Complications: Part 3

Clearly this series has a mind of it's own and will be much longer than three parts, especially if I decide to expand it into a novel.

"Hey we're good over here, how about you?" Charlie had his hand on my arm so we wouldn't lose track of one another in the blackout. "No stay at the store, I got this. Just tell me where I can find some flashlights?"

There was a real bad storm outside and the little kid in me had goosebumps all over my arms. Thank goodness Charlie was here, a thought I would have never had a month ago when we first met. Things really began to turn around the day he drove me to my interview and a friendship has been slowly blossoming ever since. Obviously it's nothing like it is with me and Nick, things with Charlie are different but a good kind of different I can't explain.

Charlie hangs up the phone,then leans to whisper in my ear, "Nick said there should be a flashlight in his top dresser drawer."

"It's not much but I have some candles and matches in my room. Do you want me to go grab them?"

"Sure. You do that then we'll meet back up in my room?"

Me alone with Charlie in his room wasn't a big deal, honestly. He was my roommate, we even ended up in the bathroom together sometimes like one of us brushing our teeth while the other showered. Things were very comfortable and casual around here. These days I was far less intimated by Charlie's extreme likeness to professional male models. And it's not like he'd ever be into a plain Jane like me anyways, that's just not how the world works. Beautiful people tend to stay with their own kind.

A few minutes later I walked into his room with my supplies. Charlie was sitting on his bed aka a mattress on the floor studying something in his hand while he held a flashlight in the other. Dramatically I cleared my throat, "You'll have to deal with the fact that all my candles are scented, it's the one girly trap I have fallen into, the affinity for pretty smelling things."

When he didn't answer I walked closer and saw just what he was so intrigued by, the post cards. Charlie looked up, "He kept them all, I had no idea."

I sat down next to him, "Yeah but he could never figure them out. It's like you were writing in code."

"He showed them to you?"

A red blush spread across my face, hopefully the dark would mask it. "Don't worry I couldn't figure out what you were saying either."

Charlie grinned at me and then handed one over, "Really?"

Closing Time
Time for you to go out, go out into the world
Closing Time
Turn the lights up over every boy and every girl
Closing time
One last call for alcohol so finish all your whiskey or beer
Closing Time
You don't have to go home but you can't stay here

Suddenly it hit me, "You were writing him music lyrics?"

He nodded, "It was more than that though, I was telling him a story. I remember what this was about. At that point I had been sixty days sober."

"You're an alcoholic? I'm so sorry."

"I'm not sorry, it taught me a lot about myself. I've been sober for three years now. That was how I got my hockey injury, playing drunk." Charlie told me that it started as a party thing during high school and then progressed to the point where he couldn't go a day without a drink. When he lost his hockey scholarship and left school he had to make a choice: come home or try to make it on his own. To Charlie he felt he would find greater strength in the latter.

What started as a journey towards sober living expanded into an adventure to discover life. He picked up odd jobs across the country: hot dog vendor at a race track, roadie for a not so famous band, vet tech at an animal shelter, nature tour guide. His theory was that you never know what you'll like or won't like until you give it an honest try; and if it didn't feel right then time to pack up and move on. He only kept with him what he could shove in an over sized dufflebag and often stayed at places that were pre-furnished.

"Katie Keppler have you ever been in love?"

"I don't think I've ever been in like. Dating and me just don't mix."

"Oh, so you're that kind of girl."

Here comes the blushing again, "No, definitely not. I just don't get guys is all."

"You seem to get Nick pretty well."

"Yeah but he's not like a real guy."

"Ouch, I'll make sure not to repeat that one. Besides all us guys are the same: pizza, football, and scratching ourselves. Oh we like boobs too."

I laughed, "Wow all these years I have been racking my brain and it really was so ridiculously simple. How about you?"

"I like pizza, football, and the good ball scratch. Boobs are nice, won't deny that."

"No silly, have you ever been in love?"

His hazel eyes pierced right through me, "I have, but not with a person. When I was real little, maybe around three years old I discovered my love of music."

"And here I had been told your only love was hockey."

"That's what everyone thinks, except my dad. He was the one who gave me this tiny banjo. I carried it with me everywhere and got pretty good at it too. Then school set in as well as the peer pressure to be an all-star everything sports related."

I had always been curious how the cafe got it's name yet I had never bothered to ask. Now pieces of the puzzle were starting to come together. Uncle Tommy bought a cafe in hopes of it being a father/son thing and when it didn't pan out it broke his heart. Thank god for Nick stepping in. Nick was the son Tommy probably wished he had had.

Charlie put his arm around me, "Candle light, storm, just the two of us. This would be the perfect stage for seduction. But Katie Keppler isn't the type of girl a guy seduces."

I sighed, "Believe me I know. Hence the lack of male suitors at my door."

He shook his head, "It wasn't a dig at you, it was a compliment. You're the girl that men fall in love with."

We leaned towards each other, I could feel his warm breath against my face. Before the kiss could happen the electricity came back on including Charlie's TV at full blast. I jumped up and began to walk away, "Some things are better left in the dark."