Cut Free (The Sublime Book 4)

by Julia Wolf

  He groaned.

  “Charlie, I’m kidding! I would love to be taken under your wing.”

  “Is that dirty talk?”

  I pushed him harder than I intended, and he stumbled before righting himself.

  “Charlie…” I grumbled.

  “Eliza…” he grumbled back.

  I gasped. “You just said my name!”

  “I’ve said your name many times.”

  “But there was no ‘miss’ in front of it! This is a breakthrough!”

  “Well, I can hardly be your tutor and call you ‘miss.’ That doesn’t seem right.”

  I shook my head. “No, definitely not right.”

  We ran along the path quietly for the last mile. Charlie struggled, but he pushed through, and I was more than a little impressed. Even though I normally ran all the way up the hill to my apartment, this time, when we hit Main Street, I started walking to give him a break.

  “Am I alive?” He looked around as if he wasn’t sure where he was.

  “You did it, Charlie! Six miles!” I held my hand up for a high five and he very slowly slapped his palm against mine.

  “That wasn’t fun,” he said.

  “I had fun.”

  He looked at me, a small smile playing on his lips. “The running part wasn’t fun. The company was exceptional.”

  My cheeks burned yet again. He had a bad habit of making me blush. I wasn’t ready to part from him, and playing the piano and sticking to my routine suddenly didn’t feel that vital.

  “Do you want to stop for breakfast?” I asked.

  He stopped walking and grabbed my forearm. “Is this you being spontaneous?”

  I nodded. “I think it is. Should I feel all tingly inside?”

  He stepped closer to me and grinned. “Nah, that’s just from my presence.”

  I shook my head and started walking to my favorite coffee shop. Charlie followed close behind. Once we both ordered, we found a table in a quiet corner.

  After a minute, a waitress brought over our coffees and breakfast. I started eating my egg white, turkey bacon, and avocado on an English muffin while Charlie sipped his coffee.

  “Healthy eater, huh?” he asked.

  “Usually. As you now know, I live a pretty regimented life.”

  “You mean boring?”

  I huffed, but nodded. “Yeah, I mean boring.” I drooled a little watching Charlie take a big bite of a chocolate chip muffin. I did let myself indulge sometimes, especially when I went with Frannie and Rachel to the wine bar, but my diet consisted of a lot of egg whites and chicken breasts, especially now that I was single. I had cooked more complicated meals when I lived with my ex, but cooking just for myself wasn’t nearly as enjoyable. Although, truthfully, cooking for him hadn’t been enjoyable either since there was always “something wrong” with whatever I made, even if he did shovel it all into his mouth.

  Charlie held out his muffin. “Want a bite?”

  I smiled. “No thanks.”

  He waved it in front of my face. “Come on…”

  I shook my head.

  “You know you wanna!”

  The muffin was an inch from my mouth, and the smell of chocolatey richness invaded my nose. I looked from Charlie to the muffin and back to Charlie again, and then I leaned in and took a huge bite out of it.

  He pulled the muffin back and gasped. “You ate half my muffin!”

  I covered my full mouth with my hand, and mumbled, “Don’t test me, Charlie. I might eat the other half.”

  He leaned back in his chair and watched me chew. “This is going to be fun, isn’t it?”

  “Orchestrating my rebellion? Yes, I think it will be. I actually came up with my first idea while we were running.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “Okay, it’s not rebellious, but it is something I’ve never done and have always wanted to. I’m signing up for the Baltimore Marathon, and you’re going to do it with me.”

  He cringed. “You actually think I can run a marathon?”

  “Yep, we’re going to do it together.” I held my hand out. “Deal?”

  He looked at my hand suspiciously, but shook it after a brief hesitation. “Deal, I suppose. Although, I think I’m getting the raw end here.”

  “We have weeks to train for the marathon, and you can make me do whatever you want before then.”

  He waggled his eyebrows. “Are you talking dirty again?”

