Charlie's Web (A Romantic Comedy)

Chapter 13

Charlie's Facebook status read "I. Am. Drunk." and to be fair, that it was amazing that any of the words were spelled correctly, because she was struggling to focus on her phone.

She'd been determined that night to go home and sleep off the late night but, as Friday night plans often do, it hadn't quite ended up that way.

She'd been just finishing up processing one last invoice before she left work on the dot of four (thank the lord for flexi time!) when Josh had paused on the way past her desk. "Charlie, I assume you are coming for after work drinks," he said, his tone brooking no argument. "And if you say no I will be very offended as I have met a lovely guy and I want you to meet him."

"I'm seeing someone," Charlie had said quickly, having being privy to Josh's horrific attempts at matchmaking other people before.

"I mean I've met a lovely guy for me, you silly cow," he had scoffed. "We're all going to the pub, and you will be coming along."

"Oh okay, you've twisted my arm," she'd said with already feigned reluctance. She knew deep down that if she'd went home and tried to sleep early on a Friday night she would immediately have a severe case of FOMO, and end up spending the night stalking her exes on Facebook. Or possibly Aaron, who she'd so far managed to resist stalking again despite him accepting her friend request the previous week. There was no way she'd get an early night but if she stayed out for a few hours she'd hopefully be ready to sleep once she got in. "Just for a couple though!"

Ah . . . famous last words.

It was now about quarter to eight and Charlie was definitely feeling the benefits of the work local's cheap wine. "How many have you had?" her colleague Shelia shouted in her ear as she nearly fell on her return from her third trip to the loo.

"I dunno, like, sixty?" Charlie giggled.

In reality, she was only on her second or third, but the lack of sleep, plus the fact she had been pretty much been living off a cocktail of Jake and cheese strings for well over a week, had turned her into even more of a lightweight than usual.

Most of the office staff had been there at the start of the night due to Josh's persuasive personality (and offer to buy the first round when that failed). But it had now inevitably reached that portion of the evening where people were starting to leave to either head for their actual plans for the night, or get back to their families before their dinner ended up in the dog.

What had started off as four or five tables full of staff and the usual bunch of people standing around the tables had dwindled down to two and a half tables, and Charlie was sitting with Shelia and Belinda, sharing idle work gossip, while Josh and his new man-of-the-moment Darren held court over the other remaining colleagues.

They were quite the double act, Charlie observed, watching Josh fondly as they regaled the others with the colourful story of how they had met (Charlie and her pals had already been subjected to it earlier). As she sat contentedly for a moment, thinking how she actually quite liked her job and her colleagues, she slowly became aware that she was being watched.

Of course she knew exactly who was looking at her. Her skin was already prickling with anticipation.

"I'm going to grab another drink," she said to the girls, despite still having half of hers left. "Do you want anything?" They put their orders in and she walked up to the bar, her hand shaking as she clutched her glass. Taking slow gulps of breath to try and calm herself because deep down she knew . . .

"Hey."

That husky voice sent shivers down the back of her neck, and she gulped.

It was so much easier to control her feelings when she was sober; now she was drunk that night out came flash-flooding back to her . . . remembering how hot that kiss was. She could feel her face heating up as she turned and met those beautiful brown eyes.