Chapter 9 CHEER UP!

On opening the door, I saw cheerful faces of Charles and a very beautiful lady who was sitting with him on the couch and listening to him talking when I entered the house. But if the lady was his love interest, why would he get her to meet me? She must be an important lady to him, I thought, with how close both of them seemed to me.

“Olive, meet Erica, my best friend,” said Charles.

Best friend? I felt weird to some extent because if she was his best friend, then why didn’t he ever mention her to me in all the two months that I had been there with him? Was there a new best friend scheme going on somewhere?

Suddenly, after two months his so-called “best friend” appeared out of nowhere, and I was naturally feeling jealous of her. Had Charles confessed his love to me, meeting his best friends would have still been fine. But he seemed as happy with her as he had been with me in the time we had spent together, and to me, that was completely unacceptable.

I didn’t have troubles with him making friends or best friends as he called them, or he being happy, but I definitely had a problem with his friend providing him with the same degree of happiness as I did. I had to be realistic that time, so I shook hands with Erica to greet her from my side and introduce myself because Charles didn’t do it as he did for her.

As soon as I took my hand forward and had just started to speak, Charles opened his mouth, cutting my sentence in between. He stated, “Erica, she is who I was telling you about.”

My eyes brightened when I heard him say that they were talking about me. And when I looked at Erica again, he announced, “Meet Olivia. I call her Olive in short.”

“Nice to meet you, Olivia,” Erica commented.

“Likewise, Erica,” I replied.

“Why don’t you bring her to my wedding?” Erica asked as she looked at Charles.

Feeling a little better to know that she was getting married, I smiled from ear to ear as I looked at Charles for him to answer her question. Being his date would be nice. Besides, it would be the first formal outing together for us.

Casually going out to dine or watch movies were as friends and they brought in the similar kind of feelings, but being his date at his best friend’s wedding would be a level up for me, I believed. The answer that Charles gave to Erica’s question surprised me. He said, “That was the plan, Erica. Thank you for spoiling her surprise.”

This man with me was considering taking me to his best friend’s wedding and had planned to surprise me in that manner. It was enough to cheer me up. It was enough for me to forget for the time being that I was fired from a place which he owned.

I had considered talking to him about what happened at the museum after his best friend left. He could come up with a way not to let my career get affected by the termination letter that was given to me by the manager of the museum. But I didn’t want him to hire me at any of his companies as I have never liked taking favors from anyone, and I have always wanted to do my things on my own.

Joining them for dinner as we were stepping down from the staircase, Erica talked about the attitude Charles has always carried which made it difficult for him to gel around with others. She had also mentioned she was surprised that he had a girl that was me she was referring to, living with him and especially a girl because he hasn’t had any other chick who got to live in his house for more than two days at the most.

That made it pretty evident that he had his share of relationships in the past that were too many and also short-lived. Well, at least that cleared a certain per cent of my doubt; Charles had been a ladies’ man until then, just the way I expected him to be. But it got me thinking more about the reason that must have changed him.

When he met me for the first time, sparks arose, but it couldn’t have been the reason to change someone who had always lived the life of a womanizer. On top of that, within a week of only chatting with each other on the phone, he invited me to live with him on getting to know that I was looking for a place to stay and was skeptical about living with roommates. He didn’t try to get more out of me at all. He had taken me in as a friend only, and it continued until Erica’s wedding.

Talking to both of them at the dining table, I didn’t even realize how soon the time had passed, and it was already very late at night. I liked spending time with Erica until she left and made me promise her that I would come to her wedding.

Before Charles and I went up the staircase to go to our rooms, I mentioned, “Charles, there is something I want you to know.”

“Yes, Olive. Tell me, please.”

“Kelvin fired me today for seeing me get off from the car I couldn’t have ever afforded to buy,” I said with tears in my eyes and my face expressing sorrow for losing my job.

“What?!?” Charles exclaimed, and he stated, “That’s no reason to fire somebody.”

Hearing him say the obvious thing, tears rolled down from my face. I also added, “I need a job to pay for my college. How will I get another job?”

Charles put his hand around my shoulder and as he comforted me, he answered, “Leave that to me. I will handle Kelvin. You cheer up!”