Part 21: A Nice Talk

Charlotte King was looking for Violet. The therapist had left many messages on her cell about some lunch with Charles and Cooper. It didn't really matter at this point. Lunchtime was over.

"Who the hell is Charles?" She muttered.

Charlotte stepped onto the elevator and punched the button for the Oceanside floor. She waited impatiently while cursing at the elevator to move faster. Eventually the doors slid open and she was free. She headed straight towards the therapist's office only to find it empty.

"Dr. King."

She turned around only to come face to face with Naomi. "Dr. Bennett?"

"Your girlfriend isn't here," Naomi said quickly. "She just left."

"Oh, thank you." Charlotte began to walk away and then stopped, frozen in place. She narrowed her eyes at the fertility specialist. "Did you say girlfriend?"

She glared at Naomi and took a step forward in an effort to seem intimidating. The fertility specialist wasn't fazed at all.

"She told us an hour ago. Well, just Sam and me really. Everyone else kind of just figured it out for themselves or something. I think Violet left to find you and tell you about all of that. She'll probably come back soon and while we wait why don't we have a nice talk."

"A nice talk?" Charlotte said dubiously. She may have been dating one of the Oceanside people, but that didn't mean that they were friends or that she trusted them. Naomi boldly slipped an arm around her arm and led her to the conference room.

"Why don't you have a seat?"

"Fine," she said irritably. "Now what do you want to talk about?"

Naomi winced at the way Charlotte's accent was grating on her ears. "So how long have you and Violet been dating?"

"One month, two weeks, four days."

"That's…exact," Naomi said taken aback. "Are you nice to her?"

"Of course I am!" Charlotte huffed and crossed her arms. "Why does everyone keep asking me that? I can be nice."

Naomi's lips twitched up. "Yeah, you're just a bundle of niceness. So is this…your first time…with a woman?"

Charlotte blushed. "Yes."

"Do you like it?" Naomi asked candidly.

Charlotte just gave her a look. Like she would gossip with these nosy Oceanside people.

Naomi shrugged her shoulders sheepishly. "What? I'm just curious."

"I love Violet," She said firmly.

"Oh." Naomi's eyes softened. "Does she know that?"

Charlotte looked down at the table, suddenly fascinated by it's surface. "Not yet, but I'm gonna tell her. Soon. I was going to tell her over dinner last week, but, ah, that was a disaster," she confided.

"A disaster? Really Charlotte?" Addison said from the doorway of the conference room.

Naomi smiled at her friend and motioned for her to sit down.

"Great, now Montgomery's here. It's a party," Charlotte said sarcastically.

Addison smiled and sighed. "Some things never change. So tell us about this disastrous date."

"The waiter spilled wine all over Violet's brand new dress and then set the table on fire."

"Oh my god," Naomi gasped.

"That's horrible," Addison said.

"It wasn't so bad. Violet found the whole thing kinda funny and we went to McDonald's instead. And then after that…we had dessert." She grinned at the memory of their 'dessert'.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Charlotte." Addison laughed.

Just then Pete ducked his head into the room to see what was going on. "Oh, girltalk. I'll come back later." He paused at the doorway and then came back in. "Violet's here Charlotte."

"I could just be here for work," she shouted back at him. She could hear Addison and Naomi chuckling silently behind her. She turned back to the other doctors, but was really waiting for Violet to walk in. And a minute later she was not disappointed.

"Hi, guys." Violet came to stand behind her. "Hi Charlotte."

She looked up at Violet and couldn't help, but smile a little. She communicated wordlessly that she knew everyone here at Oceanside knew about them.

Violet returned her smile and leaned down to kiss her.

A chorus of, "Ooo's," came from the doorway. All four women turned to see, Surfer boy, Sam and Pete. Apparently Charlotte and Violet had an audience.

"Damn voyeurs," Charlotte grumbled.