December 24th
Charlie sits on her couch in her apartment, a bottle of whiskey in one hand, the TV remote in the other. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Charlie Brown Christmas, It's A Wonderful Life, she skips all these movies and finally decides on the fireplace channel when all that seems to be playing is Christmas shit.
Christmas will be over in 25 hours.
Charlie fucking hates Christmas.
Her legs curl into her chest and her arms dangle loosely over her knees, the amber liquid warming her entire body into carefree abandon. She looks around her shoebox apartment and catalogues if she has enough alcohol to last her until Christmas is over and with startling regret realizes that she only has the bottle she's been drinking which is over half empty.
Fucking Bass and Miles drinking all her whiskey. Well now it's payback time.
She knows where Miles is, and even in her vengeful mood she wouldn't disturbed what happiness he was probably enjoying tonight with her mom, but Bass, well she knows he's probably doing the exact same thing she's doing only more recklessly and with better company.
Charlie texts him and after five minutes of not receiving a text back she calls him, pulling the phone away from her ear quickly when the blaring of music fills her ears from wherever Bass is.
"Charlie?"
Bass's voice fills her phone loudly as he tries to speak over the music, the thumping rhythm in the background making it impossible to hear.
"Bass-"She's cut off by him almost immediately.
"Hold on I'm heading outside."
She hears the shuffling of his phone as the pounding music gets quieter until it's only a distant sound through the phone.
"Charlie?" She hears her name and curls up deeper in the couch.
"Yeah?"
She hears him chuckle, warm and low and she knows that he's already a good ways to feeling pretty damn good.
"Why'd you call me?"
Right. She's she did call him.
"You drank all my whiskey fucker."
It's supposed to sound menacing but her tone is soft and warm and she realizes she sounds anything but menacing in that moment.
"That was a team effort Charlie."
She shifts the phone to her other ear and takes a drink from the bottle, "Yeah but Miles is happy tonight so I'm blaming you."
She hears him about to respond when a female voice drifts through the phone soft and sweet asking what he's doing outside.
"You know what, never mind. Sorry I interrupted your night Bass."
She goes to hang up, her face flush with embarrassment at calling him when he had another woman around when he stops her.
"Are you home right now?"
"Yeah I'm home."
She hears shuffling and hushed words before she hears his voice again.
"I'll be at your place in thirty minutes."
"But I'm not wearing any pants."
It's the stupid things that slip out of her mouth when she's been drinking and she snaps her mouth shut and prays he's too intoxicated to process what she says. The other end of the phone is silent before she hears laughter burst from his chest and she scowls.
"Your call Charlotte but I'll be over in thirty minutes regardless."
There a long click as he hangs up and she sits there, on her couch, trying to process what just happened. She's sitting there. On her couch. In a t-shirt and panties and if wasn't coming over it she would almost find it funny.
She puts on leggings, the black fabric sticking to her legs like a second skin as she pulls on a fresh white t-shirt, checking herself in the mirror hoping she looks presentable enough.
Bass shows up five minutes later than he says he would and she opens the door hastily to find him leaning on the wall by her door a bag in his left hand and a smirk on his face.
"You're late."
She turns around and heads back into her apartment, hearing him close the door behind him as he takes off his leather jacket and heads to her kitchen.
The rustle of paper bags draws her attention and she pees her head around the corner to see what he brought, it turns out what didn't he bring is the question.
Bass smirks when he sees her face and shrugs, "You could drink half of this yourself and since I'm spending Christmas with you, we're going to need a steady supply of booze."
"You're what now?"
"Well that's what you told Miles isn't it? That you were spending Christmas with me."
Charlie grimaces and looks away and only looks up when his voice drifts over her.
"Hey, I don't care that you lied, I just want to know why you didn't want to spend it with Miles."
She sighs and walks into the kitchen so there's only her kitchen island separating them. She grabs two glasses from the cabinets and starts to rummage through the liquor he brought, stalling her answer.
