Charlie Gillespie Love Story

Chapter 4 - Away

And then we all left. I went home to Sydney, and Jeremy, Madi and Owen went back to the states. Charlie went home to Dieppe to stay with his family, although he told me he planned to go to LA during the break.

A month I would be apart from them, working and preparing the choreography with the help of Kenny. And it was stupid that I cared, but it hurt a little to leave them all. 

We travelled to the airport together, Charlie and I squished next to each other with Owen in the backseat of an Uber. I was in the middle and found it increasingly hard to focus on anything but the feeling of Charlie next to me.

I wanted to savour that feeling. Explore it.

But too soon we were walking away from each other, heading to different gates at the airport. For different flights. To different cities. 

- 2 weeks later - 

"Should we add Charlie to the call?" Owen said, and I chuckled at the thought of Charlie seeing the two of us. I had bought a facemask that bubbled, and after trying it once, I immediately bought two more tubes and shipped them out, one to Charlie and one to Owen.

And here Owen and I were, with our faces covered in bubbled over facetime, and positively giddy. "I don't see why not, he should be awake by now," I said, looking at the time. 11 pm here. That meant 5 am for Owen in Oklahoma, and 7 am for Charlie. Sure, the timing wasn't ideal, but the three of us sacrificed sleep to ensure we got to chat and call often enough.

As expected, Charlie's eyes went wide and he had to take a double-take to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him, and that Owen and I were actually that puffy. We looked like little grey chipmunks. "What the hell?!" He said, and I couldn't hold in the laughter anymore, my eyes leaking tears of laughter and I looked back at Charlie's shocked face.

Owen had the same reaction, so Charlie was left watching us, confused as hell, as we tried to calm down. It took several minutes, as anytime each of us would glance at the other, it set it off again. 

Finally, we'd calmed down, and Charlie even went so far as to go to the bathroom and put the facemask on himself. We chatted for an hour or so, having washed off the facemasks and now just discussing life and our upcoming plans when Owen had to go. He said he had a gym class, and before I could question him, he ended the call. 

And then it was just Charlie and me. Before I could even start a new conversation topic, I got a text from Owen, saying, "You're welcome ;)". The little shit.

"So, Em, I have a proposition," Charlie said, and I smiled, sitting up on my bed and hugging a pillow.

"Do tell," I said, intrigued by the underlying seriousness in his voice. 

"Well. Seeing as I'm flying out to Oklahoma next week to see Owen..." He said, trailing off a little as he just looked at me for a moment. 

"Yeah?" I said, and he smiled at me before continuing.

"I, um, was wondering. Do you wanna join us? You could come to Dieppe or Vancouver for the week after, if you wanted - save yourself the jetlag from flying between Australia and our side of the world." He winked at me when he said that, and I rolled my eyes. The pain of being so far apart had caused in organising meeting times, but more than that times to talk to these guys was something Charlie teased me about often. 

"Or- or, if not," he continued, "'cause I know that's two weeks and you've got work to do on choreography,  you can come just one week early and stay with me in Vancouver. I was thinking about coming a week early to where we'll be filming anyways. Maybe settling in? It would help you get over your jetlag." He seemed nervous as he spoke, rarely looking at the phone - at me.

I mulled over the proposition in my head. A week with just Charlie. He could show me more of Canada, we could go on hikes and go out on the town. It'd be fun. 

And I found myself saying yes before I thought of the full weight of my decision. A week alone with Charlie. I think I might combust.