Page 20 of Country Road Romance

“I think you’re making a lot of assumptions about whether this Jared guy is toxic or not.”

Charlie felt a little bit of irritation rising up at that, but he didn’t say anything. Sheri was on the brink of giving him a really good telling-off, and he didn’t want to make it worse.

“Just trust me that I know what I’m doing,” he said. “I won’t do anything that would make you ashamed of me.”

She frowned, and he knew she didn’t believe him.

“That remains to be seen,” she said. “But in any case, I’m going to go to bed and try to get at least a bit of sleep. This has been a very exhausting day, and I don’t think the rest of the weekend is going to get any better. I strongly suggest that you get some sleep, too. Because the rest of the weekend is going to take a lot out of you, too. Once again,stay out of trouble.”

“I give you my word.”

She harrumphed at that and left the room.

After she was gone Charlie took off his clothes and got into bed, relishing the feeling of finally being able to relax. Sheri had been right about one thing, at least. This had been a very long day, and he had no idea what the future held for him. He could just about imagine the look on Jared’s face when he was informed that he was going to be taking Charlie to meet his family.

Thinking of Jared made Charlie feel all kinds of things. He knew it was more than a little crazy that he was already catching feelings. They’d only barely met, and Jared had been more prickly than welcoming. Even so, there was…something…between the two of them. Charlie wasn’t sure that Jared had felt it or, if he did, that he would accept it for what it was. He had the feeling that Jared was the kind of person who would fight back against his feelings until there was no choice but to face them.

That’s okay. I can work with that.

Exasperated that he wasn’t going to be able to sleep, Charlie got out of bed and padded to the window. He threw open the shades and looked out at the city of Huntington spread out below him, with the Ohio River not too far in the distance. Even though he’d never been here before, he still felt like it was home. Maybe it was just being in West Virginia, or maybe there really was something about this little city on the shores of the river that called to him in some way he could barely name.

Or maybe it’s the fact that Jared lives here,a little voice inside his head remarked.Maybe you’re just so desperate for love that you’ll fall for the first guy that crosses your path, and you’ll fall in love with the city as a way of getting closer to him.

Charlie sighed and leaned his head against the window. Somehow life managed to get more complicated despite his best efforts.

He wasn’t sure how long he stood there at the window, but finally he started to feel drowsy enough to attempt to sleep again. He wasn’t sure that he was going to be able to get any rest at all, but he figured that it was at least worth a try. He got back into bed, and to his relief, was soon asleep.

CHAPTER 7

Jared woke up, and for a blessed few minutes he was able to deceive himself into thinking that everything that had happened the night before was just some weird dream. After all, it just seemed too far-fetched that he would have not only managed to meet Charlie Garrett but also had a surprisingly nice time with him in the rose garden, before everything had turned to absolute shit due to the presence of a virulent homophobe and Charlie’s unexpectedly violent temper.

Then it slowly dawned on him that all of that had definitely not been a dream and that, in turn, made him realize that he was going to have to deal with all of this now that it was morning of the next day.

Sure enough, as soon as he looked at his phone he saw that every major outlet and minor gossip rag was running a story about how Charlie Garrett, who was trying to make the switch into bigger and better and more prestigious productions, had punched someone in a bar in the middle of nowhere, West Virginia. The snide tone in many of them was impossible to miss.

How could I have fucked this up so badly?He kept asking himself.

He guess he shouldn’t have been that surprised. Somehow that seemed to be the story of his life. No matter how hard he tried to do the right thing, no matter how close he seemed to get to feeling some sense of happiness and accomplishment, he ended up sabotaging it anyway.

Makes me think I should just give up.

That wasn’t an option, of course, and so a short time later he got dressed and made his way to the office.

He was painfully aware of many of the angry looks he was getting as he walked through the halls, but he was particularly dreading seeing Rebecca. Indeed, she was in an even worse mood than she’d been in the day before.

“It’s about time you showed up,” she snapped as he stepped into the main office, and he bit his tongue to keep from telling her that he was actually earlier than normal.

“I, uh, I’m sorry about what happened last night,” he said, the words clearly inadequate.

“In my office,” she said curtly.

He followed her inside.

As soon as the door was shut Rebecca lookedmuchless angry. In fact, she looked more tired than anything as she plopped herself into her desk chair and leaned her head back to look up at the ceiling. Jared took a seat across from her, not yet sure how this whole thing was going to play out. Was she going to reprimand him? Yell at him so that the rest of the office would see that she was doing something proactive? Might she even suspend him or, heaven forbid, fire him?

Not that he would have minded getting fired from this deadend job. Not really, anyway. It’s not like he was ever doing much that he enjoyed, with the exception of the Film Festival.

“I hope you know that I’m not really as mad at you as I made it look out there,” she said, not taking her eyes off the ceiling. “But one has to put on a certain appearance for prying eyes,y’know? I don’t want it getting back to City Council that I’m not being proactive when one of my subordinates messes up.”

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