“And ain’t it just my luck, when every other part of me gets unstuck. You'd already be gone if it was up to me but my heart’s got a memory…”


When Darcy left this time around, he left a stronger memory than ever before. How could he show up for just one night, albeit on his birthday, and then disappear into the wind without so much as a second thought? Charlotte was more than frustrated that she kept allowing him back into her life after months of hearing nothing. She’d done that multiple times now, and wondered if she’d ever learn. As much as she deserved something better than Travis, she also deserved something better than the occasional fuck.

She thought that if she spent all her time prepping the film for the upcoming festival, she wouldn't have any time to concentrate on the ways in which she felt Darcy was doing her wrong. That only partially worked. The constant improvement of the movie meant that it was pretty much as close to perfect as it was going to get within a few weeks. And then she had an exponential amount of time to focus on Darcy. It was a vicious circle: work hard to finish work, while the lack of work pushed her to think of Darcy, so she found more work to put all her effort into. There wasn’t any way she could win.

As each week passed, Charlotte found herself wondering in passing what Darcy was up to wherever he was. When she figured he was in Saskatoon, she wondered if spending all that time with his family was what he really wanted, or if he was just doing it out of guilt and knowing that he should. She wondered if his family asked if he had anyone new in his life, and she wondered what his answer was.

On one particular night, after she had spent the day shopping for a dress to wear to the film festival, her phone dinged. With the premiere of the film getting closer, Charlotte was pretty much in constant contact with someone on the crew. She looked at her phone after it buzzed, expecting it to be Peter. He’d been begging her all week about getting things set up to reshoot a scene before the next festival because he wasn’t completely happy with the shots they had gotten. Charlotte insisted that Robbie had more than enough to cut from, and had chosen the shot because of the composition. But when she looked at her phone, she didn’t exactly know what to feel.

What’re you up to?

Could he not leave her alone? After weeks of hearing nothing, could he not just silently and effortlessly work himself out of her life? He couldn’t decide to talk to her only when it was convenient for him. She made a note to tell him that next time he was trying to get into her pants. For the time being, she decided the best course of action would be to not respond to him. He could have no power over her if she didn’t hand him power. Responding would be the worst thing she could do.

The night of her film’s premiere, Charlotte dressed herself up and caught a ride with some of the other crew members. Everyone had a plus one with them, but she tried to pay no attention to it. What did it matter? By the time they were in the theater, there wouldn’t be a point to having a plus one along. It wasn’t like they’d be able to talk to each other. But still, sitting in the theater and seeing her first professional foray into the entertainment industry up on the big screen, made her wish that she had someone next to her that she could squeeze onto. That she could lean over and whisper, I did this.

Film after film played, and by the end of the night, Charlotte truly believed they had a chance of walking away with some awards. Every dream she had about making it with her friends, and creating a name for themselves seemed like it could start to come to fruition tonight. So when their film got called for the awards of best screenplay and best cinematography, Charlotte’s heart soared. She hollered and clapped as she watched her friends take the stage on behalf of the film. This is going to be the start of something big, she thought.

When they left that night with the awards in hand, they all meandered back to North End, ready to celebrate their success. They planted the gold plated awards on the bar and bought round after round, relishing in their glory. The world was theirs for the taking, and they were getting ready to take it by storm.

The afterparty lasted about a week; with hangovers being cured by more drinking. The days blended together, and Charlotte worried whether or not she’d ever be able to make it out of this. The amount of tireless work they’d put into this film for months, was now being worked off by a stream of heavy partying. Soon, they’d actually have to get back to work to keep the film relevant for upcoming festivals.

When late June turned to early July, the crew decided on a game plan. Start the first few days of July recovering, have one last party on the fourth, and then tone it down and put their noses back to the grindstone. They couldn't allow themselves to get carried away by their spoils. All of their hard work could go spinning down the drain if they were too careless. Nothing was set in stone, and just as quickly as they were given success, they could be watching it being taken away from them.

In the three days they promised to use for recovery, Charlotte spent the majority of them in bed. Her constant migraine kept her from doing much of anything. Physical activity was limited to getting food or going to the bathroom. On the morning of the fourth, Charlotte tried to remember when she’d last taken a shower. How vile was that? And only because her hair was a greasy mess, nearly matted down to her head, she decided to actually bathe herself for the first time in god knows how long. She disgusted herself and almost found joy in the idea that after today, she wouldn’t have to drink again for a good long while.

After washing her hair twice, Charlotte wrapped a towel around herself and walked to the front door. Someone was pounding on it. Probably her neighbor. After three days of no one coming in or out of the apartment, she was probably just checking in to make sure Charlotte was still alive. She swung open the door, locked eyes with the knocker, and slammed it back shut.

He had to be kidding.

