Explosions

J.J was laying on the couch watching Captain America, Charlie laying on his chest. She chewed on her lip nervously, focusing on the sound of his heartbeat. He stroked her hair gently. She played with a little string hanging off his shirt, but her phone rang, snapping her out of her daze.

“It’s June,” said Charlie, standing up. “I’m gonna take this.”

“Okay,” J.J. said. He pinched her butt, smiling.

She stuck her tongue out.

“Hey Junebug,” said Charlie, answering her phone. She stepped into the kitchen and jumped up on the counter.

“Char, what is going on?” asked June, her voice humming through the phone.

“What are you talking about?” Charlie replied.

“I saw the press conference,” said June. “I saw Fitzpatrick there. You still work for the Texans, right?”

“Yes, he’s here.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“I don’t know, I hadn’t thought about it. We’re having coffee”-

“You cannot have coffee, Charlotte,” June said harshly.

“Why?” asked Charlie.

“Well, are you going to tell J.J.?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t going to.”

“That’s why. You can’t be sneaking around behind his back with one of his new teammates.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, but you can’t push this off. Just tell him you used to date, and it’s no big deal. There’s no feelings there anymore. You’ve been dating J.J. for what, almost two and a half years now? You haven’t been with Ryan in like four years. There aren’t any feelings there.”

Charlie was silent.

“There’s no feelings for him anymore, right?” asked June.

“June, I don’t know what I feel right now,” Charlie responded. “I thought I didn’t have any feelings, but when I saw him…I just don’t know.”

“Charlie, I thought after your last fight, you were done with him.”

“I thought so too, but like I said, when I saw him”-

“There is no option for you but to tell J.J. about you an Ryan. I’m sorry, but…you know what, I’m not sorry. I know I’m right. This is going to blow up in your face if you don’t tell him. There’s pictures of you at Harvard after games with him. They’re in the papers, probably online somewhere too. If someone sees you out with him, they’ll start digging. J.J. is the golden boy of the Houston Texans, and you’re dating him. As soon as a reporter gets a chance, they will dig their claws into you, and they will not let go.”

Charlie sighed, “You’re right. You’re always right. What would I do without you, June?”

“I don’t know, Char, I think you would have moved to Maine or something and worked for some Ma-And-Pa place.”

“Could be worse – I could live in Seattle.”

“Don’t even get me started,” June chortled. “You know how hard it is being a Rams fan and living in a city filled with Seahawks fans?”

“You only remind me every time we talk.”

“Alright, well Dean’s getting fussy. I’d better put him to bed.”

“Tell him Auntie Charlotte says hello,” Charlie said.

“I will,” June said. “Love ya, Char! Call me if you need me.”

“Bye, June!” said Charlie.

She hung up the phone as J.J. came into the kitchen. He grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water.

“How’s June?” he asked.

“Good,” Charlie said. “Still stuck in a division rivalry city.”

“All for the sake of love, right?” chuckled J.J.

“Yeah, she loves Ben so much she can look past his flaws, as she puts it,” said Charlie.

“What about you?” J.J. asked, leaning on the counter across from her.

“The Patriots aren’t in your division. You have nothing to worry about. My first and foremost dedication is to this team.”

“This is why I love you.”

“Shut up,” giggled Charlie.

---

Charlie stared up at the ceiling. Ryan was asleep next to her, his back to her. His muscles moved lightly as his slow breathing carried on. She turned to him, tracing invisible lines on his skin. He shivered and looked at her.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

He smiled and turned over to face her. She leaned down to kiss him, and he cupped her face in his hands.

“I love you, Char,” he said.

“I love you, Ryan,” Charlie replied.

She sat up and crossed her legs. She grabbed his shirt, and she pulled it over her head. He put his hand on her knee, and she played with his fingertips.

“Something on your mind?” he asked.

“I want to be with you,” Charlie said. “It hurts when you’re away. I never hear from you. I never see you. You come and go so quickly, and I just want to be with you.”

“Baby, you know I’m here as much as I can be,” said Ryan.

“It’s not enough,” she replied.

“I’m trying, Char. But Harvard and St. Louis are pretty far apart. I’ve never been in the NFL before, and I’m trying to work it out.”

“Well…do better. I have the right to be upset, and I know it might sound like I’m being a baby, but I have feelings and they deserve to be acknowledged.”

Ryan was silent. He sat up and looked into her eyes. She blinked a couple times before looking away. He touched her chin, moving her head so that she was looking at him again. He kissed her. When their lips parted, she rested her forehead against his.

“I’m here now,” he said. “And I’m here for awhile. And I love you.”

Charlie smiled and said, “I know.”

“I know you have feelings,” Ryan said. “I’m not denying them. I’m not ignoring them. When I see you, I become so overwhelmed with emotions that I don’t know what to do. There’s a picture of us in my locker in St. Louis – the one of us at the ice skating rink – and every day when I see it, I want to run back to you, here. But you have to live your life here. You have to finish school. You have to follow your own dreams, and that’s why I don’t come back very often. If I came back here and was with you all the time, you wouldn’t be getting an education. I wouldn’t be able to play football.

“So,” Ryan continued, “while I’m here, I want to help you where I can. I want to take you to dinner every night. I want to make love to you and go wherever you want to go and do whatever you want to do. I want every ounce of you I can get for the next month.”

“Well…” Charlie said. “I guess I can live with that.”

He kissed her again, and she put her arms around his neck. He moved his hands under the over-sized t-shirt on her tiny frame. She pushed him back down to the bed, and he pulled her down on top of him.

---

Charlie grabbed her glasses off the bathroom sink and slipped them onto the bridge of her nose. J.J. was flipping through the new playbook, the bed covers folded over his lap. She sat down next to him, braiding her hair.

“Can we talk?” asked Charlie, glancing nervously at J.J.

“Is this one of those ‘I’m going to break up with you’ talks?” he laughed.

“Yeah, definitely,” Charlie said.

“Well, Miss Elliott, you have my undivided attention,” said J.J., tossing the playbook over to the dresser.

“I know Ryan,” said Charlie. “We went to Harvard together.”

“Something tells me you aren’t telling me this because you had a couple classes together,” said J.J.

“No,” replied Charlie. “He and I dated on and off for a good portion of my college years. I just thought I owed it to you to know that.”

“Well, I appreciate it,” said J.J. “I’m not really worried about anything. Should I be?”

“No,” Charlie said. “We had a pretty bad fight my senior year. I hadn’t talked to him much since then, but contact hadn’t been totally lost. Not until I started dating you.”

“I’m touched.”

“Justin, I’m serious. I wanted you to know from me.”

“Who else would have told me?”

“I don’t know.” Charlie thought about what June had said. “The media liked to follow us around a little in college. Not a lot and not anything that I would consider bad, but you never know how people are gonna blow this shit out of proportion.”

She moved to sit on his lap, and he put his arms around her waist.

“I love you,” she said, “and I thought you should hear it from me first.”

J.J. touched his lips to her neck and said, “I love you.”

Charlie closed her eyes as his hands traveled the contours of her body. She took in his every move, and he sent shivers down her spine. She did love him. She loved every part of him, and he loved her.