Dragging his feet, shuffling across the carpeted floor of Rachel Matheson's house, Bass was groaning internally to himself even before he showed up to this lame barbeque dinner thingy. Already preoccupied with the thought of Charlie being there, he went from excited to pissed in 0.01 seconds when Miles informed him that she was bringing along her new boyfriend to meet the family. Miles went on and on about how they had been dating for a few weeks, which seemed pretty convenient to Bass upon remembering that it had been exactly 24 days since he told Charlie he didn't want to tell Miles or anyone about their 'relationship' yet. It started out as just a one-time fling…until it wasn't anymore. Their not so casual, secret relationship went on for two whole months before Charlie even started bringing Miles and everyone else into the equation.
That night was also the same night he could remember how the look on Charlie's face made his stomach churn in disgust. He was disgusted with himself for even saying it, but he just wasn't ready to lose Miles, and he feared that would be the outcome no matter how much Charlie insisted that it wouldn't come down to an ultimatum.
She knew Miles, he would give her that, but Bass knew him better, and there was no arguing that. Hell, it was for that reason alone that Rachel often got jealous of their friendship in the first place. Miles was always more willing to share things with Bass, but it took a long time for him to be able to share a quarter of it with Rachel. It wasn't anything personal; it was just Bass had been there with him when most of the bad shit went down. No one could blame Miles, but that didn't mean Rachel liked it.
Nevertheless, even with the prospect of Charlie and her new lover showing up, Bass agreed to go, though he didn't know why. That was to say, he wouldn't admit out loud the reason, he knew it in his mind alright. He wanted to see Charlie and this so called new boyfriend and make sure he was good enough for her, but Bass would never think anyone worthy of his Charlotte.
"Fuck," running a nervous hand through his hair, he pulled at the loose strands in order to get a grip on himself. He had to stop thinking about her like that when it was his fault in the first place they weren't together, and she wasn't his.
Smiling politely at Rachel, frantically running around the kitchen, he proceeded to the back door, sliding it closed behind him as he sought out that familiar face. He frowned thinking she wasn't going to show up at all, but lifted the corner of his mouth into a grin when he felt a shove from behind, "move it dickhead, I have a plate of chicken in my hand that ain't going to cook itself."
Chuckling at Miles' words, he took the other plate out of his hands and walked beside him towards the grill, taking them both when Miles uncovered it and started a fire.
Miles always dubbed himself the king of the grill…regardless of the fact that one time he got so distracted he let everything burn until it disintegrated, and the time he got so drunk he tripped and caught himself by placing his hand on the still very scalding hot grill. He had to be taken to the hospital that evening for burn treatment and no one got to eat.
But he was definitely the king of the grill; Bass rolled his eyes as he thought about those incidents.
Turning upon hearing the sound of the sliding glass door, Bass' retort fell silent upon his lips as he took in Charlie and all of her glory. She was perfection anytime he saw her, but today she looked particularly beautiful with her luxurious long locks hanging loosely by her side, tight fitting jeans that looked custom fitted for her body, and a flowing white tank top showcasing her glorious curves. He was a goner.
So distracted by her beauty, Bass didn't even notice the guy standing next to her. Muscular and buff, he had the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing going on, but combined with that arrogant smirk plastered on his face made Bass question what Charlie would see in someone like him. She wasn't much on arrogance, and that guy screamed conceited, though Bass was probably just biased.
A smile spread across her face when her eyes met Miles' as he gave a small wave. They made their way over to where he was standing as Miles' whispered beside Bass, "what a smug dick, I think I hate him already."
Nodding, Bass' jaw clenched looking at their joined hands, "me too brother, me too."
Curiously Miles was about to ask what was up with him when Charlie approached and threw her arms around his neck, "hey kid, it's good to see you."
Laughing, she pulled back to look at him, "you too uncle Miles," glancing over in his direction, Charlie offered Bass a small smile, "you too Bass, it's nice you could come."
