I want You Deeper

When Charlie had heard the reunion was being held at the country club, she’d immediately pictured the big dining room where members ate dinner every night. She had not even

thought about the pool where the incident happened more than a full decade earlier.

“This is the pool, isn’t it?” Nicholas asked as they stood near the bar, holding the glasses of diet soda they’d gotten just seconds ago.

Diet soda. Charlie had felt the pressure to order a drink at the bar, but she didn’t want to stand around holding a bottle of water. A soda would at least help her look like she fit in. What had surprised her, though, was that Nicholas had ordered the exact same thing. It was like he wanted to show support, and that was the way he did it.

It made her smile.

“Yes,” she said. “This is the pool.”

She could hear the nervousness in her voice, although she still felt that boost of confidence she’d gotten at lunch. Still, it sucked to be back here after the incredible day they’d had. They’d toured her old hometown and enjoyed a mid-afternoon ice cream at one of her favorite childhood restaurants. It had, without a doubt, been the best day she’d had in as long as she could remember, just relaxing and enjoying a day off with a man who made her laugh and smile.

“Closure,” she said on an exhale, doing her best to pep herself up.

Shellie, Jamie, and the small cluster of people who seemed to stick with them everywhere they went were standing at the far end of the pool. They might as well have been on the other side of the world.

“Maybe I should just go ahead and get this over with,” she said, speaking mostly to herself.

“Sure. Do you want me to come with you? I can hold your drink if you guys start throwing punches.”

She smiled, then shook her head. “Not with that group of people around.

I need to get Jamie and Shellie off to themselves.”

“Done.”

Without explanation, Nicholas headed across the pool area, weaving his way around the groups of people gathered from one end to the other. Charlie considered running after him, but the last thing she wanted to do was make a scene while trying to stop Nicholas from making a scene.

But he didn’t do that. He walked up to the group gathered with Shellie, said something, then turned, with Shellie and Jamie both obediently following. Charlie’s heart doubled its rate, and she took deep, cleansing breaths to calm down.

“Hi!” Shellie said in a very enthusiastic voice.

She didn’t say Charlie’s name, which was odd. She seemed awkward about it, too, like she was tiptoeing around something.

“Hi, Shellie,” Charlie said with the confidence she’d been lacking last night. It emboldened her. Even though she felt like her heart might pound right out of her chest, she realized she still could present herself as though she was in charge of this entire interaction.

“You look amazing,” Jamie gushed. “I love that dress.”

Charlie looked down at the long, lace cocktail dress she’d bought after shopping for three weeks for the perfect thing to wear to this. Her instinct was to thank Jamie for the compliment, but then she remembered what she’d thought as she’d stood in front of that fitting room mirror, trying on dress after dress and scrutinizing each one to determine if it would have them whispering her nickname behind her back.

“You called me bones.”

The words came out before Charlie had time to really even think them through. They just spilled out, like her body couldn’t contain them anymore. When she dared to look up, she found both Shellie and Jamie staring at her. Shellie looked over at Jamie, who returned the look with a frozen smile. There was confusion vaguely detectable in Shellie’s eyes, but Jamie just looked stunned.

“Here, at the pool, when we were teenagers,” Charlie explained. “You were sitting over there-well, there was a lounge chair next to a lifeguard stand back then. It’s different now. I was doing my summer babysitting job, and you were over there loudly talking about me.”

Shellie’s smile had fallen, but Jamie was looking at Shellie again.

Charlie couldn’t tell if they even knew what she was talking about.

“I’m sorry,” Shellie said. “That’s horrible. Are you sure it was us?” “That doesn’t sound like us,” Jamie said, not sounding very convincing. There was a slight hesitation in her voice, and Charlie would bet she was thinking that it did sound like them. Because it did. Charlie watched as they bullied classmates numerous times over the years. They’d only left her alone most of the time because they never paid attention to her.

Until they encountered her at the pool, where there was no one else to pick on.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

They never paid attention to her.

It hit her then, as Shellie and Jamie gave her blank, but apologetic looks. They were confused, and it was understandable now.

“You have no idea who I am, do you?” Charlie asked.

The confused expressions were displaced by discomfort. Shellie’s smile had returned, and it looked just as plastered on as ever. Jamie’s attention was on Nicholas, who had moved to stand next to Charlie. It felt like a bit of a protective maneuver as though he sensed that she needed him and stepped up to help.

“Sure…you’re Charlie,” Jamie said. “You’re in HR in Silicon Valley.”

Charlie grimaced. “I’m talking about in school. We all were in the same elementary school class in fifth grade. We passed each other in the hall every day from middle school on. Aside from the day you body-shamed me here at the pool, neither of you even noticed me.”

She stopped talking before she could give too much away. She couldn’t believe she’d let these two dimwits take up space in her head all those years. And now, at the reunion, they had one hundred percent only spoken to her because Shellie was making the rounds last night and Jamie… Jamie had her sights set on Nicholas.

That was still the case, obviously, judging by the way Jamie’s gaze kept subtly sliding over to Nicholas. She also had straightened as Nicholas came around to face them, thrusting her chest out to emphasize her curves.

Yeah. Disgusting.

“We had a pretty big class,” Shellie said. “Plus, it’s been ten years. I’m sure I knew who you were back then, but I’ve had a lot of sleep since then.”

