giving each other a strange look, and all of a sudden I wanted to shrink into the floor. Something was definitely going on here. My neck was warm and my head felt like it was spinning.
“Charlie, is everything okay?”
“No. As matter of fact it isn’t. Can we talk? Alone?”
Her eyebrows pulled together, but she nodded. She led me back to the storage room where her parents keep their office. For some reason neither of them was around just then—they must have stepped out. And for a while I just stood there trying to get my emotions under control. It was the weirdest feeling. Mo was my best friend in the world, my first-ever girlfriend, and I was nuts about her—and up until only a couple days earlier I’d honestly thought she felt the same way about me. And yet here we were about to break up. I was feeling so hurt and confused that I wasn’t even thinking straight.
INTERIOR. STORAGE ROOM—MIDDAY
Charlie and Mo stand facing each other near the door of a small storage space cluttered with boxes and shelves.
MO
(whispering, barely hiding her frustration)
Okay, so what’s going on? If this is about the movie theother night, I’m sorry about canceling on you at the last minute, but what was I supposed to—
CHARLIE
The movie? Oh, no, it’s not about the movie. It’s about … you know, about Rajeev.
MO
Rajeev? Okay … What about him?
She folds her arms across her chest and waits. It takes a few uncomfortable seconds, but finally Charlie takes a deep breath and begins.…
CHARLIE
I, uh, I just want you to know that I get what’s happening, and it’s okay. If you want to be with him instead of me, I’m good with it. I understand.
MO
You understand? What the heck is that supposed to mean?
CHARLIE
(shrugs)
All I’m saying is that Rajeev obviously likes you, and hey, he’s a good guy and everything. What can I say? I can totally see why you like him.
MO
(a wide-eyed pause)
Are you … are you
breaking up
with me?
CHARLIE
Uh … no. I just …
What?
MO
Come on, Charlie. I don’t hear from you in two whole days, I leave you a ton of messages that you never return, and now suddenly you’re here telling me you’re okay if I’m with somebody else. What am I supposed to think?
CHARLIE
No, that’s not it at all. I just … Hey, I saw you and him together. I wasn’t trying to spy or anything, but I could see you through your front window. You guys were dancing and I thought … well …
MO
(one eyebrow raised)
You saw us dancing and … what? You figured it meant Rajeev and I are now an item? That we’re about to start sending out wedding invitations? Is that it?
She glares at him. He blinks back, his face reddening.
CHARLIE (V.O.)
Funny thing was, hearing her say it out loud like that, it really did sound kind of ridiculous. But I realized that was more or less
exactly
what I’d been thinking.
MO
Holy crap. That is it, isn’t it? You’re
jealous
. Charlie Hirsh, I don’t know whether to feel bad or to be furious with you! You can be so oblivious sometimes! Don’t you get it? It’s
you
I like, not Rajeev. He’s just a friend! And I’m pretty sure he feels the same way about me!
CHARLIE
(mortified, trying to recover)
Yeah, well, I’m not so sure. Face it, Mo, I’m a guy, and I can tell when another guy likes somebody. And that guy out there, he likes you!
MO
(nose to nose with him now)
Oh yeah? Well, all right, then, maybe he does like me. What do I know? But even if it’s true, it isn’t my fault, is it? How am I supposed to help how he feels?
CHARLIE (V.O.)
But as it turned out, we were both wrong. Even as Mo and I argued in the storage room, at the other end of the store destiny was playing out in a way neither of us had seen coming. It just took until that moment for one of us to look up and notice.
Over Mo’s shoulder we see what has been visible in the background and what Charlie now sees: The storage room door is ajar, revealing a long