An Arrangement was Made

Chapter 4: Preparing to Prepare

Charlie arrived back at the hotel with a noticeable slump in her step. She was completely exhausted. She held it together as best she could until she got to her room and collapsed onto her bed. She began to weep into her pillows.

The weight of the decision she had made was starting to sink in. She had just signed her life away. Even though it was to protect her friends, that didn't make it much easier to bear. All dreams of ever having a family of her own were gone.

She would never get to marry someone she loved. She would never get to have children of her own, unless they came from that filthy man. Ew. That was a thought she did not want to have.

Charlie was really not looking forward to the sheer volume of arguments the two were going to have. Adam was not an easy person to get along with. He had made that perfectly clear when they first met. Adam was the type of person who liked things one specific way and he would not tolerate anything else. He was the most stubborn person that Charlie had ever met, and horribly annoying on top all of that.

And he was going to come live here?! Why couldn't he just stay in heaven where he was out of the way?! Why couldn't they be married in the legal sense alone? Why did he have to come here?!

"I guess it's better than me having to go up there." She sighed. Living up in heaven didn't sound too bad when she gave it some thought. Everyone up there was so friendly, it smelled lovely, the weather was always lovely, cute animals...she got lost in imagining a different reality where none of this had happened.

Perhaps there was a reality where Adam was a decent guy. Maybe that version of him had started a redemption program instead of the exterminators. All of Charlie's friends had been redeemed and hellborn were allowed to visit heaven on vacations and angels would do the same with hell. In that version of reality, heaven and hell worked together to make everywhere a lovely place to live. Without the stress of the exterminations around, there would be no need for overlords or territory disputes or any of the numerous reasons why the sinners fought each other.

But then Charlie opened her eyes and she was in reality again. She sighed. Time to get to work. She had three days before Adam showed up. She needed to make a plan for how to best utilize these next three days so she could make the best first impression possible. Maybe there was a possibility that now that they were married he wouldn't be so hostile to her anymore. A low possibility but any chance to be positive was a chance that Charlie would take. All she had to do was turn up the charm all the way and maybe, just maybe, he'll like her?

"Okay, that's a bit of stretch even for me. Tolerate! Tolerance is good!" She hopped into her desk chair and pulled out some paper and crayons to make her plan.

"Okay. List of things I need to do. I have three days!" She drew three boxes.

"I need to tell everyone in the hotel that this is going to happen and make sure they're all mentally prepared.I need to get his room ready for him, cause like hell he's sleeping in here." She shuddered at the thought of him misreading signals and trying to touch her. And then he'd probably get mad when she rejected him. Yuck. She wished she could bleach her imagination. She scribbled her emotions out onto the a blank piece of paper, crumpled it into a ball, went to the bathroom, and flushed it down the toilet.
"That's better. Now I never have to think about that ever again." She returned to her bedroom.

"Alright. Plan. Planning. Tell everyone in the hotel, set up Adam's room, make sure everything is clean, should probably have food ready, and..tell dad..." She bit her bottom lip and sucked air in through her teeth.

She and dad still didn't have the best relationship. They had gotten to the point where he loved and supported her unconditionally, but there was still a lot of tension there. She barely knew him and she had gone and married his wife's ex-boyfriend who he hated without asking him about it first.





She crossed it off her list.

"Tell all my friends, set up Adam's room, get hotel clean, make food, make sure Dad isn't there. Vaggie, am I forgetting any-" She looked up to the bed where Vaggie normally was when she was planning but, "oh..." She looked back down to her papers.

"Making food can probably wait until the day of. I'll have to double check what time he's getting here. I guess I should probably set Adam's room up myself. I'm going to need everyone's help to deep clean this place. Which means..." She sighed. "I have to tell everyone."

Honestly she should've told everyone when she first started trying to go this route, but she really didn't want anyone to worry about her. It wouldn't be as bad if everyone didn't include Vaggie but oh... this was going to be hard. She was really glad she had decided to put off telling her father until after Adam was somewhat settled.

Still, this was going to be hard. Maybe it would be better to tell everyone one at a time? But then again it might be better to just rip the bandaid and tell everyone at once. That seemed like the best option right now. Get it all over with at once. There had to be some kind of way to soften the blow a little. She took a deep breath. She went back to her desk, sharpened her crayons, and started drafting some lyrics.