If you ever asked Charlie Cobalt if he'd ever been in love before he would say no however that was, in fact, a lie. There was a girl once. But he'd never tell anyone that.
Charlie Cobalt was on his third glass of champagne when Oscar appeared next to him his radio security clipped into his tuxedo jacket, his earpiece in.
"Hey man, you wanna slow down?" Oscar asked him a look of concern written on his face.
"No," Charlie said stopping a waiter and grabbing another glass off a golden tray. "Sadly I'm still as sober as the day I was born which means I have far more drinking to do" he needed to be severely inebriated to get through this mind-numbingly dull fundraiser.
So he would drink and maybe when he was tipsy this stuffy overdressed overpriced hellhole would finally become interesting, or that was his hope, but Oscar grabbed the glass out of his hand and threw the contents into the flower pot next to them. Which annoyed Charlie greatly.
"Why are you even here?" he asked.
"Because it's my job" Oscar answered simply. Looking around Charlie wanted to say nothing's going to happen to me here nothing's going to happen to any of us here. This place had more security than fort knocks and not the hired kind, the kind that carried badges and guns. "you can officially take the day off I release you" Charlie said, and he knew he was an ass but he just couldn't help himself and when he got like this Oscar knew to keep his distance but still keep watch. That was one of the many reasons Charlie liked Oscar. He knew when to give him a little bit of space.
He walked around the venue loosening the tie around his neck it wasn't like he was here to impress anyone what did he care. In the corner of his eye he saw Maximoff, Farrow, and Jane they were together and laughed he quickly looked away. He was about to find a quiet corner to brood in which Oscar claimed was his specialty and then he heard it. That voice. The same voice that had whispered secrets at night to him with only the stars and the ocean to keep them company. The same voice that Charlie had fallen in love with over the course of two months two years ago. The same voice that he still heard in his dreams some nights.
Eleanor's POV
Eleanor had been smiling for so long that she feared her face was going to be stuck that way forever.
"How's your father dear?" the old man who had cornered Eleanor right before she was about to make her getaway asked her.
"Working hard as always" she answered and smiled even bigger than before if that was even possible. God, she needed a drink she thought.
"Your father's the hardest working senator in Washington, and I don't want to bother him, but if you could tell him that I've been trying to get in contact with him, there's bill we need discuss" this man wasn't important enough for Eleanor's father to pay him any attention. He would shake his hand at donor dinner, but that was all.
But Eleanor wouldn't say that, she wouldn't dare. Instead, she said, "of course my father's always happy to hear from his constituents" she put her arm on his hand and made direct eye contact. Make him feel important. Just like father would and said as sweetly as she could.
"You see he's been busy of late been there's always a fire to take out on Hill, but I assure you after he's all done he'll give you a ring" She was lying through her teeth but then again that was what her family did. They lied to each other and especially to other people.
"Tell him to take his time I don't want to be a bother." Just when Eleanor could see the end in sight, the old man grabbed on to her and said "Now tell me what school do you go? what do you study?" This Eleanor thought was its own special kind of torture.
"Columbia and I study pre law" she could already see the disappointment in the man's face.
"Not Harvard?" like your grandparents, and your parents, and your brother and sisters. Harvard was just where Fitzgerald went.
"No not Harvard," Eleanor said not keeping her annoyance out of her voice "I guess I'm the unremarkable Fitzgerald, please excuse me I must be going" And with that, she turned around and left the old man her heels clicking behind her. Her mother would have scolded her. Eleanor don't forget your manners she would say. And her siblings would shake their head why can't you ever just behave? And her father would look at her with disappointment evident in his eyes. He would say that could lose us a vote.
She left the venue and all its noise behind her walking through the halls of Plaza Hotel hoping none of her family members saw her making her gateway. She just wasn't good at any of this. She had a theory that her parents had picked up the wrong child at the hospital.
She wasn't good with people, or crowds she despised public speaking. She couldn't even win a school election. But a DNA test in ninth grade biology proved her theory wrong she was indeed a Fitzgerald, but she was by far the worst Fitzgerald in the bunch.
Eleanor stopped in front of the door that said stairway and pushed it open. She sat on the steps and loosened her silhouette's and searched through her bag for a lighter and blunt. It wasn't the best idea she knew that if anyone caught her or took a picture of her, it would be on every significant Washington gossip site by tomorrow.
