Page 22 of Irresistible

“You’re right. Although, you have always been able to read me, even when I don’t know what I’m feeling,” Scarlet said, hanging her head and smiling.

“Anyway, you have feelings for this guy? What’s wrong with that? You’re allowed to fall for anyone you want to fall for,” Rebecca continued, milling about the back and preparing various plates to go out.

“I just don’t know if this is the right one to pursue. I mean, it just feels so wrong. He’s my boss. You’re not supposed to fall in love with your boss. You’re supposed to hate your boss! The whole thing just feels so inappropriate.”

“Since when does romance make any sense? Am I right, Rebecca?” Charlie asked rhetorically.

“Right!” Rebecca shouted, hustling the plates to their destinations.

“But I’ve just been hurt so many times in the past. It seems like I’m always getting cheated on. What’s to keep someone like Richard from doing that? The guys I dated before were basically losers, especially compared to Richard. He’s the CEO of a bank, for goodness’ sake. He could have any woman he wants. What makes me think that he could ever fully commit to me? Woman have to be throwing themselves at him,” Scarlet rambled.

“Has he given you any indication that he gets around?” Charlie asked expectantly.

“Well, no. But who knows? I’ve only known the guy for a few days. For all I know, he could have some crazy, dark past that he hasn’t told me about. We don’t even know what we are yet. There’s no ‘us’ yet. There’s too much at stake here. This is a bad idea, right?” Scarlet replied, trying to talk herself out of her feelings.

“Why are you trying to doom this before it even goes anywhere?” Rebecca asked, returning to the counter.

“There are just a bunch of red flags with the whole deal.”

“Are there any red flags with him? Has he given you any reason not to trust him, or to think you shouldn’t proceed?” Charlie inquired.

“I guess not. But some things just don’t make sense. This is not the kind of situation that works out.”

“According to whom?”

“According to common sense and reason. How many people do you know who are happily married to their current or former boss? How many times has a bank teller successfully pursued a romantic relationship with the CEO? This isn’t something you hear about. The whole thing is a giant red flag.”

“Can I tell you a story?” Charlie requested.

Scarlet would never say no to this question. She basically lived on Charlie’s stories. Carefully told and gathered over the course of an impressive lifetime, all of his stories had morals that were as timeless as they were true. They’re the sorts of tales that Scarlet so desired to hear from her own dad. Something told her that her dad had a particularly difficult set of stories to tell. He had been in a war and lost some close friends, as had Charlie. But it was clear that he had not processed his experiences into the sort of morsels that Charlie had to dish out to anyone who would listen.

“Absolutely,” Scarlet said, digging into her fries.

“When I was in Korea, I knew a guy called Fritz. He was a younger German kid whose parents emigrated to the states after World War II. He was quite an impressive young man. Before we started on our first campaign, he told me about this young lady back in his town that he wanted to ask out. I asked him why he didn’t try to get together with her.”

“I’m going to assume she wasn’t his boss, Charlie,” Scarlet guffawed.

“No, no she wasn’t. She was the daughter of parents who lived in the same town as Fritz’s parents back in Germany. Apparently there was some bad blood between the two families. They detected a hint of something going on and stepped in to make sure that it would go no further. Both of them were told, in no uncertain terms, that they were not to see each other. Those two were not the kind to disobey their parents, so they didn’t see each other. They wrote letters and talked on the phone, but they never saw each other.”

“That sounds like it must have been tough,” Scarlet said with half a mouthful of french fries. When she was enthralled with a good story, she always aggressively consumed whatever food was in front of her.

“It was. It continued about a year before he left for the war. He still wrote letters to her, but he never got any back. He was convinced it was because it was incredibly difficult to get mail to soldiers. But I later learned that her parents found out about their letters and threatened to cut her off financially if she ever wrote another word to him.’

“Let me guess, they ended up together and overcame the objections of their parents, just like I should overcome my obstacles with Richard. You’ve never been predictable before, Charlie, but I think I’m starting to get you more and more the longer I know you.”

“Feel free to think that,” Charlie said, looking away wistfully. “But it’s actually a much sadder story than that. Fritz died in the second battle of our campaign. I held him as he took his last breath. His last words were ‘I should have tried harder with Maria. Tell her I love her.’” That was it. At the end of it all, the petty disputes between their families didn’t matter. All that mattered was what he didn’t do, the chances he didn’t take. It was too late.”

Scarlet’s mouth hung agape, and a single fry fell from it and back onto the plate. Just when she thought she had every romantic trope down, Charlie blasted her right in the feels with a story that no one could ever write. You couldn’t make this stuff up. The way he told that story showed that he had lived every last excruciating moment of it.

“Do you see what I’m getting at? When you go to take your meet your maker, hopefully many, many, many years from now, you’re not going to commend yourself for not pursuing a love interest because he was your boss. You won’t be proud of yourself for being a professional. None of that stuff will matter to you. All you’ll be thinking is ‘Why didn’t I go for it? Why didn’t I choose what could have made me happy?’”

Scarlet understood him perfectly, and she knew that she had to see where this went. Her anxiety lessened, although she knew it would likely return several times throughout the course of the night. That’s just the kind of person she was.

“You’re right. I have to go for this, don’t I?”

Charlie winked and nodded, feeling that he had done his job in reliving one of the most painful things to happen in his life. Rebecca patted Scarlet on the shoulder and reassured her that everything was going to be okay. She finished her fries and banana split and wiped away a tear. It had been a while since one of Charlie’s stories had caused her to tear up like this.

“See why I married him? He always has a story for you, and he always puts you first. That’s kind of man you have to find,” Rebecca said, standing behind Charlie and putting her arms around his shoulders.