  I kicked him under the table. “You wish.”

  He leaned forward and spoke in a quiet voice. “Oh, Miss Eliza, if only the timing and circumstances were different, I would wish.”

  I swallowed hard. I had no idea how to decipher that, so I laughed it off, which was easy to do with Charlie. Of course, the timing was all kinds of wrong, but somehow, being wrong with Charlie sounded quite tempting.

  Six

  I put my sunglasses on top of my head, threw a bottle of water in my purse, and then went downstairs to wait for my ride.

  The loudest, yellowest convertible was idling out front. I tried not to make eye contact with the driver because only a douche would drive a car like that.

  Then I heard my name being called and I had to look.

  Charlie waved both arms over his head. “Eliiiiiza!”

  My jaw dropped in disbelief. “What in the world?” I asked as I approached the car.

  He reached across the passenger seat and opened my door. “Get in! Our adventure awaits.”

  I looked from the door to his excited face. “What is happening right now?”

  “I bet you’ve never been in a yellow convertible,” he said, as if that explained anything.

  I got in the car tentatively. “I haven’t. I can’t really say I’ve had the desire. Don’t tell me this is your car.”

  Charlie put the car into drive and winked at me before we started moving. “Fine, I won’t tell you.”

  I slapped his bicep with the back of my hand. “I don’t believe you.”

  He laughed. “Okay! I rented it. Everyone needs to ride in a ridiculous yellow convertible at least once in their lives.”

  “Is this your first time?” I asked.

  “I’m offended you even have to ask,” he said.

  Charlie and I had been running together for a week. We had officially signed up for the Baltimore Marathon and had almost two months to train. It seemed like a long time since I was already a runner, but that 26.2 miles was more than a little daunting. We were following a marathon training schedule, which had a lot of shorter runs with only one long run a week. It was hard for me to get used to not pushing myself beyond my limit, but Charlie was ecstatic when I told him we could start our runs at seven in the morning instead of six-thirty.

  I still wasn’t sure how any of this had happened. Somehow, I went from only thinking about Charlie when I wanted to torture myself, to actively avoiding him, to training for a marathon with him and riding in a yellow convertible.

  “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

  “You’ll see soon enough, Miss Eliza.”

  I leaned my head back on the headrest and smiled. “We’re back to ‘miss’ now? I’m not even fancy today—I’m wearing jeans!”

  He glanced over at my legs. “Don’t think I didn’t notice. You took my breath away when I saw you standing on that street corner. But then, you always do.”

  I pursed my lips, not sure how to take that. Charlie always edged around flirting with me, but I wouldn’t say he was flirtatious. What we were building felt like friendship, even though I was undeniably attracted to him.

  “I think you might be trying to flatter me to avoid answering where we’re going.”

  Charlie waggled his eyebrows. “Is it working?”

  “Not even a little!”

  “How do you feel about horses?”

  “Horses are...big? Pretty? I’ve never really delved into my feelings on the subject.”

  Charlie chuckled and squeezed my knee. “Horses are big
and pretty? I can’t get enough of you.”

  There he went, making me blush again.

  “Is this line of questioning going anywhere?” I asked.

  “I’m taking you to the horse races. We’re going to test our luck.”

  “What? Are you kidding me? I’ve never been to the horse races!” I was actually excited. I’d watched all the big races on TV and been to countless Preakness parties, but I had never even thought of going to watch in person.

  “I had a feeling you’d say that. I also have a feeling you’ve never placed a bet or gambled either.”

  “Never. My ex was an accountant and the idea of gambling was preposterous. He said you might as well burn your money.”

  Charlie scoffed. “What a dick. The second I met him last fall, I knew he was a dick. What did you ever see in that guy?”

  I looked down at my hands. I hated this question. I felt stupid enough for spending years with Edward, but when the inevitable question of why I stayed so long was asked, I never had a good enough answer.