Her words sounded forced, rehearsed, even so he smiled a small smile of his own, choosing not to respond.
Charlie focused her attention back on the guy to her right, "Miles you've heard about Jason, Jason this is my uncle Miles, and his best friend Sebastian," emphasizing the word 'best friend,' Bass knew what she was getting at and it hurt.
Not noticing, Miles stuck his hand out to firmly, almost roughly grab Jason's hand, "nice to meet you, Charlie's told me a lot about you."
"All good things I hope?" Jason laughed as he shook Bass' hand as well, who still didn't say anything.
Narrowing his eyes at Jason, Miles' cocked his eyebrow, "are there bad things that should've been told to me?"
Charlie rolled her eyes at Miles' attempt to assert himself as an over protective father figure, "it was a joke Miles, laugh a little."
"I was just kidding too," but they all knew that he was far from joking. He always got over protective when it came to Charlie, "Jason you can help me with the grill, Bass can you go inside and get the potatoes?"
Bass nodded, "sure thing brother," cringing as he walked past Charlie, he heard her say she was going to help her mother in the kitchen as she leaned down to kiss Jason. He had to get a handle on himself green was not his color.
Allowing time to cool off, he stood in the pantry, door shut, as he flipped the light on looking for potatoes. Running a hand through his hair, he let out a long, deep, calming breath that caught in his throat when he heard the door open behind him.
There she was, she always picked the worst times to show up, "sorry I just had to get corn for mom."
After standing there perplexed, Bass realized she was pointing to the cans behind him, asking for them. He turned around, and went to reach them to her but not before commenting, "so Jason seems like a nice guy."
Charlie chuckled, crossing her arms over her chest, "from the whole two minutes you met him and said nothing to him?"
Bass' eyes narrowed, "actually Miles told me a little about him a few days ago."
A smug expression worked its way on Bass' face until Charlie raised her eyebrow in challenge, "oh yeah…and what did he tell you?"
Racking his brain, Bass came up empty. He wasn't lying when he said Miles told him stuff about the guy, he just hadn't been listening, because he didn't rightly give a shit.
Complacently, Charlie chuckled, "that's what I thought so why don't you say…whatever it is that's really on your mind so we can go back to ignoring each other and not talking."
"I hope one day you're as happy as you're pretending to be," Bass snapped his mouth closed in regret as soon as the words left his lips. That was a stupid, idiotic thing to say to her, and he knew that she wasn't going to just go with it.
Fury brewed inside of her as she pointed an accusatory finger at him, "you don't get to do this. You don't get to be anger, or jealous, or whatever it is you are right now. You're the one who said you didn't want to tell Miles and I didn't want to lie anymore."
Bass snorted, "Yeah well you didn't seem too concerned with lying the first two months we were shacking up together." Wincing at his choice of words, Bass was blatantly aware that he was digging his own grave.
"Shacking up? That's really how you want to phrase it? My god," she laughed bitterly, "you're much more of a jackass than I originally thought. You can go to hell Bass. It's not that I wasn't 'too concerned,' as you say, it was the fact that I wanted to be able to tell people you were my boyfriend, but I don't know what I was thinking…clearly I wasn't because I should've seen it coming."
Setting aside the forgotten cans of corn, he crossed his arms over his chest, furrowing his brows, "what's that supposed to mean? Seen what coming?"
"Miles means more to you than anyone else, but definitely more than I do, which I can't blame you for because you've known him longer and he's your family. I guess I just figured that if I was willing to put everything on the line for you, then you'd at least be willing to do the same, but then again you meant more to me."
"Don't tell me what I feel Charlotte, there's no way you could possibly know that you care more about me than I do you," he huffed at her self-confident manner, like she knew him, like he was an open book. It frustrated Bass because he did care for her, more than she ever even knew.
She shook her head, the strands of hair behind her ears drifting to the side of her face, "that's not what I meant. I meant that I care more about you than I do Miles and his feelings."
