13. Charlie

CHAPTER 13

CHARLIE

Charlie's head was pounding, and nothing could shift it. His whole body ached from the hours he'd spent in his room alone, crying. He'd locked the door, which he never did. None of them did, as this wasn't a typical flatmate situation. They all loved and trusted each other, but Gregory had added the locks so they could all have their privacy if needed. And he needed it now. He'd ignored the concerned pleas from his friends when they tried to convince him to go for brunch. Attendance was mandatory, so with him refusing to go and not even responding to them through the door, they knew it was serious. He wouldn't be able to ignore them once they were back.

Charlie knew he'd made a decision he would regret for the rest of his life. Sebastian could have been his happily ever after, but that wasn't on the cards for Charlie. The idea of having Sebastian for a while and then losing him was too painful to even contemplate. He was so fucked up; he couldn't put that on Sebastian. He deserved so much better. Once he'd explained to Sebastian why he'd had no choice but to sell his body, he hadn't judged him, just held him. He also hadn't demanded he give it up. Charlie wanted to give it up, but he'd never earn enough money from a regular job to support his mum. His body was all he could offer the world.

Charlie heard the guys arriving home and thankfully they left him alone. It was twenty minutes later when the door buzzed. He wondered who could be visiting them on Sunday, then questioned why he cared. He threw himself back on the bed with a groan and put a pillow over his face. He was pulled out of his spiralling thoughts by a loud knock on the door.

"Charlie, you've got a visitor."

Who the hell could that be? Oh no, he hadn't come to the flat, and with all his bothers here. Charlie had to go out there before Sebastian said anything. He jumped up and opened the door just as Jason was about to knock again.

"Jesus, you look like shit. Freshen up. He's not going anywhere. We can keep him entertained."

"No, I'll speak to him now. I'm only going to tell him to leave. You all need to disappear."

"Yeah, that's not happening, babes. But please, have a shower. You stink of lube and bad decisions."

"I hate you!"

Jason laughed, kissed him on the cheek, and sashayed away.

Charlie walked over to the mirror in his room. He looked like death. It had only been a few hours since he'd left Sebastian, but he hadn't slept. There were still remnants of dried come on his stomach. That stuff got everywhere.

He took Jason's advice and had a quick shower, scrubbing himself thoroughly. Why was Sebastian here? Charlie had left the money behind. It was never his intention to keep it. He'd just agreed to shut the uncomfortable conversation down.

God knows what the others were asking him. He needed to get out there. He just pulled on some jogging bottoms and a T-shirt. It wasn't like they were going outside. Sebastian could say his piece and then leave. He walked out into the kitchen and saw the gorgeous man with Jason and Paolo. Charlie didn't know where Gregory and Langdon were, but he'd take it. Those two were the most overprotective anyway, so it was best they weren't here.

"Sebastian."

He turned and smiled.

"What are you doing here?"

He frowned, but put his smile back on quickly.

"You two don't need to be here," Charlie said to the others.

"Like I said, not happening, sweetheart." Jason flopped down on the sofa and picked up a bowl.

"You fucker. Is that popcorn?"

Jason shrugged and put a handful in his mouth. Paolo didn't engage in any of Jason's antics, but it was clear he wasn't leaving either. Sebastian walked over to him and took out that bloody envelope from his pocket, putting it down on the kitchen counter.

"You left this behind."

"Yes, on purpose," he said through gritted teeth. He didn't want to get into this with Paolo here.

"Well, I'm just returning it to you. And I wanted to ask if you'd like to come to New York with me?"

"What?"

"I have to go back for two weeks, and I thought you could come with me. We could get to know each other better."

"I can't afford a holiday. I just lost my job."

"What?" said Paolo.

"Not now," snapped Jason, as he took another mouthful of popcorn.

"You could stay with me, and I have so many Air Miles. It wouldn't cost a penny."

"I can't leave my mum."

"I thought about that, and I spoke to your friends. They'd be happy to visit her."

