The days dragged terribly for Charlie, and he was morose, all the time, Jane could see it in the photographs that were all over the internet, and she could hear it in his voice. Even his texts seemed bleak.

"What's the sodding point in any of this, anyway?"

"What do you mean? I thought you wanted to see me?"

"Of course I do! But in a few weeks I'm going back to England, then who knows when we'll see each other again?"

"What happened to the whole, 'I'm rich, I can do anything' Charlie I spoke to before??"

"He's gone off and died."

"Charlie!"

"What? You don't know what it's like. You have school, all day, then you have your family, who sound so wonderful and fun...I'm filming all day, then it's back to my hotel alone..."

"Well, call some people, then! I mean, Jesus, you're Charles McAllister!"

"I don't want to be with 'some people', I only want to be with you."

"A stellar song from popular 70s boyband the Bay City Rollers (: Also known in later years as simply 'The Rollers', in case you didn't know."

"I'm not laughing."

Jane was concerned enough that she did something she'd never done before, and skipped school. She wondered as she got on the train to Penn how she was even going to see him. Security around Charlie was insane on the set; they even had to clear the streets of onlookers so the screaming of his fans wouldn't be in the film.

But she had to go. She felt like she would die if she had to wait three more days to see him.

It was another cold and drizzly day, which reflected Charlie's mood. He supposed he was actually lucky that he'd made it nearly to his twentieth birthday before real, true love had found him and shot him between the eyes.

Today's filming involved him sitting in a car as it idled at a curb, so at least he was out of the weather. He also had a lot of time to just think about how much he missed Jane. If he couldn't see her and be with her, he at least wanted to talk about her to someone like a normal person, but the only person in the world who knew about her was Tony. And Tony wasn't much of a talker.

His phone dinged with a text, and he considered ignoring it. The only person he wanted to hear from was sitting in her government class right now. However, it was still daytime in England, and it could be his family.

"I'm at the Starbucks around the corner on Delancey (:"

He looked again at who it was from, and his heart simultaneously sped up and got lighter.

Jane had skived off school to come see him.

"OMG, you don't even know how much I love you rn!!!!"

"[Jane is smiling smugly and patting herself on her school-ditching, badass-girl back]"

"Gimme a few mins to think of how to work this"

"k"

So Charlie sat through another forty-five minutes of waiting in the car, finally concocting a plan he thought would work. When they at last broke for lunch, he sent Jane another text.

"Buy a bunch of coffees, get a tray to carry them, and go to the set perimeter on Bowery. Ask for Justine, and tell her you have my drinks."

"Roger that! Secret Agent Carroway over and out. [cue Mission: Impossible theme]"

He called over to Justine as he walked to his trailer. "J! I just ordered some coffees! Can you just let her through when she comes, please?"

Justine, a harried looking girl with a headset, gave him a look. "You know this is a closed set, man, no one's supposed to get through without an ID."

He stopped, his hand on the door to his trailer. "Come on, J! It's raining, and I didn't want to send anyone. They said they'd deliver, so why not let them? Unless you want to wait over there and bring them?" He asked casually, his heart in his mouth.

Justine shook her head. Waiting at the barricade with the screaming girls for the star's coffee wasn't in her job description. "I'll tell Joe."

Charlie gave her a thumbs up and entered his trailer, where his usual lunch of sushi was already waiting for him. He was too nervous to eat, so he just sat, holding his phone.

It took Jane fifteen precious minutes to navigate the minefield of fans, paparazzi and security, and Charlie leapt out of his seat to open the door when he heard the knock.

Jane was standing, holding two carriers of coffee, looking shifty and guilty. Joe, the massive security guy who watched the set, stood behind her. "J said you said to bring her through?" he rumbled.

Charlie just nodded. "Oh, forgot your money," he said as if he'd just remembered. "Step in for a mo while I get it." He held the door open wider. "Thanks, Joe," he added.

He shut the door and turned to Jane, hugging her and nearly upsetting the carriers.

"Wait, wait, let me put these down," she wailed, balancing madly.

He released her long enough for her to place the carriers on the counter and she stepped into his arms, lifting her face to kiss him.

"You look tired," she murmured in between kissing him, stroking his face.

