Jane woke up feeling disoriented. The light was wrong. Then she heard a sigh next to her, and she remembered.

She was with Charlie. She'd spent the night with him.

"What are you smiling about so adorably, might I ask?" he asked, his voice still heavy with sleep.

Jane merely continued smiling, and he went up on his elbow to look at her, his hair gorgeously tousled. He blinked as he smiled back at her, trying to wake up.

"Oh, that is so unfair," Jane said, covering her face with her pillow.

"What?" He tried to pull the pillow off her face, but was only marginally successful.

"No one should look that good when he first wakes up," she said, her voice muffled.

He fell back onto his pillow. "Come on, Jane, you can't hold it against me. I'm ridiculously happy right now, can I help it if it shows?"

She pulled her pillow off her face. "What a really beautiful thing to say," she said, lunging over to hug him, snuggling her head into his neck.

"It's true," he said, putting his arms around her. "I just had the best night's sleep I've had in ages, after a truly spectacular orgasm, both provided by the most marvelous girl," and he hugged her before continuing, "and I got to wake next to her as well.

"Life's pretty much perfect, I'd say," he concluded with a shrug.

"Charlie?"

"Hm?"

"What's going to happen when you finish shooting your movie?"

There was silence, then Jane heard Charlie sigh.

"I don't know," he finally admitted.

Jane sat up, sitting Indian style on the bed as she faced him.

"Do you still want to see me, be with me, after?" she asked.

He sat up, too.

"Of course I do," he responded. "How can you ask that?"

She shrugged. "This is all new to me. I'd be asking, even if you weren't a world-famous movie star." She smoothed his hair off his face. "The fact that you are just puts an extra imperative on things, that's all."

He nodded. "I know. I understand that." He grabbed her hand from where it was still stroking his hair, holding it against his chest. "But you have to understand that this is new to me, too." At her look he nodded again. "I've never been in a relationship with someone who's not in the industry before. In fact, now that I'm with you, I think it's safe to say I've never been in a real relationship before. And I know for sure, now, that I've never been in love before."

Jane blinked at him.

What?

"Yeah," he said, nodding and smiling at her. "I love you, Jane."

Jane blinked a couple more times, then began to laugh.

Charlie pulled her hand up to his mouth, kissing it before he released it. "Not the response I was hoping for, if I'm honest," he said, looking around the room. He looked again at the girl sitting on the bed. "What the actual fuck, Jane?"

"It's just, when I thought about hearing those words for the first time, I thought it would be a little more romantic? You know, flowers, moonlight, whatnot?" She stopped laughing, looking down, and Charlie realized that she was very close to tears. He touched her face, concerned. "But the bigger issue for me is that I never thought I'd hear those words at all." She looked up at him, a frank, vulnerable look that tore at his heart a little. "You know?"

He leaned forward, and the next thing Jane knew she was pulled off-balance to be crushed in Charlie's arms, enveloped in him, the warmth and firmness of his chest, the scent of him. "Why on earth not?" she heard him ask. "Hm?" He loosened his grip on her enough so he could look down at her face. He kissed her soft, just-woke-up mouth.

Jane shrugged, within the circle of his arms. "I don't want to talk about it," she said in a small voice.

"Well, that's too damned bad, because we're going to," he said firmly.

She sat up, pushing herself away so she could see his face. The look she gave him plainly said, "Make me."

"You're the most amazing person," he began. "You're funny, lively, articulate, kind, and so fucking smart," he continued. "Jesus, I've never met anyone who knows as much as you do, and I've met the Prime Minister of England. I've met the Secretary General of the UN, for Christ's sake!" He looked at her indignantly.

She looked down. He tipped her chin up, saying in the gentlest possible voice, "I'm beginning to hate that particular gesture of yours, you know?" He leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose. "So what, of the things I just said, isn't true?"

She rolled her eyes and tried to drop her chin again, but he held fast, shaking his head.

"I'm ugly," she finally said. She pulled her chin away from him and looked down and to the side, savagely wiping away a wayward tear.

Charlie lowered his hand slowly to his lap, just looking at her. He took a few deep breaths, but didn't say anything.

She looked back at him as she tried to smile brightly. It was a travesty of her usual expression, which rivaled the sun, as far as Charlie was concerned.