He sees right through it, "Charlie."
She sighs and stares at the marble countertop as she speaks.
"My mom ruined Christmas years ago when she left my dad for Miles."
Bass looks puzzled and she realizes he may not know the whole story and even though she does not feel like explaining it she did include him in her lie, so she hands him a glass of whiskey and leads him into her living room, taking a seat on the leather couch and curling her legs underneath her.
"I was seven when my mom left Ben for Miles. Danny was four and she left on Christmas Eve to be with Miles. She stood in the kitchen and told me to decide who I wanted to be with on Christmas. I chose Ben. So did Danny. Now I don't blame Miles, I never have and never will, but every year when Christmas rolls around mom makes me guilty for not spending it with her and Ben makes me feel guilty for feeling guilty. Danny splits his time, and mom is just grateful he's there, he's always been the favorite anyway, but the last eighteen years have consisted of feeling guilty while I'm with Rachel and feeling even guiltier when I'm with Ben."
Bass rubs his chins with his free hand, "I never knew how hard on you it was. I mean when holiday time came I saw you struggle but you always seemed to be able to carry on."
Charlie shrugs, "I don't think I can pretend anymore to be happy when I'm not. That's why I lied to Miles. So I could just spend one Christmas without feeling shitty."
"Okay."
"Okay?" She looks at him quizzically and he shrugs, "Yeah Charlie. I'm not here to convince you to spend it anywhere else than where you want to spend it. And if here is where you want to spend it, then I'd like to spend it with you. I mean we have spent the last twenty five Christmases together. It'd be a shame to break tradition now."
She grins and feel warmth –whether it was from the whiskey or Bass's words spread through her.
"I do have one concern though."
She sobers and waits for a bomb to be dropped.
"Do you have any food? Because I know you and as much as I like a challenge, I don't think we can survive on alcohol alone for the next twenty four hours."
Charlie smirks and relaxes into her couch, "It's called takeout Bass."
Bass shakes his head vehemently, "Nah none of the shit on Christmas. Hell I'll cook but we're having actual food tomorrow."
Charlie groans but has to admit, actual food would be nice tomorrow instead of the pizza she was planning on ordering whenever the booze started to make her head spin.
"Fine but then we better go now before the stores close. You know there won't be anything left right?"
Bass laughs at her and stands up, setting his glass of whiskey down on the coffee table still full.
"C'mon Charlie, move your ass."
She starts to head towards her bedroom when his voice stops her.
"What are you doing?"
She gestures to her clothes, "I can't go out looking like this."
Bass rolls his eyes and Charlie quirks her eyebrow at him.
"Charlie, it's almost midnight. No one's going to be out and even if there are people, they're not going to care."
"Bass I look hideous."
His eyes roll over her in a once over and it sends a wave of a different kind of heat through her. She clears her throat and his eyes shoot back up to hers, his blue ones burning bright.
"You look good." Three simple words that mean something else entirely.
Charlie holds his gaze for a moment before scoffing and walking by him to grab her coat. "Fine but if the clerks think I'm homeless and try to kick me out of the store I'm going to kick your ass."
Charlie feels his eyes on her back when she walks out her door and hears him faintly murmur, "No one would ever think that."
Bass takes in the two bored clerks and empty store except for a couple leaving customers and ushers Charlie ahead of him, picking up a basket from the entrance and starts to throw contents into his basket, things he knows Charlie wouldn't ever have in her kitchen. She's wandering through the aisle ahead of him, stopping occasionally to grab items off the shelf and into his basket and he find to his amusement that nothing is remotely healthy.
He takes a moment to take her in, her hair up in a bun with unruly pieces streaming down her neck, her face free of makeup and her oversized jacket swallowing her up with her long legs and boot being the only thing that shows just how petite she truly was. Beautiful. He knows she doesn't see it right now, doesn't see how the two clerks are watching her every moment, how he's watching her every movement. It isn't like Charlie is unsure of her looks, she knows very well what she looks like and uses it, he's seen her do it, but this fresh faced free Charlie is a side he feels privileged to witness.
