Mr. Prime Minister

Chapter 22

"You're distracted."

I looked up at Charlie and swallowed my salad hard.

Distracted was a euphemism. With Amanda living at my place, Nick still missing, Charlie always busy to be there for me to cry on his shoulder, and Tyler absent for over a week, my personal life was all messed up for me to focus on whatever he was yapping about.

I cheated on Charlie.

I, Alice Summers, the one person to condemn cheating more than the Pope, had tripped on her very own honour and cheated!

And on the Prime Minister!

Oh, you stupid little retarded!

I have to tell him.

No, don't!, the Devil Alice on my left shoulder whispered, He will never know, 'cause Tyler will never risk to lose his job!

I have to... I can't lie. It hurt when I found out about Nick and Mandy. I wish they had told me before anything happened... I can't do the exact same thing to Charlie.

"I know it's been hard for the both of us, but I believe I came up with the solution" Charlie smiled over his glass of wine, setting it on the table.

"You did?" I blinked, playing with my food, looking up at his amused eyes "Pray tell, what did you come up with?"

"We can be together in secret."

I frowned.

"What now?"

"In secret." He gestured with his elegant hands "Just follow my trail of thought: we would have no pressure from anyone outside this relationship, no paparazzi following you and bothering you in the grocery store. And we could hang out in my place and your place, just like regular couples do" He shrugged, smiling with his newfound genius.

"You mean hiding" I concluded, my fork forgotten on the plate.

"I mean safe" He corrected.

I rubbed my hair back from my face and took a deep breath.

This is it... Tell him what happened with Tyler, and maybe he'll forgive you.

What if he fires Tyler? It's not his fault, we both did the deed!

And I'm sorry about it. Terribly sorry.

Am I not?

"Charlie, I need to-"

"Wait, just listen." He asked, grabbing my hand over his dining table "Think about it: I understand it's not ideal, but it's better than to put you in a situation you hate... even more."

"I understand that, but you have to understand that all I want is a normal relationship." I put in, taking my hand off of his and pulling both up "I'm thirty years old, I'm a woman, an adult. I want a real and normal relationship. I'm not sixteen, now, to live a secret Romeo and Juliet romance."

"There's no other way" Charlie assured me, with a deep frown.

Yes, there is!, my conscience whispered to me, You can ditch this tool, and go back to the real guy!

I'm not ditching anyone, and I'm not going to hurt anyone's feelings.

Yeah, good luck with that, cheater.

This story should have ended when he kissed me in the rain. The words 'The End' would roll, on beautiful, cursive letter, and we would live happily ever after, as the credits rolled and the audience clapped and dried their tears. It wasn't supposed to keep going on like this, with stupid mundane issues and cliché couple problems. But no, once again, Alice Summer's love life had to get lost in the maze, and soon it would starve and rot among the crushing walls.