Happy Merry Everything (Charlie Barber)

Mrs. Charlie Barber

The next day, you found yourself sitting across from Jules at Sunday in Brooklyn. You and Charlie had agreed the night before that it would be best for him to have some time alone with Henry so you took the time apart as opportunity to catch up with your best friend and, according to her, it wasn't a moment too soon. Jules had been blowing up your phone all evening while you were at the premiere for updates on how things were going. Now that you were sitting across from her, you were finally at liberty to lay every single detail out on the proverbial and literal tables.

You were both waiting for your iced teas when your phone buzzed alerting you of new messages from Charlie.

Charlie: Nicole said Henry can stay with us for dinner tonight so if you have a special request, let me know. Love you xo

Charlie: Also, I'm not reading any reviews until we're together, so please wait! ;)

"Dear god, you've got it bad."

You must have been smiling. You looked up to see Jules carefully taking the glasses of tea from the waiter. A rather large grin was plastered across her face.

"Sorry." You said, making a face as you set your phone face down on the table.
"No, please. By all means-- text Theater Daddy."

You chortled. "Can you not please?"

"Oh I'm sorry," Jules teased. "Is Zaddy more appropriate? Doesn't Daddy work though? I mean, technically, he's a father."

You blushed at the thought of the night before. The conversation. Charlie everywhere.
"Technically?"
"Okay fine, the dude's a dad. Wait...I have one better...Thespian Father."
You laughed. "How did you manage to make it worse?"
"It's a gift. You're welcome."

You gave her an incredulous look, quirking an eyebrow.

"Okay, fine," said Jules, playfully putting up her hands. "You win. I'll lay off the Theater Daddy stuff, but I am, however, still waiting to hear the nitty gritty about what happened on the red carpet."

"Well, for starters, we rode separately from Henry and everyone else."
"Can I just say something? Look—I'm sorry—I still can't believe his fucking ex showed up like that. Like, what a bitch." Jules sipped her tea.
"She seemed--okay, I guess-- but after watching them interact firsthand, I can definitely see why they aren't together anymore. And I agree. It did seem very underhanded that she just---randomly showed up like that.  I mean, I guess it wasn't even random. They had tickets. There was planning that went into it."

Jules must have noticed that you visibly tensed up. You were getting upset over the thought of someone intentionally trying to hurt Charlie.

"Okay—so—moving back towards the subject," she said, trying to be upbeat as straightened up in her chair. "You were telling me about being at the premiere."

You sighed, smiling fondly. "I was so proud of him last night. He so was nervous once we were actually in the theatre sitting down, like he thought the whole building was going to collapse right on top of us,  but when he was being interviewed--talking to all of those people--nothing. If he was nervous then, he played it off well. It was like he was made for it."

"Did anyone take your picture or were you just arm candy?"
"Several people, actually."
"Separately or together?"
"I'm pretty sure together. I may be in the background of a couple though. I tried to give him space when he was talking to reporters."

Jules was already pulling out her phone.
"What are you doing?" You asked, setting your menu down.

"What am I doing? I want to see if the dress paid off in pictures."
"Charlie loved it, by the way, so thank you...and good call with the navy."
"For sure."