The headline would read "Senator Fitzgerald Youngest daughter goes wild in New York."She dropped the blunt and the lighter back in her bag and tightened the thin straps of her heels and got up. She was going home her feet hurt; she was tired and hungry. If she waited for her sisters to finish their rounds of fake pleasantries, she would be here forever. Before she could leave unnoticed, the door opened, and she was meet by the sight of the boy she had left behind all those years ago in that hotel room in Italy. Of all places she could have run into him this was far the worst one. Her sisters were down the hall, and so were photographers and press. And here was the boy who she never meant to see again. For a moment they stared at each other.
Charlie was the first one to speak "Your hair's different. shorter"
"And your taller" Eleanor said
"And you owe me an explanation El" he was the only who called her that.
Charlie POV
An Hour later Charlie was standing in the middle of Eleanor's living room as she fixed him a cup of coffee. She popped her head out of the kitchen and asked him as he was staring at all the family pictures that coated her walls. Pictures of her father shaking hands with the President, a photo of him on the cover of Times People of the Year issue. Charlie Cobalt had been surrounded by powerful men since the day he was born but as he looked at pictures of Eleanor's father he couldn't help but think that he was about to step into a world he didn't quite understand.
"Do you still take your coffee black?" she asks from her spot in the kitchen, and he couldn't help the smile that overtook his face. She remembered his coffee order.
"Yes," he answered hoping she didn't hear how happy such a small trivial detail made him. God, he was pathetic. He wanted to ask her if she still took her coffee with an unhealthy amount of sugar, but he didn't. He left the gallery wall behind and walked over to her bookcase and grabbed the first novel his hand landed on. "Fodor's Essential Morocco" it read Charlie flipped through the pages and noticed that Eleanor had underlined passages and written in the margins. One day it said he shut the book and placed it back on the shelf. She walked towards him carrying two cups of coffee with her. She was still wearing her dress from the gala, but she had taken out all her bobby pins that kept her hair up, and now her curls fell around her face like a halo and Charlie had the intense urge to run his fingers through it. She handed him his drink.
"How's your leg," Eleanor asked him, and for a second he forgets how to speak. she'd been keeping tabs on him "I was worried about you when I heard about the accident."
"Not worried enough to get in touch," he said and took a sip. Not caring that the hot liquid burned his tongue. He didn't want to talk if he talked then Eleanor would know how much she had destroyed him. How he had searched for her after she had left. Tried to find her with the small bits of information he had. He knew a lot of pointless information none of it helpful. Her favorite color red, her favorite food was pizza, she wasn't a morning person, she always slept on the left side of the bed, had the worst singing voice he had ever heard none of that information helped much in his search. What little he knew that had any kind of importance was that her name was Eleanor James, she was American born, and she was eighteen, and she had left him. "I guess I owe you the truth," she said.
Eleanor POV
Charlie Cobalt was in her apartment drinking out of her "I love the Yankees" mug. His tie loosened around his neck his tuxedo jacket thrown onto her purple velvet couch looking at her waiting for her to make sense of this all for him. And what could she say you were only supposed to be a European dalliance and then you became something so much more. And she was a coward terrified of her family's disapproval. But instead, she said, "Do you want a refill, A pastry" she was in no rush for him to find what kind of person she truly was. Charlie looked at her, and there was nothing behind his eyes. He carefully placed the empty cup on the coffee table and grabbed his jacket off the couch. "It's because of my family, my last name you're too afraid to tell your powerful senator daddy to ashamed Eleanor is that" and he laughed, but there was no joy behind it no warmth and Eleanor couldn't even bring herself to look him in the eyes because he was right and she hated that he was right. "I compared every woman since you to this idolized version of you in my head, and I've realized that woman don't even exist maybe she never existed," and with that declaration, Charlie left her Upper West Side Apartment. And Eleanor was going to let him. This she thought was for the best.
But that didn't stop her from chasing after him grabbing the skirt of her gown and running down the hallway, but he had already went. She pushed the bottom of the elevator, but it was taking too long, fuck it she thought she would take the stairs.
Twelve flight stairs later she looked around her gilded apartment lobby with all its marble and mirrors and its security, and there was Charlie waiting for his driver outside. So she went to him and said what she should have said upstairs. What she should have said two years ago. "I would have chosen you if I could, I wouldn't have left you that night if I had a choice. But I don't have that luxury I've never had that luxury, but if I did, I would have picked you. I need you know that" and Charlie looked at Eleanor like he used to. And suddenly without warning his arms were wrapped around her waist, and her hands were around his neck, and they were holding on to each other so tightly she swore she could hear the beat of his heart. Somehow it was exactly like she remembered it and so much better at the same time. "there's my girl" he mumbled against her skin.
