A la Carte

Chapter 14

Charlotte sighed as the elevator dinged, having reached its destination. She was tired and emotionally drained. Seeing her brother had brought up unwanted memories of the girl she used to be. Her phone rang, shocking her out of the trance she had been in.

"Hello?"

"Hey Charlotte, I just wanted to know if you got home safe?" Perry asked.

"Yeah, I did, thanks for caring." Charlotte chuckled.

"Not a problem, have a good night!" Perry said and then hung up. Charlotte let out another sigh and unlocked the door to the apartment. The apartment was quiet and dark so Charlotte flicked some lights on and made her way to the kitchen. A bright pink sticky note had been pasted to the fridge, breaking the chrome and metallic colour of the kitchen décor.

                                                            Gone to dinner with Tyler!

                                                                      Don't wait up! ;)

                                                                                B xx

Charlotte opened the fridge and uncorked the chilled white wine before pouring herself a generous glass, tomorrow she had to work at the bookshop, but at least it only opened at nine. She sipped on the wine and got to work on a light meal. After making her dinner she sat down on the couch and watched some of her favourite series that she had neglected in the past few weeks. She tried to keep her mind on the show on the television, but her mind drifted to her encounter with Benjamin. He was her older brother, she always wished he acted as all of her friends brothers did when she was younger, over-protective and goofy. He didn't, instead he was serious and hardly ever spent time with her, his mind was always focused on becoming a good successor to the family business. Her father was fairly well known in Boston, he had started the successful business that dealt mainly with imports when she was eight years old, her brother was ten at the time. After that they were never really the same family as they were. They came from a normal middle class background until one day their dad saw the gap in the market. Their last family holiday was to Canada, where they had family, and it was one of the best and last they had as a proper family. Benjamin had always known that her father had not really taken a liking to his daughter, he wanted another son, evident by the fact that he picked her name; Charlie. It was ambiguous and unisex and everyone she had met was surprised she was a girl. Her mother was her best friend and it hurt to leave her behind, she was the closest family member Charlotte had at the time, now it seemed Benjamin finally wanted to be the older brother he was meant to be. She didn't know if that would last, but he seemed genuine enough, maybe her leaving had caused him to actually pay attention to her. At least he had more redeeming qualities than the tyrant of a father she had; he was a true...-

A loud banging rang the apartment. Charlie hopped up, wine glass in hand and went to answer the door. It was Dimitri.

"Hi, I wanted to see how you were doing."

"I'm fine, Dimitri."

"Okay, cool." He looked awkward and stuck his hands into the tailored suit he was wearing.

"Work event?" Charlotte, found herself asking.

"Just came back from closing a deal." He informed her.

"Good."

"You look tired."

"I am." Charlotte answered. Dimitri looked pained and then sighed, stepped away and walked down the hallway calling a goodnight to her.