Family Secrets

Charlie could not shake a feeling of concern as he looked at his girlfriend from across the table. Dark circles underlined her eyes and her brown hair, which normally was voluminous with a slight curl, hung limply around her shoulders. Her dark, chocolate colored eyes were downcast and she appeared to be trying to stare a hole into her plate as she mindlessly pushed her food around it with her fork—she had hardly taken two bites since the plate was put in front of her.

“Bridge,” Charlie started to say cautiously. “Are you alright?” Bridgette looked up quickly at his words and plastered what Charlie recognized right away as a fake smile across her face.

“Yeah, of course! Why?” She answered in a cheery voice, internally wishing that Charlie would just drop the subject matter. He did not.

“You, you,” Charlie stuttered, not really sure on how to proceed in telling his girlfriend that she did not look okay without offending her. “You just haven’t said much tonight and you’ve hardly touched your food since it arrived.” He finished, deciding to focus more on her actions that her looks. Bridgette quickly glanced down at her full plate of pasta before looking back up at her boyfriend and shrugging.

“Sorry, I’m just not that hungry I guess.” It was not a lie; after her little ‘episode’ the night before, her stomach still felt a little queasy and her body did not feel strong enough to be able to intake food and digest it. Charlie nodded his head, not all at believing what he was being told.

“You’re not still mad at me are you? From yesterday? Because, I’m sorry I yelled and got mad,” he muttered, knowing all day that he would have to apologize for his actions. If Charlie was being honest with himself, he did not know how to explain the way he acted towards her the night before and could only really conclude that his anger must have been the result of pure disappointment. He had really been looking forward to having Bridgette meet his family and to hear that she would not be around to do so upset him more than he cared to admit.

“No, no! I promise I’m not,” Bridgette quickly reassured, hating the look of sadness that had now crept over her boyfriend’s face. “If anything, I’m sorry about yesterday to, I should not have argued with you the way that I did.”

“Bridge,” Charlie sighed. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I crossed a line by pushing you the way that I did and I’m sorry.”

“Charlie, seriously, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. My family, well, my family is really complicated and I just, I just don’t like talking about them…at all.” Bridgette conceded, hoping her answer would be sufficient enough of an explanation for Charlie in regards to his questions the day before about them. It must have been because Charlie simply nodded in understanding and asked her again if she was okay.

“Honestly Charlie, I’m just exhausted. I had a rough night last night,” Bridgette confessed.

“Rough night?”

“Nightmares, I didn’t sleep to well. I think I’m stressed about all of my upcoming tests and papers.” It may not have been the full truth, but Bridgette’s words did currently apply to her so she figured she was not completely lying.

“We don’t have to go to the movies tonight. We could always just go back to my place and chill.” Charlie was pleading silently with her to go with this option; he was really not in the mood to watch the sob story movie that Bridgette described one too many times to him. His spirits lifted when he saw his secret wishes be answered as Bridgette’s shoulders rose and collapsed in relief at the new date-night option her suggested.

“Honestly Charlie, that sounds amazing,” she sighe.

“Want to wrap this up and finish it at my place?” Charlie’s hands waved over the food that was left on the table.

“Please,” Bridgette said as she grabbed her phone and stood up. “I’m just gonna head to the bathroom real quick, be right back.” Charlie nodded in acknowledgement as his head swiveled around trying to locate their waiter.

Later that evening, Bridgette’s body was curled in Charlie’s as the two snuggled up under the covers in his large, king sized bed. Some movie was playing on the TV but Bridgette’s mind was in another place as she carelessly drew circles around the covered surface of Charlie’s stomach with her index finger. Since her talk with Kris and Catherine the night before, Bridgette was plagued with the thought of what if she was never ready to tell anyone about Luc? She felt like she was being torn apart inside as she battled over the question with herself, one side saying that it’s not worth bringing up the pain that comes with mentioning Luc and the other fighting with the argument that not talking about her brother would be a disservice to his memory.

“Babe, are you even paying attention?” Charlie asked softly as he tightened the arm that was wrapped around his girlfriend, pulling her in even closer to his body.

“Yeah,” Charlotte murmured as she allowed her body to completely relax and melt against Charlie’s.

“No you’re not,” Charlie pointed out as he grabbed a hold of the remote and shut the TV off. “Babe, talk to me please. You’re starting to scare me.” And she was. In the three years that Charlie had known Bridgette, not once had he seen her so quiet. Usually, she was the life of the party (literally) and always making some sort of noise, whether she was talking or laughing at something. The way she was acting was such a shift from how she usually was and Charlie honestly did not know what to think, especially since the change in her demeanor seemed to have happened over night.

