Three days had passed since the dinner at Rachel's house. Three days where Bass had been trying not to think about Charlie. How she looked, how she smiled at him, how happy he felt, which was the happiest he had been in a long time. Three days, but he wasn't counting or anything. Needless to say all of his efforts were in vain, because there he was yet again, propped up on the couch on a Friday night after declining multiple offers from beautiful women, having an internal argument with himself about one particular off limits woman.
It did help that he hadn't seen Miles since that night either, it gave Bass more time to get his hormonal teenage self under control before he blabbed to Miles in some drunken stupor all the explicit thoughts he had about his niece. Speaking of Miles they were supposed to get together tonight, as per their usual Friday night routine, but he called earlier informing Bass that he wouldn't be able to make it tonight.
If Bass had been thinking clearly at the time he would've found it strange that Miles was so vague on the phone, but Bass was more worried about slipping up and saying "hey man I kind of think your niece is hot, and not in the 'oh she's pretty,' but more in the 'I want to fuck her,' way." He was used to him and Miles talking about women, but somehow he doubted that would blow over very well, course maybe since Miles was so distracted by whatever it was, he wouldn't even register Bass' comment and then Bass wouldn't feel so guilty.
That of course was just a nicely thought out pipe dream, no way was Bass going to take that chance, he liked having all of his bodily organs inside where they belonged.
He didn't have long to ponder over Miles' weirder than normal behavior, when speak of the devil, he came barreling through the door. Bass was used to Miles just barging in, but the door flew open with such a force that Bass stood up from the couch suddenly determined that it wasn't Miles He was relieved for a moment to see that it was him, but then he took notice of Miles' frantic and uneasy body language.
For a moment time stood still, Bass thought of all the horrible things that could've happened, his mind going back to his parents and sisters and the night of the crash. Then when Miles seemed to calm down he knew it must've not been that bad. Miles was usually calm in most cases, but other times he panicked more than Rachel, which was saying something. Bass remembered when he heard the story about Rachel locking Charlie and Danny in the car one day, for maybe all of 5 minutes, and her using an axe to try to cut through the driver door, only to realize she had the keys in her pocket the whole time.
If it wasn't as extreme as that, then Bass had no idea what the problem was which started to panic him even more, fearing the worst: that he somehow found out about his muddled feelings for Charlie. Miles didn't leave him hanging long when he exclaimed, "we told Ben."
There was no explanation needed, Bass knew what Miles meant and why he was so distant lately, that couldn't have been easy.
"Look man if this is about what I was saying before dinner, you know I was kidding right? I didn't mean to twist your arm and screw up the family dynamic they had going on." Bass felt kind of bad for a moment when he thought it was his fault, leave it to Miles to choose that one time to actually listen to his idiotic self.
Miles shook his head and Bass let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, "don't worry jackass, like I would ever take advice from you, no we've been meaning to and I just couldn't do it any longer. That sneaking around teenager shit is for the birds. I'm too old to be hiding and creeping around in bushes."
"I won't argue with you on that one. Not only is the idea of you creeping around, well, creepy, but I'm pretty sure if you squatted down in a bush you wouldn't be able to get back up without help."
Bass laughed but Miles only smiled lightly which told Bass there was more to the story, "so how did Ben take it?"
Miles grimaced this time, "well if you're asking my eye, it would say he was pretty pissed."
That's when Bass noticed for the first time that he had a bruise starting to form around his entire eye. He couldn't control the laughter that bubbled up, "I know it isn't funny, but come on, look at your face. I'm just trying to picture Ben actually hitting someone and in every scenario it ends in me laughing."
"Trust me I wouldn't have believed it myself, but I have the battle wounds to prove it. I almost would've preferred taking the hit versus Danny blowing up in our faces, I felt like I was being scolded by my parents, who are probably rolling over in their graves as we speak. We had to tell them too though, didn't feel right."
That stilled Bass; he hated to think about how happy Charlie had been that night, minus a few mishaps with Rachel, only to picture her now finding out about her uncle and her mother having an affair.
It must've been as worse as Bass imagined because Miles nodded his head in silent affirmation, "yep, it is as bad as it sounds. Although Charlie was calm, like eerily calm about the whole thing, she's like a ticking time bomb, I'm waiting for her to go off."
Bass nodded and motioned for Miles to close the door and come inside, "well no need worrying about it until it happens. Sit down we can have a beer or two."
Miles closed the door he had forgotten was still ajar and just laughed, "I think I'm going to need something stronger than just a beer, and more than just one."
Bass laughed as he went into the kitchen emerging moments later with a bottle of dark brown amber and two crystal tumbler glasses, "I'm pretty sure one has never meant one, nor has beer ever really meant beer."
Within in an hour Miles was sufficiently hammered to the point where Bass had stopped drinking a long time ago, but Miles didn't even notice he was so drunk, "I don't know what it is about Rachel, she can be a heinous bitch sometimes, but damn man, I think I might love her."
