Page 53 of Love By The Falls

Charlie squints and I cringe. Charlie hates it when people refer to his size. He’s a bit on the smaller side,but I’ve told him he’ll catch up soon. Geez, this is already off to a bad start.

I clear my throat, hoping to break the awkward silence. “So, Charlie. Jason wanted to meet you and say hello.”

“That’s right,” says Jason. “I—um—I wanted to… say hello.” He rocks back and forth on his black boots.

I roll my eyes.

Charlie looks at me and I immediately fix my face with a smile and wait for Jason to continue.

When Jason says nothing, I fidget with my sleeves until I finally give up and sigh loudly this time.

Charlie moves closer to me and cups his hand over his mouth. “Can I go now?”

I look over at Jason and he’s got his hands in his pockets and is bouncing on his toes. The energy is all wrong and if he won’t fix the situation, then I won’t bail him out. “Sure.”

Charlie races back to Anthony, and they climb up the stairs to the larger blue slide.

“That was terrible,” says Jason.

I don’t disagree, but I stay quiet.

“He doesn’t want to talk to me at a park. We need to do this again at a place where I’m not competing with friends and,” he points to the playground, “and…”

I help him out, since he’s obviously floundering. Jason was never good at competing with others. “Slides.”

“Yeah. Slides.”

“A child’s attention span is pretty small. You’ll always compete against a friend, the television, a bike, or a freaking worm, for goodness’ sake.”

“Then let me take you both out for dinner. This way, we can talk uninterrupted.”

Jane walks over to us at that moment. I wonder if she read the horror on my face.

“Hey, Jason,” she says.

Jason’s greeting is cold. “Jane.”

My friend looks at me and searches for clues on my face. I nod slightly, giving her the ‘all okay’ signal we hadn’t rehearsed, but she understood.

“Have dinner with me, Charlotte. If things aren’t going well, you and Charlie can leave at any time. It’s still a public place.”

I consider his offer. Charlie’s been begging to go to this new restaurant that opened last month, but the menu is too expensive. With no shame, I suggest it to Jason.

To his credit, he doesn’t flinch or hesitate. “I’ll make the reservations tonight. Can I have your number to text you the time?”

Damn. I don’t want to give him my number, but I can always block him if it comes to that. “Give me your phone.”

He hands it to me, and I type in my number on a text message and send it to myself. “There. But only send me the date and time. Charlie and I will meet you there.”

“All right. Thanks, Char.”

“It’s Charlotte.”

I turn and Jane follows me a few steps down the pathway until we’re out of earshot.

“You can breathe now,” says Jane, and I exhale loudly, lifting my hair from my brow.

“Damn, that was hard,” I say, my palms sweating.

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