Charlie's Adventures
with huxi

Charlie locks eyes with a stranger across a hot, crowded bar. A new toy arrives in the post that week. The two events are not unrelated.

Finding the courage to text Alex takes Charlie an inordinately long time. Finding the courage to order The Flick takes considerably less.

Alex makes good on his promises. The Flick is spotted on Charlie's bed. Comments are made. Charlie is not as embarrassed as she expects to be.

Charlie meets Matt at a wedding. She gives him her number without hesitation, then rushes to the bathrooms to text Amy about it immediately.

Alex does something unexpected. Charlie says "are you fucking serious?" and leaves. Matt texts at exactly the right moment.

Charlie arrives at a birthday party in a suede mini-dress at 11pm wearing an outfit she tells herself is completely appropriate. Matt is very tall.

A Wednesday evening, a large gin and tonic, and the huxi website. Charlie makes several excellent decisions. Alex approves entirely.

Amy sends a voice note at 7:45am. Charlie says she needs an hour. What she does with that hour is between her, God, and her bedside drawer.

Matt comes for dinner. He brings researched wine. One thing becomes another. The Flick is finally used exactly as intended. Twice. He is impressed.

Alex texts: "Can we talk?" Charlie goes over. He has made food, which he has never done before. She nearly knocks over her wine.

Matt turns up at her door on Saturday morning with coffee from the good place two streets away. He has clearly been rehearsing something.

Alex mentions a friend. Charlie assumes dinner. Nothing in her extensive and poorly curated dating history prepared her for what actually happens.

Charlie lasted four days. Amy ordered the wine before Charlie arrived. The debrief takes two bottles and ends with something rather important being decided.

Charlie goes on holiday alone. This was an excellent plan. It lasted until Wednesday, when she got into a car with a man she'd met two hours earlier and went somewhere she absolutely should not have gone.

The night after Marco. Charlie alone in her apartment with the shutters open and the sea outside. She packed Leda The Swan without deliberation. Worth every penny. Not a moment's regret.

Matt arrives with food he cooked himself. Charlie briefly mistakes him for the Deliveroo man. One Hot Bunny comes out of the drawer. Then the buzzer goes. It's Alex. Charlie does not ask Matt to leave.