If Bass had been drinking, at this point, he would've spit it out. He almost wanted to wash out his ears to make sure he was hearing her correctly when she dropped that bomb. She was telling him that he meant more to her than Miles, her favorite uncle and the one man who had always favored Charlie and treated her like a daughter. Bass didn't think he was hearing her correctly, there was no way, "Excuse me, but, what?"
Shrugging her shoulders, she sighed, "beats the hell out of me too, but I do. I realized that night when I wanted to tell Miles, and I had already thought of a million scenarios and ways it could go, but at the end of it the only consistent thought I had was that I didn't give a damn.
"I didn't give a damn if he cared, if he liked it, if he accepted it, none of those things mattered to me in that moment because I couldn't shake the happiness I was feeling…" she drifted off reflecting on those memories while Bass tried, unsuccessfully, to keep it together after her declaration. She didn't outright say she loved him, but she might as well have in his eyes.
Shaking her head, she looked back at Bass, who still hadn't uttered a response, "but that's in the past so there's no use rehashing it. I respected your decision and I took your advice to move on and find happiness somewhere else. The least you could do is respect my decision as well, Jason isn't a bad guy."
Bass scoffed, not because he didn't think Jason was a good guy, on the contrary he didn't mind him as a person. His scoff was in reference to her finding happiness, he was calling bullshit on the lie she was trying to sell, "you can lie to me all you want Charlie, but you can't lie to yourself."
She didn't have to ask him what he meant by that because it was apparent. Not only could she read him like a book, he could her as well. All it took was one look at their interaction to know that Charlie hadn't found this so called 'happiness'…not yet at least, and maybe she would find it eventually, but it would be forced. Things that are forced together could work for awhile, but sooner or later pressure will build up and cause a split. You can't force oil and water together permanently anymore than you could force two people not meant for each other.
"Are you happy Charlie?"
He had no idea why he was even asking that question when it was obvious in her silence that she wasn't. Charlie was passionate and if she knew she was right, she couldn't be kept silent. She would use her very last breath defending what she believed in her heart to be right. Silence really did speak louder than words, for Charlie anyway.
After a few minutes she sighed, shaking her head slightly, "not in the same way…but I'm trying."
The solemn, sorrow filled way she said it made Bass' heart hurt. He knew that night he was causing her pain, but he thought, stupidly, that it would be in her best interest.
Standing there in front of her, 24 days later, he knew he was wrong. She was still hurting, and it was all his fault. How could he have been so stupid? He put a halt to their relationship because he wanted to avoid hurting her and breaking her heart, but all that seemed to do was speed up the process. If he was being honest with himself, he also couldn't bear the thought of losing Miles, and he knew Miles would be beyond pissed when shit hit the fan. Watching the girl he loved, pouring her heart out to him and confessing that she would've given up anything to be with him, and even cared more about his feelings than Miles,' was enough to make Bass throw caution to the wind.
Arm shooting out from its place at his side, he pulled her in close to his chest, hard, and crushed his lips against hers in a passionate kiss. Expecting her to push him away or be pissed that he was playing hot and cold with her, he was downright giddy when she responded immediately, opening her mouth for his tongue to probe while his hands settled on her perfectly round ass.
Gripping her ass in his hands, he molded their bodies closer together until they might as well have been one body.
Not being able to contain her sounds any longer, Charlie let out of a loud moan, swallowed up by his urgent kisses. Her hands delved into his unruly, curly locks, as she stretched on her toes to give him more access to her mouth.
Rolling her hips up to meet his, they were all but dry humping in the pantry while her family was just outside, along with her new boyfriend. Charlie's mind was so hazy at this point; she couldn't even remember her own name, let alone anything else.
A throat clearing sent her instincts into overdrive as she ripped her mouth away from Bass' to come face to face with a pissed off and confused Miles, "Bass I seem to recall asking you to get the potatoes…call me crazy, but I thought it was self explanatory that they would be in the pantry, not down my 22 year old niece's throat."