“I’m fine.” Bridgette’s voice was terse and just as she realized that she should probably apologize to her boyfriend who was just looking out for her, a shrill ring interrupted her.

“It’s yours,” Charlie informed as he reached over to the nightstand and grabbed her phone for her. “Someone named Catherine is calling you.” Bridgette pulled away quickly at that and yanked her phone from his hand.

“Hello?” She asked as she pressed the device to her ear and got up off of the bed, despite Charlie’s silent protests.

“Hey girl!” Catherine’s light, French accented voice replied. “How’s it going?” Her tone may have been light, but Bridgette knew that it was a loaded question.

“Good, good,” Bridgette answered as she began pacing around the bedroom, feeling Charlie’s eyes watching her every step.

“Is now a bad time?” Catherine asked, picking up very quickly on Bridgette’s lack of want for a full conversation.

“Sort of,” Bridgette confessed as she allowed her eyes to wander over to her boyfriend who was intently watching her, obviously trying to figure out who Catherine was. “I’m actually,” she paused as she took a deep breath before confessing, “I’m actually with my boyfriend.” She had to hold the phone an arm length’s away from her ear as Catherine screamed in response. Bridgette bit back a smile as she glanced over once again at Charlie and saw his eyes widened in disbelief at the response she had received.

“You have a boyfriend? Since when?” Catherine shrieked as she completely forgot what she had originally called about.

“Almost a year,” Bridgette admitted.

“Oh merde,” Catherine muttered as she switched back into her native language. “Est-ce que Kris est au courant?” Oh shit. Does Kris know?

“No, he does not and I would like to keep it that way until I am ready to tell him,” Bridgette said tersely and firmly. She could stand having Catherine know about her relationship; it would give her someone else to go to advice for other than Ally. But in no way was Kris about to find out—all hell would break loose if he did.

“Il ne va pas être heureux quand il saura combien de temps vous le lui avez cache,” Catherine warned. “Mais je garderai ton secret pour toi.” He is not going to be happy when he finds out how long you have been keeping this from him. But, I will keep your secret for you.

“Oh, thank you Cath!” Bridgette sagged in relief, her pacing stopping completely. “Hey, can I call you tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow? Why not later when you leave—oh my gosh, you’re spending the night with him?” Catherine was once again shrieking. “Bridgette!”

“Oh hush, you and Kris were spending the night together when you weren’t even together and in high school,” Bridgette chided in response to Catherine’s unfounded remarks.

“You remember that?” Bridgette could just picture the blush that must be forming on Catherine’s face.

“Of course I remember. And I wasn’t even living with Kris then and I still knew how much time you were spending there.”

“Go be with your boyfriend,” Catherine dismissed, now embarrassed by the turn of conversation. “I will talk to you tomorrow. “Je t'aime!”

“Haha, fine. Love you too! Bye!” Hanging up with a chuckle, Bridgette headed back to the bed so that she could once again snuggle with Charlie.

“Who’s Catherine? And why were you living with a Kris?” Charlie asked as he once again wrapped his arm around his girlfriend’s small body and pulled her closely to him. Bridgette tensed at his words and slowly turned her face upwards towards him. His pale blue eyes were staring down at her, both of them filled with a spark of curiosity that made Bridgette wince.

“Catherine,” she began slowly. “Is a very good friend, my best friend, practically my sister. And Kris, well, Kris is uh, Kris is family.” She concluded. Charlie knew Bridgette well enough to know that her tone was signaling that any further discussion about Kris and Catherine was not going to happen. So, rather than choosing to press the matters further for a more clear picture of who these two people were, Charlie simply nodded and said, “okay.”

Relieved, Bridgette pressed a light kiss along Charlie’s jawline.

“I love you Charlie, I hope you know that,” she muttered as she pulled away from her body to look him straight in the eye. Blue eyes bore into brown eyes for a moment before Charlie nodded his head and muttered, “I know you do. I love you to.” Gently pushing herself into Charlie’s lap, Bridgette leaned forward and pressed a hard kiss to his lips, a kiss in which Charlie deepened before gently pushing her down onto the mattress and laying his body on top of hers as his hands trailed down to the edge of the t-shirt that he had let her borrow in place of the dress she had been wearing.

“I love you so much Bridge,” Charlie murmured one last time before grasping onto the thin material and yanking it upward.

Notes