Charlie ignored me. “And he wouldn’t stop talking. He said he’d been reading his horoscope in an old magazine before I arrived. He said it told him that he needed to take more chances and that soon a surly man in a leather jacket would cross his path.”
“Wow,” I said in awe. “Dude’s got moves. Holy crap.”
“I told him I didn’t believe that, and he laughed at me. He said it didn’t matter if I didn’t believe it or not, because here I was, and here he was, and his name was Robert, and that it was very nice to meet me.”
I sighed dreamily.
Charlie reached up and touched his camera again, not really doing anything with it but seemingly just checking to make sure it was there. I wondered if that was his armor, seeing everything through a lens, almost removed. “Before I knew it, he was being called back, and then I was being called back, and for reasons I couldn’t quite explain, I was kicking myself for not doing more. And then the doctor was sticking his finger up my ass—”
“Ugh! No! Go back to the sweetness!”
“—and I told him to hurry the hell up because I had to do something.” Charlie grimaced. “It probably wasn’t the first time I’d said that to someone who was inside me.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.”
“By the time I got back out, the room was empty. I figured he was gone or still back in with his doctor, and I thought about waiting. But that seemed a little….”
“Creepy?” I supplied helpfully.
Charlie glared at me. “I was going to say forward.”
“That works too.”
“But it didn’t matter, because as soon as I went outside, he was there sitting on a bench under a tree. As soon as he saw me, he stood up and all but demanded that I take him to lunch.” Charlie reached up and rubbed his jaw. “Haven’t been able to shake him since.”
I laughed, delighted. “Like you’d want to.”
He smiled ruefully. “I suppose. And maybe I was grouchy about it first, but I knew I couldn’t waste time anymore. After my marriage dissolved, I… went a little wild. I told myself I wasn’t going to be tied down again. And then Vaguyna Muffman came into my world, all sequins and feathers and an ass like you wouldn’t believe.” He looked down at his hands. “I should have done more. For her. You regret all the chances you don’t take, some more than others. She knew, though, I think. She’d be happy for me.”
“I know she would,” I told him. “Robert’s pretty great, huh?”
“He is,” Charlie agreed. He glanced over at me. “Armor, kiddo. My jacket. My camera. Your… you. It’s okay to have it. But don’t let it be all you know.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He rolled his eyes. “That I find hard to believe. Obtuse, maybe, but not clueless. You’re smarter than the rest of us combined. If Paul and Sandy can do what they did, I expect you to do the same.”
“It sounds like you’re trying to pimp me out. I won’t have it, Charlie.”
He snorted. “Of course not, dear.” He opened his mouth to say something else but then closed it and shook his head.
Though I’d probably regret it, I asked, “What?”
“It’s—I don’t know. You know when you meet someone, and you know them from somewhere, but for the life of you, you can’t remember from where?”
“Sure,” I said slowly. “Happens to the best of us.”
He looked frustrated. “At the wedding, when Jeremy came, I could have sworn I’d seen him before.”
I blinked. “Wait, what? Really? Where?”
“I don’t know. But he looked familiar. Could just be my mind playing tricks on me.” His lips curved. “He’s hot, though.”
“You’re dating his father,” I hissed at him, horrified. “You can’t just say things like that!”
“I speak only the truth—”
I threw my hands up. “I hate this. I hate everything about this. I’m done with this conversation. You—”