by Kira Blakely
“Charlotte. I can’t resist you,” Quentin said, after a long pause. “You might be single-handedly saving my life. I’d given up on love.”
But Charlotte couldn’t find the words. She began to shake at the beauty of what he’d revealed to her. Devastation clouded her mind. She held her tongue, waiting till they arrived back at their apartment.
Her shoulders aching with the horrible promise of tomorrow, she wrapped herself tightly around Quentin, ripping his pants to his knees and wrapping her perfect lips around the tip of his cock, rubbing her tongue in a light, flirtatious circle around the tip. She listened to his moan, and then dove down to his balls, sucking on their perfect, circular shape. He caught her head with his hands, bringing her upward, kissing her again and then ripping her dress above her head, revealing her bra and underwear beneath. Her underwear was slightly wet, as her pussy had begun its insistent pounding, its silky lips separating, its clit poking out from above. Quentin slipped her panties to her feet, then unhooked her bra, watching as her tits bounced casually in front of his face. He wrapped his mouth around the darkness of her nipple, sucking at it insistently, with need.
They dove into bed with each other, making passionate, end-of-the-world love, with only Charlotte recognizing what had occurred. She humped him wildly from above, her lips parting, and his wide girth filling her, pushing up against the softness of her G-spot. He placed two fingers against the small clit, expounding on her pleasure centers and pushing a long, easy moan from her throat.
This is what she’d given up her career for, she told herself as she fell into a chorus of orgasms. This had to be worth it. This had to be everything.
Chapter 26
Charlotte snuck from Quentin’s bed early the next morning, kissing his soft, warm lips before slipping back into her apartment and scrubbing herself clean. Clamping her eyes closed, the image of Pamela, staring at her, stampeded through her brain. She couldn’t have imagined it.
“Damn,” she whispered, her voice raspy and echoing in the shower. Just when Quentin had told her he was falling in love with her. Just when everything seemed to be falling into place.
“What the fuck was Pamela even doing at that party, anyway?” she murmured to herself, toweling off. Pamela had seemed like a snooty nerd, perhaps ultimately writing the classical music or jazz beat, rather than the chic rock and grunge beats.
Although she’d plotted to arrive at the office a bit before everyone else—hoping to get ahead of the rumor mill—she realized, halfway down the street, that she’d forgotten her notebook and recorder, both with information she required to write the feature. She raced back, removing her black heels and feeling the gritty sidewalk beneath her feet. Mid-internal cursing, she gave Angus a hearty wave, then pushed up to her apartment, already recognizing the harried nature of the day.
It wasn’t going to get any easier.
Charlotte arrived at work about five minutes after she was meant to, finding that the interns were bent intently over their computers. Charlotte tried to dart to her computer, unnoticed, but soon found that, one-by-one, each of the interns turned their eyes toward her. Each eyeball seemed to burn red with anger, with envy.
“There she is,” Pamela said, her voice saucy. “The woman of the hour.”
Charlotte pressed her lips together, her heart hammering in her chest. She tucked toward her desk, only to find that the chair had been removed. She waved a firm palm toward Randy, who kept his headphones in his ears. A heaviness fell upon her shoulders. The entire crew was ignoring her. Even her friend.
“Randy, hey,” she whispered, her voice hesitant, weak. She nudged him slightly, watching as he slipped a single earbud from his ears. “Randy, it’s not what you think.”
“Oh. It’s not?” Randy asked her, sounding sarcastic. “Because I don’t know how it could be anything else.”
“Can you just let me explain?” Charlotte murmured. “Please? Don’t you owe me that?”
“Charlotte, I barely know you,” Randy snapped, stabbing his earbud back in his ear.
“None of us do,” Pamela said, smirking from the side. “You really put on a good face, though, didn’t you? There for a while, of course. Nothing lasts. Especially not that little relationship you think you have.”
Charlotte’s nostrils flared.
“I don’t know what you think you saw,” she began, unsure of where she was leading. Pamela had, of course, seen precisely what she thought she did. She’d seen an intern making out with the editor-in-chief of their magazine. She’d seen privilege. She’d seen a liar.
