Charlie

I woke up the next night feeling leagues better than I had before. Charlotte was probably going to ask me to call out another day, but at this point I was practically as right as rain, and I got dressed for work.

Charlotte greeted me as I was about to head out, and she did protest somewhat, though she quickly realized that it was a futile attempt at that point.

Once she gave up on that, she started tapping her foot, something typical of her whenever she felt nervous. "Say... Charlie... can I ask you something? Will you promise you won't get angry?"

I was almost finished with my coffee but I nearly choked on it after she said that. Both her tone - and expression, were dead serious.

What did she want to say? I had seen that expression on the faces of the women I'd dated before - whatever this was, it couldn't be good. Not to mention the second part of what she had said rarely preceded something that wasn't going to make you angry. I had asked my mother that question after breaking a vase when I had been nine, and needless to say, the 'I won't' she promised had been a total lie.

Still, there was really only one way that you could answer that kind of question. "Sure- what is it?"

Charlotte fidgeted uncomfortably, playing with a small part of her dress. The suspense was killing me and I just wanted her to get out what she wanted to say. "Okay- don't be too mad about this but, I have to say it- that vest you wear every single day is absolutely hideous! I just don't understand why you would wear such a thing!"

It took me a moment to process what she had to say. "Are... are you mad at me?" she then asked, noticing I wasn't reacting. I kept my face as neutral as possible before replying. I didn’t trust myself to not burst into laughter.

"Charlotte, this is my work vest. I wear it to work because I have to - it's kind of like my uniform," I told her. "I don't really have a choice in the matter as to whether I wear it or not."

She looked absolutely baffled at this piece of information. "Really!? They make you wear that?"

"Yes," I said.

"Why though? Aren't work uniforms supposed to be... sophisticated and charming? Or at least somewhat dignified? It doesn't even look professional, it looks like something a circus clown would wear!" she said. She then realized what she had just blurted out and then cupped her hand over her mouth - it honestly, despite how odd the situation was, looked absolutely adorable. "I'm so sorry - I didn't mean it like that Charlie! I just, well...'

"No, I get what you're saying," I told her. It was a bright orange-and-yellow vest, and to be fair I'd never wear anything like it outside of work. "But it's made like this so it can be seen easily even if it's sort of dark from a distance. That's why they make it like that." I thought of what kind of uniforms waiters and hotel staff wore. "I don't even speak to the actual customers, so they're less concerned about how it looks like."

"Oh," she said, rubbing her foot on the floor awkwardly. "I just- I found- well, I thought that if we were going to be together... I didn't want to insult you or anything... but I thought that that was one thing that I couldn't stand in a man, if you had that kind of fashion sense...and I know fashions have changed a lot since I was last around but... I just couldn't stand the sight of you wearing that vest... but if it's for work... ah, I'm sorry for making such a big deal of it for no reason then!"

"Oh, it's nothing," I told her. I was honestly just relieved that it wasn't something more serious. Of all the things she could've potentially spoken about after she had given me that kind of expression, this wasn't even on my list, but at least it wasn't something more serious. "Ah, speaking of work though, I need to head out now, but feel free to text me if anything comes up."

"Certainly," she said, her cheeks still slightly red from embarrassment at the whole situation. Yeah, awkward as this whole thing was, it did put a smile on my face whenever I would look back at it.

When I returned to work, I was met with a few greetings and thanks from Stuart, as it seemed they'd have to switch a lot of schedules around if I had called out another day to move someone from day to night shift. "Yeah, we were trying to get by without you 'cuz pulling someone from the day team is hard, with the scheduling change, y'know- I told Becky she'd have to do it anyway if you weren't here again, but," Stuart then shrugged. "All's well that ends well. Nice to see that you're better."

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While I felt like I had recovered to the point that I could work today, the fact was that it meant that I also had spare energy to actually think about what I had said earlier to Charlotte.

