The plan, p.18
The Plan, page 18
Because he’d do it again.
She needed to know how he felt, he’d told himself as they’d gone to start shutting down the office, like they’d done hundreds of times before. And just like they had been for the past few months, now that they were commuting to work together, they’d made their way to his truck like normal, even exchanging small talk about some of the details for the weeks ahead and what the summer school schedule would look like.
Charlotte must have had enough time to process it all, and the outcome looked bleak. She was talking business. Back to normal. Well, almost normal, as there wasn’t any joking, any quips, or any light heartedness.
Just business.
Given this, he’d not expected her to come back by his place like she did most nights. He wasn’t even sure if it was okay to ask her if she was still okay with having dinner with him the next night. He didn’t even know if he should say anything.
But Charlotte had taken care of it all. She did have enough time to process it all, and the conclusion she’d reached had been a very welcome one.
Just as he’d been lifting his hand to wave goodbye to her, she’d turned around on the sidewalk in front of the house, walked up to him, and pulled his face down to hers, laying her lips on his with an eagerness he hadn’t expected.
Well, well, well, Lottie.
“So about tomorrow,” he’d said a few moments later, breathless and eager to hear her agree with the plan he was quickly devising. "Can we meet before dinner?"
“Yeah,” she said, just as breathless. “It’s… yeah.” Then, after a breath. "I mean, we'll see each other at work."
"No," he said, shaking his head. "No work tomorrow. We'll figure out some way to get that work done without putting in any hours tomorrow."
"How?" she asked incredulously.
"Work smarter, not harder," he said, kissing her again.
"Okay," she said a moment later, even though she knew as well as he did that it made no sense.
"I'm going to come and pick you up tomorrow morning. We'll spend the whole day together. Okay?"
She nodded, smiling softly, even as she backed away slowly.
"Good night, Eli."
"Good night, Charlotte."
He’d watched her walk over to her door, even as she’d glanced over her shoulder at him.
Then, he’d called Craig.
It was like a default now. Big life decisions, spiritual implications in these things, becoming this new man he was going to be for Jesus... talking to Craig about it all because apart from being a grumpy older brother, he knew what he knew and Eli could appreciate his insight.
Craig answered on the third ring.
"Yeah, what?"
He'd obviously seen that it was his brother's number.
Eli chose not to be offended by this greeting. He'd delivered much worse in his day, usually to Craig himself.
"Yeah, so, I kissed Charlotte. And I'm pretty sure I'm in love with her."
No sense in spilling out a lengthy preamble to this declaration and all.
Just the facts. Kissed her. Bam. Love her. Bam.
"What?"
Well, Craig had always been a little slow.
"I kissed Charlotte, and --"
"No, I got that," Craig sighed. "And it's about time. But --"
Eli heard whispers, then an all out squeal. Hope, likely asking him who was on the phone, PJ piping up as well.
"Is that PJ? Is he happy because he knows I'm on the phone?"
"His name is not --"
"Put PJ on the line," Eli said.
"Hold up," Craig grumbled. Then, his voice, sounding farther away. "Okay, PJ's on the phone." And, in an even more distant voice, "Now the idiot's got me calling him PJ!"
"Yo, PJ," Eli said. "It's me, Uncle Eli. What up?"
He heard heavy breathing. PJ likely had part of Craig's phone in his mouth.
"Hey, PJ," Eli kept on. "You like Charlotte, right? Of course you do. Everyone loves Charlotte. Me, too. And even if you didn't, it wouldn't change what I'm going to do. But I wanted to run it by you first so you could hear the good news. Charlotte's going to be your aunt one day, PJ." And then, he had an even more amazing thought. "Good grief, PJ. She won't just be your aunt. She's going to be the mother of your cousins! Lucas babies everywhere --"
"Glory, Charlotte's pregnant with your baby?!"
Well, PJ sounded a lot like Hope. (And he was just about as open with inappropriate comments as she was, too.)
"Seriously, Hope?" Craig said, now all three of them on the phone with Eli. "He just kissed her." A long pause. "Right, Eli?"
"Just a kiss," Eli clarified. "Or two. Or three. They all kind of ran together. Not that it's any of your business --"
"Oh, I'm so happy!" Hope exclaimed.
"Why did you call if none of this is our business, then?" Craig asked.
"Because," Eli said, "I'm not going to be able to help out with the yard project at the church tomorrow afternoon. I'm taking Lottie out."
"Well, great, I guess, but what am I supposed to do without you?"