“Oh, honey. Don’t even try,” Pamela said. “The only thing I’m really worried about is what Maggie’s going to say when I send this email.”
“Please. Don’t,” Charlotte whispered, her voice rough.
“Oh, I’m not going to yet,” Pamela said. “I want to watch you suffer in shame for a few days before it all falls apart. I want to see you cower in this room, crying, even. I want to make sure you feel like the piece of shit you are, and then I want to turn you in. I’m sure you know all about the non-fraternization policy. And if you don’t, I’m sure Maggie will fill you in.”
Several of the interns shifted uncomfortably, jittery with Pamela’s spat-out words and clear anger.
“Guys, is it really that big of a deal?” Charlotte murmured, trying to find someone, anyone, to hold her up. “If you’d just let me tell you how it all happened, I think you’d understand.”
But the writers returned to their computers, beginning to type furiously. She was a tumor, a rat, something best avoided, best not discussed. She collapsed at the side wall, leaning heavily against the white-wash, and opening her computer. Slipping her headphones on, she dove into a raucous world of 2000s grunge music, trying to get in the right headspace to write the feature.
But it soon seemed impossible. Her mind raced. She understood that the world was crumbling around her.
Angered, she stood and burst from the room, stomping toward Quentin’s office. She entered without knocking, watching as his downcast eyes turned to hers lovingly, saying all the things she wanted them to say. In response, she slammed the door and began to gasp with hysterics.
Quentin burst from his desk chair, reaching her quickly and wrapping his arms around her thin, bird-like shoulders. He shot his palm down to the small of her back, trying to hold onto her, stop her shaking.
“What is it?” he asked her tenderly. “You can talk to me. Something’s been up since last night…”
Charlotte’s tears blurred her eyes. Swallowing sharply, she finally found words. “Quentin, it’s been such a wonderful time, getting to know you. But Pamela—she saw us last night. She saw us kissing. And now, she’s going to hold it over my head for a few days, and then she’s going to tell Maggie.”
Quentin huffed, slipping his fingers through his dark hair. “Fuck.”
“I know,” Charlotte murmured, her head spinning. “I should probably just leave. Maybe Pamela won’t have a vendetta against you and spare you. This can’t get to the owners.”
“How about you let me worry about Pamela and the owners?” Quentin said firmly, pressing his lips together. “In the meantime, you have a job to do.”
“What do you mean?” Charlotte whispered.
“You have to write your feature. More than ever, now, you have to focus on it. It has to be the best fucking thing you’ve ever written. You need to show these assholes how good you are. That this magazine doesn’t even deserve how good you are.” He smacked his fist against his other palm, giving her a fiery look. “And you can leave. Go home. Do it there, or anywhere. This is a poisonous place for you right now, and I blame myself for that.”
Quentin took a dramatic step forward and placed his palms on either side of her cheeks, his breath hot. “I’ll see you when you’re done,” he whispered simply.
Charlotte nodded, biting her bottom lip. With a dramatic motion, she swept from the office and went to gather her things, listening as
several of the interns muttered things under their breath at her. “Sell out.” “Slut.” “Groupie.”
At the doorway, she turned quickly toward Randy, who was still bent over his computer. His eyes flickered toward her for the first time since the morning. They were heavy with disappointment. Charlotte’s lips parted, yearning to state another apology, anything to link them together. But she felt the moment slip away.
Chapter 27
The moment Charlotte slipped from his office, her eyes heavy with the news of their escaped secrets, Quentin collapsed against the side of his large mahogany desk, his shoulders slumping forward. Jesus. He hadn’t been careful enough, always robbing Charlotte from her intern offices and fucking her hard against the desk, lifting her dress over her spine to reveal the moon-like curvature of her porcelain ass. Inhaling the scent of her during her office day had become like a ritual, something he associated with office life, now.
But everything soured with time.