  He tapped my forearm with his fingertips. “You know what? Forget I asked. You don’t have to explain it to me. Just know we’re gonna waste some money today and we’re gonna have a fuckin’ blast doing it.”

  The tension that had been building in my chest was gone just as suddenly as it had appeared.

  “I can’t wait to waste money with you, Charlie.” I found myself smiling at his profile, watching the wind whipping his hair around, his lips curved up in his almost ever-present grin. I liked the way he was always relaxed, even when driving, his arms and shoulders loose. Sometimes, I felt like I never relaxed, like I was always on edge, but just being next to him made my mind slow down, as though I was absorbing some of his laid-back nature through osmosis.

  The wind was being kind to Charlie’s hair, but mine was all in my face, sticking to my lip gloss. I pulled all of it up into a ponytail, but my bangs were still in my eyes, driving me crazy. I had to remember to put a trim on my to-do list.

  Charlie slowed down and turned into the entrance of the race course. We drove under white arches with statues of horses on either side and then parked in a grassy parking lot.

  When we got out of the car, he tugged the end of my ponytail. “I like your hair like that. I wish I could see your eyes, though.” I stood frozen while he lightly brushed my bangs to the side and skimmed his fingers down my cheek before he dropped his hand and tucked it in his pocket.

  “Ready?” he asked, as if that small touch hadn’t just taken all my breath away and turned my knees into liquid.

  I forced a small smile. “I think I am.”

  The day was lovely, and something about the race track made me feel like we’d stepped back in time. A sign said the track first opened in 1911, and I could almost picture ladies in long dresses and parasols strolling along with their husbands, in their suits and straw hats, on the same path we were walking.

  Charlie scanned the schedule in the program he’d picked up. “The first race is in thirty minutes. Let’s place our bets.”

  We stopped in front of a machine that had so many choices on the screen, my eyes crossed. Charlie tried to explain odds and handicaps, but it went in one ear and out the other.

  “Just put me down for Secretariat,” I said.

  Charlie leaned his head back and stared at me. “You mean the horse that won the Triple Crown in the seventies and died almost thirty years ago? Sure.” He pretended to push buttons on the screen, making me laugh.

  “Which one has the best name?” I leaned over his shoulder and read the list of names. “Oh! I wager all my money on SorryNotSorry!”

  “Okay, so five bucks, right?” He pressed the screen and entered my bet.

  “Who are you picking?”

  “I’m kind of digging Easy Sunday,” he said.

  “Because of the song?”

  And right there, at a busy race track with people all around us, Charlie turned to me, looked into my eyes earnestly, and belted out, “I’m eeeeeaaaaasy…”

  I melted, the heat of embarrassment turning me into a puddle on the ground. Charlie was the least self-conscious person I’d ever known, and I may have been the most, especially when it came to strangers looking at me.

  “Your cheeks are awfully pink, Miss Eliza.”

  “And you’re awfully loud,” I said.

  “When you’re with me, people are going to stare. You just have to accept and embrace it,” he said, matter-of-fact. He had said he was going to pull me out of my comfort zone, and apparently, he really meant it.

  “This is our first public outing. You have to give me a chance to acclimate,” I said.

  Charlie rested his hand on the small of my back as we made our way outside to the general admission area. There were stadium seats further back, but we sat in the rows of white seats right in front of the track.

  I perched on the edge of my seat, scanning the dirt-packed track for the horses.

  Pointing to the far end of the track, I said excitedly, “There they are!”

  I turned to Charlie, and he was watching me with an amused expression on his face. “I love how excited you are.”

  “I love that you brought me here.”

  “You seem to have forgotten to mention I brought you here in style.”

  “Like I said, I love that you brought me here.”

  I bit my bottom lip to hold in a laugh when Charlie clutched his chest and slumped sideways. “Dagger to the heart!”

  When the horses were lined up in their starting gates, Charlie and I stood by the fence separating us from the track. With the ring of a bell, the horses were off, and I got so caught up in watching, I started yelling right along with the rest of the crowd.

