Nathan<\/i><\/p>\n
I wait until Nick is done with the last rep of his leg extensions. \u201cWhat was that all about with Charlotte today?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick shoots me a look but says nothing. Ignoring me, he climbs off the machine and wipes it down before heading for the free weights. I follow. \u201cIf you\u2019ve got something up your ass, just spit it out instead of stewing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you care?\u201d He picks up a twenty five pound barbell and starts doing bicep curls. When I pick up the thirty pound weights, Nick just rolls his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeriously? You\u2019re giving me crap over the fact I can lift more than you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever,\u201d he mumbles.<\/p>\n
I set the barbells onto the rack and pull Nick on the shoulder so he will stop and talk to me. \u201cNick, what\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n
For a moment, I think he might shrug me off. Then he releases a huge sigh and places his weights next to mine. Leaning down, he picks up his discarded towel and walks over to the water cooler. I trail behind waiting impatiently for him to spill it.<\/p>\n
Either intentionally or because he isn\u2019t sure what he wants to say, Nick makes me wait until he\u2019s drained two glasses of water. When he starts peeling a banana, I lunge for him. He starts laughing, the little fucker, and dances away. \u201cI wondered how long you\u2019d wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFuck you.\u201d I laugh. Nick and I can never stay mad at each other for long.<\/p>\n
\u201cUh oh, you owe me five or I tell Mom.\u201d Mom hates hearing us cuss and makes us put five dollars in a jar that we then donate to the Widows and Orphans Charity. Dad fills it up about once a month.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah? And how are you going to explain all the porn tumblrs you\u2019ve been looking up on your computer? I screenshotted your history FYI.\u201d I haven\u2019t but Nick doesn\u2019t know that.\u00a0 His quick temper flares again and I think he might try to force feed me the banana. \u201cJust kidding.\u201d I back away holding up my hands in surrender.<\/p>\n
Nick\u2019s face grows serious. \u201cYou know they are thinking of shipping Charlotte to Sweden, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
That<\/i>\u00a0stops me in my tracks.\u00a0 I am glad I am near a weight bench because the thought of Charlotte being moved out of the country leaves me more winded than my hour long workout. \u201cWhen did you hear that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCharlotte told me yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you\u2019re just tell me now?\u201d I yell at Nick.<\/p>\n
\u201cVolume, please.\u201d Nick jiggles his ear.<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry.\u201d I reply curtly but I\u2019m not sorry at all. This was vital information. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me yesterday.\u201d What are Aunt AM and Uncle Bo thinking? Charlotte needs to be with me, us.\u00a0 Here where her family and friends are, not in some strange country with people who don\u2019t know her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019d you go the night Charlotte had her tumor out?\u201d Nick asks in an abrupt change of subject.<\/p>\n
Caught off guard, I stammer, \u201cUh here. The gym.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReally? Cuz when we got the call that Charlotte was out of surgery, I came down here to the gym and then down to the common one on the sixth floor. You weren\u2019t in either one.\u201d Nick doesn\u2019t look at me but I know what I\u2019d see in his eyes. Disappointment. Suddenly I feel angry at Dad for ratting me out. Surging to my feet, I start for the door. Nick stops me. \u201cI saw Madeline yesterday in the lobby. She asked about you. Where you\u2019ve been. How come she hasn\u2019t seen you. I told her you were at the hospital with Charlotte. She asked me if that was where you\u2019d taken off in such a rush the other night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGoddammit.\u201d I lean my head against the glass door of the gym. \u201cWhat\u2019d you say to her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her it wasn\u2019t any of her goddamned business where you went and what you did.\u201d Nick bites out.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you really?\u201d This time I do turn to look at him. Dad had always taught us to be respectful to women and I just couldn\u2019t see Nick saying that. Even to Madeline.<\/p>\n
Nick looks down at his feet and shakes his head. \u201cNo, but I wanted to. I just said that Charlotte was our number one priority now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you say anything to Charlotte?\u201d That was the most important question. I hold my breath as Nate answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sheer relief at his response made me weak. \u201cThanks.\u201d It\u2019s inadequate but heartfelt. I push away from the door and gesture for Nick to follow me to the condo. He doesn\u2019t get up and worry is all over his face. \u201cI think Aunt AM knows, though, because after Charlotte told me I hung around outside the room when Mom came. She and Aunt AM were talking about this new clinic in Sweden and Aunt AM said it\u2019d be good to get Charlotte away from us for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019d Mom say.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t hear. They moved away from the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFuck.\u201d I curse and this time Nick doesn\u2019t threaten to tell Mom. \u201cSo you think Aunt AM knows about Madeline and wants to move Charlotte away because of that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick spreads his hands. \u201cWhy else?\u201d<\/p>\n
I can think of a thousand reasons but instead of enumerating them, I run upstairs to Dad\u2019s library and burst in. He\u2019s on the phone and unhappy at the unannounced interruption. He gestures for me to sit down but then notices I\u2019m in my workout clothes. Muting the phone, he barks at me. \u201cDon\u2019t sit on my leather chairs until you\u2019ve showered.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stand because I\u2019m not leaving to shower or eat or shit or anything until I find out what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n
Want more Charlotte? Sign up for the newsletter and you’ll get the Charlotte Chronicles delivered to your inbox a week early! The next installment is due tomorrow morning.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Happy Thanksgiving to the US folks. On Monday Last Hit will be at your favorite retailers. Keep your eyes here…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charlotte-chronicles","tag-charlotte-chronicles","charlotte-chronicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}