Off the Wall

Christie rolled her eyes. “Guy stuff? That’s pretty immature if I do say so myself.”

“Well whatever,” Charlie snapped.

Christie stared at him in disbelief. “I didn’t mean for you to get an attitude. I was just saying.”

“No, no, no. It’s my fault. I think I’m just a little on edge today or rather at this moment.”

“Aww, what’s wrong Charlie?” Christie asked. She stepped closer to him and softly put her hand on his cheek. She gave it a slight pinch before rubbing smooth circles around the area.

“Christie, if you don’t mind me asking, what the fuck are you doing?”

Christie froze and she turned red. “Fuck!”

Charlie grabbed her hand from his face and held it up against his chest. “Is something wrong? You can keep rubbing my cheek like that, I actually liked it. I was just wondering why you were doing it. It seemed so…. Strange to say the least.”

She looked at him with an almost guilty look on her face. “Can we sit down please? I guess I should have told you that day in the parking lot, but we got too.. Urm lost in each other, I should say.”

Charlie was perplexed as he led Christie onto the couch. Then it dawned on him what she was talking about. “You mean about you ex-husband?” He asked softly.

She nodded her head. “Yes,” she admitted with a defeated tone in her voice. “You know how I was just rubbing your cheek?” Charlie shook his head. “Well, I always use to do that with him.”

“Your ex-husband?”

“Yes. I always use to do it before he shaved because he always looked so funny with stubble.” She smiled, as if remembering a pleasant memory. She then quickly shook her head and grinned at Charlie in an embarrassed way. “Sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“Going off about ex-husband?”

“I don’t mind it,” Charlie said. “I actually want to learn basically everything about you. Even though that does sound sort of creepy, ha. Whatever, I just think you’re a cool chick Christie. What was your ex-husband’s name by the way?”

“Robert.”

“Oh.”

“Oh Charlie, I’m just so sorry!” Christie launched herself at Charlie and into his arms. “I’m just scared that if you knew everything about me then you wouldn’t want me or wouldn’t want anything to do with me. It’s already bad enough that I’m five years older than you. Shit, Charlie. You just don’t even know the half of it.”

Looking into her cerulean eyes, Charlie felt sad. There were secrets that he was hiding from Christie, especially the gigantic one that occurred less than twenty four hours ago. Patting her clumsily on the back, he tried to calm her done. “Shh, shh Chris. I won’t leave you.”

“You promise?”

“I swear, cross my heart and hope to die.”

She sat back into her original position; the oppose side of where Charlie was. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she looked miserably. “Please don’t judge me after you’ve heard this. I probably should have told you this right off the bat, but I didn’t.”

“Christie, I swear. Nothing that you are about to tell me will change my perception, view, or idea about you.”

She took a deep breath before boldly staring him in the eyes. “I have kids.”