Sprinkles {#Wattys2018} ✔

22 \ I C E

22 [i c e]

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"I think I'm in love with you."

Leo was utterly confused. Who exactly was this absurd man? The guy sounded pass-out drunk, he thought, and he must've dialed the wrong number.

"You have the wrong number, sir. Have a good day," Leo slammed the phone back on the wall. Walking away, he shook his head disappointedly while his brows crossed in perplexion.

"What was that about?" Charlotte questioned all too curiously, and coughed in the back of her throat to lower her voice.

Leo felt odd saying the event out loud, "Some really drunk dude just proclaimed his love for me. Maybe I shouldn't have ended the call."

"What?" Charlotte exclaimed, confusion coursing throughout her veins. She froze on the spot, realizing who that drunk caller may have been.

No. It can't be.

"He said he needed my help, and then he said, 'I think I'm in love with you.' Weird, right? It's not everyday a stranger proclaims their undying love for you," Leo shrugged nonchalantly, returning to work.

After a long pause, Charlotte nodded. "That is very weird. You said he was drunk? Really drunk?"

"Yeah, he sounded like it. His voice was slurred. Probably called the wrong number, the poor guy. His girlfriend wouldn't know that he loved her. It's kind of sad to think about, isn't it?"

Leo's words hit Charlotte right in the chest. Of course it wasn't Asher, she thought, what was she thinking? She was starting to think she was driving herself mad trying getting over Asher and failing miserably at it.

"Why do you want to know so much about it?" Leo asked, not too sceptically but having a sly look in his eyes. Charlotte pried her eyes away from him to focus on getting some moose track ice cream into a waffle cone.

Asher's favorite, the frigging chocoholic.

She shook her head to clear the image of his handsome face she saw that disastrous, rainy night. His eyes were emeralds, flickering with undecipherable emotion that ran right through her. The rain drops running down his face enhanced his chisled features and made Charlotte turn red.

Lying up a storm, Charlotte replied quickly and rushed, "I dunno. I was just wondering what you were talking about. Like you said, it's not everyday that happens."

Leo squinted his eyes in suspicion, "Alright." He left Charlotte to go to the front register. She then was alone in the back kitchen, trapped with her own grief and murderous thoughts.

She never thought Asher as one to drink. Even if it was Asher that called, he surely wouldn't mean what he said. He was drunk, and he would forget it all in the morning.

You know what that means, her brain reminded her. A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts.

What would have happened if Charlotte picked up the phone instead of Leo?

She wouldn't believe a word that came out of his mouth, she decided.

Charlotte believed that everything he said he fekt for her was a complete lie; that he never wanted to be with her in the beginning, and that he didn't care about her. Maybe he wanted to get a girl for the night, another stupid fling, and she wouldn't give him that.

After what happened at the Red Barn, she couldn't trust any man ever again. She started to wonder if the only thing that men wanted in the world was for their own pleasure, and that every man was selfish and took everything they could for themselves.

She no longer believed in finding her "other half," and finally concluded that she didn't want to involve herself with anymore relationship struggles. But what was wrong with that? She could be a strong, independent woman by herself. She didn't need Asher. Maybe that's just what she needed to tell herself to get over him.

The only true thing she didn't believe was how wrong she was.

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