"Oh, thanks," he replied with a grin. "You look wonderful as well."

Jane had taken the precaution of tucking her hair into her coat, hoping this would throw people off if they happened to notice her and Charlie stroked her hair after he helped her out of her coat, pulling her close to him again. He led her to the sofa and they sat. She kicked her shoes off and tucked them under her as she leaned into him, giving a sigh of contentment.

"How long do we have?" she asked, eyes closed. "I mean, how long is it appropriate for a delivery person from Starbucks to be in here before people start to notice?"

Charlie shrugged, pulling her so she sat on his lap. "I honestly don't think anyone saw you," he replied.

"But we can never be sure, can we?" she asked, and Charlie knew from her voice that she was sad.

"I'm sorry for all of this," he began, but she stopped him, putting a finger on his lips.

"No," she said firmly. "No apologizing for who you are, I told you."

He sighed, pulling her head under his chin and wrapping his arms around her.

"We'll figure out some huge, grand way of revealing our relationship, okay?" He rubbed his chin on her hair pensively. "I'm sick as shit of all this subterfuge." He felt Jane's body shake as she laughed. "What?" he asked.

"I love the way you say 'subterfuge', that's all. Your accent makes everything you say sound so fucking sexy." Jane gave a little shiver.

"Well, your voice makes everything you say sound so fucking sexy," Charlie said, giving her a squeeze. "And I can't believe you actually skived off school for me," he added. "Is it going to be okay? I mean, you're not going to get into trouble or anything, are you?"

Jane shook her head with a confidence she hoped wasn't misplaced. "The good thing about being a boring goody-two-shoes your whole life is that when you finally decide to be a delinquent, no one suspects a thing."

"You are many things, darling, darling Jane, but boring isn't one of them," Charlie said softly, leaning in to rub noses with her.

Then he kissed her, and one minute later they were lying down on the cramped sofa, and Charlie was stroking Jane's breast, his warm hand under her sweater.

Jane palmed him through his pants, making him buck up into her hand.

"Oh fuck, Jane, don't do that, okay?" he gasped, pulling her hand away. "You're going to get me going, and I have a lot of full body shots this afternoon that will look really funny."

"It might add a certain appeal for movie goers, though," Jane responded with a laugh that Charlie felt all the way down his spine. He sat up, pulling his hand out from under her sweater.

"Shit," he said regretfully, looking down at the most beautiful girl in the world. "You're going to have to go. You've already been in here close to fifteen minutes."

She sat up, sighing again and nodding.

So she got herself sorted out and Charlie helped her with her coat.

"Looks like it's really starting to rain," he commented, lifting the blind and looking out. "Don't suppose you'd consider taking a taxi to Penn? So I don't have to think about you wandering around out there in the rain?"

She smiled at him while she tucked her hair back into her coat. "I'm poor," she responded. "It's only water, I'll be fine."

Charlie saw the forgotten coffees sitting on the counter and smiled. "I'm going to be flying this afternoon," he said, gesturing to them.

"Hey!" he said, reaching for his wallet. "I need to pay you for those, anyway." He pulled out two one hundred dollar bills and held them out to her.

"Charlie McAllister!" Jane exclaimed. "Are you out of your motherfucking mind? I'm not taking two hundred dollars from you for thirty dollars' worth of coffee!"

"Please," he said, holding out the money. "I'll feel so much better. You said yourself I looked awful. Don't you want to know you're the one who made me feel better?"

I never said you looked 'awful'," Jane said, laughing. "Don't put terrible words in my mouth, okay?"

"Take the money, Jane, please," he said quietly, grabbing her hand and folding the bills into it. "Take one of them and use it on the cab. You'll make his day."

Jane looked at Charlie's face.

"It's so not fair that you're so cute," she finally said, shaking her head.

Charlie smiled. "Thank you." He kissed her, and she arched her body into his, closing her eyes. "Jesus, how am I going to live three more days?" he asked rhetorically as he released her.

"Me too, Charlie, me too," she said softly.

He opened the door and she stepped out, giving him a little wave as she walked away.

"Hey!" he called.

She turned.

"Dot dot dot."

She beamed at him as she turned back and continued walking, and Charlie held her smile in his heart all afternoon.