve been betting on my love life,” Misha says in a mournful tone. “You’re a massive bunch of dicks.” He smiles at Max. “I’m excluding you from that insult because you’ll have been out of it, not being in the office.”

Max shrugs. “I wouldn’t bother. I had you shagging by Christmas.” He frowns. “How did you last this long? Where did you get your willpower from?”

“Well, we don’t all drop our Calvin Kleins at the first sight of a man,” Felix says tartly. “Some of us wait for a bit which you really should try. Your frantically overworked privates might appreciate a rest at some point in time. ”

Max’s eyes gleam at that sally and he opens his mouth to reply, but I clap my hands frantically to stop the comment.

“Okay, shall we make our way to the start line?” I say brightly, feeling like I’m working at a children’s holiday camp in Butlin’s.

Max and Felix exchange glances, but the group follow my directions and wander to where everyone is gathering.

Despite Misha’s misgivings, the walk is actually lovely. People chatter happily as we form a long line of walkers, and many wear glow sticks and funny hats. It’s a cold evening, so it’s nice to work up a glow, and London is beautiful at night, all the old buildings lit up like they’re on stage.

We pass the Tower of London and manoeuvre around the crowds that are always here day or night, rain or shine.

Misha is ahead of me talking with Zeb, and I’m taking in the sights with pleasure when Felix pops up next to me.

He’s wearing glow sticks around his wrists and neck, and they drop neon shards of colour over the sharp bones of his face.

“Alright, Charlie?” he asks in an interested voice.

I shoot a look at him and sigh. “Okay, ask your questions.”

“Goodness, can’t a boy ask a friend how he is?”

I eye him. “He certainly can and probably will do after he’s eviscerated every detail of that friend’s love life.”

“You know, you were a lot nicer before you met Misha.”

I laugh. “You didn’t know me before Misha.” I pause. “Although yes, I probably was.”

“So, best friends of over twenty years and now look at you.” He gives me a nudge with his sharp elbow. “All loved up in your riverside apartment with your banker.”

“We’re not loved up, Felix,” I mutter, worried that Misha will hear.

“Really?” he asks with lively interest. “You’re not shagging, then?”

“Well, yes, but… Well, that’s—” I falter.

He starts to laugh, and Max looks back instantly at the merry sound. His eyes soften, but he faces forward quickly as soon as Felix stops chuckling.

Felix grabs my arm, threading his own through it. “Charlie, you and Misha could never be just anything. ”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you think so many people have been betting on you getting together?”

“Because they have very limited social lives.”

He laughs. “Apart from that.” I shrug, and he leans closer. “Because you’re made for each other, trite as that may sound.”

“But we might never have realised that, Felix.”

He shrugs. “I think at some point you would have done. At least this way you were both so oblivious, there was very limited pining.”

I squeeze his hand. “Unlike you and Max.”

“Me and Max?” He shakes his head, a startled expression on his face. “We were done and finished a very long time ago.”