Charlie glared at his so-called friends. Paolo looked sheepish, but Jason had another shit-eating grin on his face. Charlie was going to kill him. He was about to respond when the door opened and Langdon walked in. He took in the scene in front of him, walked over to Sebastian and held out his hand.

"You must be Sebastian. I'm Langdon."

They shook hands.

"I thought you were back in New York. Isn't that why Charlie stayed with you on Friday night?"

Oh my God!

"No, Charlie was with Sebastian last night," said Paolo.

The panic set in. He was struggling to breathe. No. This couldn't be happening. People were speaking around him, but he couldn't hear them. His vision blurred. He felt like he was going to pass out.

Gregory appeared in front of him, but his features blurred quickly and he could only make out shapes. His chest contracted and he couldn't breathe. He was choking, but no noise came out. It was like he was holding his breath, but not by choice. His body felt heavy, and the surrounding voices turned into a buzzing sound. He had a vague recollection of Sebastian's face before everything went black.

He opened his eyes. It took him a few seconds to realise he was lying on the sofa. His head was on Jason's lap, who was stroking his hair. He could hear the clatter of noise from the kitchen and smelt something delicious. It had to be Langdon. He wasn't sure where the others were. Then he remembered Sebastian was here. He sat up quickly, making Jason squeal.

"Sebastian?"

"He's gone, sweetie."

"Gone where? To New York?"

"No. He's back at his hotel. Waiting to hear you're okay. That guy's got it bad for you, you lucky bitch."

He groaned and put his head back down. "How bad was it?"

"You've had worse, but then we've seen it before."

"Did he freak out?"

"Not at all. He only left because Langdon threatened to kick the crap out of him."

"Why?"

"He thought Sebastian was to blame. You haven't had a panic attack in well over a year. This guy shows up and you have a bad one. You know how protective he is."

"Fuck. What did you tell Langdon?"

"The truth, sweetie. I couldn't keep it from any of them after this."

He shot up, panicking.

"Relax. We're your family. We're always going to support you."

Charlie wanted to scream, but knew Jason wouldn't have broken his confidence unless he had good reason. Before he could say as much, Langdon walked in with a plate of chicken wings, which were Charlie's favourite. He wasn't sure he was hungry until he got a waft of the barbecue sauce.

Langdon put the plate down on the coffee table with the kitchen roll. It was a messy dish. He smiled at Charlie and ruffled his hair, which was annoying and sweet at the same time. Langdon could knock ten tons of crap out of most people, but his caring side always involved food. He was a big feeder. They'd all had to step up the exercise since the first time they'd lived together when they were at university. That had been a four-bedroom shithole in East London, with one of them having to take the lounge. How times had changed.

Once he'd demolished the chicken wings, the others appeared. Gregory was holding a piece of paper, like he was about to make an official announcement. He looked nervous and was dithering.

"Here," he said, thrusting the paper at Charlie.

He sensed an intake of breath from all of them. He looked at the paper and realised why they were on tenterhooks. It was a receipt from his mum's care home. Not only had Gregory cleared the arrears, he'd also paid for the next six months. That was twenty grand he'd just given Charlie. He wouldn't expect it back. How on earth he'd made a payment on a Sunday was a mystery, but it was Gregory. He got things done. No fuss. Just quiet and practical.

They were no doubt expecting Charlie to kick off, and a few days ago he may have done that, but he knew it came from the heart. Gregory wanted to help take his friend's pain away, and this was his way of doing it. Charlie went to say ‘thank you' but got choked up and cried on Jason's shoulder. Gregory looked mildly uncomfortable but smiled and nodded before sitting down.

"Right, it's my turn," said Jason. "Now, I know you wouldn't want a fuss about what happened with work, but that arsehole deserves to be taken to the cleaners. However..." he said, before Charlie could butt in. "I think we can just renegotiate your settlement."