Throughout the day, he focused his attention on another feature he was writing for the online MMM landing page, an article about a band named Everest, which he’d toured with during the summers of 2007 and 2008. The nights with Everest had been heroin and cocaine-laden, with powdery mountains lining his memories. The lead singer, a guy named Walt, had actually passed away from his addiction during the summer of 2011, becoming a harrowing story for Quentin, who was just beginning to clean up his act around that time.
Jesus. He remembered Charlotte’s face when he’d considered doing the drugs with those kids in Brooklyn. He’d felt such rapturous emotions, having her on his arm, and listening to that music—that music!—and feeling a kind of zealous energy he’d abandoned when he’d become a boring dad. “Just a small hit,” he’d told himself. “It can’t hurt anything.”
But Charlotte had held him back. He owed her everything for that.
Standing casually, he made a pass through the offices, watching as his editors and writers typed furiously or else snapped away from social media screens, making it appear as if they worked hard all day. He peered into the intern offices once or twice, finding Charlotte’s now-familiar space to be empty, her chair removed. Pamela, the woman on the hour, sat haughtily, her nose seemingly higher than the others, with terrible, burnt curls coating her back. Who on earth had allowed her into that party? Why had Pete the bouncer led he and Charlotte to the fire?
Maggie’s office door was open halfway, revealing her own red-headed form, slicing at pages with a rogue pen, editing ruthlessly. He peered at her from the door, wondering if, when told about the affair, she would really take the steps to rid him of his position as editor. Didn’t their friendship matter?
It had been a one-sided friendship, Quentin realized. He hadn’t given her much in return for her padding along after him, eyes like a doe’s, her body aching for his touch.
Perhaps he should have fucked her once more, just to shut her up. But the thought of it now made his dick soft, untouchable in his pants. He knocked on the side wall of her doorway, causing her to cut her chin upward, surprised.
“Hi, there,” Maggie said, her eyebrows moving to make smooth peach circles above her eyes. “What do I owe the pleasure?”
“You mean I can’t just come by and ask my favorite lady what she’s up to in here?” he asked, sounding false.
“Just editing, as usual,” she said, standing. “You have anything you want to talk about?” She hesitated. “I know Charlotte’s writing that feature. Are you really sure you want her to do something of that importance? She’s just an intern, and the magazine literally hinges on that.”
Quentin held up his palm, his fingers flat. “I am. She deserves the chance. Perhaps they all do. I’ll figure that out myself, down the line.”
Maggie’s head tilted. “You’re willing to let them all write features?” she asked, incredulous.
“Okay, maybe not all of them,” Quentin said gruffly, already losing ground. He needed to tell her about Charlotte, he knew. He needed to get ahead of it. “By the way. Charlotte went home sick, I guess. Going to work on the feature from home.”
“Ha. As if some sad little apartment in Queens or whatever is going to be more consoling than staying here,” Maggie said, rolling her eyes.
“Is that where she lives?” Quentin asked, feigning ignorance.
“She lives at the bottom of a well for all I know,” Maggie said, stacking her edited pages evenly. “Listen, I’m about to start writing that feature you assigned to me the other day. About music downloads. Want to run an eye over it when I’m finished?”
“Absolutely,” Quentin said, backing toward the door. His heart rushed into his stomach, recognizing that Charlotte was well hated amongst both the interns and Maggie. His smile faltered. He remembered Charlotte saying they should turn back, that it was their last chance to cover everything up. But he’d ignored it, listening only to his innate, animalistic desires.
Quentin left the office early, knowing he needed to pick up Morgan from school that afternoon. Grateful to uncoil from the stress of their current situation, he stopped to nab a few apple-based pastries from the French bakery and waited near the school as a slight drizzle began to coat his jacket. Several mothers tittered around him, complaining about the weather and comparing notes on how they got their kids to practice their music.
“I take away video games,” one mother said.
“I just don’t allow a snack until after.”
“My daughter screams if I make her practice over forty-five minutes. Let’s just say we’re transferring schools next year if this keeps up. I don’t think she’s going to be the next singer-songwriter, that’s for sure.”
