Being Alive [Charlie Barber]

Chapter 24 : Happy Halloween

You didn't think about how strange this situation was until you sat down on the plane.

    It was easy to convince yourself that you were visiting Charlie from across the country just because you missed him and wanted to spend time with him.

    But in actuality, you were going to see Charlie because his wife called you and asked you to do so.

    When the sweet, older woman who was sitting next to you on the airplane, asked why you were going to LA, you told her: "I'm going to see my boyfriend."

    And when she said: "Oh, good for you. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to see you. Long distance relationships are so difficult" you didn't have the heart to explain the real situation to her.

    The situation was so odd and unexpected for you, that you weren't sure how to even bring it up to Charlie. You spoke to him for a total of maybe an hour since he landed in LA because all of his time was dedicated to being with Henry.

    You didn't mind it, even if you missed him, you wanted him to take the time to reconnect with his son. From the brief time you discussed how his trip was going with him, you were able to pick up on the fact that it was a shit show for him. It was impossible to find a decent lawyer and he felt like he was drowning.

    At the end of your last phone call that took place the night before, you casually asked him how he'd feel if you came to LA:

"That would make me extremely happy," Charlie answered, not taking your question as serious, assuming you'd never do it. "I'd probably drop on the ground and kiss your feet because I'd be so thankful to see you."

You laughed, then got back to business. "But what if I did? I was looking at flights and-"

"Honey, that's alright. Really. It's a mess here and I wouldn't want to bring you into that." Charlie replied with.

Before you could explain the conversation that you had with Nicole, he was quickly whispering into the phone that Henry woke up from hearing the phone call, and he needed to put him back to bed.

You knew you could've sent him a text immediately after to explain the situation and to tell him that you were coming to visit him but then you thought about the possibility of surprising him.

You could almost hear the deep, shocked laughter leaving his chest and see the giant grin on his face that would accompany you showing up unannounced in LA and you couldn't help yourself.

Nicole was the one that brought up the fact that if you wanted to stay in Charlie's life, then all of you were going to have to coordinate to make it work. You couldn't keep going with your relationship with Charlie while treating it like it was a secret.

It wasn't a secret anymore.

You wanted to do things that real girlfriends would do, like getting on a plane just to see him.

You were tired of being the other woman.

You just wanted to be Charlie's.

You haven't been to airports very often. Before you moved to New York, it had been almost ten years since you'd gone on a plane. You didn't go on many vacations growing up and once you started making money on your own to pay for getaways, you focused on college instead.

You'd only made a few errors when you arrived at the LA airport. You chose the wrong bathroom, the one with the longest line because it was the closest to the area where you got off of the plane. After that, you made a wrong turn and couldn't find the right baggage claim area to get your luggage.