Previously:

Joe fought to get back to Charlie, and Maiza and Firo had to join Randy and Pezzo in dragging him from the room. They took him down to the basement to cool off. Ronny followed them.

Charlie was concerned, but trusted that Maiza would stick to his promise, so she resumed playing the piano and tried to save any worries she might have for after her performance was over.

"You can't do this!"

Joe yelled he was pushed away, backing into the large table that was down there.

"We can, and we will," Ronny said.

"I'm gonna go call Luck. I think he'd want to know about this."

Firo left to make the phone call.

Maiza thought that was a good idea.

"Yes, we should give him a chance to say his piece before Charlie makes her decision."

Chapter 4: Confession

"He what?" Luck said when he heard of Joe's proposal from Firo over the phone. "I'll be right over." He hung up and wasted no time in grabbing his coat and heading for the door.

"Whoa, Luck. Where you going?"

Berga wondered why he would be in such a hurry.

"Joe just proposed to Charlie. He's offering to pay off her debt."

"Well, get over there then!"

"What do you think I'm doing?"

Luck made that parting shot as he disappeared through the door.

Luck had just one thing on his mind as he hurried over from Coraggioso to Alveare. He would not let Joe take Charlie from him. He didn't know what he would do if she actually accepted his proposal, but he had to do something. He couldn't let her go without a fight.

He shouldn't have dragged his feet. He saw that now. She had seemed comfortable with their relationship the way it was, and he didn't want to rush her and ruin everything. But he should've taken his chances. He should've told her how he felt about her before someone else came to snatch her away.

—∞—

Charlie was surprised to see Luck when he walked into the speakeasy. He may have looked calm to others, but she could tell he was tense about something. She saw it in his smile when she gave him one and he returned it. She wondered what was going on.

Did it have something to do with Joe offering to pay off her debts? She didn't think so. She had already finished repaying the Gandors. So why was he there?

Luck stood there for a moment listening to her song, watching her play. She was as beautiful as ever. Had he ever told her that—that he thought she was beautiful? He couldn't recall. He kept telling himself what an idiot he had been as he moved on to meet Firo and the others.

When Luck entered the basement, he looked calm, but something dangerous stirred in him when he saw Joe's face. He wanted to do him harm. Serious harm. He was threatening something precious to him after all. He wanted to take Charlie away from him. Luck couldn't stand the thought of him—of any man other than himself—touching her.

"I can't believe I thanked you for 'looking after her'," Joe said when he saw Luck, glaring at him. "What have you been making her do?"

"Nothing inappropriate, if that's what you're thinking. You must have a low opinion of her if you think she'd stoop to that."

"Of course she wouldn't. But you could've forced her. How do I know you didn't?"

Luck was enraged. He would never do something so disgusting.

Firo, Maiza, Ronny, Randy, and Pezzo had to hold him back when he lunged at Joe.

"Charlie asked us not to hurt him!" Randy said. "Maiza promised we wouldn't."

"I never made that promise."

"Luck, you need to calm down. It isn't like you to lose your cool like this. What if Charlie saw you like this?"

Firo tried to reason with him.

"I think she'd understand, if she knew what kind of accusations he was throwing around."

But Luck knew that Firo was right. He couldn't actually harm Joe, or he'd look like the bad guy. Whatever their differences might be, Joe was Charlie's childhood friend. She cared about him.

Luck stopped struggling and forced himself to calm down enough so that he wouldn't snap and kick Joe in the face. The others let go of him.

Just in time.

The door opened, and Charlie came into the basement. It was closing time, and the customers were leaving.

"Charlie," Joe said, looking relieved to see her. He swept toward her, but Maiza and Firo quickly moved to stand in his way to prevent him from grabbing her wrist and hurting her again.

"Charlie. Before you give him any sort of answer, I need to speak with you," Luck said. "Alone."

"You heard the man," Firo said, and he, Pezzo, and Randy grabbed Joe and hauled him back up the stairs.

"Wait! I'm not leaving her alone with him!"

Joe struggled to escape their grip.

"She's perfectly safe," Ronny said.

"Like I can trust anything you say!"

"Charlie, are you sure we can't hurt him just a little?"

"I'm sure. Thanks, I appreciate it."

Joe was dragged from the room. Maiza and Ronny followed, closing the door behind them.

"What is it?"

Charlie saw the expression on Luck's face.

"Is it something serious?"

"Very."

Luck decided to get right to the point.

"I've been in love with you for a while now."

That made two unexpected revelations in one day for Charlie. She was surprised by this confession. Even more surprising was her own reaction to it.