"Don't give me that look, Charlie McAllister," she said savagely. "Look at you. You've probably been beautiful your whole life. You've been on the 50 Most Gorgeous People list every year since you were fifteen! You don't know what it's like to to look like me, to have no chin, to have to wear braces for six years, to be the tallest girl in your class from third grade, to have hair that's so thin you can't ever make it look good! Do you know what some boy called me at the eighth grade dance?" She asked rhetorically. "Frog-eyes Carroway. And let's not forget my other nicknames, 'bean-pole', and the ever so creative 'stick-bug'." She wiped away another tear. "And my best friend is Camilla, who looks like a fucking supermodel, and is such a nice person that I can't even hate her for it. And let's not forget my name. I'm named for 'the beautiful Bennett sister,' which some brave, anonymous soul wrote on the board in my English class between periods as the definition of 'irony'.

"I'm the only girl in my grade who somehow managed to miss puberty," she said. "I have no figure, it's embarrassing to be seen with me when I'm in a bathing suit, did you know that? No one's ever been attracted to me."

Jane finally gave up on trying to keep her tears at bay and let them flow. "I'm sure this is all very appealing, isn't it?" She saw how Charlie was looking at her and continued. "Yes, I know how this sounds. It's pitiful, it's ridiculous. I have a wonderful home, parents who love me, a brother who adores me, the best friend in the world, and I'm probably going to get at least a partial scholarship to an Ivy League institution, and here I am complaining." She sniffed.

Charlie spoke for the first time since Jane had made her proclamation about her looks. "How do you explain me, then?" he asked softly. "If what you said about yourself is true, how do you explain the fact that a person who's been in the top five of the 50 Most Beautiful People Alive list for five years in a row just said he loves you?"

Jane shrugged. "I can't," she said helplessly. "I don't know why someone who could have anyone would want me, I don't. But there's a difference between loving someone and being attracted to someone," she said.

"I'm attracted to you," Charlie said, looking at her intently. "You were here in bed with me last night, weren't you? I'm surprised we didn't scrape bits of my brain off the ceiling, I came so hard." He scooted closer to Jane. "And just so you know, what we did together last night? It's one of my favorite activities. Almost a nightly occurrence, if I'm honest. And you're all I think about when I'm doing it, yeah."

"Well, maybe you're only attracted to me because you love me, because you know I think--"

"Oh, come on, Jane!" Charlie was finally furious. "Listen to yourself! I love you because I know you think--? You're talking in fucking circles. And who cares why I'm attracted to you? If it's because I'm in love with you, well, can you think of a better reason?" He glared at her.

Jane was so surprised she stopped crying. The look on her face was so funny that Charlie almost laughed, until he remembered that he was angry with her.

"Do you know what I see when I look at you?" he asked, and she just shook her head. "I see beautiful eyes, smooth, pale skin, hair that smells wonderful-"

Jane snorted. "You can't see a smell," she told him, but then she was quiet, waiting for him to continue.

"I see lovely long legs, the prettiest, most kissable mouth, and, even though it took a rain storm and a see-through blouse, I finally got to see the most adorable, glorious breasts in the cutest little pink bra," he concluded with soft smile.

He reached out and pulled her into his arms again, first wiping her cheeks with his thumbs, and she let him, shifting to lean against him. "Idiot," he said softly into her hair.

They stayed that way for a few minutes, with Charlie rubbing her back from time to time. He finally leaned back against the headboard, pulling her with him.

"Someone really called you 'Frog-Eyes Carroway' at your eighth grade dance?" he asked.

Jane shrugged. "Yeah. Bear beat him up, it was all good," she replied.

"Oh. Bear's your younger brother, right?" Charlie asked curiously.

"Yeah. He was eleven," Jane responded with a laugh. "He's a big kid, in case you hadn't guessed from his nickname."

"Jane. In all seriousness."

"Yeah?" She sat up so she could look into his hazel eyes.

"Never, ever, call yourself ugly again. Please." He nodded for emphasis.

She bit her lips together, but finally nodded.

"In fact, never even think it, okay?" He pulled her forward to give her a very serious kiss.

She nodded again. "I'll try.

"And Charlie?"

He looked at her inquiringly.

"Me too, okay? I love you too."

"Thank you."

He pulled her back into his arms.