He passed his laptop to Charlie. There was a letter on it to Geraldine, with the headline: Pre-warning of unfair dismissal and discrimination claim. He read it all. It was clear and concise, but got all the points across, including previous incidents of how Charlie had been overworked and underpaid, concluding with the assault, and a subtle threat of involving the police. There was no request for an amount, just asking them to make a better offer.

"You think this will work? I don't want to go to court."

"Yes, but they don't need to know that. Just trust Auntie Jason to deal with everything. Will you send this email?"

"Now?"

"Yes. Now. I've got it all ready."

He looked at his own email, open, with the email ready to go.

"How did you . . ."

"You need a better password, dear."

Charlie laughed, but hit send. They'd probably tell him to piss off, but he was sure the email would scare the shit out of Nathaniel, even if it was just briefly.

Next up was Langdon's turn. He passed over his tablet, which was open on the London Lads website. He groaned at the conversation he knew they'd need to have, so they could understand why he'd made that choice.

"What am I looking at?" he asked.

"See anything missing?" asked Langdon.

Charlie scrolled through the page of all the guys who worked for Lucinda. He'd met a couple of them for threesomes but noticed nothing different. He shrugged.

"Where's Langdon?"

Charlie winced about using his friend's name.

"I'm sorry, but Lucinda said your name sounded the hottest."

The others looked incredulous, but then all laughed. Charlie scrolled through the page again and noticed his profile was gone. He searched, in case he'd missed it.

"What did you do?"

"I asked Lucinda nicely to remove your profile and informed her you wouldn't be working there any more."

"What?"

"I'm sorry, Charlie, but no. You're not doing that job anymore. We'll find another way."

Charlie was overwhelmed by what his friends had done for him, but they'd also just made big decisions for him and expected him to go along with it. He wanted to argue with them, but he was too tired. He also wondered how long he'd been asleep if they'd sorted all this out.

"And what's your gift?" he asked Paolo.

"We saved the best for last."

Charlie doubted that. This would probably be the one which pissed him off the most, but he gestured for Paolo to get on with it. He took out a familiar envelope and Charlie winced. Paolo took the money out, but it was now all in American dollars.

"What's this?"

"It's spending money for New York."

"I'm not going to New York."

"We've got your mum covered. I spoke to her when you were asleep."

"What did you say to her?" he panicked.

"Relax. I just said your boyfriend was whisking you off to New York and we were all gonna look after her. I'm taking my table round tomorrow to give her a massage. Gregory is taking her to that new exhibit at the Natural History Museum she's wanted to see, and Langdon will, of course, be cooking for her and some of her friends. She's having a poker night and wants some high-class nibbles, as she called them."

There was a lot to unpick there, but one thing stood out over all of them.

"Sebastian isn't my boyfriend."

They all burst out laughing.

"Am I missing something?"

"Oh, you silly thing," said Jason. "You didn't see him when you passed out. That guy loves you, whether you like it or not."

"He does not love me. We've only known each other two weeks."

"And you're saying you don't feel the same?"

"I can't go to New York."

"Why? Your mum is sorted. You don't have a job, and you have no pressing financial reason to rush into another."

"Didn't Langdon threaten to punch him?"

"He was flapping too much," said Langdon.

"Sebastian doesn't flap. He's a CEO. He's always in control."

"Not with you, dear," said Jason. "Look, it's two weeks. You've never left the country in your whole life. All you need to do is get your arse in gear. Pack, and spend two weeks exploring New York and getting pounded by that beast of a man."

"Jason!" scolded Paolo.

"Sorry, but it was all getting heavy."

Everything his friends had done for him went against his mission for independence, but he couldn't be mad at them. If the situation was reversed and he had the money, knowledge, strength, or heart of his brothers, he'd do exactly the same. The only thing he was uncertain about was Sebastian. He'd screwed the guy around so much, he had to have written Charlie off as a poor bet, but according to these guys, that wasn't the case. They even believed Sebastian loved him.

Was that possible after such a short time? Charlie knew how he felt. He'd felt it the first night they'd spent together. Could the perfect night have actually led him to the perfect man? There was only one way to find out.