Free What About Charlie? by Haley Michelle Howard

recliner as a place where he would no longer sit. She now thought of it as a place where he had sat and relaxed, watching TV into the wee hours of the morning. Often, he had fallen asleep and she’d gently covered him with a blanket so he wouldn’t get cold. She could remember as a young girl after having a bad dream climbing onto his lap as he sat in that chair. He’d hugged her and told her everything would be all right. In minutes, she had been back asleep. Those memories were worth more than anything in the world to her. She was so fortunate to have them!
    Indeed, she was turning her sadness into happiness, making lemonade out of lemons as her father had always said. She would always miss Henry, but Evan was right. She had to keep on living. And that’s what she intended to do.
    Thinking of Evan, she smiled. She was so fortunate to have a friend like him, and she was so happy that he had come. But her mood suddenly dampened when she realized he was leaving tomorrow. The house would be so lonely without him. She would miss him.
    Even after all their years of friendship, however, they had never been completely alone like this. Sure, they’d watched baseball games at the ballpark and played pinball together on his pinball machine; they had pizza at her apartment while they watched football on TV.
    But this was different. It was more intimate. It was almost as if they were a couple, like they were married, doing the mundane everyday things that married couples did together. To be truthful, it was kind of nice. The thought unsettled her.
    Her feelings for Evan were starting to tumble out of control. She no longer looked at him as a friend. A deep desire to want to get to know him intimately seemed to pop out of nowhere. When she looked at his lips, she now wondered what they tasted like, how it would feel to have them on her neck, her breasts. When he hugged her, all she could think of was running her fingers through the soft light brown hair on his chest.
    Last night he had asked if she needed him to sleep with her. She had been so very tempted to say yes. She loved going to sleep with Evan by her side and waking up with him curled around her. The way they fit together, his warmth and tenderness – it all felt so right. But she knew they couldn’t continue on this path any longer. It would only complicate their relationship. Her feelings were one sided, and she had no intention of ruining their friendship.
    Not for the first time, she felt like she was going crazy. Only a few weeks ago she’d been consoling him over his breakup with his girlfriend Liza and now she was wishing that she was his girlfriend.
    Charlie shook her head. Everything about him seemed to affect her differently. His smile, which she’d been the recipient of hundreds of times, now set her on fire, causing her heart to hammer against her chest, leaving her strangely breathless. That had never happened before. And how come she never noticed how attractive the tiny lines that fanned out from his eyes when he smiled were? Or the way his eyes, when he looked at her, were all warm and soft? But it was more than his smile, more than his attractiveness. What warmed Charlie’s heart the most was his deep concern for her. It was frightening and yet comforting to think that he cared so much for her. No other man besides her father had ever cared for her like Evan.
    Charlie knew she was on dangerous ground having these feelings for him. He was her best friend, the person always there for her, her buddy. Could she risk their friendship by confessing her feelings? Charlie knew the answer was an unequivocal no. Evan didn’t look at her that way. Yes, he cared for her. There was no doubt. But he cared for her as a friend, and she was turning his comfort and concern into something more than it really was. Charlie feverishly hoped that things would get back to normal and all this craziness would soon be a faint memory.
     
    ****
     
    Standing on the back porch,