Morgan appeared in the school doorway moments later, her backpack bobbing along her spine and her smile wide, making an invisible tension in Quentin’s brain loosen up. He lifted her with a swift motion, twirling her and causing her to squeal. The other mothers looked on, either worried or else uncertain about the lack of boredom in the father and daughter’s relationship. For this moment, perhaps, Quentin could forget about the trouble brewing at work.
“What do you wanna do today, kiddo?” he asked Morgan. He snapped her coat’s hood over her blond hair, ensuring that she was covered.
“Let’s go out for dinner,” Morgan insisted. “I don’t want to eat spaghetti again. Unless, is Charlotte cooking for us?”
“No. Don’t think so,” Quentin said sadly. “She’s working pretty hard right now.”
“Well, she has to eat,” Morgan said pointedly.
“She might need to work and eat at the same time,” Quentin said, sighing. “How about burgers in Greenwich Village?”
Morgan lifted her arms in a mighty, victory motion, agreeing. Quentin flashed his arm for a taxi and the pair corralled inside, with Quentin telling the man the address of their favorite burger, fry, and milkshake place—again, a place best-avoided in conversation with Morgan’s mother. Kate hadn’t so much as looked at a burger in years.
They arrived at the restaurant and were seated in the corner, at a high-top, where Morgan swung her feet playfully and read out the menu to her father, showing off the skills she’d learned only in the previous year.
“The Big Heaven burger has three types of cheese, bacon, pickles, and hot sauce. Damn, that sounds disgusting!” she cried, aghast.
“That’s what I’m getting. No question,” Quentin said, teasing her.
Morgan ordered a strawberry milkshake, a kid-sized burger, and fries, while Quentin ordered a large burger with Brie cheese and an IPA beer. They sat, awaiting their food and chatting, as several dark-haired, gruff-looking men in suits entered, their aura powerful, matching even Quentin’s.
His eyes snapped toward them with recognition. As they sat at a four-top near the street window, he pinged two of them as being top writers for Rolling Stone, a magazine MMM would never beat in either content or readership, not for miles.
He wouldn’t approach them. His pride was stiff, unbending. He
sucked his IPA down, trying to concentrate on Morgan’s twittering about a fight she’d had with a boy at school about grace notes and just how long was too long. His brain felt stretched.
After a small infinity, the editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone, a man named Tommy—keeping his once-rock star persona name, instead of just switching to Tom—cracked his chair back and began a long trek to Quentin’s table, deciding to bend to Quentin’s ego.
This was a victory.
Quentin’s eyes turned toward Tommy the moment he appeared at his table, as if he hadn’t noticed him before. He flashed a quick smile before rising and swiping his hand into his, shaking with professional strength. Tommy’s band had never gone as far as Orpheus Arise, but Quentin still remembered the little strappy guy at the occasional gig, seeming to falter to the floor with the weight of his guitar around his neck.
“Tommy. Good to see you.”
“And you, Q,” Tommy responded, his voice deeper than it once had been, when he’d been a man in his twenties. “How’s it going over at MMM? Holding down the fort?”
“Trying to,” Quentin answered. “Have an issue coming out next week, so you can imagine the panic at the office.”
“Sure. We just released, so we’re out celebrating,” he said, lifting his thumb toward the table behind him. “Would still love to do a feature about Orpheus Arise’s comeback soon. Some of our interns are still really into your shit, listening to your albums while they write. I try to tell them what a bum you were back then, but I can’t say they believe me. Your swagger is timeless. Surprised they ever wanted to write for Rolling and didn’t just go straight to you.”
“Ha. Well, your magazine has the ultimate prestige,” Quentin said. He felt his daughter’s eyes upon him. Did she still see the “swagger” from the mid-2000s? He hoped she only saw her boring dad.
“Anyway, interns are assholes to have around,” Tommy continued. “They think they have all these ideas, but they haven’t been around the block long enough to know what the scene was and is really like. They’re just cocky. They’re fucking exhausting.”