Bass spit some of his drink out; this was a big deal for Miles who didn't do love. He ran at the first sign of love, hell he would run faster at the idea of love than he would at a fight in battle. The closest he ever came was a girl named Nora, almost as much of a sarcastic asshole as Miles was, but a lot prettier than Miles.
Bass didn't have time to respond before Miles was going off again in his slurred, drunken ramble, "it's seriously fucked up man, but I can't stop it. She's just got the hair and the eyes, you know?"
Bass just laughed, "yeah, yeah she does have hair and eyes I will give you that."
Miles rolled his eyes, "oh shut up idiot, you know what I'm trying to say."
Truthfully Bass had no idea what Miles saw in Rachel, sure he liked Rachel enough, but he never noticed anything special about her, besides the fact that she could be bossy and controlling, not in the playful way that Charlie had been.
He was brought back to the present when Miles started talking again, but this time it was rushed and instantly more sober sounding "Rachel? Slow down, what's going on? What do you mean Charlie's not there?"
Bass' heart started to pound so loud in his chest he was sure Miles was going to hear it and question him about it, but Miles was too engrossed to pay him any attention, "I'm sure she's fine, she's a big girl Rachel, is she at school?"
Whereas before Miles was calm about the whole thing, something Rachel said must've changed his mind because he instantly came to an upright position, "I'm going out to look for her now."
He brought the phone away from his ear and Bass could hear Rachel shouting at him to make sure he called when he got in touch with Charlie, but Miles simply clicked the phone shut and went about trying to stumble and find his keys and coat.
"Miles you can't drive like this, I know you sobered up mostly, but I-I can't let you drive like this."
Miles turned around intending to lash out about him and his technicalities when he got a glimpse of Bass' face and knew he was thinking about the drunk driver that hit his family. Miles' face hesitantly relaxed and he gave up the hunt for his keys and sat back down, still frantically searching through his phone, "Rachel said that Mt. Not-So-Saint Charlie erupted today and she has been gone ever since. Not answering calls or texts. I'm going to give you her number, if I can't go look for her at least you can, maybe she'll listen to you, so try to say something sentimental and all that."
Anything Bass would've said had to be better than Miles trying to comfort someone. He was about as comforting as hot water against a bad case of sunburn, might help eventually, but the first day it only stung like a bitch.
He winced internally when he took Charlie's number from Miles; he neglected to tell him he was going to harbor her phone number for his own selfish reasons. That was probably best saved for another time, and another bottle of whiskey.
He quickly threw on his boots and coat, so fast that Miles grabbed his head and groaned as he laid down on the couch, "you're moving too fast, you're becoming a blurry blob of blonde hair."
"Well that's a first, usually you bitch about how slow I am," Bass said as he grabbed his keys from the table beside the door, "oh by the way your keys were in your hand while you were looking for them."
All he saw was Miles' middle finger shoot up from his place on the couch, which made Bass laugh as he shut the door behind him.
He attempted to call Charlie four or five times, while he was driving, but he gave up for a minute hoping that maybe she would take it upon herself to call back. Instead he tried to focus on where she would be, where would she go, but he came up empty every time because he didn't know all that much about it.
It clicked in his head though that she was so like Miles, so he switched his train of thought to where would Miles go. It wasn't all that hard to determine, a bar.
They lived in Chicago, but the amount of bars that Miles was an actual fan of was limited, and Bass knew for a fact that Miles had told Charlie about one of his favorites in the city.
Even though she was pissed, most likely at Miles, Bass knew she would be there, and sure enough he was right. He could tell her from a mile away when he entered the bar.
He approached the bar where she was sitting, but if she noticed him she didn't indicate it.
"I could spot a Matheson anywhere, I have an identical one of you laying in the exact same position on the couch at my house," Bass commented taking in Charlie's position, forehead plastered on the counter cradling a drink in one hand and resting the side of her head on the other hand.
All she did was groan, which fueled Bass' laughter, "yep same noises and all, carbon copy of Miles."
At this comment Charlie sat up, probably too fast because she let go of her drink and brought the hand up to her head in order to stabilize her vision, "well if you haven't heard you may just be right about that. But I'm sure you already knew about my mom and Miles, of course he would tell you and not anyone else."
A bitter tone laced the last statement and Bass couldn't help but feel sad for her, Miles was the most important male figure in her life besides her dad, and he didn't even have the decency to tell her about what happened. He owed that much to her.
"Don't look at me like that!" She suddenly snapped at him, "Don't look at me with pity, just because you and Miles are besties and I got left out of the club. What's that stupid saying, bros over hoes, or whatever?" She sighed a went back to her drink at hand, "it could be worse right? There are worse things than finding out that my mom and Miles had an affair? That I could be his daughter?"
Bass laughed lightly "well I don't know, if I find out I was related to Miles I would be pretty pissed. I mean who would really want to be his daughter, have you met the guy?" He was trying to break the ice, but it didn't have the desired effect he was hoping for.
In his mind he was trying to, not only make her feel better, but also himself. It would be a lot easier if he didn't have to think of Charlie as maybe Miles' daughter, it was hard enough when she was his niece.
