"No, please don't apologize, beautiful. You're just doing your job,” the shirtless young man told her. Charlotte was hard pressed not to notice the subtle curve to which he stood in the doorframe, his spine arched in such a way as to lean his torso slightly towards her. On a typical night out to the bar, she might have thought he was interested in her. His body language certainly showed that he was. Or so she thought. But something told her otherwise. And she was suddenly so focused on what her body was doing, the way her heart as reacting to the stress, that she couldn’t truly focus on him, or his abs, or even his voice.
"I've got some from my...work...last night. I'll get it," the brunette explained. The girl who had opened the door sashayed away to a door on the left, entering it for some time. Charlotte stood awkwardly waiting, her fingers flicking through the assorted bills in her hands to preoccupy herself and to prevent herself from staring at the gorgeous man in front of her. “I wouldn’t mind having him in my bed, how bad is that. He’s one of my tenants!” she thought to herself.
Alex returned with another handful of cash. The sight of it surprised her. As she was handed the money, Charlotte flushed fiercely. She didn’t want to mortify them in telling them they hadn’t paid rent. It seemed worse to be coming down so hard on them. She didn’t like to be the one to do this. But she had to make a living some how didn’t she?
Charlotte straightened out the bills in her hand, finding several beyond crumbled and folded. "Does that cover it?" Alex asked. Charlotte looked up from the handful of money, wide eyed and licking her lips. "Is that enough for you now, Charlotte?" Grey asked shortly after as she counted through the last of the bills. She peeled off three fifties and handed them back to Alex shakily. “This is extra,” she explained. “Your rent is only eighteen hundred.”
Her condition kicked in then, as it always did when she was under stress. A blond appeared from another bedroom. She had even more of a loping stride than the brunette, walking across the room virtually naked save for an oversized men’s shirt. Charlotte took another step into the hall as she approached, wrapping herself around Greyson before standing, coffee in hand, her free fingers holding her hips while a loose cigarette dangled from her lips. "What did I say about coming out without anything on?" Greyson asked her, looking not at all impressed with the girl who stood beside him. And close. Were they a couple? That blew certain ideas out of her mind immediately.
Charlotte wanted to pluck it from her mouth and stomp on it. They were breaking so many rules, not to mention the pot smoker on the couch. And they were making her feel so uncomfortable! Like an intruder or something. Not that she didn’t feel bad. But the pressure was there. And it got to her. The palpitations kicked in and she felt like someone was beating on her chest with a hammer, making her head spin slightly. She didn’t know what to say or do. She just clung to the money, licking her lips and trying to say good-bye so that she could leave.
"Are you okay? Do you need some water or something?" the blond asked her suddenly. Charlotte’s eyes flashed over her and she cleared her throat before shaking her head, fumbling to tuck the stack of bills into her bag so that she could find the pill bottle she always kept with her.
"Come in and sit down for a moment?" Grey asked her. She shook her head again, trying to breath alternately through her nose and mouth to calm herself down. Her refusal didn’t seem to go over well as suddenly his arm was looped around her waist and he was guiding her beyond the threshold. She winced at the strength of his chest, her hands trembling as she continued to fumble with her purse. "I'm not going to take no for an answer,” he told her. Charlotte was about ready to punch him but she didn’t want to talk. She just needed to breath and find her pills. She found herself trying to prevent him from walking her beyond the front entrance but he pushed her, forcing her to walk towards the couch where the pot smoker sat. Charlotte felt frantic, her heart beat erratic and in her ears by the time he sat her down.
"Christian, put that fucking thing out and move up," Greyson shouted. The flurry of movement was beyond her. Once seated the red head sat her bag on her lap and immediately pushed back papers to find her pills, a small discrete looking compact that when opened revealed the disopyramide medication.
"Cleo baby, get her some water please?" he ordered. “I don’t need it,” Charlotte managed. The sight of the pills was a relief. She hadn’t forgotten them and for a moment she thought she might have. Plucking two of the small doses, she tilted her head back and downed them.
As they stared at her, she closed her eyes and set the compact back in her purse. Clutching her bag, as she had nothing else to cling to like a stress ball, she counted back from ten. Slowly she felt the change come over her, the pain subsiding and her heart beat steadying. She exhaled after another minute before blinking twice and looking around at the group of rebels. Not one of them truly seemed concerned.
“I have a heart condition,” she explained, staring at her feet. “It happens. I’m okay. I can leave now.”
She almost felt like adding, “I know you don’t want me here.” But she didn’t knowing she may well piss them off and give herself another rush of anxiety in that she may have to flee. They smoke and drank and did drugs, that much was obvious from what she saw. One of them having a gun didn’t seem too far out of the picture. And she had a lot of money on her.
RPG
