Bumping Accident | Englot

Chapter 14

Charlotte’s POV

“Heidi and I can share a room,” Tina quickly suggests. It seems like those two have hit it off pretty well. “Chompu and I will share a room,” Nudee says. That leaves Ethan and me, but she mentioned there are two extra rooms, so where would we sleep?

“Um, alright, okay. Charlotte and Ethan can share my room, and I’ll sleep on the couch out here,” Engfa proposes.

“No, no, it’s okay. I can sleep on the couch, and you and Charlotte can share a room,” Ethan interjects, making me extremely nervous.

“No, it’s okay. The heater doesn’t work out here, so it’s gonna be really cold,” Engfa says.

“Can I just speak to Charlotte before you guys sleep?” she questions, and I nod.

As everyone starts leaving for their rooms, it’s just Engfa and me now. We both sit down on the couch and look at each other. I always seem to get lost in her eyes.

I go to grab her hand, but she hisses and slowly pulls away. Looking down, I see her knuckles are super red and bruised.

“Do you have an ice pack?” I ask her.

“Yeah, I do, but I’m okay. We can talk,” she insists.

“No, let’s go get you an ice pack. We can talk in the kitchen,” I suggest. She slowly nods, and we start walking towards the kitchen. When we get there, I sit at the dining table, and she grabs the ice pack, sitting on the counter.

“I’m sorry,” Engfa says.

I’m not sure what she’s apologizing for. “What for?” I ask.

“For scaring you at the club,” she clarifies.

“You didn’t,” I assure her.

“But at the precinct, you said I did,” she points out, her lip jutting slightly. Cute.

“I meant that I was scared you were going to go to jail,” I explain. We’re silent after that, looking at each other again.

“You deserve to know the story, and I’m going to tell you. But before I do, promise me that you won’t do anything crazy; you seem to lose control over some situations,” I say.

She looks at me, and I can tell she’s having a difficult time promising. “I promise,” she says. Taking a deep breath, and I start the story.

“Liam and I dated for about two years. He was amazing at first—gentle, caring about my interests. I thought he was the perfect guy until he showed his true self.”

I pause for a second to look at Engfa, and her hands are clenched into fists, her jaw tense.

“At first, it started with just yelling and throwing things around. Then it was punching the wall, and when that wasn’t enough, he moved on to me. Then he started forcing himself on me. I thought I was in love. For the longest time, I was scared to leave him or say anything, until Heidi saw my bruises and made me tell her everything.”

A noise makes me pause, and I look at Engfa’s hands, noticing the ice pack is broken. How do you even break an ice pack?  “Sorry,” she mumbles, getting off the counter to clean it up. I continue while watching her clean it up.

“She got my parents involved, and they helped me leave him. Before you ask, no, Olivia is not his. I’m not proud of this, but I was in a bad place after I left him and slept around a lot. Olivia was conceived one of those nights, but the guy told me he didn’t want anything to do with her and left. I love Olivia, though. I don’t regret a single thing; she saved my life,” I say, taking a deep breath.

Silence falls around us after I’m done explaining the story.

“My parents and I don’t have a good relationship,” Engfa says out of nowhere, surprising me a little bit.

“When I came out to my parents, they didn’t take it well. My mom didn’t mind, but my dad freaked out, and now we only talk if it’s about business situations,” she explains.

Even though I work with her parents, she’s telling me all of this. It’s probably because she doesn’t want me to feel like the only vulnerable one.

“My sister left, too. She helps with the business, but after my parents kicked me out, she said she doesn’t want to live with them, so she’s traveling around now,” she adds.

“We’re two damaged people, aren’t we?” I say with a chuckle.

She starts laughing. “I guess we are.”

“You should go to sleep,” she suggests after a few seconds. “Are you comfortable sleeping in the same room as Ethan?” she asks, and I feel a sense of jealousy coming off her.

“He’s gay,” I simply say, laughing a little bit.

“Oh, um, good. My bedroom is upstairs, the first door to the right,” she says, and I nod.

“Thank you for everything,” I say, looking directly into her eyes.

“Anytime, cute eyes,” she responds, and I start getting ready to leave the kitchen. But before we do, I realize something.

“Fa,” I start.

“Yeah?” she responds.

“I don’t have any comfortable clothes,” I say.

“Oh, um, take anything you need from my closet,” she says, walking towards me.

I nod, and now we’re both staring at each other again.

I look down at her lips, and I can’t help but want to touch them. So I do. I slowly raise my hand and trace her sharp jawline to her lips, leaving my thumb on her upper lip.

“Can I kiss you?” Engfa asks, taking me off guard for a second. Not because she wants to kiss me, but because mostly no one ever asks.

“Please,” I say.

That’s enough for her. She pushes me against the kitchen counter and smashes her lips on mine. It feels like everything around us stops. My heart pounds in my chest. She settles into a slow pace, like she doesn’t want to rush anything. Her lips are warm and soft.

She hesitates to put her hands on my hips, so I take her hand and guide it there. I lick her bottom lip, asking for entrance, and she happily parts her lips for me. When our tongues touch, I can’t suppress a moan, which causes Engfa to hold my hips a little tighter.

I grab her face and pull her into me to deepen the kiss. When the need for air becomes too much, she pulls away and starts kissing all over my neck.

Things are getting a little too heated, so I grab her face and peck her lips to slow things down. “Sorry, didn’t mean to go that far,” she says while looking at me.

I shake my head. “You didn’t,” I say breathlessly.

“You should sleep; it’s getting late,” she says, and I nod. But neither of us moves.

Engfa slowly backs up, and I can see her lips are a little swollen. I peck her cheek and slowly walk out of the kitchen.

“Night, Fa. See you in the morning,” I say.

“Goodnight, Char,” she says, and my heart melts at the nickname. She seems too shocked about what happened to move from the kitchen, so I just leave her there. One simple kiss and I feel like I’m addicted to her.