Until You

More than five minutes

It had been seven minutes.

Usually, two minutes wasn't long for Charlie because serving food always felt like time ran too fast. But Sid had been gone for two minutes—now three—more than what he promised, and she was getting antsy.

Two more minutes passed. Charlie finally stood up, no longer willing to wait. She cleared the table, threw the trash in the bin, deposited the tray beside the water station, and then headed back to O-Beer the Counter to return the bottles.

"Did Sid like the recommendation?" Feliz asked as she set aside the empty bottles.

"Yeah, he did. Thanks again."

"I'm glad. By the way, have you been reading the NomCom group chat?"

Charlie shook her head. "No, I haven't been keeping up since we're short-staffed the past week. Did I miss something important?"

"Oh," Feliz said, dragging the syllable a little bit longer than it was supposed to. "Well, no, nothing really important. But when you do get the time to backread, let me just warn you that people have been shipping you and Sid the past week."

Ah, nothing really escaped the NomCom group chat. A little ache of longing bloomed in Charlie's heart. "We're not together." Yet. Ever.

"Oh no. Soren's going to be so disappointed that it's not real."

Join the club, Soren. "He helped me out the past week, but Mira's going to be back tomorrow."

"That's nice of him." Feliz paused, looking at her thoughtfully. "You okay? You look like you could use another drink."

"I'm just tired." Charlie shrugged. "And maybe I could use a stronger drink."

"Well, Dr. Do's is just there."

She was sure NomCom's speakeasy would have something for her, but there was something else she wanted more than that. "Maybe next time. Anyway, I'm going. Thanks again, Feliz." Charlie knocked twice on the counter before turning to leave.

It had been nearly twelve minutes now since Sid left Charlie, and she was half-tempted to go home and leave him, just to give him a taste of his own medicine. But the need to know the answers was stronger, so she started walking, scanning the tables to find Sid.

Charlie was almost at the bridge way when she felt her shoe loosen, and she knew that the laces were undone again. She crouched down to tie them again, grumbling to herself at how much trouble these had caused her. If the laces didn't keep untying themselves, then she wouldn't have literally fallen for Sid. Maybe she wouldn't be agonizing over him tonight.

"It's all your fault," she said to her shoelaces out loud, pulling the knot tighter with extra force. "You and that dating app."

"Uh...Charlie?"

She stood up and found Toby and Raffy standing before her, their faces looking so grim that she couldn't help but feel a stab of worry. "Is everything okay?"

"We need to tell you something."

"Did something happen?"

"Hm, no, nothing happened," Toby replied. "We're just here to apologize."

"For what?"

They looked at each other and seemed to have a silent argument that had them nudging and pointing. Finally, Toby rolled his eyes and faced her again. "We haven't been very truthful to you. We've actually known you before we met today."

"Oh? Where did we meet?"

"That's the thing," Raffy said, chewing his bottom lip. "We met you, but you didn't meet us."