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Either way, he was asking her about their past tonight.
After the wedding was over, Liv and Lewis did a beautiful walk under sparklers to their honeymoon. They had a late-night flight and would be in Mexico for three weeks. Charlie was glad - after how hard both of them had worked for this night, they both needed it.
Charlie was amongst the few who stayed and cleaned up. He noticed Violet do the same. He kept an eye on her and left right when she did.
When he got home, Violet was leaning against the wall the foyer, waiting for him. She stood straight when he walked in.
“So, the deal is over,” she said. “You can say anything you want now.”
When they had first made this deal, he couldn’t wait for this moment. Now he dreaded it.
“I have one thing,” he said. “And it’s probably not what you think.”
Violet nodded; her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
“What happened between us?” He asked. “Why did you go off on me that day in the cafeteria?”
Violet looked shocked for one moment, but then frowned. “Come on, you have to know.”
“I genuinely don’t. Was it the paper?”
Violet stared at him for a moment before answering. “Of course it was the paper.”
For a moment, he wondered if she was being sarcastic. How could it have been the paper? She said it like it should have been obvious.
“The feedback? I only said it needed work. I don’t think I deserved what you said that day.”
Violet tensed. He could see it, and Charlie felt like he was missing something. There was no way she was this mad about some simple feedback, right? She had to get feedback in her career, and not all of it could be good.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said instead. “It’s not worth it.”
“No, I want to know. This ruined our friendship. I don’t get how you can be the most mature person in the room and get upset that I told you you’re thesis needed a little bit of work.”
“That’s not what you said.” Violet turned to him, an old hurt on her face. “And if it’s what you meant, then you had a bad way of going about it.”
Charlie sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I said your thesis was loose. You had great framework, but the reasoning needed some help. I know that’s not exactly how I framed it-“
“No, it’s not how you framed it at all.” Violet shook her head. “That’s really what you think you said?”
“I’m not lying. I genuinely want to get to the bottom of this.”
“There’s nothing to get to the bottom of. I asked you for help with a paper and you told me I was a waste of time - that I could do nothing more than be a teacher and make a shit salary.”
“How did you get to that conclusion from what I said? I would never say that to you!”
“Oh my God. Fine, I’ll show you.” Violet stormed up the stairs, and came back down them with her old, beat-up laptop in hand. Charlie dimly remembered the old thing. She sat it down on the table and plugged it in, a tense silence over them both.
“What are you doing?” Charlie asked.
“I’m fucking showing you what you sent me. This file is old as hell, so it takes forever to come up.”
Charlie shook his head but waited. He couldn’t wait to look at this paper line by line and show her he never said any of those things.
Eventually, Violet gestured to the computer screen and moved out of the way. He leaned down to look at what was written.
And immediately noticed something was wrong.
He remembered having only two things to say about what she had written. In front of him were at least ten or more comments.
