THE NEXT few seconds seemed to be a complete blur. As soon as Stacey saw Adele’s lips on Charlie, she had turned around blindly and left the room. She had to get out of there right that instant. The last thing she wanted to do was cry. There was no point in crying; she had broken up with Charlie. If he wanted to finally fool around with Adele, then let him.
Allison said something, but Stacey didn’t hear it. She was practically jogging down the hallway to the staircase. Allison was hot on her heels. Stacey didn’t want to turn around and see if Charlie had followed her or not.
Down the stairs she went. She spilled out into the party and started weaving through the crowd. She was halfway to the entrance when someone grabbed her arm. Startled, she let out a cry and turned around.
It was Tony. It took Stacey a couple of seconds to remember that she had come to the party with him.
“There you are!”
“Uh, yeah, here I am,” she mumbled and scanned the crowd for Charlie.
“Listen, come with me to the patio. There is –”
“I can’t. I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “I have to go. I have a massive headache and I’m in a lot of pain.”
Concern flickered across his face, along with something else that Stacey couldn’t put her finger on. Tony let go of her. Someone bumped into her as they walked by. The party seemed to have doubled in size in the short time Stacey had been upstairs.
“Thanks for inviting me,” she said quickly.
“Wait, how are you getting home?” Tony called after her as she left.
“I’ll call a cab!”
She pushed her way through the crowd and out of the front door. Even here the crowd was thick. Her frantic state was starting to mix with feelings of claustrophobia from the mass of bodies surrounding her on all sides. She was on the verge of either passing out or bursting into tears if she didn’t get out of this place quickly.
Stacey took off down the driveway toward the gate. Tears were pressing against her eyes. She cursed herself for acting so stupidly. How could she be so upset? She had opted out of dealing with Charlie and his family drama. She had no right to be so upset.
“There you are!”
Stacey froze for a second. But it was enough for Charlie to grab her arm exactly where Tony had. He turned her around. Her heart began to beat rapidly at the sight of him. Music was pouring out of the house. She could hear the heavy beats of the bass even out here on the driveway. The lights from the house seemed to illuminate Charlie from behind. He glowed softly.
“Stacey, let me explain.”
“You don’t have to explain. It isn’t any of my business.”
“I’m trying to move on.”
Stacey was brought up short. The words swirled in her head. She hadn’t been expecting for Charlie to say that.
Taking advantage of her silence, he said, “We’re over. I mean, you made it clear. Then Tony tells me you two are dating. I can’t really sit around and pine for you any longer, can I?”
“No. I guess not.”
“So, Adele was interested and I had never given her a chance before because of my father. So I thought I would.”
“Isn’t that falling directly into what your father wants?” Stacey asked.
Charlie shrugged. “Maybe. I guess so. I don’t care, Stacey. I’m tired. Fighting against my dad like this is downright exhausting. I don’t want to do it any longer.”
Stacey couldn’t keep the bitter tone out of her voice. “So, you’ll just date her because she’s around and your father already approves.”
“No, no, you don’t get to do this.” He shook his head. “You left. You left me, remember? Now that I’m moving on, you don’t get to be angry about it.”
“I’m not angry.”
“Yes, you are. Did you expect me to just be miserable for the rest of my life?”
“I expected you to reach out to me after I broke up with you!” Stacey snapped. “You seemed completely fine with the fact I had dumped you. And out of all the people to move on with, you pick Adele. The same woman you made clear that you had no interest in!”
“It doesn’t concern you, Stacey! What I do now isn’t any of your business! As for why I didn’t contact you, I thought that was what you wanted! You broke up with me! I wasn’t going to crawl around after you because you didn’t want me any longer.”
The two of them stared at each other. Charlie’s eyes were wide. He had shifted in the middle of his rant. Half of his face was covered in shadows now. Behind him, Stacey could see Adele breaking through the edge of the crowd.
“Maybe you were right,” Charlie whispered.
“About what?”
“Maybe we are just from two different worlds.”
Stacey felt the air get sucked from her lungs at Charlie’s words. She didn’t have a chance to reply. Adele had slinked up to Charlie. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes. I’m just going, actually. Have a good night,” Stacey replied stiffly.
She turned around and headed toward the gate, leaving Charlie behind.
<<<>>>
Stacey shoved the money for the cab fare into the driver’s hand and stepped out into the humid night. Above her, the apartment complex seemed to sag under the weight of its occupants. Without Tina living with her, the place seemed to have lost that little magic touch that had made Stacey feel so kindly toward it. She had once felt so victorious when Charlie had saved it from being knocked down and rebuilt. Now looking at it, Stacey wouldn’t have cared if the entire thing was smashed to the ground.
Up in her apartment, Stacey went directly to her bed and fell into it with what felt like all the exhaustion in the world. Her window had a view of another building. From here, she could see someone’s light on in the bathroom.
She was to go back to work on Monday. Tony had already given her more days off than she probably should have gotten. At the time, Stacey hadn’t thought much of it. She had been too involved with Tina and making sure she was okay. Now that she was thinking about it, however, she wondered if she had been taking too much from Tony. The time off, the payment of the hospital bills and Tina’s nursing home – she had been thrilled that Tony had been helping her so much.
But Stacey could practically hear Allison in her head. You sit there and lecture me for wanting to snag a billionaire yet have no qualms about taking money from Tony. The worst part was that Stacey had no argument back.
Everything she was starting to get on track had seemingly veered right off the rails. Stacey had somehow let Tony sweep in and start taking care of things. She wanted to date him. But she had to make sure he understood that she wasn’t dating him for the handouts.
Tomorrow, she thought sleepily, I’ll figure it out tomorrow.