Extra Bonus #86: Charlie's Offer - Part Two (Patreon)

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CHARLIE LETS US inside the store, balancing on crutches, and my stomach overturns seeing that my cousin reinjured the same leg that got fucked in the car crash.

“Jesus,” I cringe. “Janie said it wasn’t that bad.”

“My sister spoke the truth.” Charlie goes to a chaise that faces a floor-length mirror. Racks of dresses and blouses surround the walls, and a crystal chandelier illuminates the shop with a soft warm glow.

Farrow greets Oscar quietly at the register. Both of them let me and Charlie deal with this…whatever this is.

Now, though, I’m just concerned about my cousin. He got robbed last night. Got out of the hospital last night. It’s not like I had a week to check on him.

He favors his ribs as he lowers to the chaise and sits. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“I’m not one of them.” He glares.

My brows furrow. “One of who?”

“My brothers. My sisters. Your siblings. Our younger cousins. I don’t need you to care about me, Moffy.”

Is it so bad that I fucking care? Does he really want me to go back to not giving a shit about him? I cross my arms, unable to sit. “I know what it feels like to break ribs.”

“Who said I broke my ribs?”

“Did you?”

Charlie lowers his pinky and index finger. Holding up three fingers—three broken ribs. “I’m on strong pain killers. So you can stop empathizing with me. Because no, you don’t know what this feels like.”

Right.

Are you okay? I swallow the question, knowing he’s practically screaming at me to shut up and focus on why he asked me to meet him here. Which clearly isn’t about him getting jumped last night.

I scan the shop. Ornate molding. Tiffany blue painted ceilings. It smells like perfume and flowers. It’s exactly what you’d expect of a store owned by Rose Calloway Cobalt, and many of you love to take trips to Philly just to snap photos inside the boutique.

Still, it’s a clothing store. It makes more sense to go down the street.

“You want a coffee?” I ask Charlie. “We could walk to Superhero—”

“There are cameras there.”

Now I’m very confused. I spread out my arms and gesture to the device in the corner of the shop. “Are there not cameras here?”

“I turned them off, and I’m not a Hale. I don’t feel as comfortable turning off your parents’ security, and I’m not making you do that.” But this is a Cobalt store. So, yeah, I get where he’s going with this. I just don’t get the secrecy.

“What are we hiding?”

Charlie sets the crutches against the chaise. “Our parents would wonder why the two of us are meeting up this early at one of their stores, and I’m not interested in the headache of answering them. I have roommates. You have roommates. We have no privacy. Which is why we’re here.”

I thread my arms again, feeling my flexed muscles against my chest. “Alright. What’s going on? Is this about Luna?”

“Your sister?” Charlie cocks his head. “No.” He studies me. “It bothers you that she texts me.” He’s not asking.

“I just don’t know if something’s going on with her, and you might know before I do. I also hope that she’d feel comfortable coming to me, but if she feels better going to you then as long as you’re there for her, I don’t have a problem. But the second you shut her down when she’s asking for your help, I will fucking come for you, Charlie.”

His yellow-green eyes stake me. “You think so lowly of me.”

“I think you don’t like being saddled with familial obligations.”

“It only became one the second you made it an order I must obey.”

I reevaluate what I just said to him. I’m not trying to take a selfless act away from Charlie. “I’m sorry.”

“Save it.” He picks himself up using a single crutch like a cane. “This isn’t about Luna.”

“Then who? Your brothers? Tom?”

He stares right into me. “It’s about you.”

My face screws up. “What?" Coming here, I didn’t consider that what Charlie had to tell me could even be about me.

“Ernest Mangold.”

I blink. “The CEO of H.M.C. Philanthropies?” The charity I created.

“Former CEO,” Charlie corrects. “He was abruptly canned last night.”

So much emotion slams against me at once. My nose flares as I hold it in, and I instantly look over at Farrow.

He’s whispering with Oscar, but when he catches my gaze, I can tell he’s just as stunned. Ernest…he threw me out of the company. He had the board vote against me. They instated him. So how…?

“How?” I ask Charlie.

“After you left the company, I went from attending no board meetings to having to go to all of them.”

I know he was protecting our families’ money. We weren’t sure what Ernest would do in power, and if I couldn’t be an active participant, then Charlie could. He’s on the board.

“He hates you,” Charlie says, holding my gaze. “He hates you so much that nearly every meeting, he’d take subtle digs at who you are. I tried to record him. Soon, he became more careful making comments around me. I thought if I could get him on tape saying something heinous enough, it’d move the board to fire him.”

