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Why We Call Each Other

She Won't Be Lonely Long

“Heaven help the fool who did her wrong. It’s too late, too bad: she’s too far gone. He should’ve thought of that before he left her all alone. If she’s lonely now, she won’t be lonely long…”


When Darcy left, part of Charlotte thought she’d hear from him pretty frequently at night. She thought that if he hadn’t brought a girl back to his place in Minnesota, that she’d get a late night text from him asking if she was up. The expectation went unrealized. When a week passed, Charlotte didn’t think anything of it; he was busy, probably traveling… But then two weeks. And a month. Then two months. And three.

The one month mark was when she ultimately lost any and all sight of who Darcy was. His existence was a mere memory in her life at that point. Things had changed after he left. Drastically. And for the better. As Charlotte’s boss and Travis’ boss went on location together, Charlotte and Travis went to bed with each other. Despite it possibly being a short fling while their work parents were away, Travis actually spent the night. The whole night. And woke up beside Charlotte, not looking to bolt. He asked her to be exclusively his, which if she was being honest, kind of turned her off. She wasn’t his, she was no one’s but herself. But she also realized Travis’ intention was different from the way he actually expressed it. He just didn't want her seeing any other guys. And so she accepted that offer.

In the second month post-Darcy, Charlotte and some friends she’d made in college proposed the idea of a short film. It was everything she ever wanted. In a professional, and non-academic setting, she was going to get the chance to produce an actual movie. Yes, it’d be pretty low budget, but the crew was made up of the most talented people she knew: her friends. Jules was going to be doing production design. Their friend Peter would be the cinematographer, Austin the gaffer, Gina the sound mixer, Robbie the editor, and Lindsey the director. Together, the base of their crew was solid, and Charlotte knew they could put together something spectacular.

At first, she tried to balance her work and the pre-production of the film. But being the sole producer was leaving her open to failure, and having to spend so much time at her job was taking away from the work she knew she could be doing on the short. So she quit. It was definitely a huge risk, and Travis found it to be wildly uncalculated. They’d only been together a month, but he still found room to chastise Charlotte for her decision. How are you going to pay your rent? You can’t dip into your savings for something this absurd. How are you going to eat? He wanted to point out all the flaws in her thinking, but for everything he said, Charlotte just responded: I’m making a movie.

If she had to starve for this movie, she would. If she had to live in her car for this movie, she would. And if she had to throw away a steady job and income for this movie, she would. And she did. This was the dream. The end goal. The reason she’d gone to school and majored in business; so that when she did have the opportunity to produce a movie, she’d know what to do. This was it. And she figured what hurt most about Travis’ words was that Charlotte knew this was his end game too. He wanted to do the exact same thing. And had he been the one in this position, she figured he’d be doing the same thing she was. The problem was that he wasn’t in the position. And she hadn’t asked him to help.

He was supportive when they were both at dead end jobs, doing bitch grunt work for producers who really didn’t pay them much attention. But the moment Charlotte had a chance to advance her career in a meaningful way, Travis felt left in the dust. Yes, she understood the importance of riding coattails in this industry. It was a joke that she and her friends pointed out often. I’m counting on you to make it big so I can ride your coattails. The difference was that her relationship with her friends had been built around undying loyalty and mild-cheating on college exams. That core group of friends would’ve gone to the mattresses for each other. They were all working hard, so that on the slim and improbable chance a job stuck, they could help each other along.

But Travis was new. And Charlotte’s relationship with him was based around orgasms and cuddling. They were good orgasms, but they paled in comparison to the loyalty her friends had for each other. What happened in their relationship from there, was a lot of secrets. Charlotte resorted to not talking about the film in front of Travis. She actively went out of her way to bring up anything else. She secretly began to dip into her savings account to pay off her rent. And when it came time for principle photography, and she was gone twelve hours a day, she pretended like she’d just been hanging out with friends.

Truth was, this movie was just as great as she thought it would be. And sure, maybe she was a little biased, but everyone on set could see it. This was something else. Halfway through the third month post-Darcy, principle photography wrapped, and Robbie collected the footage and hid himself in the little cave of his edit bay and got to work. It was also at this point that Charlotte truly began to see Travis breaking from the inside out. Her long days sent his brain on a wild goose chase. As he remained stuck at his office job, he always wanted to know where she was. And if he happened to be off one day, he insisted on going places with her. She thought it was because he assumed she was cheating on him, and when she brought that point up to try and explain that that was certainly not the case, it only seemed to heighten his anxiety about it. Charlotte really did like Travis. For all of the qualities she was starting to dislike, he had two that she absolutely adored. But she wanted to be able to have him and her career, and not have to sacrifice one for the other.

It was four months post-Darcy when Charlotte woke up one morning and saw a text. She looked beside her where Travis was turned over, still sleeping. As gently as she could, she slipped out of bed and walked out into the kitchen to deal with the matter at hand.