"We'll find someone else," Hope said, glee in her voice. "And I get to see Charlotte tonight! I'm meeting her for dinner, and --"
"Yeah, well, let her tell you this if she wants to, but don't --"
"Bring it up," Hope said. "Got it, got. But, Eli, this is just perfect, and she's so right for you. So, so right."
And Eli hung up without thinking of them at all, his mind on Charlotte, on her smile, on her words, on her lips.
So right.
So, so right.
Charlotte
What a night.
What a day, actually, and a night both, as Eli had shown up at her door early that next morning, roses in his hand, ready to pick her up.
He'd not said a word at first. Nothing but his lips to hers, his hand to the small of her back, smoothing out the sundress she'd worn for him, drawing her closer, as she'd put her arms around his neck, and given in to his kiss.
What a kiss.
Whatever plan he had didn't matter, quite honestly, because Charlotte would have been content to stand like this, kissing him, holding him, being with him, just like that.
But he'd still backed away with a grin, putting the bouquet between them and saying, "For you."
No one had ever gotten her roses. No one had ever gotten her flowers.
"Thank you," she'd said.
"You would have preferred tacos, huh?" he'd asked.
She'd smiled. "No, tacos are great, but this... I like this."
"I like you," he'd said.
Oh, the sentiment was most definitely felt on both sides. She'd put the flowers up and had joined him back outside, where he laced his fingers through hers as if they'd done this hundreds of times, walking her to his truck and telling her all about the big plans he had for their day together.
A man with a plan. A very good plan because she felt her heart speed up at the very sight of him and more and more as the day went on.
A day full of memories. Ones that had already been made, places they'd been, doing everything again, making new memories together.
Just as she was sure there was nothing more he could do to make this day any better, he took her to a restaurant she'd never been to, one that she'd always wanted to try if she could ever justify the cost.
"It's too much, huh?" she asked him as they made their way inside with a valet parking his truck.
"No," he said, smiling. "It's good for a celebration. Of course, we won't be able to afford it on a regular basis, because my accountant got me to tutor some kids for free, changed my entire life, and now, I'm working for Jesus."
"And Jesus doesn't pay very well," Charlotte noted.
"Not in monetary value, no," Eli agreed, laughing softly. "But I think Jesus is blessing me far beyond what I deserve in every other way, Charlotte."
Oh, those words. What he meant by them as he continued to smile at her.
He leaned down so she could see his eyes even better. Shining, just like hers likely.
And this was more amazing than she could have imagined, standing here like this with his arm around her waist, with her hands on his chest, willing him closer. Eli, who she’d known for so long now, who she wanted to know in an entirely new way…
“You know,” he said softly, smiling at her as his gaze drifted over her face, “I’ve never felt this way about anyone. Just you.”
It felt like a line. Cynical, straight-talking Charlotte would have called him out on it.
But lovestruck Charlotte believed it. Because he meant it, because it was true for her, too…
“Really?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said, swallowing, then outright laughing. “Is this totally weird to you, Lottie?”
“Only weird because it’s not weird,” she agreed, laughing with him. “It just…”
And she thought about how she’d hoped it was leading to this, how she’d spent the past few months falling in love with him, how this had been the right thing.
“What?” he asked softly. “It’s just what?”
“It’s just… right,” she said.
“Just about perfect,” he murmured. “Seriously, life is just about perfect now. With you, with me, us…”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
And he leaned down and kissed her again. Right there as they were waiting on a table, with so many other people around, no privacy…
She couldn’t have cared less who was standing there seeing them, though, just like she'd spent the whole day like this, not caring about anything or anyone but him. She pulled herself closer to him and –
She heard a gasp.
She backed away first, leaving Eli and his lips still wanting her, even as she turned to see what the problem was and found herself eye-to-eye with Alicia.
Alicia.
Oh.
"Well," Alicia said, louder than the setting or the situation certainly warranted, her eyes narrowed on Charlotte. She was dressed up, like usual, an expensive hand bag thrown over her shoulder, where it brushed the chest of the man who was following closely behind her. "Look who it is."
Charlotte wondered for a moment what might be the right thing to say in this kind of situation (did they make etiquette rules about what you were supposed to say when you got caught kissing the love of your life in front of his ex-girlfriend?), but Eli stepped out instead, holding his hand out to the man following Alicia.
"Hey, man, I'm Eli," he said. "Jason, right?"
Alicia visibly flushed at this.
"That's right," Jason said, nodding.
This was the guy Alicia had been involved with before she and Eli fell apart.
Any other guy would have been angry about it all, even aggressive, at this kind of meeting. Eli should have been a little upset, or at the very least, more bothered than he was.