My head spins. “Born into Fame.” It’s the name of the show that focuses on Charlie. One that hasn’t gone to air yet, but Jack has been filming the pilot. We’ve all been wondering why Charlie would even want to be filmed, and in the end, we chalked it up to him trying to matchmake Oscar and Jack.

If there was another reason, I would’ve never thought it’d be this.

Charlie explains, “Jack would film every charity event that Ernest would attend. I thought he’d catch something, eventually.”

“And you did last night?” I gather.

He nods. “Jesse did.” Jack’s brother. I wait for Charlie to elaborate. He doesn’t.

I’m baffled. “You don’t want to tell me what he said?”

“It wasn’t about you.”

I glance to Farrow, who’s not listening to us as much as he is to Oscar. I have a feeling they’re on the same track of the train. Because Farrow looks absolutely goddamn murderous.

“About my son?” I guess.

“In so many words, that he’s a meth-head baby.”

“Great.” My jaw aches as I clench down. I grew up facing rumors and stereotypes, and I know Ripley will have to do the same. I can only hope he has the tools to stand up on his own when Farrow and I aren’t there.

“It’s dumb,” Charlie says. “At least he showed his ass in front of a camera this time.”

“Yeah.” I shelve my anger over Ernest and focus on what Charlie did. He went through months of being filmed and interviewed just to trap Ernest. He didn’t tell any of us what he was doing.

Hell, he might not have even told Oscar or Jack the truth either.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” I wonder.

“It might not have worked,” Charlie says. “I didn’t see the point in hoisting a Bat Signal. I’m not you.”

I try not to take that to heart. Have I thought so lowly of Charlie that this act of selflessness wouldn’t even be on my radar?

I make a promise to myself. To try and think better of him first.

“I’m the interim CEO,” Charlie says. My brain whirls again, especially as he tells me, “It’s yours, if you want it.”

To be CEO again?

I hadn’t even held the idea in my hand. I let it go a while back. I made peace with the fact that I wouldn’t be in charge of the charity. That my life would be made of simple, easy things. I teach little kids how to swim.

I didn’t need to lead anything. I didn’t need to take care of something that big.

Now it’s here. This choice I never thought I’d have. When I lost the job, I wasn’t a husband, and I sure as hell wasn’t a father.

Charlie sees me processing. “If not, you can find someone else to fill the role. It’s not something I want to do forever.”

I nod slowly. “I have to think about it.”

Charlie lets out a laugh. “I knew you would.” He has no clue how much I overthought everything on the way here, and Farrow was right—it was pointless. Turns out, I guessed wrong on every account.

Preparation fail. I feel like I’m without a paddle, but strangely, the river isn’t rough. The water couldn’t be calmer right now, and I have to thank Charlie for that.

For more than that.

I watch him readjust the crutch under his armpit. “Did you really do it for me?” I wonder.

He pauses, thinking. “Yes and no.” He raises his shoulders. “I hated Ernest, and I wanted him gone. But also…the company is yours. You should have never been fired in the first place, and it would have been a tragedy not to course correct.”

It barrels into me. My love for my cousin, and there are such few times Charlie and I have had these moments together—where we’re not warring with each other and the route of our legacies.

It’s greater than a white flag of surrender.

It’s him beside me. Sharing territory. Defending the existence of it. Of the bond we have.

I’m about to say thank you. From the bottom of my soul, I want to tell him, but he’s shaking his head like don’t. He can see it in me. On me. Everywhere. I don’t think my gratitude annoys him. I just figure he didn’t do this for my appreciation.

Still, I love him.

I come in to hug Charlie, but I’m careful to make sure he’s okay to be hugged. He extends his arm first, and he even drops the crutch to hug me back. We keep hugging for a long beat. I don’t care if he’s not “one of them”—I tell him what I feel, and I whisper, “I love you, man.” Because if he didn’t know already, then he deserves to.  

 Thanks so much for reading this month's extra bonus! We loved being able to write this pivotal moment in the Charlie/Maximoff dynamic. And it gives you a little more insight into the most mysterious Cobalt brother 😉

Thank you all for your patience this month! We apologize for these bonuses coming on the last day of the month. Since being back in this timeline, we've been having to reread Charming, Wild, and Fearless to make sure we don't retcon anything and to orient ourselves in the characters' heads during this time. The next bonuses should be coming sooner rather than later in the month of June 💗

That's it for your May content, we'll be back soon for more bonuses and podcasts next month! Thanks for being a patron. We appreciate your patronage so, so much!

xoxo Krista & Becca

 “Charlie's Offer - Part Two," Copyright © 2024 by K.B. Ritchie