The Stranger You Seek - By Amanda Kyle Williams Page 0,67
You’re forced to share a bathroom with them. It’s like sleeping with someone without the obvious benefits.
Hooga, hooga. I smiled. Charlie was a happy distraction. I wondered what he had pilfered and from whom, what he had folded up in his baseball cap to treat me to today. It was too late for blackberries, the figs were gone, and the weather was still too warm for winter pansies.
“Where were you? ’Member we were going to eat at Fritti?” Charlie had his hat in his hand and a worried expression on his face. He was talking too loudly as usual. No volume control.
Fritti is the Neapolitan pizza place down the street. I can smell the dough when the wind blows just right, and it makes me crazy some days. They have an artichoke-and-black-olive pizza that will make your head spin around. The panna cotta is like velvet on your tongue.
“Charlie, I totally forgot. I’m so sorry. Did you wait long?”
“I waited for twenty minutes,” Charlie said. He closed the door behind him. I noticed his hair was beginning to thin at the crown. There was nothing in his cap for me.
“I’m really sorry. I have so much work piled up and everything has been just kind of nutty. I just forgot. We could go now if you want.”
“I’m not hungry anymore,” Charlie said. I’d rarely seen him without his goofy smile. “I was worried. Were you with Mr. Man? Is he your boyfriend?”
“Rauser isn’t my boyfriend, Charlie. You know that. He’s my friend. Want something to drink?” Charlie nodded and followed me to the kitchen, where I found a Diet Pepsi for us both. “I would never stand you up on purpose. You know that, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” he mumbled, and sat down.
“Maybe I could find us something to eat, huh?”
He shook his head.
I sat next to him and put my hand on his forearm. “You know, you’re my friend regardless of what’s going on with Rauser.”
“Okay,” he said, and laughed too loudly. “I’m sorry. I’m hungry now.”
I smiled. “You got it.”
I stood and Charlie stood too. He reached for me and I let him hug me. I hugged him back. It was no secret that Charlie had a crush on me from our very first meeting. I was in the parking lot when he rode up on his bike one day a couple of years ago. I found him absolutely charming then and now, and a little heartbreaking. Neil, Rauser, and Diane all teased me about Charlie’s infatuation. I didn’t mind.
I gave him a kiss on the cheek and turned away, but Charlie pulled me back into his arms and pressed his lips against mine. I couldn’t have been more shocked if he’d pulled a live lizard out of his ear. His hands were squeezing my arms.
I said firmly, “It’s not okay to kiss me like that, Charlie. Now let me go.”
“Because we’re just friends,” Charlie said. “Like you and Mr. Man.”
I started to twist free. One of his hands quickly moved to the back of my neck and grabbed a handful of hair. The other held my upper arm tightly. He pressed his mouth against mine again. He was strong, his teeth cutting into my lips, his hands digging into me.
He jerked hard on a fistful of my hair, forcing my face up to his. His eyes behind his glasses were greenish brown and without any emotion at all. Nothing.
“I think I should fuck you the way Mr. Man fucks you,” he said, gripping my hair with his right arm and using his left to get his fly unzipped. I felt his erection pressing into my stomach. His slur was gone. His goofy smile had vanished. I’d never seen this Charlie Ramsey before. “Does he have a big cock?” he asked, and something inside me, something pressurized and unstable, went from a spark to a bonfire in a split second. I didn’t wait, didn’t take an extra breath before I slammed the top of my knee into his crotch. His reaction was predictable and instantaneous. He doubled over just as we’d been assured would happen in agent training, and when he did, I raised my knee again and rammed his forehead with as much force as I could muster. I had no reservations whatsoever about using what I’d learned. I didn’t like being handled, and Charlie no longer had the benefit of the doubt. His intentions had been made abundantly clear.