Pete wasn't going into his scouting mission for Saturday Night Live expecting to find a talent worthy of auditioning. He definitely wasn't expecting to walk into The Pit and find Charlotte.
A Star is Born meets the world of Stand-Up Comedy.
Rated:...
Pete was already in the kitchen when Amy got downstairs. He sat at her island, holding a Styrofoam cup of coffee in one hand and scrolling through something on his phone with the other. "Morning, honey," Amy said, kissing her son on the top of the head. "Dunkin Donuts this morning?"
"Yeah, it's Charlotte's favorite, Caramel extra cream and a Splenda," he said, pointing to the ice coffee on the counter next to him. "I picked up your usual, too," he added, sliding a third coffee to her.
"You know her coffee order already, huh?" Amy looked in the refrigerator and pulled out a yogurt.
"I guess I do," Pete said, putting his phone down. His face looked so relaxed and content. Amy loved seeing him this way. "So what did you think of Charlotte's set?" he asked, drinking his coffee.
"I thought she was great! I feel like you two must make a really great team."
"Ma, you don't even know that half of it." Pete grinned. "She's so real. And writing with her this week, we were just bouncing ideas off of each other like we were splitting a brain or something."
Amy smiled at her son. "Pete, that's so great. I know you've been struggling a little at work lately, but she really seems to have re-invigorated you."
Pete nodded. "This week has been amazing," he said, his grin faltering a little.
Amy put her hand on Pete's wrist. "What's wrong then?" she asked.
"Nothing, really," Pete said, shrugging. "This week has been perfect. I love writing with Charlotte, I love being with her at work, I love waking up with her and debating whether or not Hermione should have ended up with someone else in the Potterverse. She makes me want to work harder and write, to actually type up sketches and put my ideas out there."
Pete trailed off, and Amy filled in the blanks for him. "But this week is almost over. You're afraid of it ending."
The young man took another sip of his coffee before replying. He looked at his mother, his eyes glassy. "There's no guarantee that Charlotte will get on the show. I keep thinking to myself that if she doesn't and she has to keep working as a teacher, what will I do? Now that I've worked with her I can't picture working there without her as my partner. And now that I know what being with her is like... When I first found Charlotte I thought we would make a good team. But now, I don't want to just work with her. I'm better with her around in every way. We cooked dinner together the other night and we make each other laugh like crazy. And all the little stupid things that she does that are so silly but they make me smile when I think about them. I can't imagine losing all that stuff."
"What kinds of stupid little things?" Amy asked.
Pete smiled. "Well, every time there is a ledge in the city she has to walk on it even though she has almost fallen twice in the short time that I've known her. She complains about sweating by calling any sweaty body part 'swampy'. She picks cheese off of most pizzas and can eat more chocolate than I've ever seen a person eat in a single sitting. And she does this thing where every time I look at her from across a room she makes a weird face and then breaks into a smile. The face is always different, but I feel like they're all imprinted in my head."
Amy's heart ached as she heard Pete talk about Charlotte. He had never been this genuinely interested in a woman. She wanted to cry, hearing her boy talk about this young woman that he loved, even if it hadn't registered for him yet that that was what he felt.
"Have you thought about what you are doing during the break after Saturday Night Live this year?" she asked.
"I just have that one movie, but my part is small. They told me I would film for a week tops."
"Well, maybe..." Amy could see Pete begin to protest, so she raised a finger to him and continued. "Hey, I didn't say you should definitely do anything, I'm just making a suggestion. Maybe you should think about spending some time with Charlotte over your break at her house. That way she knows you are actually serious about her."
"Oh, Ma, I hate to leave you to your own devices," Pete said, putting the same joking timbre in his voice that he used in his act. "Who will watch you while I'm gone if I go to Massachusetts?"
Amy scoffed. "I think I'll survive," she said as she sat down on a stool and sipped her coffee. The two heard someone coming up the stairs. Charlie opened the door, her hair in a messy bun and her eyes still red. She definitely wasn't a morning person, which made Amy like her more.
"Morning," she croaked, taking her own stool.
"Good morning," Amy said, smiling. Charlie mustered a small smile.
"Morning!" Pete said, getting up and grabbing Charlotte's coffee. He handed it to her and Charlie smiled and raised her face up towards Pete's. He met her the rest of the way and gave her a small peck on the lips. Both of them grinned as he sat back down.
"So, Charlie," Amy began. "Pete told me a few days ago that you gave him something to do this Memorial Day weekend."
Charlotte's cheeks blushed. "Well, my friend invited him to be my date to her wedding. I told him he didn't have to go but he keeps insisting he wants to."
"And I'll keep insisting the whole time," Pete said, continuing to scroll through his phone.
Amy smiled. Pete wouldn't admit it, but she knew he was a sucker for weddings. "And you're in the wedding?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm a bridesmaid," Charlie said. "It's my roommate from college, we've been talking about being in each other's weddings since we were about eighteen."
"Wait, that was your old roommate?" Pete asked.
"Jeanie? Yeah, we lived together all through college."
"She's the star of all your crazy college stories? She's getting married?"
"She's changed a lot since college!" Charlie said. "But I will say that I am functioning as a voice of reason in her wedding party to make sure she doesn't make any choices that are too fucked up."
Pete shook his head. "Okay, now I definitely have to go to this wedding."
Author's Note: I don't know where people live who are reading this, so just to give people a heads up, Dunkin' Donuts is a chain in the U.S. (but mostly New England) and there's one on practically every corner in Massachusetts. I didn't think of the fact that some readers may not know what is is! Here is a pic for reference!
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(The company's slogan is America Runs on Dunkin', but again... kind of an exaggeration)
