Heart Beat Song (A Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-Two: Sorry Not Sorry

~~~Mary~~~

We all stood around the bullpen going through our contacts in an attempt to find someone to replace Charlie.

"Everyone I've reached our to either isn't available or doesn't want to be a last-minute fill-in for Charlie." Simon said.

"How about Jeff Bezos," Tobin suggested, "...'s Niece?"

"I-I know Katie Zuckerburg," Leif tried, "No relation to Mark."

"What?"

"Alright, I didn't want to say anything, but I may have a direct line to Shigeru Miyamoto." Max said.

"What? The best game designer ever, Mr. Nintendo?" Leif asked.

"Why didn't you lead with that?" Zoey asked.

"Um, also how do you know such a big baller?"

"He's a family connection." I said.

"But its a really big ask, although it might help if I say this whole thing is Mary's fault, and Miyamoto loves Mary. But I can only call in this favor once so are we sure we want me to press this button?"

I mean, its do or die time." Simon said.

"Yeah." Tobin agreed.

"Ok, I'm on it. Yeah." Max said. "If Shigeru hops on a plane right now, he can make it from Kyoto in fourteen hours. I'll be right back." He walked over to make the call, but I grabbed his arm before he did so.

"Thank you." I whispered.

"What?!" Tobin asked as he and Leif started whispering about what had just happened.

"People, good news." We all looked up as Joan came back over. "Charlie's back in."

"Yes!" Leif, Tobin, and Simon all cheered, Leif and Tobin sharing a high-five. 

"Still a lot to do." Joan looked at me and I looked at Zoey before we both followed her back towards her office.

"What happened?" Zoey asked. "Did Charlie apologize for storming out earlier?"

"We got him, that's what matters. He said he doesn't want to see you at that party, but the whole party was partially your idea so I'm not gonna keep you from it, just try to avoid him." I nodded.

"Ok..." I said, "But are you ok, because-"

"Focus on the work, Mary." We stopped and she walked into her office.

"Wow I...royally screwed this up, didn't I?" I asked. She sighed.

"I think we both did." We turned around to face the others again.

"That's amazing!" Max shouted. "Its on people. Shigeru Miyamoto is in! I called in my one-time-only favor, name dropped Mary, and got the big man himself. How you like me now?" Everyone cringed. "Charlie's back in, isn't he?"

"Yeah."

"Really?"

"Ok, well we're happy. Is she happy? Joan happy?" Max asked. "Gotta make a call." I sighed, pushing my hair back.

~~~

We all stayed late, helping to set up for the party. I sat in one of the overhang benches, my back against the arm with my knees pressed against my chest, my arms wrapped around my legs, and my chin resting on top of them.

Leif came over and sat down in front of me.

"You ok?" He asked.

"Peachy." I said, putting my head up and leaning an elbow on my knee, holding my hair back out of my face.

"What's going on?" I shook my head, looking away from him.

"I don't regret saying what I said," I stated, glancing at him again, "I believe that everyone has a right to stand up for themselves, regardless of who they're up against, and I have no qualms about defending people who can't or won't defend themselves, so I don't feel bad about doing that. What I do feel bad about is almost putting the party at risk and leaving Joan to clean up the mess."

"It would have been ok," He said, "We would have gotten Shigeru Miyamoto, who's way cooler."  I chuckled halfheartedly, looking away from him again.  "Mary you...you stood up for and to someone without ever caring about the consequences. Not a lot of people would've done that." I shrugged.

"I guess."

"You're a good person," He pointed out, "Easily one of the best I've ever met, and you did the right thing. Don't let a jerk like Charlie Bennet make you doubt that or feel bad for doing the right thing." I raised my eyebrows.

"Did you, the number one fan and devout worshiper of Charlie just call him a jerk?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I'm not going to worship someone who makes good people second guess themselves," He said, causing me to smile, "Especially not when that person is a personal favorite of Mr. Nintendo himself." I nodded.

"Ah, there it is, the true motivation behind your compliments." I said jokingly.

"I only speak the truth," He said, "But are you gonna tell me what the deal is with you and Shigeru Miyamoto." I shook my head.

"No, I don't think so." He raised his eyebrows. "I have to maintain some mystery don't I? Its important to keep a guy guessing when you're pursuing a relationship."

"Are you saying we're pursing a relationship?" He asked.

"No," I clarified, "Just planning ahead. But...who knows, it might happen before you know it." He smiled.

"Well, I really only came over here to check on you," He said, standing up, "And to tell you that your friend Mo is here to set up." I nodded, swinging around to sit normally on the bench.

"Right, I should start helping out. After nearly ruining everything, the least I can do is help set up. I stood up too, finding that I was standing directly in front of him, so I had to look up to look at him. "Your height is thoroughly annoying, you know that?" He chuckled, lightly brushing my hair off of my shoulder, his fingers skimming the side of my neck causing me to freeze.

"Sorry not sorry." He said. I just looked at him, still frozen from the contact on my neck. "You might want to wipe that look off of your face," He tucked my hair behind my ear, leaning down and lightly touching his lips against it. "We have a big deadline coming up in two days, and we should do our best to avoid any distractions."

I suppressed a shiver, scowling at him as he pulled away from me before smirking and walking away as if nothing happened. I bit my lip, smiling and turning around to go start helping set up, only to freeze where I was to see Max standing there with his mouth hanging open. My eyes widened.

"Um...what the frick was that?!" He asked. I cringed. 

"Nope, not having this conversation." I said, walking past him.

"Leif was just flirting with you."

"Really, I had no idea, thanks for the heads up." He grabbed my arm, stopping me and running around in front of me.

"Look, you're a big girl, you can make your own choices," Max said, "I just...are you guys a thing? And are you being careful because last time..." He trailed off and I shot him a look.

"I never told you that." I said. "Did Zoey tell you that?"

"It might've...come up. At the club the other night." I shook my head. "I didn't know about it at the time, but if you really were as upset as Zoey made it sound-"

"Yes, I'm being careful." I told him. "We've talked through all of that, he apologized. I think he's genuinely changed." He nodded.

"I hope so...I don't want to see you get hurt. However, if that does happen," I shot him a look, "Let me know about it this time? Your my twin sister, the idea of you being in pain without me knowing about it makes me sick to my stomach." I nodded.

"Ok. Next time, I'll let you know."

"Thank you."