Charles got home, looked down at his phone and saw far too many calls and messages he had been ignoring. There was no way he could deal with this all tonight. Thankfully, Bianca and Nicole were with their mother. He didn't know if Pauline was badmouthing him and Liza right now, but hoped she wouldn't go there. He poured himself a drink as he thought about how badly everything had collapsed tonight. He and Liza had a few nearly perfect weeks after he came back. He felt like they were headed in the right direction, finally. She had forgiven him for his attempt at starting Mercury, and they agreed to move in together. They had spent an amazing night together after running away from an event they didn't want to attend. Charles thought back to feeling like a teenager with Liza.
His thoughts were interrupted by yet another call. This time he picked up, knowing he had to. It was one of his investors, Quinn.
"That was quite the spectacle, I heard. But don't worry. I'm thinking about how I could spin this for all of us," Quinn said.
"It caught me by surprise too," Charles said blandly. He didn't want to talk to her about this.
"Surely, you knew you couldn't hide this forever."
"Not forever. Just until we felt it was safe. Which was going to be soon."
"Right. Just like Mercury was only outed because Liza found out and forced your hand to sell it to Kelsey. When are you going to start viewing her as the liability she is and look out for yourself?"
"I don't see her as a liability. She's saved the company many times. You just don't know Liza like I do."
"Of course not. You're getting more than a good employee out of keeping her around. She's your kryptonite. You know, everyone is replaceable, I don't know why you can't see that."
"Was there something you needed to tell me? I'm awfully busy catching up with calls this evening," he stated impatiently. He didn't have time for Quinn to go over all of his vulnerabilities with a fine toothed comb right now.
"Okay, I'll get right to the point. I'm looking at a way for this to be a win for both of us. I'm running for office as you might know, and I don't test well with women. So maybe I can find a way to appeal to that group and bring your girlfriend along to start her apology tour."
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"You don't have to say thank you now, but let me get back to you later."
"It's been a long night and I'm not the one you need to talk to anymore. If you haven't forgotten, I'm not in charge anymore."
"I haven't. It's just that I poll higher with men, so I'm letting you know first. And Kelsey and Liza aren't the biggest fans of me right now anyway."
"After you bought your own book in bulk, yes, I remember. You know that's generally frowned upon in the industry, right?" He was growing annoyed with whatever game she was playing.
"Whatever, just mention it to Liza. I could be your last hope. You can help me help you. Or help both of us. Either way. Well, I've gotta go."
He didn't know what Quinn had in mind, but filed it under things to tell Liza about later to improve the fallout, when things had settled down.
….
Liza sat up as she realized Charles was alone tonight, maybe had no one to talk to, whereas she had many people. She dialed his number.
"Are you okay?" Charles asked immediately before saying hello.
"Not really. Josh just called and we talked a little," Liza shared.
"I didn't know you were still such close friends," Charles said. After a long pause, he continued. "I hope whatever he said was helpful."
She couldn't tell if Charles was mad or being sincere. He was trying to mask his emotions, and when he did this she didn't like it. It made him very hard to read, and she couldn't see his face right now, which was his only tell.
"Actually Josh wasn't any help at all. He had called to talk about my decision to move in with you, I guess to congratulate me. What happened tonight threw him off and it got weird when I talked about it."
Liza thought back to just a few days ago, when she and Charles decided together that she would move in. They were both excited about taking this next step. They discussed what furniture would be hers, and where he would make space in the closet they would share. She joked about how many pairs of shoes she had, and if he needed to build an addition. It had been taken away suddenly, because of what she had done.
"Well I'm sorry it didn't go better. I should let you go. Let me know if you need anything," he tried to let her go, not wanting to talk about Josh's advice.
"No, wait," she said, stopping Charles from hanging up. "I want you to know that I was really excited about moving. I still think one day that could happen. What I'm saying is Josh wasn't any help because he blamed us for our actions in not telling Pauline. Which wasn't the comfort I needed. He doesn't understand how complicated this is, when families are involved, with our type of work situation. I shouldn't have expected him to understand. But any port in a storm, you know?"
"Hmm," Charles sighed. "Maybe he's not so off base. Most people don't have our kind of secrets. He leads an honest life, unlike me these days. I don't know why I didn't tell Pauline. And going back, I don't know if I just thought if I started something like Mercury, where we weren't working together in a hierarchy, it could turn out okay. I thought we wouldn't have to reveal anything else about you. It isn't anyone's business anyway."
"You were just protecting me, and I appreciate that. But you're wrong about Josh's honesty, and that's why I didn't find him helpful. Even he has asked me to do something dishonest before. He just viewed it differently when it comes to me because of our history. It's a long story."
"What did he ask you to do that you felt was dishonest?" Charles inquired. She noticed his voice growing more concerned. He was trying to not upset her any more tonight, but needed to know. Liza knew he didn't want to talk about Josh.
"Josh asked if I could say he and his wife Clare had been together for longer than they were, as a witness. To cover for her green card. But it doesn't matter now, because they have the baby and she gets to stay here," she said rapidly, stumbling on her words.
"I had no idea," Charles said. "I know you had to be conflicted about it. You wanted to help, but that's a pretty serious situation to be put in. Is that why you went to Ireland?"
"Well, I didn't know that was why at first. I thought he was just inviting me to be nice. But in the past, a few people, when they found out, well, they tried to blackmail me. Or if not blackmail me, said I owed them favors. I'm not proud of it, these things I did. But in this case, Josh just wanted to help Clare, so I went along with his plan." Liza knew she was rambling, not making any sense in her inebriated state, and cut herself off.
"I'm sorry you went through any of that. If I would have known, they wouldn't have put you in that position, any of them. Just like if I could have avoided this today, I would have prevented it. We could have made the announcement together."
"And now I'm affecting your life too. Your girls' lives. I'm so sorry." Liza had a thought. She didn't want Charles to be alone. "What are you doing tonight? Do you want to come over?"
"I would, but I've been drinking. If you don't mind that, I'll stop over."
"I don't mind. I'm not in the best condition either. I would love to see you. We don't even have to talk."
In a few minutes, Charles was at her door. Maggie took the hint and quietly watched television. They fell asleep in each other's arms and agreed to turn off their phones until tomorrow. Whatever developed overnight, it could wait until the morning.
