Charlie snorted when Percy told him about the firewhiskey, clearly marrying Audrey had widened his knowledge of the drink. "Not half bad." Charlie agreed.
"I think dating is probably the wrong word for it." He admitted, because they'd only settled on the idea that they were in a relationship the same day things seemed to have ended. He wasn't sure if he could actually call what they'd done up to that point dating. They didn't go out, they didn't do any of the things Charlie associated with the word dating.
"From the time the siege started until last week, we were together every day, we shared a tent, we taught the kids together, we were a team and somewhere along the line it stopped being about just work." He shrugged, he wasn't going to start telling Percy about their extracurricular activities and history.
"He didn't want to." Charlie shrugged, it wasn't the same as not saying yes - at least in his mind. "It's not normal, what we were doing, relationships, and marriage. I can't blame him for not wanting to get married." But that didn't mean that suddenly all bets were off, at least not in Charlie's mind.
"It doesn't look good, the head of the reserve shagging the number two. Everyone I have working for me now knows me, I've worked with them all before - but Callum, he's new, he's just someone from the past and that's all they'll know about him. And I'm not going to ask Callum to throw away his chance at earning their respect because I want to shag him." He would never ask that of Callum, never expect that as much as he wanted Callum there at the end of the day. He understood all too well the dynamics of reserves and he didn't want anyone to think Callum didn't earn his spot there.
"He's bringing people back to the reserve now." Saying it out loud, felt a bit like he was a child again telling on another student, but he still didn't know how to deal with this. "We were taking some time, to figure things out, maybe a way to make this work without getting married and now this." He sighed. "And I just ... I want to hurt someone."