Stand-Ups in New York

Chapter 29 - Victor

"You really fucked up earlier, huh?"

Pete looked at Victor as he drove the pair back to the venue to meet the girls. Charlotte's brother-in-law hadn't said much that didn't have to do with Harry Potter and stand-up until this point in the evening. Granted, Pete had taken a long and much-needed nap when they checked in and he hadn't spent too much time with the guy besides driving to and from their hotel. But the shift was a bit jarring. "You mean with Charlotte?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Yeah, Emily won't stop messaging me about how Charlie is so distracted and not herself. She said that if you had done anything to hurt Charlie, she would kill you." Victor paused for a moment, then added, "I would kill you, too, but to be honest, Emily is way scarier than I am."

Pete looked back out of the windshield. He really had to talk to Charlotte.

"So what happened exactly?" Victor asked.

Pete sighed, then said, "I told Charlotte that hopefully she didn't get pregnant like Jeanie, and when she asked what I would do if she did get pregnant I said 'whatever you want'."

Victor nodded. "Oh, okay. Yeah, not much riles Charlie up like pregnancy."

"She's never mentioned anything about it being a sore spot before." Pete felt more guilty now than he had even before hearing that.

"She probably just has a hard time talking about it. She was with her ex for years, and the whole time he said he wanted kids as soon as possible. Then he dropped the 'I don't actually know if I want kids' bomb about eight months before they were supposed to be married."

Pete felt the pit in his stomach grow. It was one thing to fight about kids for the entirety of a relationship. But to be subject to such a bait-and-switch? "That was a dick move."

Victor shrugged. "Yeah, well, Derrick was a dick. It did break Charlotte's heart though, when he finally told her. She wants to be a mom more than anything. They only lasted about a month after he said that before she tossed his ass out of her house."

"She threw him out?" Pete asked. He'd always assumed it was mutual, or that the ex-fiancé left on his own. He never imagined Charlotte would feel so strongly that she would throw someone out. Then he remembered how icy she could get and partially changed his mind.

"Pretty much, yeah. He wanted to postpone the wedding, and she said either they get married when they planned or he had to get out. So he said he wouldn't, and she said to leave."

"Oh my God, that's horrible. I never knew it ended so badly."

"Yeah, you never would. Charlotte stopped crying the moment he left. It took her three days to re-coup, then she was right back. Me and Emily got married like two weeks after their break-up and you would have never known how bad she was suffering from the outside looking in."

Pete felt a lump form in his throat. No wonder Charlotte had such a hard time dating. Short of being left at the alter, this was probably one of the worst break up stories he'd heard. "I wish she'd told me all of this."

"I figured she wouldn't get into it with so much detail, especially since she likes you so much. She's afraid to seem like damaged goods. Plus she's so damn private. I don't think I ever saw her cry until I'd already been dating Emily for about three years. She doesn't like to seem weak. That's why I wanted to tell you everything. Charlotte is a great person. She's kind and supportive and she'll literally do anything for anybody, but she'll never be happy unless she's with someone who wants to help her deal with all of her relationship fears. Are you going to do that for her?"

Pete remembered her breakdown in New York when people started talking about the two of them dating. He'd wanted to comfort her then. Now was no exception. "Of course I'll do that for her."