But he was relaxed and calm, obviously not bothered at all anymore by Alicia and what she had done.
He threaded his fingers through Charlotte's, at least part of the answer as to why he could be that way.
It didn't miss Alicia's notice, just as the kiss hadn't.
"Charlotte," she said. "Wow."
Just wow. That's all.
"Hi, Alicia," Charlotte managed. "How are you?"
Alicia visibly shook her head, her irritation clear. "I'm just great," she managed. "And you."
This was said along with a look towards Eli.
"Me?" he asked, grinning just slightly.
Did he think this was funny?
"Business going well, huh?" she said. "Coming out to a place like this."
With those words, Alicia flicked her hand over the restaurant dismissively. Oh, wow. There was an engagement ring on her finger. A huge one. Charlotte was sure Eli could see it, if he was looking, which he wasn't because his attention had been on her all evening long, was still on her even as Alicia continued staring at them both.
Awkward much?
But not as awkward as it was about to get.
"It was nice seeing you, Alicia," Charlotte said softly, wanting to diffuse the situation.
Alicia grinned tightly at her. "Always nice to see you, too, Charlotte," she said, glancing over at Eli, then turning away from him. "They'll probably give you my table now. Get you seated and all at the table I just used. Which is fine, you know. Because I was done with it."
And if she'd left it at that, Charlotte would have passed it off as just jealousy and bitterness.
But Alicia gave Eli one last look, and in her eyes, Charlotte saw hurt. Legitimate hurt, despite the ring she wore, the man at her side, and all that Charlotte knew had been wrong about her and Eli. Charlotte saw the hurt that Alicia still felt because of him...
... and Eli wasn't paying any attention to her, all of his attention still on Charlotte.
He'd moved on, of course.
But Charlotte saw real hurt in Alicia's eyes, and it reminded her of how hurt she'd been just a short while ago, after being similarly disappointed by Tyler.
Tyler, who was as oblivious to her pain as Eli seemed to be to Alicia's.
And in her heart, she felt it for the first time.
Doubt. About him. About who he was.
How can you trust a man who can be done with someone so quickly? How can you build a future with someone who can't discern hurt and, worse yet, seems totally and completely unaffected by even the hint of it? How could she trust him, if he could turn off his emotions like that, just like her mother had been able to, just like her mother had done her whole life, feeling nothing?
Charlotte wasn't sure as she watched Alicia turn and leave, even as Eli wrapped his arm back around her waist to lead them to the table Alicia had left.
She wasn't sure about him, actually.
And as the seed of doubt began to grow, even as Eli reached over the table and took her hand with a smile, all of her dreams for the future began to look a little hazy.
Well, that wasn't part of the plan.
Eli
It had been the most amazing day ever.
He'd picked Charlotte up at her door, and she'd been wearing a dress. A dress! And when he moved in to kiss her, she'd just molded herself right into him, content and expressive, so, so amazing.
He'd very nearly thrown that bouquet over his shoulder and told her they were cancelling all the plans and just staying in for the rest of the day.
But he'd stuck to the plan, because it was a great one.
They started the day with a walk on campus, with him narrating the first time he ever saw her, yelling out "8392!" at her in an effort to make her stop, to make her hear him, and then, to make her want to work for him. They continued on past the student center where they'd spent so many hours working on studying together, then by the apartment she'd lived in all four years, where he'd spent even more hours in his wallowing spot.
"I also packed up your underwear in that same apartment," he'd noted as they pointed their feet back in the direction of the heart of campus, the place where he'd left his truck parked.
"And put it all in one huge suitcase with nothing else," she'd said, smiling. "What was that about anyway? I was too embarrassed at the time to ask." Then, after a long pause, "I'm still kind of embarrassed about it, honestly."
"As was I," he'd said, grinning, "which is why I threw them in there with my eyes closed, then slammed the thing shut."
She'd laughed at him and at this, at the other stories he told from their first days together as he drove across town, right over to Lloyd's Tacos, where the story he told wasn't about them but about the week she'd been in Cairo, how he'd come here every day she was gone, missing her, wondering at how much she'd become part of his life.
"I called Mark," he'd confessed, as they'd finished eating lunch together, her leg up next to his in the booth, his arm around the seat behind her. "International call, which was plenty expensive at the time, but I made it anyway so I could ask him about your flights, so I could be there to pick you up."
She'd smiled at this, her hand on his cheek. "That was the best surprise," she'd murmured, running her thumb over his lips. "Like coming home, like you were home."
He'd pressed a kiss to her palm at this, unable to even say anything given the depth of what he was feeling.
