Stella and the Boxer

Chapter 35

Despite his obvious, lingering pain, Charlie insists on jogging and training on Sunday while I’m at Lighthouse. He stops by for his oatmeal for the first time in what feels like forever. Mr. Miller chats to him casually, and when Charlie leaves, my boss smiles at me knowingly, but he doesn’t ask any questions. Charlie and I decide on take-out that evening, and I spend most of the night studying.

After his training, and before he picked me up from the café, he had cleared his desk in the office, giving me a more “comfortable and conducive” study environment, as he said. I changed into my pajama pants and one of his shirts and hulled up in his office, cozying into his plush, generously sized, leather desk chair. During the extent of my studying, he brought me a snack and two cups of tea, and tried to sneak peaks at what I was working on. The second time that he exits the office, I turn in my chair and call after him,

“You’re being very helpful, but I’m going to need even more help on Tuesday, when I’m studying for physics.”

He laughs, but I mean it.

On Monday, I take my test in the early afternoon. When Charlie picks me up, we pack most of what is left in my dorm room and I leave a note for Andy, wishing her luck with finals and a happy holiday. While we’re packing my things into his car, Charlie mumbles something that I’m intended to hear.

“Sorry, what?”

“I said,” he speaks more loudly and clearly, “It seems a little silly that you’re parents are paying for a room that you haven’t stayed in in weeks. You could live with me for free, you know.”

I assume that he is only offering because he feels obligated, since we’ve just visited the very room that I’m paying for and have mostly abandoned.

“I don’t think they would want me moving out of the dorms officially yet,” I counter, “And I definitely would need to pay, if we ever live together. I should probably be pitching in now.”

Charlie just frowns and shakes his head at my suggestion, closing the trunk.

“Thank you for offering, though,” I say politely, as I climb into the passenger’s seat.

“I just didn’t want to you think that I would be freaked out if you wanted to move in completely. I figured you would want to keep your room, but, you know. And if you did decide to leave the dorms and live with me at some point, I would let you have my room and move into my office if you decided that you hate me. I wouldn’t ever leave you homeless,” he speaks dryly but smirks as he finishes his thought.

“I don’t think I’ll ever hate you, but I’m glad to know that I get the master. That certainly changes things,” I joke.

He is quiet for a moment, as he moves his hand to his lips and brushes his fingers across them, thinking.

“You might hate me when you see me box.”

I sigh, turning my head to him and leaning it against the back of my seat, “Charlie, we’re past this. I’m not afraid of you, and I know that my opinion won’t change after seeing you in the ring. You just have to trust me.”

We spend that night studying together for my exam: Charlie explaining, and I, learning. During our breaks, we make dinner and listen to an Elvis vinyl while we eat. I take the downtime to ask about Mark, and how he and Casey are doing.

“Mark has been behaving, and he’s convinced Casey to move back in. She was staying at her sister’s, you know,” he takes a bite from his plate and chews slowly, giving a long silence before he continues, “I think her condition was that he find another job.”