She gathered her things, relieved that she could finally get out of there, and made her way to the door.

“You’re leaving already?” Walter asked curiously.

He was sitting at a table with Hector and two other guys. Charlee allowed herself a quick glance at Hector after smiling and nodding at Walter. The hardened expression from earlier was still plastered on his face and that perfectly defined jaw from his flexing. “Yep,” she said, looking Hector directly in the eyes and continued to smile. “I’m going out, so I gotta go get ready. Have a good one, guys.” She waved at them with her fingers in that playful way she’d seen other girls do and walked out.

As she walked down the stairs of the building, she almost expected him to come after her, but, of course, he didn’t. Feeling the hot tears already burn in her eyes and the boulder-sized knot in her throat swell impossibly bigger, she began walking faster. “Fucking bastard. Fucking bastard!”

With her chest already heaving, even as she tried to hold it all in, Charlee was only grateful now that Fridays were the one day she and Drew always took separate cars. The second she got in the car, Charlee slammed the door shut, buried her face in her hands, and sobbed.

~*~

It took every ounce of self-restraint to not go after her. Hell, it took everything in him to keep his comments about her exhausting weekend to himself. That had to be a lie. Either that or he misunderstood. She could’ve been talking about the Special Olympics thing. She wasn’t that type of girl. He knew this, even if she had very easily given into him that night. It was just kissing. She wouldn’t have let him do more. Would she?

Your party wasn’t the only I went to last weekend. I’d already forgotten about that. “Bullshit,” Hector muttered, fisting his hand on the table. Not a day had gone by since that night that he hadn’t thought about it—thought about her.

“What?” Walter asked, looking up from the chessboard. “That’s a fair move.”

Hector hadn’t even been looking at the board in front of him. He glanced down now, glad to see that in just a few moves Walter would have him. He knew he wouldn’t be in a mood to play before he’d even driven down there, and he certainly wasn’t after talking to Charlee. He moved his rook ignoring Walter’s comment. A few minutes later, the game was over.

“So she’s coming over tomorrow afternoon to check out the robot.” Walter smiled, sitting back in his seat. “I finally perfected it again, and I set up a few things I could do to demonstrate it to her. This should be good.”

Hector stared at him, continuing to grind his teeth like he’d been doing ever since he’d talked to Charlee. She was the last thing he wanted to talk about right now, but he knew this wouldn’t be the case with Walter. She was all he ever wanted to talk about. That’s why all week after Sunday, he kept the workouts with Walter to just that. He’d set Walter up then walk away before he could start talking. Avoiding any talk of her had been fairly easy that week since the only time he’d see Walter was at the gym. All week he’d debated with himself whether to do the right thing or not. He’d hoped that giving it a few days before seeing her again would take the strain off, but he’d been wrong—so wrong.

He expected her to be pissed or even hurt, not that he’d looked forward to that. He just thought it was inevitable. If he’d known this would be the reaction he’d get, he might’ve told her the truth. Here he held back telling her that Walter was his only reason for holding back, that if it weren’t for Walter, he’d for the first time since he discovered girls, felt the desire to delve into something deeper than just a physical relationship with one—a desire that up until now had completely eluded him.

If he’d told her the truth and she felt the same way, which he’d been certain she would, he was afraid she might take matters in her own hands and break Walter’s heart. Hector had no doubt that the poor sap would be disappointed in the end anyway, but he’d be damned if he was going to play a part in it.

Her reaction however had baffled him. Though he didn’t buy it completely, she’d basically told him she felt just the opposite. Not only had their time in that room together that night been forgettable, according to her “exhausting weekend” comment, he was also supposed to believe she’d gone out and done the same or more with someone else already. As much as he refused to believe that, it was f**king galling.

She’d stopped in the middle of what they were doing that night to specifically point out that she was different, damn it! And she didn’t even have to. He already knew it. She wasn’t the kind of girl who would do that with him then go out and do the same thing with someone else the next day.

Hector knew it was pointless to over analyze it now, because it didn’t make a difference. Whether or not it was true, it’s what she wanted him to believe for whatever reason: that she had no qualms about pretending that night never happened.

Curious and because he needed to stop grinding his teeth before he broke one, Hector asked Walter about something else that shouldn’t matter. “Did you mention her hanging out for a movie after?”

It shouldn’t matter, but Hector wanted to know now if Charlee was not only going out tonight but again tomorrow night like she’d apparently done last week.

Walter frowned. “No, not yet. I’ll wait until tomorrow.” With a frustrated shrug, he added. “I’ll probably chicken out.”