I had told Charlotte I loved her, and now, away from her, now that I was outside that situation, I was able to reflect on things. I realized that what I said to her was true; yes it was definitely so. I had decided to put dating on hold for a while given I didn't think I was fully over Josephine, which may have been why I hadn't initially thought of Charlotte in that light until she had confessed to me. Not to mention it was a spur-of-the-moment confession which was quite rare for me.

It had barely been over a month since we had really gotten to know each other- I really didn't think that our earliest interactions counted. Had I felt somewhat pressured at the time to say something? Yes, but I knew that that wasn't it, that it wasn't a lie just because I hadn't planned out on saying it.

And while I believed my feelings were true - no doubt about that - but at the same time this raised a thousand more questions in my mind. Not only that, but there were possibilities that I had to consider that I hadn't done before. I had planned on coasting by for a while during which I got away from everything. But that plan might have to change.

First of all, how would this even work long-term? Charlotte, in her current form, was stuck in that house and couldn't move out of it. That would mean that I would be anchored here for the time being until I could find a way to turn her back. Before, the idea of restoring her humanity had just been a sort of hobby - something that I wanted to think about because it was something I could fixate on as a goal while I was otherwise pretty much directionless. Of course, I also felt deeply sorry for Charlotte, which also drove part of it, not to mention a morbid fascination with how exactly the whole thing worked. I mean, I was dealing with an actual ghost here! I couldn't help but feel intrigued by that.

Now though, it was far more personal. I didn't want Charlotte chained up like that - though it did occur to me that maybe she would like to still live in that house even if she did have the ability to move out given how attached she was to it. She had lived there for over a century at this point, so would she agree to leave now? She had told me that she had wanted for me to stay in that house with her, which, given how hostile she had been to me in the beginning demanding I leave, was more proof I guessed that she really was in love with me. Still, something told me that if she had to choose between me and staying in the house, she would pick the house. And I didn't want to force her to make that kind of decision.

But, what would my future be like in this place? Would I go back to nursing? I didn't want to, and if you had told me that I would've had to a week ago I might've even started sobbing at just the thought. Now, it seemed like less of a forlorn prospect, but I wasn't even sure if there was a hospital hiring right now in the area. As for just keeping this job, it had never been something I'd wanted to do long-term, it was just something to coast by for a while. Not to mention the prospects would be quite limited if I didn’t want to move away from Pine Grove.

Second of all, would it be better if I switched to the day shift? I knew I was going to be stuck on nights for a couple of months, but after that I was pretty sure that if there was ever an opening I'd get first choice for it. I was out at work for nearly all of the time that she was awake, and while that had sort of worked out for the better for the initial few days given I had been spared her spooky antics to try to get rid of me, now it meant that we almost had no time together. As it was, right now, in the summer, the amount of time that she could stay 'awake' for was far shorter than half a day, though this would get better once winter came. By then, she would be up and running even when I got back home, day or night shift.

Third, what was I going to tell my family? I mean, Suzy would likely be smug and tell me that she always knew that the two of us were dating, even though she would've been wrong and completely unaccepting of that fact, but moving past that, how do you even introduce someone like Charlotte to someone?

They would ask, for future family events, why she didn't come along with me. I couldn't even really give them a photo of her. If they wanted to meet her, they'd have to drop by, and I had no idea how they'd react. If I tried to describe her to them, they would no doubt come to the conclusion that I really was just schizophrenic and I should've been on those pills that I'd thrown in the trash can. Come to think of it, if they saw her, they probably would've wanted to call an exorcist.

I actually didn't know how Suzy would react to meeting Charlotte though. The more I tried to imagine the scenario, the more I realized that I couldn’t come up with a definitive answer. She was a lot less set in her ways and less predictable than my parents.

Well, whatever. Those were all problems for future me, and the current me was happy with things as they were. I wasn't really the kind of person who would live for the moment, that was more of what my sister did. Maybe it was part of my upbringing, but I had always wanted to plot out my life in as much detail as I could. Granted, things had really gone off the rails last year, and this sudden move to Pine Grove was quite uncharacteristic of how I would have usually done things.

My sister, though, probably wouldn't have hesitated if this had been what she had wanted.

And I guess I would aspire to be more like her for now.