Charlie All Night Read online

  “Very funny.” Allie wanted to stick out her chin and move away to show she wasn’t kidding, but Joe’s arm was too much of a comfort to lose. “What am I going to do?”

  Joe shrugged. “Love him. What else can you do?”

  Allie blinked, trying not to cry. “He’s going to leave in November. Do you know how much that’s going to hurt?”

  “Do you have a choice? And anyway, it’s not November yet. You’ve got some time. Things could change. As usual, you’re focusing on the problem and not looking at the big picture.”

  “What big picture?” Allie slumped deeper into the bed. “There is no big picture. I love him and he’s leaving in a week.”

  “You could leave with him, you know,” Joe said, and Allie looked at him sharply. “Well, I’d miss you, but you’d write and come back to visit. It might not be a bad life, following Charlie around the country. You’d have a good time.”

  “And no career,” Allie said stubbornly.

  “Well, it would be a choice,” Joe said. “But at least it’s a choice. And I think you’re forgetting Charlie here, too.”

  Allie groaned. “Fat chance. He’s all I think about anymore. I’m becoming obsessed with Charlie.”

  “Well, he’s not exactly ignoring you.” Allie blinked at him, and Joe went on. “I know he moved out, but that was the only sane thing he could do. He never takes his eyes off you when he’s with you. He always knows exactly where you are. And…” Joe paused, and Allie waited hopefully for some killer point that would convince her falling in love with Charlie wasn’t the dumbest thing she’d ever done in her life. “He’s jealous as hell of Mark.”

  Allie slumped again. “Big deal. I want him to love me.”

  Joe rolled his eyes. “Well, Al, I’m pretty sure he does.”

  Allie sat up, “Then why doesn’t he say so. Why doesn’t he say, ‘Allie, I love you and I’m not leaving you in November.’ I’m not looking for a marriage proposal here. I’m just trying to get my option extended for another year.”

  Joe moved his arm away. “You know, if I didn’t like you and Charlie so much, I’d enjoy watching the two of you be dumb about this. Allie, he’s not going to tell you he loves you until he figures it out for himself.”

  Allie threw her hands up in exasperation. “Well, when’s that going to be?”

  “Hard telling,” Joe said. “I like Charlie a lot, but he’s not deep, and he really hates commitment. It may take him a while.”

  Allie flopped back onto the pillows. “Well, great. With my luck, he’ll figure it out next spring when he’s in Dubuque or Broken Arrow or someplace else I’m not.”

  “Then you make the first move. Tell him you love him. Tell him he loves you.” Joe punched his pillow and slid back down into the bed. “Produce yourself a love affair.”

  “He would run like a rabbit,” Allie sighed. “I’m sorry. You’ve got to get up and work in the morning. I shouldn’t have bothered you.” She started to climb out of bed.

  “Don’t be wimpy,” Joe said from his pillow. “Of course you should have bothered me. You’ll be okay. Charlie will get around to figuring out what he wants as soon as he finishes doing whatever it is he came to do.”

  Allie turned back to him. “What do you mean?”

  Joe’s voice was sleepy. “Well, he came here for something. What was it?”

  Allie blinked at him. “To fill in for Waldo as a favor for Bill.”

  Joe yawned. “Then why is he asking so many questions?”

  “Because…” Allie let her voice trail off. He was asking a lot of questions. She’d assumed it was for the show, but he didn’t care about the show. Or did he? Maybe he was getting interested in radio. He was making sure nobody was sabotaging the show again. And he had her researching great topics for the show, like this drug legalization thing they were doing next week.

  “Maybe he’s starting to care about the show,” she told Joe with hope in her voice.

  Joe snored, and she gave up and went to bed, still miserably in love but vaguely comforted.

  After all, November was still a week away.

  * * *

  “Mark tried to do a talk show with Lisa today,” Harry told Charlie. “You’ve really got to start getting up earlier. You’re missing some good stuff.”

  Charlie sat on the console. “Such as?”

  “He decided they were going to discuss working relationships.”

  “Well, it’s an okay topic,” Charlie said.

  “Yeah.” Harry leaned back. “But Mark spent the whole time talking about Allie. Never let Lisa get a word in edgewise. She finally burst into tears and left the booth.”

  “We need to kick him,” Charlie said. “I don’t care how dumb he is, that was mean.”

  “Nah,” Harry said. “He still doesn’t know why she’s upset. And she’s staying with him. They deserve each other.”

  He tilted the chair back to look up at Charlie. “I think he’s planning on making his move on Allie again.”

  Charlie ignored the spurt of alarm he felt and shrugged. “She can take care of herself.”

  Harry shook his head. “Yeah, but you’re not around to stick up for your interests much. You don’t even see her outside of work.”

  “Come on,” Charlie protested. “I see her five or six hours a day.”

  “At work,” Harry said. “It sort of looks like, if you’re not sleeping with her, why spend time with her?”

  “Hey,” Charlie said. “That’s not-”

  “That’s what it looks like. And Mark has noticed. Probably mentioned it to Allie by now, too.”

  Allie came into the booth. “Here’s the stuff you wanted,” she told Charlie, handing him a stack of notes. “I got the-”

  “You busy tomorrow night?” Charlie asked her.

  “Uh, no.” She blinked up at him.

  “Let’s get a video and some Chinese,” he said. “Tell Joe.”

  “Joe’s got a date. It’d be just us.”

  “Oh.” Charlie shrugged. “Okay. Fine.”

  “Okay.” Allie looked at him strangely again and left the booth.

  “Good move,” Harry told him.

  “Right,” Charlie said, but he thought, Allie and me and Chinese food at her apartment. Oh, hell.

  * * *

  Harry came out of the booth, and Allie looked at him with suspicion. “What are you up to?”

  “Me? Nothing.” Harry grinned at her. “Have a good time tomorrow night.”

  “Did you put him up to that?”

  “Nope. Thought of it on his own. ’Bout time, too, don’t you think?”

  Allie narrowed her eyes at him. “Harry, you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”

  “Nope.” Harry went off down the hall whistling.

  Well, he was up to something. But she was going to see Charlie, outside the radio station, for an entire evening, so it really didn’t matter.

  For the first time in a long while, she began to look forward to the next day.

  * * *

  “You know, Mark’s up to something,” Allie told Charlie during the news break.

  “Oh, there’s a surprise,” Charlie said. “Of course he’s up to something. He wants you back.”

  Allie blinked. “I don’t think so. But I do think he’s trying to ruin your show. I think he’s the one-”

  “Our show,” Charlie corrected her. “It’s our show. I know he’s trying to ruin it. I found our missing promo tapes in his office. But he’s also trying to get you back. I may have to hit him, after all.”

  “Why?” Allie looked at him in exasperation. “You’re leaving next week. Why should you care?”

  “Because I’d hate to think any woman could go from me to Mark,” he said.

  “Well, since you won’t be here to watch, I don’t see what difference it makes.” Allie turned away from him in disgust. “You think I’m going to give up men just because you’re leaving?”

  Charlie watched through the booth windows