old soul | matthew gray gubler

11. spontaneous

The next Friday evening, Charlotte was sitting at her kitchen table, cutting a piece of chicken with a steak knife. Her television, which she had a decent view of through the doorway, was blasting the evening news. She didn't care much for whatever celebrity gossip they were boasting about, but she watched anyways.

After drinks with Matthew and the cast last Saturday, Charlotte hadn't really heard much of anything from him. He texted her a few times throughout the week, sharing photos of flowers he saw at the farmers market or a poem he read.

She loved the juxtaposition of his personality. He was the goofiest, dorkiest man she had ever met. He was awkward in length and shaggy in ever sense of the word. But, he had so much depth to his personality. He held such a pure connection every person he met, no matter if he actually liked them or not.

Charlotte was known to be just as kind, but she was never able to connect with people on that level. She kept to herself too much, a product of being homeschooled her entire life.

Acting brought her to life, of course, but in social situations, she still shut down. It's not that it was a bad thing, but Charlotte wished she could command a crowd the way Matthew did.

She texted Kristin about once every hour. The girls had become very close friends in the short two months in which they'd known each other. They'd only gone to lunch once, drinks that past Saturday. But, they were already planning many more get together, including once that Sunday.

CeCe was and would always be Charlotte's best friend, Aisha their friend from work. But, everyone had always wondered why Charlotte never tried to find other people to bond with. They just never understood that some things take time.

And if Charlotte had to wait until she was almost 25 to actually gain more friends, that's just how it was.

Charlotte stood from her chair, prepared to begin washing the dishes in the sink. Instead, her phone started ringing from her back pocket. She set down her plate and leaned against the counter as she brought it to her ear.

"Hello?"

Matthew's name and bubbly face had shown on her screen, so she answered with zero hesitation.

"Charlie! Hey!" Matthew called from his end.

Charlotte's heart swelled at his voice, so purely happy and whole. "Hey, Matthew. How are you?"

"I'm good, yeah! I apologize for not texting you much this past week. I'm not very good at texting people," he shot a laugh at the end of his sentence.

Charlotte waved a hand, though he didn't see it. She responded, "Hey, no worries. I don't mind. I used to be bad at texting, and then I met CeCe."

"When did you all become friends?" Matthew inquired.

Charlotte slid up onto the counter, leaning into the phone call with all of her energy, "Almost 10 years ago. We were both auditioning for some role of a dead girl or something. They casted her, obviously, but we exchanged numbers."

He was listening intently. "I would cast you as a dead girl in my movie any day."

Charlotte giggled and heard Matthew huff. "That came out wrong, but I still appreciated it."