Welcome to Almusilaa

Chapter Sixteen

The big reveal y'all have been waiting for! Here it comes! Also a little bit from Charlie's POV.

By the time the clock struck five-thirty-nine, my stomach was rumbling. Charlie and Abigail had made leaps and bounds in this time. Now they were writing a report to give to the council on their findings, along with a list of parts the needed paired with a diagram of a design they had spent an hour on. They earliest prototype had finally run out of juice after a few more times summoning Flora. I lost track after ten but this basic design had surpassed expectations.

Abigail had been showering endless praise on Charlie and you could see Charlie was practically glowing. I wondered idly if I were to turn off the lights if Charlie would be glowing noticeably. She looked so cute the way she smiled so much. I hadn't seen her smile this much for a while and I was sure her cheeks were getting a work out.

Charlie leaned back in the chair she was sitting in and yawned.

"Gosh, I'm tired." She said before letting out another yawn.

"I think it you should head back to your hotel, everything will still be here tomorrow." Abigail chuckled. Abigail started packing up herself.

Charlie nodded before she grabbed everything she needed and put it in her bag. I looked around before I nudged Nicole. She must have fallen asleep with out me noticing. Nicole looked around sleepily before she got up and wobbled drunkenly to the edge of the table and jumped down. Everyone else was looking sleepy too. I let out a yawn myself

We got a ride back to the hotel with Victor who we ran into in the foyer. He was surprised to see us but when we told him what we had done today he was pleased.

He bid us farewell as we walked into the restaurant part of the hotel. We got seated and moments later most of us had food. The wait staff knew what we would order and by now had dishes waiting for us around the time we came in.

We finished quickly and went back to our room. Most of us immediately flopped down on the couch to watch some TV. Only minutes after we had come back to our room then there was a knock at the door. Charlie got up to answer the door despite looking dead on her feet. She threw open the door with a scowl. It immediately changed when she saw who was on the other side.

"Tom, it's good to see you." Charlie said.

"Can I talk to you?" Tom asked her.

"Sure, come in." Charlie said, stepping back to let Tom in.

"Can we talk out here?" Tom asked quietly. Charlie looked confused but agreed. She shut the door behind herself as she stepped out into the hall to talk to Tom.

Charlie's POV

Tom looked at me in silence as he pulled each of the fingers on his right hand back, thumb, forefinger, middle, ring and pinkie before repeating. I knew from when we were together that it was his nervous habit.

I grabbed his hand to stop him from doing it as he flinched, but continued to do it.

"Stop. What's going on? Are you okay?" I asked him. He refused to look me directly in the eye.

"I wanted to say sorry. For not telling you earlier. About that." He mumbled.

"About liking men?" I asked.

"I wasn't sure how you'd react. Can you forgive me?" He asked me, finally looking up and my eyes. They were red rimmed like he had been crying.

"Of course," I said, pulling him into a hug. "If anything, I should be apologizing." I said as I hugged him tighter. "I'm so sorry you didn't feel comfortable telling me."