Charlee giggled even louder this time, and he hugged her harder, muffling her laughter. Hector should’ve been trying to figure out how to clean the mess up as fast as possible before Walter woke. Instead, all he could think of was he had entire weekend of this to look forward to.

~*~

Arriving at their hotel at nearly three in the morning last night should’ve meant they’d be too exhausted for any funny business, but apparently not having slept together for over two days, Hector had a lot of making up for lost time planned. They’d been up for hours last night and were now paying the price. The meeting was purposely scheduled at ten to accommodate travelers like them who arrived so late by giving them some extra sleep time. Unfortunately, even early that morning as they both began to stir, they’d put their extra sleep time to better use.

Charlee couldn’t help smiling, thinking of their night last night even as she yawned; it was completely worth the exhaustion as far as she was concerned. The speaker’s monotonous tone as he explained this weekend’s workshops didn’t help either. She couldn’t help but giggle when Hector was startled out of nearly dozing off when they introduced him to everyone as the newest member of the team.

The surprised expressions on everyone when he stood as he was asked and said a few things about himself, his love of the game, and how he felt about being on the team, didn’t surprise her. Though catching the way two of the girls eyed him then whispered something to one another smiling silly wiped the smile off Charlee’s face.

None of them had been aware this was going to be a workshop with scheduled tournaments between the team members. Hector had been scheduled early that afternoon while hers wasn’t until later, which meant they’d be separated most of the day. The only good thing about it was that Charlee was now having visions of heading back to their room and taking a much needed nap while poor Hector had to go straight to his tournament.

Halfway through the briefing, Charlee’s phone buzzed. She clicked on the envelope, holding it under the table so she wouldn’t be caught reading her texts. It was from Gwen—her mom.

I know you said you might not have time to visit, but I just wanted you to know Ted is not here this weekend. I’d love to see you if you get a chance, honey. I could even meet you somewhere if you’d prefer.

Her step-dad Ted was the reason Charlee hadn’t made any effort to plan something with Gwen this weekend. Gwen had obviously read through her excuses about the visit being a busy one. Charlee was still angry at Ted because of the way he’d all but abandoned her step-brother Ryan.

Charlee really missed Gwen, and now that she’d be free of both chess and Hector for the morning, maybe meeting her for lunch wasn’t such a bad idea.

I’m free for lunch, but I don’t have a car. Can you come here?

She glanced up as Hector took his seat again and looked at her curiously. Just then her phone buzzed again.

Yes!!! =) I’ll leave now and should be there by noon. <3

Feeling bad now that she’d even considered blowing Gwen off, when obviously she was anxious to see her, she texted her back with her hotel information and then reminded Gwen how much she’d missed her and loved her. Bad daughter.

When the briefing was over, Charlee walked Hector to the convention room where he was expected to be at A.S.A.P and explained to him about her change in plans.

“That was her texting me. We’re gonna meet for lunch. She’ll pick me up around noon, and then I gotta be back here later for my tournament.”

Hector frowned, playing with her hair. “I guess I won’t see you until tonight.”

“Yeah, but it looks like tomorrow we get to sleep in again.” She smiled, biting her lower lip.

He leaned in and licked her lower lip. “I vote we stay in tonight and order room service.”

Her body was still spent from the night and morning they’d had, but already it came alive just thinking about getting back to the room with him.

She’d fallen asleep in the room when her phone pinged loudly. Charlee had purposely set the ringtone to loud because she had a feeling she’d doze off waiting for Gwen to arrive. Sitting up, she read the text from her. She was downstairs, waiting for her.

Surprised that she actually felt a little choked up when she saw her, Charlee hugged Gwen tightly. Gwen pulled away to look at her, her own eyes a bit watery. “Oh, honey, you look so good. I’ve always loved your curly hair, but this looks so pretty too.”

Charlee smiled, nodding. Her full transformation hadn’t been made until she’d moved out to California, so Gwen hadn’t been privy to fully the new and improved Charlee until now.

They ate lunch at the restaurant right there in the hotel. The entire time their conversation had been pleasant enough with Charlee catching her mom up on everything about school and the chess thing. Her mom was noticeably surprised to hear about Hector.

Charlee showed Gwen the picture on her phone’s screen saver. Charlee and Hector had taken a ton of cutesy pictures with both their phones of the two of them kissing and hugging, but she especially liked this one she’d taken accidently before either them were ready to pose. She’d been holding the camera up above them and didn’t even realize she’s snapped the picture of them staring into each other’s eyes. It was the same one he chose to use as his own background picture for his phone.

“Very cute,” Gwen said smiling as she stared at the photo. “So when do I get to meet him?”