“What’s important is that we’re getting to know each other now.” Jamie stepped forward a little, inching closer to Nicholas. “Listen, if we said something horrible to you back when we were kids, I’m so sorry. You look amazing. I’m sure I was just jealous.”

“Exactly,” Shellie jumped in to say. “I was totally insecure. Let’s just let loose and forget all that. Look-we’re being called inside.”

Shellie and Jamie took off, joining a big crowd of classmates who were cramming through the doorway together. Charlie looked over at Nicholas, gauging his reaction to what had just happened.

“Closure?” Nicholas asked.

The look on his face was so adorably cautious, Charlie couldn’t help but laugh. “I can’t believe I placed so much importance on what those two thought. They’re kind of-”

“Shallow? Self-absorbed? Immature?”

“All of the above.”

“I say we go in and find someone completely different to sit with. Someone who knows how to carry on an intelligent conversation.”

They spotted Bobby Johnson within seconds of entering and Charlie made a beeline for his table. Bobby had been in several classes with her throughout middle and high school, although she wouldn’t have called them the best of friends. Still, she liked that his table seemed to be filled with people who not only remembered her but were excited to see her.

This was what a high school reunion was supposed to be about.

“You never missed Charlie walking into a room,” Marianna Bullock said. Marianna was someone Charlie had hung out with for a couple of years in middle school, before they’d split into different friend groups freshman year. “All the guys had crushes on her.”

“Pretty much.” Bobby held his hands up in an exaggerated shrug when everyone turned to look at him. “Hey, everyone knew it.”

“Except me.” Charlie shook her head. “I just assumed everyone saw me as bones.”

“Bones?” Bobby asked.

“Inside joke.” Charlie looked over at Nicholas, smiling at him.

“I think we should dance,” Nicholas announced as the party music switched to a slow song, leading the group gathered on the dance floor to thin out significantly. Turned out people weren’t as excited about a slow dance as they were about jumping up and down to a song they’d all loved a full decade ago.

“Sure,” Charlie responded, pushing her chair back and standing. She led the way to the dance floor, moving between the tables with her head held high.

Along the way, she couldn’t help but glance in Shellie’s direction. She was standing near the podium, talking to the woman who seemed to be in charge of making sure everyone was fed and happy.

“Thank you for doing this,” Charlie said as she turned to face Nicholas, putting a hand awkwardly on each shoulder.

With similar awkwardness, he put a hand on each side of her waist. Why did this oddly feel like a school dance? This entire experience had been so surreal.

“My pleasure.”

He smiled at her, and their gazes locked for a long moment. Everything seemed to melt into the background as they stared at each other, gently swaying to a melodramatic love song from the past.

“Do you regret being here?” he asked without taking his eyes off her face.

Charlie shook her head. “I wouldn’t do it again, but I’m actually having fun tonight.” She gestured vaguely to indicate Shellie and Jamie. “Once I stopped worrying about them, I finally could enjoy myself. I forgot about that part.”

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“That part of high school,” she clarified. “All you remember when you look back is sitting on the sidelines while other people make the cheerleading squad and cluster around the popular table at lunch. You don’t realize that most of the time, you didn’t even pay attention to that. It was all about hanging out with friends and having fun in your own little circle.”

“And horrible tests and homework and worrying about grades?”

Charlie laughed. “Okay, yeah, that’s a good point. I definitely forgot about all that.”

Nicholas shook his head. “You couldn’t pay me enough to go back.” “You don’t need the money anyway,” she pointed out.

Seriously. Why would a billionaire need to take money to do something he didn’t want to do? It was absurd. But she got his point.

His hands moved around to the small of her back and he tugged her toward him. She rested her head flat against his chest and closed her eyes, savoring the moment. She dreaded the end of the song, but as it drifted to an end, another slow song started up. This wasn’t over yet.

In an effort to reposition, Charlie inadvertently brushed her fingers against the back of his neck, and he tightened his grip. She held her breath, worried he thought she was coming onto him somehow. What if he wasn’t interested in her in that way? What if she’d misinterpreted the way he looked at her? And really, he was still just doing this so she’d help him out with his wedding next weekend.

He pulled back, looking down at her. At the same time, the music swelled. It felt like something straight out of a romantic movie. Their gazes locked and all the breath went out of her, making her glad he had his arms around her. At least he could catch her if her legs gave out from under her.

As he lowered his mouth to hers, she found herself holding back, mostly out of this seemingly unbreakable fear that she’d misunderstood. That he’d say he wasn’t attracted to her. But then she felt the intensity in his kiss as he

pulled her even closer to him and she knew… This was the real thing.

When Charlie gave into the kiss, it seemed to push it to the next level. They stopped swaying to the music and just focused on each other. She rose up on tiptoe, even though the heels she wore put them almost even in height. It just made her feel closer to him.

And then the song came to an abrupt halt. Not at the end of the song, but right in the middle. The sounds blaring through the speaker stopped and they were surrounded by the crowd noise that had been going on all along, unheard under the music.

Nicholas and Charlie sprung apart like they’d been caught…well, making out on the dance floor at her high school reunion. But when she looked around, they weren’t surrounded by a crowd and nobody even seemed to be paying attention to them. Instead, everyone was looking at Shellie, who was holding the microphone and smiling out at the crowd.

Upstaged once again, but Charlie didn’t care. She’d just had the most amazing kiss of her life.