Chapter 13

A loud scraping jolted me out of my embarrassment. Cathy was scooting her chair away, looking unhappy.

"Don't move too far, Cathy," I said, putting out a hand. There was no way I was going to let anyone sideline my friend, no matter how good he smelled.

But oh, did he smell amazing.

"Charles, there's room here!" A musical voice called from the next table. Jennifer had shifted around, and a half-dozen pairs of bright, beautiful eyes were smiling at the man next to me. "Come on, it's like old times at this table."

She smiled a bewitching, teasing smile that made even me sit up straighter. Charles, however, seemed unaffected. He bowed slightly, but called to the table over the music, "I need to talk to my friend Elena, and to thank Cathy for this exquisite party."

He sat down between us and turned his gaze to mine, making my stomach clench up.

I felt stupid. I'd seen it everyday for the last week. Why didn't it get easier?

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Charles asked, looking amused.

Cathy looked directly into my eyes while making a funny expression. I knew she was wondering when I'd had the chance to get close to Charles Rafe.

I didn't want to hurt Cathy's feelings since she's done so much to help the reunion happen, so I lowered my voice. "Honestly, not really. You?"

Before he could respond, Jennifer appeared again. She was standing at our table, her curves on full display in a skin-tight bandage dress.

"Are you sure you don't want to join us? Look, there's Steve and Nicolas and Todd. And Sylvia, too. Remember the time we..."

"I'll join you eventually," Charles said smiling. His voice was firm and Jennifer took the hint.

Her eyebrow raised and she went back to her table.

"She's used to getting her way," he said in a low, laughing voice as he leaned in close to my ear.

"She's insisting on it, I think," I said, not able to keep the amusement from my voice. "Here she comes again."

Jennifer had picked up her drink and her chair and was moving everything to our smaller table.

"Come on!" she called to the others who got up and did likewise, all laughing and talking amongst themselves but obviously not wanting to be left alone at the table.

She put her cup down and sat, smiling sweetly at Charles. "Such an Alpha move," she said, batting her eyelashes. "Making everyone come to you."

"That wasn't my intention, I assure you," Charles said. He looked at me. "I guess we will have to continue this conversation later, Elena."

"Elena," Jennifer said, narrowing her eyes at me and appearing to notice me for the first time. "Have we met?"

"In Science Lab, Honors English, World History, and PE, I think," Charles said, looking unimpressed at Jennifer, who was taken aback.

"Oh. Well, nice to see you again."

Around Charles's wide chest, Cathy leaned forward and gave me a wink. I could see from her face that she was dying to ask me what was going on, but that she was also loving every minute of this. When the woman on my other side got up to visit with another friend, Cathy moved over into her seat and squeezed my hand under the table.

Charles was in his element, using his intense gaze to make everyone feel heard and nodding his head, all the while deflecting with good humor questions that were too personal or too strong about his business.

His scent remained steady, and indication that he was feeling very little stress as opposed to a noticed heightening of pheromones around the table.

A burley male with a loud, deep laugh was now sitting next to Cathy. It was hard to recognize him with so much facial hair, but I thought he was part of the wrestling team when we were younger. He leaned over toward us.

"I remember you, Cathy. But I don't remember you hanging around with us, Elena. Did you and Charles meet after high school or something?"

"He took over the place I was working. He's actually my boss."

"Oh!" He sat back, smiling and nudging the woman sitting next to him. "Mystery solved, Sylvia. He's her boss."

Sylvia's cold eyes turned toward me then looked away. "Still doesn't explain why he'd want to hang out with her instead of us."

"I think I need some water," I said to Cathy.

"I'll come with." She gave me a knowing look and I knew I was going to have to spill everything to her before she let me sit down again.

"We're going to get some water," Cathy announced to the table.

Charles looked up at me, puzzled, as if he didn't understand why someone would leave his side.

It's probably a novel experience, I thought.

As I moved away, I felt a tug in my chest, as if I were somehow tied to him. I didn't want to leave, but I definitely didn't want to sit with those people.

"Didn't ask the boss if he needed a glass too?" Sylvia said at my back. "Not such a great employee."

I heard Charles say something, but didn't pause to catch the words. The night was going from mostly bad to all bad pretty quickly.

As we grabbed bottles of water out of an ice bucket Cathy beamed at me.

"Tell me everything," she demanded, and took a drink of the water.

I related to her all that went on in the last week, ending with my indecision about staying in the position.

"Well, you two certainly give off a vibe."

"We do? What do you mean?"

"I mean there is an obvious something going on. Surely you feel it, too?"

I frowned. Maybe it did feel it.

But that pulling in my chest was definitely real.

"It could be your carpe diem moment," Cathy said. "Seize the day."

But seize what? I wondered.

It was true, Charles did interact with me more lately. But it was nothing more than relying on old high school friend at your workplace.

The only problem was that we weren’t technically friends in high school.

I liked him back then, sure, but mostly because he was one of the few people who acknowledged my existence and was kind to everyone. Come to think of it, I hadn't really known him at all. I just sat near him a few times a week.

I turned to head back to the table and ran smack into the wall that was Charles' hard chest.

He grunted and I staggered back, his hands reaching out to steady me.

"Easy there," he said, smiling. "Did I scare you?"

I rubbed my nose, squinting up at him. "How did I not smell you coming?"

"You're on sensory overload at this point," he said, gesturing around the room. "Too much of all of this." He looked down at me, frowning. "You okay? You've seemed a little tense."

I looked over at Cathy who waggled her eyebrows and then followed another friend who was pulling her arm toward the dance floor.

"I was just surprised you wanted to sit next to me with all your friends here." I looked over toward the table. They were looking over at us, frowning. "They don't look happy."

Charles bent his head toward me to talk. We all had amazing hearing, even with the distraction of the dance music that was now beginning to blast in earnest from the speakers above the stage. He spoke as quietly as possible.

"None of those people have bothered to keep in touch with me. And now all of a sudden they want to be best friends again?" He shook his head. "We've all changed."

He looked down at me. "You know me, Elena, and you heard the conversations they were trying to have. They're still stuck in high school."

He reached over and grabbed a bite-sized meat pie from the table and popped it into his mouth, watching me as he chewed.

"These aren't bad. Cathy did a good job with catering. You eat?"

I nodded.

"Good. Then let's go."

"What?"

"Do you seriously want to spend all evening here?"

I hesitated. It was true, I was miserable.

Off on the dance floor Cathy was having the good time she should be having. A good time I only hampered with my presence.

"Plus, we need to talk about what you proposed yesterday regarding the journalist position." He tucked my hand under his arm. "Come on. Let's give them something to talk about, shall we?"