“Your mom.” Charlotte bit the inside of her cheek and shrugged.
“Oh... Thank you,” I stammered, feeling awkward. “It was five years ago. Cancer.”
The words came out flat. I had learned to just say it quickly, giving out when and how as simply as possible. People always wanted to know, and if I just told them, they would usually stop asking and not make me dredge up the bad memories.
“I'm sorry,” Charlotte repeated, blushing slightly.
“Not your fault,” I told her, raising my camera back up. I pointed to a small marble figurine of a woman with flowing robes. “Would you mind holding up that statue? I need a size reference.”
“Sure.” She smiled, happy that we weren't on the subject of my dead mom anymore. Since she was a foster kid, she probably knew all too well how it felt. She held up the statue and smiled like a model.
“Perfect,” I told her with a grin, snapping another picture. “You're a natural.”
“It's my fallback career,” she replied with a laugh. She paused for a moment, looked up, and chewed the inside of her cheek again. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
I lowered the camera and peered at her. I had no idea where this was going. “Um, sure?”
“Are you seeing anyone?” Charlotte turned bright red. “I know that this is a weird question, but I might have someone who would be interested.”
I swallowed hard, wanting to be delicate. She couldn't possibly mean Bastian, but that just left Marcus or Elijah, neither of whom I was remotely interested in.
“I recently broke up with my boyfriend,” I finally answered, making sure to accent the 'boyfriend' just in case. “It was kind of brutal, so I'm really not interested in a relationship right now. Thanks for holding that.”
“No problem. I'm sorry about the breakup. Guys suck.” Charlotte frowned and set down the statue. She chewed on her cheek for another moment. “Wanna tell me how terrible he was? It'll make you feel better. And I'm dying to talk to someone who answers relationship questions in sentences longer than 'yeah, she's hot.'”
She had the male answer down pat. I laughed. It had been awhile since I had some good girl time. Watching her light up at the chance, I had a feeling she felt the same. Working with Bastian all day wouldn't leave much time for friends, and Elijah didn't seem like much of a talker.
“Yeah.” I pointed to another statue. “You mind being a model for a little longer?
“Gets me out of real work.” She grinned and picked it up, holding it up for me to photograph. “So, brutal breakup?”
I snapped her picture. “I walked in on him banging the hot waitress he swore he wasn't interested in. That was kind of a deal breaker for me.”
“Ouch.” Charlotte grimaced and I laughed as I caught it on camera. That one was not going in the catalog. “Were you two serious?”
I sighed, feeling the sting of heartbreak again. As much as I wanted it all to be over, the betrayal still hurt. “He was talking about proposing.”
“Damn, girl.”
“It gets worse.” I gave her a half smile. “We work together, so I have to see him all the time. The first week after I caught him, I couldn't even be in the same room. Talk about awkward.”
“That sucks,” Charlotte agreed. I nodded and pointed to another figurine. She quickly set hers down to pick it up and pose again. “What does he do? Does he do appraisals too?”
“No, he's an auctioneer,” I said, shaking my head. “Since my aunt does the auction side of the business, he's technically her employee, but it's a small office.”
“He's sounds awful.”
I shrugged, lowering the camera. “I didn't even see it coming. He was talking about getting married and helping with the business more...” It had been months, but just thinking about it made my chest ache. “He swore he didn't find her attractive, and then I found out their little rendezvous had been going on for months.”
Charlotte set the statue down with a thunk and hurried over to hug me.
“Sounds like a total jerk,” she said, squeezing me tight. “I hope you at least slapped him or something.”
“I threw a lamp at his head. Does that count?”
Charlotte grinned, releasing me. “I knew I liked you.” She pointed to another statue. “This one next?”
I nodded. “Yeah, that's perfect.”