Page 35 of Irresistible

Chapter 16

The road was clear, but Scarlet still beat the speed limit to get to Charlie’s. She dared any police officer to pull her over. Tears still flowed down her face, and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to keep it together if she had to talk to a cop. One of two things would happen. First, either she would be arrested for acting like a complete crazy person during a traffic stop. Or second, and more likely, the cop would decide that he didn’t want the hassle and just let her off with a warning. In any event, and luckily for Scarlet, they kept their distance.

There was fresh snow covering the road, almost causing her to spin out several times during difficult turns. Scarlet knew better than to drive like this, but she felt as though her heart was going to burst. It had already been beaten, broken, used, and thrown back in her face. Now it was full of anger and resentment that was it no longer capable of holding. She had to offload some of it before it killed her.

Within minutes, she pulled into the familiar parking lot. She had to sit for a second to make sure that she wouldn’t make a scene when she entered the restaurant. Given her current emotional state, it was far from out of the question.

“Charlie! Do you have a minute?” Scarlet said, trying to hide her fury and exasperation as she entered the door.

“Of course. You know I always have time for you. Rebecca, can you take over for me for a second?” he called out, racing over to the nearest booth. “Oh, and put in the usual for Scarlet.

He could tell that she was in a desperate state.

“What happened? Did that guy do something to you? I swear, if he did, I’ll go over there right now. I don’t care what kind of business he runs. I’ll go to jail for this one!” he spat.

Charlie was a sage, but he also possessed an incredibly short wick when it came to people he cared about. Scarlet had no doubt that he would use every trick in the book to try to hurt Richard if he had actually physically harmed Scarlet.

“No. Nothing like that. No need to go digging up your old army things,” she sniffled.

“He didn’t lay his hands on you?” Charlie asked for confirmation.

“No. We got together last night. I know, you say that we kids do it too young these days. I know,” Scarlet started, heading off an anticipated and likely objection from Charlie.

“That doesn’t matter right now. But clearly he hurt you. What happened?” Charlie asked, still convinced that he would need to seek revenge.

“I just thought he was the one, Charlie! How could I be so stupid. I always do this to myself. I let myself romanticize life and then life teaches me that there’s nothing romantic about it. It’s just cold and brutal. Everyone is out for themselves, and once guys get what they want, they show you their true colors. No offense to you, Charlie. I know you’re one of the good ones,” she ranted.

“How did he show his true colors? Did he not call you afterwards? What’s going on?” Charlie said. Scarlet knew that he was being supportive, but also growing impatient.

“I think he’s seeing another woman.”

“How do you know? Did she show up? Did she call?”

“Well, this morning I noticed that the screen on his phone kept lighting up. I didn’t go into his phone, but I did look at the screen to see what the big deal was. He was still asleep. I noticed that there was a picture message from a woman.”

“A picture message?” Charlie asked, clearly not seeing the implications.

“It was a naked picture, Charlie. Some actress sent him a naked picture. Apparently they used to date and she’s still sending him nude photos. I know guys. Again, no offense, but there’s no way he’s not still interested in this woman. Yet he slept with me. I thought we had this great connection. I feel so used! That’s the only word I can use to describe it, really. This keeps happening to me, Charlie. Should I just give up on ever finding love? I think this was the closest I’m ever going to get, and it just belly flopped,” Scarlet said, struggling to breathe normally through the tears.

“First of all, you don’t have to apologize. I’ve known enough men to understand that a lot of us are absolute pigs. Some of us are good. But that’s not the important thing right now. So you found out that he’s seeing someone else?” Charlie asked for confirmation. He always ended his thoughts by repeating your last sentence as question.

“Yeah.”

“Did he acknowledge it, or did he deny it? People usually vehemently deny these things or try to make it seem like you’re the crazy one. It’s really a weird thing, but it happens almost every time.”

“You know, Charlie, this wasn’t a reaction I’ve ever seen before. I’ve caught men cheating. I’ve caught way more men than I care to admit, actually. He didn’t chase after me insisting that he was innocent. He sat there calm, explained that they used to date, and actually expected me to believe that she was sending these nudes to him randomly, hoping that they could get back together. What a load of crap,” Scarlet said before pausing to blow her nose.

“He said that this wasn’t the first time she has done this?”

“Yeah. He said it’s been happening once every few months, but that he deletes them and refuses to respond to her. I’m not sure which idea insults me more: that he actually expects me to believe that he’s not with this woman anymore or that he expects me to believe that he would delete random nudes from his ex without a further thought. Men don’t do that, and women don’t send random nudes to men. None of this adds up at all, and he’s expecting me to just believe him like I haven’t been through this before. It’s pathetic, really.”

“Did he yell at you at all?”

“No. Like I said, it was really odd. He kind of just sat there. He was…confident. He explained things calmly and told me that it was up to me to believe it or not. It’s almost more insulting that he wasn’t angry, you know? I mean, I caught him in an absolutely embarrassing position. The least you could do is act like you’re upset.”

Charlie let the point linger in the air as Rebecca stopped by the table to drop off the banana split and fries.

“And you don’t believe him at all? Not even a little bit?” Charlie asked, stroking his chin with his right index finger.