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“I think I was made for you.”
Vaggie could have choked, if she was drinking or eating anything. Instead she straightened her back from the cleaning she was in the middle of and turned toward her benefactor. Friend. Best friend?
The apartment felt smaller, all of a sudden. As small as it usually felt when she remembered she was rooming with the Princess of Hell and it didn’t make sense that Charlie was living in an apartment instead of some huge mansion. Even if this was a very nice apartment. By Hell’s standards. Vaggie couldn’t (wouldn’t) judge.
“That’s not too much, is it?” Charlie flushed, still smiling. “I’ve just… been thinking about it for a while. A long while. It doesn’t have to mean anything weird! Unless you want it to.” She laughed, obviously more nervous the longer she spoke. Vaggie was having trouble interrupting her. “But definitely not if you don’t! It’s not like I haven’t been around people I’ve liked before or anything, or dated, but it’s not the same with you and I–”
“Charlie. Charlie!”
Charlie stopped, still beaming like a fool. Vaggie realized Charlie might not have stopped because of her calling out, but because Vaggie had put her hands on Charlie’s shoulders.
As she did sometimes. It always felt nice to touch Charlie. Vaggie’s own cheeks burned.
“Where did this come from?”
“You?” Charlie shrugged.
Vaggie blinked. “Well, yeah. I suppose there’s that. But I mean…” Vaggie cleared her throat. “Other than that.”
“Like I said.” Charlie put her hands on top of Vaggie’s, moving them from her shoulders to hold them in front of her. “I’ve never felt like this before. Like there’s someone out there I was meant for? So supportive of me being me. Trying so hard to improve yourself. You inspire me like no one else has and you do it by being you. It’s like more than love. It’s like…”
As Charlie considered what word to use, Vaggie was stuck on the word she had used. Love. It was a word she had been raised to believe no one in Hell could even comprehend. Lust and possession? Check. Love? Empathy? Kindness?
Forgiveness?
Charlie couldn’t love her. Not the real Vaggie. At least… not who the real Vaggie used to be.
Trying so hard to improve yourself.
It was true. Vaggie had to be better than she was. Nothing in Heaven, Earth, and Hell could make up for what she had done as an Exterminator, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t try. She had to. How else could she live with herself? How else could she allow Charlie to keep living with her? The nicest and most accepting person Vaggie had ever known. Somehow, in some ways, still more naive than Vaggie was too.
How was it that everything Charlie had said about Vaggie were things Vaggie wanted to say about Charlie? Wait. Did that mean Vaggie felt like she had been made for Charlie too?
Vaggie swallowed. “I love you too.”
Charlie bit her lower lip, tears filling her eyes. “You do?”
There was no need to respond with words. Vaggie moved to her tiptoes and pecked Charlie on the lips. In an instant, Charlie’s arms surrounded her and Vaggie found their mouths more than mashed together. Charlie’s tongue pressed against hers and she tasted both like the chocolate they had both eaten earlier and something exquisitely spicy.
Vaggie’s heart soared. There had been nothing like this in Heaven. She closed her eye.
When they parted to catch their breath, Charlie began to giggle non-stop.
Vaggie couldn’t help herself. She started laughing too. There was no letting Charlie go. Not right now, while the princess was in her arms, but not ever either.
Maybe someone else thought she was made to destroy other people’s afterlives. Charlie thought she was made to be better.
Vaggie wanted to believe Charlie was right.