“Exactly.”
Chari shifts, crossing her legs and giving me a brief peek at her whole body.
“Hayden was supposed to go, but he had a family emergency. So I’m taking his place.”
I can see she doesn’t understand yet.
“I’m going to Switzerland on the 23rd for a long weekend. I want you to come with me.”
I’ve never wanted anything so badly as I want her to say yes. I know the area well. Hayden’s parents have a house there. The thought of showing her around, of sharing this experience with her . . .
“I’ll have meetings, of course. But there’ll be plenty of downtime too.”
“How many days?”
“Five. Thursday to Monday.”
She presses her lips together.
“That’ll be all three of my personal days. But it’s far enough away that I can probably get them off.”
When my stomach does a flip as she inches toward saying yes, I should be terrified. This is the opposite of slow.
“So what do you say?” I tried for a casual tone, but I can tell I didn’t quite achieve it. My voice sounded strained to my own ears.
“I’ll put in for them tomorrow.”
I can’t help but smile.
“Great.”
More than great. Fucking awesome. Just last week, I was dreading this trip—now it’s all I can think about.
“Holy crap. Are we really going to Switzerland? I’ve never been there before.”
She looks happy. I know I am—a deep kind of happiness and satisfaction I haven’t felt for a while. It’s a huge turnaround from how I was feeling an hour ago.
“You’ll love it.”
“I’m sure I will.” She pauses, then adds, “I’d also love to finish our conversation from last night.”
Something else I learned about Chari Atwood, third grade teacher, that I wouldn’t have expected.
She likes to talk dirty.
Luckily, so do I.
“Remind me, tiger, where did we leave off?”
14
Chari
“Happy birthday to you.”
The entire bar finishes singing with a flourish. My brother, never one to shy away from attention, lifts his beer in salute as cheers go up across the room.
Saturday night at The Wheelhouse in Bridgewater. Nothing quite like it.