Stella and the Boxer

Chapter 42

“Why are you walking so fast?” I squeal, trying to match Charlie’s pace. For every step that he takes, I feel as though I’m taking five.

“I’m trying to get you out of this weather,” he laughs, looking down at me and pulling me closer into his side by our linked arms. “I usually let you set the pace, but we’d never get back to the hotel if that were the case tonight.”

I listen to him, but keep my head tilted up, turning about at everything that surrounds me. One of my hands keeps hold of my olive colored beanie as the wind threatens to blow it from my head.

Sleet continues to whip at my face and catch in my eyelashes. I try to blink the water away, but it clouds my vision and for a moment, I see only large circles of light – white, red, green – before my eyes clear and I’m able to gape again.

It’s nearly midnight as we make our way to the streets, back to our hotel, but the city hasn’t even begun to quiet. Cars pass, one after another, their tires milling through the water on the street. All of the conversations around us blend together with the music that spills out from the bars and restaurants and onto the sidewalk.

“Do you need anything before we go back for the night?” Charlie asks quietly, looking down at me with calm, sleepy eyes. Everything about him is such a contrast to the noisy, erratic scene that we find ourselves in now, yet he manages himself (and me, in my state of spacey bewilderment) effortlessly through it all. His hand reaches up and pulls my scarf further up to cover the tip of my nose.

“I don’t need anything,” I say into the wool as he continues to lead me through the busy streets.

“Do you promise you’re not paying for this room on your own?” I ask as I lay my coat across the foot of the clean, freshly made bed and pull my hat from my head, patting away the static from my hair.

“Not even a portion of it,” Charlie says, walking into the bathroom.

Apparently, Charlie’s uncle had insisted on upgrading our room and paying for everything. The hotel seemed expensive enough as is, and the suite that he put us in was really too much. Though he was regretful that he couldn’t be here for Charlie’s fight on Friday night, he had been in the city since last weekend, working on a few projects here and interviewing potential employees for his building firm’s expansion in the city before returning, ironically, to oversee work on the home just across from Ben’s family.

I started to think about Allie then, how her break is going now that she’s graduated – she opted out of walking in the ceremony and went straight home when she could, to stay with her family for a while before moving to St. Louis with Ben. I’ve spoken to her a few times, of course, but not much about the move or how she feels about it. I think for a moment about how I would react if Charlie asked me to leave with him – to give up a job that I really wanted for an opportunity of his.

Of course, it isn’t the same. Charlie and I haven’t been together for years, we aren’t engaged, and surely I have years before I’m offered any sort of “dream job.” Still, his reaction to my reaction of Allie and Ben’s news was peculiar.

"Stella, lots of people don't like to be alone. They're engaged now; they've made a promise to live their lives together, not in two different regions for career's sake."

“He still wants to take us to dinner,” Charlie’s voice pulls me from the memory of his words to the present of them, “My uncle does, I mean. I was thinking we could explore a little more tomorrow before we meet up with him. There are lots of things I want to show you, what are you doing? Are you okay?” He frowns at me as he emerges from the bathroom. He’s shirtless, his layers of clothes hanging over his arm.