Back in town.

Three little words. That’s all he said. Like those three words would send her running back to him, ready to have a couple more nights of meaningless sex. Every part of her conscious brain didn’t want it. She was in a serious and committed relationship now. Travis was great… mostly. He stayed the night. He didn't shoot up like a rocket post-sex and flee. But every part of her animalistic brain wanted to see Darcy again. If only for the masochistic reason of wanting to see how he looked. Who was she kidding? It was late April now, he’d look exactly the same as how he looked in early January. But what if he looked better? It never occurred to her that Darcy could look worse. The same or better, that’s it.

She started to type out a response, but then deleted it. What was the right way to go about this? She’d be meeting with a guy who wasn’t her boyfriend, and surely couldn’t tell her boyfriend that she was meeting another guy. This all spelled out disaster.

I can only meet briefly tonight.

After Charlotte hit send, an answer came back only a minute or two later.

That works.

Charlotte wondered if he understood that meant there wasn’t going to be any sex. Probably not. It wouldn’t be hard to lie to Travis. All she had to do was say she was going to see a cut of the film. Realistically, they probably had another month or so left for post-production, but the lie would stick because she had been spending so much time working on it.

She wasn't going to be meeting him until evening, but she also didn’t want to have to stick around Travis’ place where he’d be home all day. That would just stress her out. She went back to his room and started getting dressed in the change of clothes she’d brought along. As soon as she started to make a little bit of noise, Travis twisted awake.

He squinted past his eyelids and looked up at her, “where’re you going?”

Charlotte stepped into her pants, “with Jules. We’re giving notes on the cut so I’ll be gone most the day.” She picked up her purse and made sure she had everything. Satisfied, she walked to his side of the bed and bent down to kiss him. It was just a quick peck, like she couldn’t muster anything more after having just lied to his face. “I’ll call,”

Travis watched her go. Once she was out of his apartment, she sucked in a deep breath. She was actually doing this. Going to meet with a boy tonight who was really just looking for one thing. When she got in her car, she headed straight home. Really, she had no intention of seeing Jules or even telling her that Darcy had texted. If she had to vocalize that this was actually happening, she probably wouldn't do it. Which would’ve been the smart thing. Don't do this. But clearly she wasn't in the mood to act smart or think straight. She just knew what her impulsive brain wanted.

Charlotte spent the entire day sitting on her couch, doing absolutely nothing. She couldn't keep her mind off of what was going to happen tonight. Not that anything was going to happen tonight. She wasn’t about to cheat on Travis just because Darcy was back in town. But lord, if she wasn't thinking about the way he made her feel those two nights they were together. Throughout the afternoon, she exchanged text messages with Darcy, planning out the logistics of where to meet. The team was staying at a hotel in Anaheim, and he thought it’d be easiest to meet at a hotel lounge in a city halfway between them. At this point, Charlotte decided she would drive her own car. That would force her to refrain from drinking too much, and would ensure that she’d be driving back home tonight. Set yourself up for success, she thought.

When she looked at herself in the mirror that evening on her way out, even she found her outfit to be pretty comical. She didn't look bad by any stretch of the imagination. But compared to what Darcy saw the first time he was in town, this outfit made her look rather nun-like. She had put on black dress pants with a white button down shirt, and a thin black blazer over it. It looked like she was going to a job interview more than anything. And that’s exactly what she was looking for. A sign to Darcy that this wasn’t going to be anything more than a conversation between them; a catching up of friends. Nothing more, nothing less.

Getting into her car, Charlotte felt a great amount of pressure on her chest. She was either having a heart attack, or a panic attack; neither one being too great. She had to chill out. Meeting up with a friend, regardless of gender, was not against any dating rules. She could have male friends and not have it mean anything. Sure, she’d have to make that male friend cognizant to the fact that she was dating someone and that nothing was going to go down between them. But after she did that, what was the harm in having a drink? Nothing.

She drove on autopilot, fearing that it was a little strange to meet up in the lounge of a hotel though. With all those empty rooms upstairs, taunting her. He thought that one through. Very sneaky. When the valet parked her car, and Charlotte found herself walking into the hotel lobby, she prayed that she wasn’t being completely foolish. She prayed that Darcy wouldn't overreact, or react at all for that matter; that he’d allow her a clean getaway without much of a hassle. And she prayed she wouldn’t regret not telling anyone where she was.

Notes

"She Won't Be Lonely Long" by Clay Walker.

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Comments

OMG I NEED MORE!!

tangerine21 tangerine21
9/9/19

omgggg i need more!!!!! this is one of the best stories i have ever read!

racheal racheal
3/29/19

Oh no

Futuremrs__ Futuremrs__
2/27/19

I just hope Darcy isn’t “living it up”

ugh this makes my stomach hurt