Her jaw dropped open. She stopped breathing for a fraction of a second which felt longer. She didn’t understand what she was looking at, or rather, she didn’t want to understand it. A naked woman sitting on top of her almost naked boyfriend on the floor of his flat. She thought everything was fine, she thought he loved her and everything was fine.
“Charlie!” Tommy shouted and pushed Amber away. He was rough, Amber fell on the floor and hit her shoulder on the wooden part of the sofa, “Ooww!” she screamed. He stood up, walked over to the door, “Charlie … this isn’t what it looks like.”
That’s what they all said. Charlie looked at the woman’s face, she recognized her, and she was beautiful. One of the highest paid leading actresses at the time, the one Tommy co-starred in one of her recent movies. It was Amber Stewart with only her panties on. Charlie looked at Tommy, their eyes met, with just one look, Tommy could see the disappointment and that her heart was breaking. She walked off without saying a word.
“No … no … Charlie! I can explain!”
She was already halfway to the elevator.
“Amber! Leave! Now!” he yelled at her and ran after Charlie.
The elevator gate was closing, Charlie was crying, she hit the button to go down. It couldn’t go down fast enough. “Go to hell, Tommy,” she said. She didn’t have the energy to scream at him.
“No … no … Charlie … it’s not what it looks like, you have to believe me, baby, I can explain … please … Charlie …” he clutched his fingers between the elevator gate, but the cart was going down without him.
Charlie stood in the corner, covered her face and shook her head. She didn’t want to hear it. Tommy hit the gate with his palms, “Fuck!”
He had to go down the stairs to after her, he would not let her leave without an explanation. “Jer … make sure she leaves or I’ll call the cops on her!” he shouted at Jeremy before going into the exit staircase with only his boxers on. He sprinted down the stairs like his life depended on it, because it was. This was Charlie, this was a terrible misunderstanding. Something he probably couldn’t explain in a way that she would be convinced, nothing happened.
Jeremy was still processing what had happened. He stood frozen at Tom’s doorway while everything was going on around him. Amber Stewart was a face he saw in movies, and now she was in Tom’s flat, naked. She got dressed, she took her time, not in a hurry at all. She was gorgeous.
He knew about the tape and what happened to Tom at the after party, he knew it had something to do with Amber. But the scene in that flat was too suspicious, what happened? Why were they naked? Why did Tom say he was going to call the cops on her?
“Relax … I’m leaving … it’s not like I’m going to stay in this dump,” she muttered at him because he was standing guard like a building security.
“Did you … were you …?” he stuttered, he needed to find an answer for the sake of his best friend’s relationship, but he was half star struck to confront her.
Amber took her things after she got dressed, walked past him at the doorway and glanced, “No … but if you hadn’t caught us … I wouldn’t know.” She trotted away without a care in the world.
**********
He reached the ground floor just in time before Charlie walked out of the building. “Charlie, wait!” he called. She walked on, out the door, into the streets. “Charlie, please, will you stop and listen to me first?” he grabbed her arm.
She pulled her arm and pushed him with the other arm. “Don’t touch me! Go away, Tommy! I don’t wanna talk to you!” she screamed. Her face was all wet with tears.
His heart sank, she was hurting, it hurt him too. “No, baby, it’s a misunderstanding … it’s not what it looks like, I swear to God, Charlie … I swear with my life, nothing happened.” He had to stop her from walking away.
“Really, Tommy? Not what it looks like? What do you think it looks like, huh? She was naked on top of you, what could you possibly be doing? Rehearsing a dialogue? Playing scrabbles? What?” she swung her bag aimed at his face. He lifted his arm to shield it. “Asshole!”
“I was asleep when she came … I was sleeping in my underwear when she came, she wanted to have sex but I said ‘no'”
Charlie’s face turned angrier, “That’s your excuse? She tried to force you into having sex? Amber Stewart came to your flat while you were alone and naked and forced you to fuck her?! You think I’m stupid?” The scene she walked into was horrific, but the lie to cover it shot her to the roof. She swung her hand and slapped him as hard as she could. “It’s bad enough you tried to fuck another girl but to lie to my face like I’m stupid is another!”
Sometimes the truth sounded ridiculous, sometimes the truth sounded more like a lie. “She’s trying to blackmail me, Charlie, you walked in at the worst possible moment.”
“Yeah … tell me ’bout it … I walked in right before you stick your dick inside her, didn’t I? Fuck you, Tommy! Get the hell away from me!” she wasn’t going to listen to him, not when he was lying through his teeth.
She looked at him in disgust. All the love and adoration she had for him seemed to seep through her pore, left her dry and broke her heart into pieces.
It was the scariest look he had ever seen, she didn’t believe him. He shook his head, “You know I would never do something like that … you know that, Charlie … I love you, I was telling her to leave and she pushed me to the floor … you have to believe me.” As if he knew she didn’t, there was a burn in his chest, his stomach turned, he can’t lose her, not like this.
He took her hand, pulled her in, she was crying, he wanted to make her feel better. He could only imagine how she must’ve felt, walking into a room like that. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, she sobbed on his chest.
“I love you, Charlie … nothing happened, please believe me … can we talk about this? I need to talk to you about this, there’s something I need to tell you,” he felt her warmth and it made him less scared.
She shook her head, she wriggled away, she pushed him. “Get away from me … you smell like her!”
“Charlie,” she reached out to her.
She warded his hand, “Don’t touch me, I don’t wanna talk to you … I don’t wanna see you … just leave me alone, Tommy!”
“No … no … no … we were better just now, we can talk about this, I’ll make you understand, I promise, please hear me out, baby, it’s about Maxine … it’s a long story … that’s why I’m saying we have to sit down and talk … please.”
“Maxine?” she was confused.
Then Jeremy came running from inside the building to check on them.
It was too much for her to digest, she wasn’t even sure Tommy was telling the truth. She shook her head, not now. “Jeremy … please take me home.”
“I can take you home,” Tommy interrupted.
“I don’t want you to, I don’t wanna talk to you, Tom, I don’t wanna look at you! Jeremy, please … take me home, right now.”
Tommy grabbed her arm, she recoiled and hit him with her bag. “I want to believe you, Tommy, I do! But I don’t, I don’t believe your crazy story … it’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard in my life.”
“But …”
Jeremy stepped in front of him, “I’ll take her home.”
Charlie was already walking away towards Jeremy’s car.
“She doesn’t believe me, man, nothing happened in there, that bitch was trying to blackmail me … I was …”
“Okay … okay … let her go … at least for tonight … she just walked in on you and Amber Stewart on top of each other, hey, I’m still shocked from that … okay? You need to let her go home and cool herself down.”
Tommy took a deep breath, his hands on his waist as he looked at Charlie walking further away from him. “She’s going to break up with me, man, I can feel it … I didn’t do anything, I have to tell her about the tape.”
Jeremy saw how devastated Tom was, “I believe you … I’ll calm her down … just go back inside, she left, I’ll let you know how it goes.”