They checkout together, piling the enormous amount of food on the conveyer, Bass picking out what Charlie chose easily. Tea, frosted flakes, bacon, wafer cookies, pistachio ice cream and popcorn. He smirks when he watches her items go by and she shrugs.
"What? I couldn't decide what I wanted."
He grins at her and it fades when he notices the cashier staring longer than necessary at Charlie, Charlie not oblivious but used to the attention ignoring him.
Bass slides him arm around Charlie's waist, noting the way she easily leaned into him as though it was natural. Charlie looks at him and subtly rolls her eyes, well aware of what he's doing before resting her head on his shoulder as they wait for the rest of the items to be rung through. She smells like cinnamon and honey and he inhales her hair deeply, feeling her press closer to him.
He pays for their items despite her protest that she can pay and instead gives her that smirk that infuriates her, giving into her argument that she could at least carry a few bags and he hands her the lightest ones, letting her have her victory for a moment.
They pile the groceries into his truck and he takes note of how her hands start to shake by the end.
"Get in the truck and warm up Charlie." He hands her the keys and knows she must be really cold when she doesn't protest, instead climbing into his black truck and starting it up. He loads the rest of the groceries into his truck and climbs into the driver's side, finding her curled up in the passenger seat.
"Here," Bass aims all the heaters at her on full blast and she smiles her thanks as the hold her hands out to them to warm up as the viscously shake.
They drive back to her apartment and despite her being freezing she carries the groceries from the parking lot to her apartment without a complaint which Bass attributes to Matheson stubbornness.
Bass starts to put away the groceries, opening her fridge to find beer and carrots as the only thing in her fridge.
"Uh Charlie…"
"Yeah Bass?" Charlie pokes her head around the corner to find him staring at her empty fridge. He gestures to it and she shrugs, "There's condiments."
He snorts, "Ketchup isn't food Charlie."
He hears a mumbled says you and rolls his eyes as he finishes putting the groceries away to find Charlie sitting on her kitchen island watching him.
"What?" he asks her, her eyes on him making him uncomfortable.
"You know that cashier was harmless right?"
Bass stills and finds an amused smile on her lips as a glass of whiskey sits in her lap between her hands. He shrugs nonchalantly, "He wanted you and wasn't being subtle about it."
"And you don't?"
Her question makes his head shoot up and his eyes find hers and even though there's an amused smile on her lips her eyes are earnest and serious.
"I…." He doesn't have the right words. He does want her, god does he want her, but saying it out loud will make it undeniable. Those words will never be able to be taken back.
Charlie hops off the counter and walks by him, her hand touching his arm gently. "Relax Bass, you don't have to find an answer right now."
She starts to slide past him and when she's just past him the words push passed his lips.
"Yes."
He hears her footsteps still on the hardwood floor.
"Okay." Her voice is soft and almost inaudible and yet so full of hope it makes him ache.
"Let's watch a movie."
Bass knows she wants to hear more, any girl would want to hear more than a one word answer but he doesn't have the right words to say and she's giving him an out that he needs to get his head on straight.
"Nothing sappy." He tries to make his voice sound unwavering but he knows that she knows that he would watch The Notebook with her if she wanted him to.
"Nothing sappy." She draws an X over her heart like she always does when she promises something and he lets her pick the movie, settling into the couch with a glass of whiskey in his hand.
She picks out a war movie and he smiles inwardly at her choice. He was the one who first introduced them to her when she had been only fifteen, to the outrage of both Ben and Rachel who had stated that she was too delicate to see so much violence. Boy had they been wrong. She once told him that they helped remind her what loss felt like and suddenly he had realized someone had put his feeling into words.
She sits on the couch beside him, her feet tucked under his legs for warmth and her head against his shoulder.
Bass exhales slowly. This was either going to be the best Christmas of his life, or the worst.