She realized that it made her far happier than it should have if she only considered him to be a friend. She had convinced herself that's all they were, because part of her had been afraid of rejection. But the feelings she had for Luck were different from the feelings she had for Joe. The truth was that she was in love with Luck, too.

Luck couldn't tell what Charlie was thinking. She seemed shocked. If she needed time to think, he didn't blame her. It had been sudden after all.

"If I mean anything to you, you won't marry him."

This made Charlie snap back to attention.

"Then I won't. I mean, I was never going to marry him." She blushed. "But I think you should know… I'm in love with you, too."

Luck stared at her for a moment, then smiled. He was immensely relieved and almost terrifyingly happy. He cupped Charlie's face in his hands and leaned down to kiss her.

Charlie closed her eyes as he pressed his lips against hers in a fervent yet respectful kiss full of barely contained passion. She kissed him back tenderly.

Luck pulled her into his arms and held her close. He could've gone on kissing her, letting that passion run free, but they both knew the others were waiting for them. So they had to stop kissing and leave the basement to settle the matter of Joe's proposal.

Luck and Charlie held hands as they went back up to face Joe. When Joe saw this, he had a jealous look on his face, but the others were unsurprised and some of them just smiled while thinking, 'It's about time.'

"I'm really sorry, Joe… but I can't marry you."

Charlie had decided to rip the bandage off all at once.

"Because of him?"

Joe narrowed his eyes at Luck.

"Yes."

"I don't accept that," Joe said stubbornly. "I refuse to give up on you."

Charlie was troubled. She didn't want to hurt Joe, but she simply couldn't accept his marriage proposal. She thought for a moment and came to a decision.

"Can I talk to Joe alone?"

"Are you sure?" Luck asked.

Charlie nodded.

"Come on."

she led Joe back into the basement.

He followed her.

"Hey, are you sure that was a good idea, Luck?" Firo asked.

"I trust Charlie. And you all have been teaching her self-defense, right?"

In the basement, Charlie faced Joe and asked:

"Do you have a pocket knife?"

"Sure, but what's that—?"

"Let me have it for a moment."

Joe removed it from his pocket and handed it to her.

Charlie opened the knife and looked at the blade. It was nice and sharp.

"What's this got to do with—what are you doing!?"

He was shocked when she suddenly made a deep gash in her palm with the blade.

Charlie winced a little at the pain, but she kept her hand held out for him to see.

Joe was again shocked when the wound began to knit itself back together and healed right before his eyes.

"Still want to marry me?"

"What was that?"

"I know this sounds crazy, but due to a certain incident, I became immortal. Any wounds I get heal themselves, and I won't age."

Joe agreed that it sounded crazy. If he hadn't just seen the evidence of her immortality for himself, he would've told her to quit the bad jokes.

"Like I said, still want to marry me?"

"Y-you really think you mean so little to me that something like that would change my mind?"

"Think about it. If I never age, then you'll have to grow old alone while I remain unchanged. You'd grow feeble and die while I stayed just the way I am. Wouldn't that be painful and lonely? I don't want that for you."

"But you'll let that other man risk it?"

"Promise me you won't tell anyone else what I'm about to say."

"…..."

"Promise me."

She was deadly serious. Joe could see that she would never forgive him if he broke his promise, but he was dying to know what she would say next.

"I promise."

"He's immortal, too."

"I see. So that's why you chose him over me?"

"I chose him because I love him."

"So you're saying there's absolutely no chance for me? You don't love me at all?"

"I do love you, but as a friend. I'm sorry."

"I'm the one who's sorry. I shouldn't have wasted time with other girls. I took you for granted. I thought you'd always be around. But then you went to New York, and you didn't come back. And I realized how much I loved you… but I was too late."

Joe sighed heavily, resigning himself to his defeat.

"Don't worry. I won't tell anyone about you or Luck Gandor being immortal. I wouldn't do that to you."

"Thank you."

Charlie was grateful that he was giving up so graciously.

"I hope you find someone who can make you happy, and you have a lot of kids to help you run that bakery."

"I hope you're happy, too."

They went back upstairs together, and Joe approached Luck, looking him straight in the eye.

Luck wondered what venom Joe would unleash on him this time.

"Take good care of her. I'll never forgive you if anything happens to her or you make her unhappy."

Joe turned back to Charlie.

"I guess this is goodbye."

He looked so sad that Charlie's first instinct was to hug him, but she reconsidered. It would be better for both of them if they made a clean break.

"Goodbye. Take care of yourself."

"You, too."

With that, Joe left them. He left Alveare without looking back, knowing he would lose his resolve if he did.