Charlotte locked the door and when back to her room. She could hear Darcy calling to her from her porch, pleading with her to reopen the door. But instead, she dug through her dresser and looked for something to wear. He was here to ruin Independence Day. Fat chance of that, she thought. Good luck ruining my buzz today.

But he wouldn’t stop knocking. The guy had to be the most annoying person on the planet. Knock knock, open up Charlotte, Darcy’s here to play. After she was dressed, she walked back out into her living room and looked at the door. The knocking had ceased for a moment, and all she heard was Darcy’s voice.

“Is this a game? Some animal mating ritual I’m not keen on?” He paused. Charlotte took a step closer to the door, setting her hand on the knob. “Did I do something wrong? If yes, open the door. If no, just keep ignoring me.”

Well dammit. She had to open the door now or else he’d assume he’d done nothing wrong and she was just playing around. Charlotte pulled open the door slowly. Darcy was leaning against the door frame, looking exhausted. When he saw her, he straightened up.

“So yes, I did something wrong.” He waited, thinking she’d begin to tell him, but she didn’t. “I left for Saskatoon, and you don’t like guys that like their family?” When she glared at him, he couldn’t help but half smile. “I bought you a nice sushi dinner and you got food poisoning?” Another glare, so he continued, “I only made you orgasm twice?”

“Darcy,” she groaned and put her hands on her hips, looking upwards. This guy really knew how to make her hate him and like him all at the same time. “You didn’t call,”

“Hey, I texted and you never responded,” he argued back.

“What’re you up to?! You might as well have just wrote, what’re you wearing?!” She finally gained the strength to look back at him. “I’m not even worth a phone call? Are you kidding me?” She slammed the door back on him. This was not how she wanted to start this day. In just a few hours she’d have to be on the beach with her friends, drinking and celebrating, with fireworks on the beach. And she’d have to pretend like she was fine. Her phone started to vibrate and she thought this was perfect. Jules never called her back, and the one time she does, she’s close to a nervous breakdown. “Jules, not a great time,”

“When you live two thousand miles away from the girl you like, how’s the best way to tell her?”

Darcy’s voice over the phone, shocked her.

“How do you tell her that you don’t want her to see anyone else… you don’t want her to sleep with anyone else… but you won’t be there to be that for her? Do you tell her that you’ve said her name while in bed with other girls? Will that convince her? What about that you went home and told your family that you met this girl and she’s too good? Is that what she needs to hear?”

Charlotte reached for the door and reopened it. Darcy kept his phone against his ear and looked at her.

“Or do you confess that you got traded to Los Angeles and hope this means you can try an actual relationship with her?”

She choked on her breath, “what?”

“I got traded three days ago,”

“And you didn’t call?” Charlotte smiled. This news was hitting her hard. It didn't excuse the way he acted the months prior, but she'd be lying if she said it didn’t make her happy.

Darcy giggled and looked down at his feet quickly before flicking his eyes back up to her. He pulled his phone away from his ear and ended the call, now just speaking directly to her. “I spent three days packing most my stuff and finding a place to live,”

“And?”

“Decided on Hermosa. A lot of the guys live there and there was a condo I could afford on my backup goalie salary.”

“So this is real?”

“This is real,” Darcy nodded and smiled. “What’re you doing tonight?”

“Celebrating my nation’s independence at the beach with some friends,” she hummed and leaned against the door. When she saw him nod like he was going to give up on trying today, she continued, “you want to come along?”

Darcy shook his head, “you enjoy your friends.”

“We’ll be North the Strand, just down the beach from 6th. You can’t miss us; Jules has a huge hot pink canopy. The police try to crack down on beach drinking, so we’re sticking with vodka drinks. We’ll be there all day though. You should swing by,”

After Darcy mentioned that he’d consider it, Charlotte shut the door and went back to trying to get herself to be more of an actual human after the three day hibernation. She took her time packing her things for the beach, remembering that she’d better put on her bikini now instead of fighting a gnarly public bathroom. And while she sifted through her kitchen, placing mixers, alcohol, and food into her beach bags, she thought about what Darcy’s new situation meant for them.

He had mentioned that he hoped they’d get to embark on a more adult relationship that contained something more than just sex, but did he actually mean it? Or was it just the simple thing to say given that she wouldn’t even open the door for him? Was he telling her all the things he knew she wanted to hear? And even if he did mean the things he’d said, was that enough for Charlotte to forget all the questionable ways he’d behaved prior? Could she ignore that just a couple weeks ago, he hit her up for a late night virtual booty call? She hoped that her friends would be able to offer more clarity. Maybe they'd be able to get a read of Darcy and figure out what his actual intentions were. If for no other reason, that’s why she hoped he’d meet them at the beach. She definitely needed help on this.

Notes

"My Heart's Got A Memory" by Eric Church.

Hope y'all are still enjoying this story! What's gonna change now that Darcy's traded to LA? ;)

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