She curled up on the passenger seat in silence. A hundred things went through her mind in a jumble, it felt so heavy in her chest. She didn’t know what to think. She buried her face between her knees and sobbed.
Jeremy glanced at her, didn’t have a clue what to say. They were both still recovering from what they saw. “She said nothing happened,” he had to say something.
She didn’t respond.
“I asked her before she left … she said nothing happened.”
Charlie looked out the window, “Not yet,” her voice was low. “You saw what I saw, right? Do you actually believe they weren’t going to do it if we hadn’t walked in on them?”
It was hard to say, Jeremy took a deep breath, “All I know … he loves you, he really does … he had plenty of chances to do something like that in the past but he never did … and nothing happened in that room … or not yet … but it didn’t happen … if you ask me, I would give him the chance to explain himself.”
She scoffed, “So he could lie to me? How long will it take until he actually does it? How long will it take for him to be sick and tired of me and finally cross that line? He’s already lied to me about his parties that he never invited me to … who knows what he’s been doing in those parties?”
“That’s why I think you should give him the chance to explain everything … maybe you’ll have a better understanding.”
She shook her head, “I don’t wanna see him, I don’t wanna talk to him … I just wanna do my own thing, clear my head.”
Jeremy touched her arm, “But you will try and work this out?”
“I’m too angry to be listening to his excuses … Maxine was right, I should’ve looked into his life … we’ve changed so much so fast, I forgot that, I thought we were fine, I thought nothing’s changed … who am I kidding? Amber Stewart … God knows who else he’s flirting with.”
Jeremy went quiet, he couldn’t speak for Tom, even though he wanted to tell her about the tape and what happened to him that night, but it wasn’t his place. “Charlie … you’re both my friends now … I love you both and I know how much you love each other … it looks bad, I know, but I think he’s going through some things that we probably don’t know about … would you at least give him the chance to talk to you before you decide anything?”
She thought for a moment, “Maybe … I don’t know … I just don’t want to see him for awhile … I really don’t like him right now, you know what I mean?”
He nodded, “I understand.”
“Tell him not to call me … and don’t come looking for me, I will call him when I’m ready to talk … okay? I have to figure some stuff out,” she said when they arrived in front of her building.
“Do you need some company?” he offered.
She curved a smile on her sad face, “No … I think I want to be alone tonight … but that’s really sweet … thanks, Jeremy.”
“Call me … text me … whenever, okay?” he said as she got out of the car.
“I will,” she lifted her palm before heading to the lobby. She didn’t look back. Halfway to the elevator, she was already crying. She covered her face with both hands and sobbed in the elevator. She was alone. She never felt more alone in her life.
**********
“I have to get that tape, and I have to get out of that contract … Charlie too … I knew this was a bad idea,” Tommy paced back and forth. He looked like a train wreck, and from what he just told him, Jeremy understood why.
“How are you going to do that? I mean … Maxine had been doing this for a long time, no one has ever spoken about it, I think people are scared of what she could do.”
Tommy sat on the sofa, held his head with both hands, “I can’t risk it … Amber is crazy … she’d been fucked up so badly by all this she can’t even see what’s right and wrong anymore, she wanted to get out of this and she’ll fuck up everyone else’s life for it if she has to.”
“Are you going to take the tape by force? You don’t even know if she’s really going to give it to Maxine.”
“She’s going to give it one way or another … it’s just a matter of when … I have to get it before she does.”
The room was silent, the only way Tom was going to get the tape was to steal it or otherwise, he had to comply with Amber’s only request.
“I have to talk to Charlie, she needs to know what’s happening, I have to warn her about Maxine.”
Jeremy sighed, “She’s not going to talk to you … at least for awhile, you need to give her space for now … she said she’ll call you when she’s ready to talk.”
“She hates me, doesn’t she? She thinks I’m sleeping around?”
“Who can blame her? I mean … there was a naked woman on top of you …”
“Yeah … yeah … I know, it looked like shit … but I didn’t touch her … God … this is so messed up!”
Tom stood up, grabbed his jacket, “I gotta get out of here … I have to get that tape.”
“Are you going to see Amber?”
Tom looked down, “No … I have to figure out how I’m going to do this … I may have to cut a deal with Maxine to let Charlie out of it, I don’t want her to give up her school.”
Jeremy didn’t reply, Tom was going to put himself on the line, but that might mean he had to give up his relationship with Charlie. Cutting a deal with Maxine might as well mean he will have to sell his soul to the devil at this point, it didn’t sound like a good idea, it just sounded like he was going to put himself deeper into trouble.