Charlie's Web (A Romantic Comedy)

Chapter 7

It felt like something had crawled into her mouth and died overnight. Possibly that Lurch fella. 

Charlie knew immediately before she opened her eyes that she wasn’t at home. She was at Jake’s. Gorgeous, sexy, man-of-few-words (so far anyway) Jake. She also hadn’t actually been asleep for that long as Jake had kept her awake most of the night; ever since they grabbed a cab from one side of the city to the other, hands all over one another, and fallen through his flat door pulling their clothes off as they went.

It had been really good. Exhausting, and muscles she didn't know existed were hurting right now, but it had been amazing. 

She could hear Jake breathing evenly beside her, still fast asleep. He didn’t even snore. God, he was perfection.

Unlike her breath. She subtly reached down to where her bag was on the floor next to the bed and popped a couple of tic-tacs in her mouth. That was immediately better.

Of course, she couldn’t crunch the bloody tic-tacs for fear of waking him up, so she just swirled them about her mouth and watched him sleep. Those eyelashes were ridiculous, and so wasted on a man. His skin was unbelievably golden and his abs . . . oh wow! She sucked in her stomach and vowed to start actually going to the gym, rather than just paying for it. And perhaps give up her doughnut habit while she was at it. 

He started to stir and she panicked. It had been so long since she had a one-night-stand and she had forgotten what the protocol was. Was she meant to already have sneaked off? Was he hoping she would have done? Would he be disappointed to wake up and find her still there? She accidentally swallowed the Tic-Tacs whole and started choking in fright. 

Well, he was definitely going to wake up now.

Responding to her choking he sat up, and reached over for a bottle of water at the side of his bed while patting her on the back. She recovered herself and he passed her the water, already opened for her to drink from. Whispering thanks, she sipped it, looking away from him, absolutely mortified.

“Hey,” he whispered in her ear, and she turned around, startled. He smiled at her, his gray eyes sparkling and she felt hope rise in her chest. “That was some wake-up call,” he went on, laughter in his voice as he stroked her face, pulling her closer. “Come here.” 

So she did.

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Thea wasn’t feeling her best either. After Charlie had disappeared off with Jake (and Thea had made sure she had his details just in case she never reappeared), she had finally felt like she could properly relax. The plan had succeeded, all was right with the world. Now she could get properly drunk.

Of course, she already was properly drunk - it just hadn’t caught up with her yet. But it had, big time.

Now, several hours later, she came to on the couch, still fully dressed, apart from her shoes, which were kicked off. Her feet were dirty, the couch was white. Oh dear. At least it wasn’t her couch.

“Hey.” Her knight in shining armour was standing there, cup of coffee in hand. He held it out. “For you.”

“Thanks.” She took it, biting her lip apologetically. “Sorry about the couch.”

He waved off the apology. “It’s fine, honestly.” He sat down beside her, awkwardly. “We probably need to talk.”

“I might need something stronger than coffee for that,” she replied edgily, feeling scared because she had no idea what was going to happen next. Last night had spiralled out of control and the world she thought she knew was no longer. It was a terrifying feeling, so unsettling.