  “Go, SorryNotSorry! Faster—go, go, go!”

  My horse pulled in front of the others, and I jumped up and down with glee. I gripped Charlie’s forearm on the final stretch.

  “Charlie, I think my horse is going to win!”

  I dug my fingers into his arm and held my breath. It was close, so very close. My horse was nose-to-nose with another horse. And then he seemed to pull something from deep within himself and sped up, crossing the finish line a full second before the next horse.

  I threw myself on Charlie.

  “He won! I won! I’m rich!” I wrapped my arms around his neck and he held me loosely around my waist as I jumped up and down in front of him.

  He was shaking with laughter when I calmed down, so I swatted his chest. He held up his hand, and said, “I hope you didn’t call your boss and quit your job. I think you won about seven dollars.”

  I kicked his toe with mine. “Damn. I’ll have to tear up that resignation letter.”

  He slung his arm around my shoulder. “But now that you’ve come into money, I could really go for a pretzel.”

  I elbowed his side and narrowed my eyes at him. “I knew you had ulterior motives. You’re after me for my fortune.”

  He squeezed me closer before he let me go. “Come on, moneybags, let’s go get a pretzel.”

  Once we had snacks and beer and had placed a bet on the next race, we went back to our seats in the sun. Whether it was the high from winning, the beautiful day, or the surprise of it all, I was having more fun than I’d had in a long time.

  “Do you come here a lot?” I asked.

  “Are you trying to pick me up?”

  I groaned. “I did just use a classic pick-up line on you, didn’t I?”

  “You did. I’ll let it pass this time. When you hit on me, I want you to really mean it. And to answer your question, I used to come a lot with my parents as a kid, but not lately.”

  “Why not lately?”

  He shrugged. “No one to come with. And now, I think you’ve ruined me for coming to the races with anyone else. No one else could possibly be as fun.”

  A warmth spread across my chest and we smiled at each other.

  Then he tapped my nose and said, “Boop!”

  I narrowed my ey
es at him. “Charlie…”

  “Eliza…”

  I laughed and kicked his foot. “Are you still close with your parents?”

  He absently traced a finger up and down the tattoo of Victorian-style shears surrounded by colorful flowers on my inner forearm while he thought about his answer. “Pretty close. They live in Japan now, so I only see them about twice a year, but we email and FaceTime regularly.”

  “When did they move to Japan?”

  “Ten years ago, actually. When my mom graduated college, she went to Tokyo for a year to teach English and she met my dad, fell madly in love and dragged him back to the states. They made a deal they’d move back there when my sister and I were grown up and living on our own, and they did.”

  “Do you speak Japanese?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Hai.”

  “Will it be incredibly annoying if I ask you to say something in Japanese?”

  “Not incredibly annoying…”

  I swatted his arm, and he laughed. “What do you want me to say?” he asked.

  “Anything!”

  Charlie looked up at the sky and exhaled. “Okay. Mitame yori naimen no hō ga zutto suteki desu.”

  I had no idea what he said, but the sound of the words leaving his mouth had goosebumps blossoming on my arms.

  “Thank you, Charlie. You may have just told me I have octopus breath, but it sounded lovely.”

  He continued tracing my tattoo. “That’s exactly what I said. How’d you know?”

  “Do you want me to teach you Hebrew curse words? They’re the only thing I remember from all my years in Hebrew school.”

  He jerked his head back as if in shock. “Do you really need to ask? Of course I do.”

  We spent the rest of the afternoon trading curse words and betting on races. Sadly, I didn’t win again, but like Charlie, I too was ruined. I could never go to another horse race and have as much fun as I did with him. Everything felt lighthearted and any concerns and worries I had fell away while we were together. And maybe that wasn’t realistic or maintainable, but it felt so good, I didn’t want to question it.

  Charlie drove me home in the yellow convertible, and this time, I fully appreciated the experience.