She downed the rest of her drink, not bothering to answer Bass as she signaled for another round, but Bass stepped in and motioned to the bartender that she was cut off. He nodded in Bass' direction and went about serving another customer which infuriated Charlie until she realized it was Bass' fault.
She spun around with a furious look in her eye, "hey I don't need you here, no one asked for you to crash my pity party and take it upon yourself to be my jiminy cricket. I don't stop you from having a good time, so I'd appreciate the same. I don't need you to take care of me. I'm fine."
"A cricket? You're lumping me together with a cricket?"
Out of everything she had said, that's the only thing Bass seemed to get out of her rant, which didn't help his cause so he tried again, "I know you don't need me Charlie, I didn't show up tonight because you needed me. I came because Miles needs you. He needed someone to make sure you were okay. He was really worried, so is your mom."
Charlie snorted an incredulously laugh, "Well maybe he should've thought about that before he went and screwed my mom and made family reunions a lot more complicated. 'Oh who is this?' 'Oh him, this is my uncle/father, my mom is married to his brother they just had an affair, but I'm his biological daughter.' God, we should be on some Jerry Springer show because this is seriously fucked up."
As funny as her impersonations were, he knew that she didn't actually take any of this as a joke, so he had to fight not to smile.
He also refrained from telling her that Miles had said the same thing, mostly because, he feared one more statement about their similarities would earn him a black eye to match Miles'.
"You're pissed, I get that, I can't say I would be any different, but at least don't lie to yourself, this isn't your idea of fun, your idea of fun is running a dictatorship where the task is Christmas decoration and insubordination results in the ultimate price of wearing butt ugly itchy sweaters. Plus tomorrow you're going to feel like shit."
Charlie laughed as she put her head in her hands, elbows propped up on the counter, "I've never been into the holidays. I only put on a show this year because I knew something was up; mom isn't good at hiding anything. I just wanted to have a good Christmas before a showdown took place. I wanted Danny to have nothing but good Christmas memories."
"Charlie not all memories are going to be good, if they were, then we wouldn't appreciate them. Bad memories are necessary in order for us to realize how good we have it, how precious time is," his voice waivered at the end thinking about his family, which Charlie picked up on.
Instead of probing him about it further she sighed, and then laughed, "I just spent $40 here to get a buzz, you're killing it with all your philosophical mumbo jumbo."
Bass smiled a genuine smile "tell you what, if you leave this dump with me now, I promise I will pay you back."
He didn't mean it as anything other than a friendly gesture, but the smirk that formed on Charlie's face told him that she was thinking of a different type of payment, "alright but I expect my payment in full."
His jaw unconsciously tensed at the implication but he found himself nodding. She stood up from her barstool, obviously still feeling a buzz before she wobbled on her feet before she steadied herself.
She saw Bass' hand shoot out, but he retracted it just as quickly once he was sure she had things under control, "I'm telling Miles you said his favorite place was a dump."
Bass scoffed as he ushered her out of the back entrance and towards his car, he already planned on driving her home and sending Miles or someone to get her car later, "right like I'm afraid of Miles, he just got socked in the face by your father, Ben. If you had known Ben growing up you'd be laughing as much as I am."
Even though she didn't know why he was laughing, that didn't stop her from joining in, even after they reached the car and she settled inside. She left her house in such a hurry she forgot a jacket, and her buzz was wearing off which meant she wasn't as warm as before.
Bass noticed her slight shivering and turned the heat on, but he knew it would take time. He reached in the back, digging around for something, until he felt the wool in between his fingers.
He tossed the sweater to Charlie who laughed and shook her head, "I'm not wearing this sweater, and it's supposed to be a punishment." She took in all of the horrible decorations of the sweater, almost feeling bad she made Bass wear it, it really was god-awful.
"Well consider this your punishment for me having to chase you around town half the night," Bass said as sweetly as he could.
Charlie put on her most pitiful face that she had no doubt learned from Miles, "I think my hangover tomorrow is going to punishment enough don't you think? Beside why do you still have it? I thought you said Santa looked creepy, have you two formed a bond after being so close to one another?"
Bass disregarded her second question and only laughed, "put the sweater on and tell me you don't feel 10 times happier."
He threw her earlier words back at her, smiling as he did, but all Charlie could do was groan until she finally gave in when the cold became too much to bear. She pulled it over her head, and Bass focused his eyes on the road and tried not to watch as her shirt rode up and exposed part of her tan stomach.
She slapped her hands down on her leg once the shirt was on, "I don't feel any happier and now I just look ridiculous to go along with the unhappiness."
Her words said she was unhappy but Bass could hear her playful tone and he smiled as he shook his head, "well I think you look nice, happy even." All he could see was her glaring at him from the corner of his eye as it became apparent to her that he was mocking her.
Charlie waited a few moments, burrowing herself further in the seat for warmth before she asked, "Why did you humor me the other day? Obviously the sweater didn't magically make you feel happy but you kinda sounded like you were?"
She knew that she was baiting him, but she was still buzzed enough to where she didn't care, she probably wouldn't have cared sober. She always was one for asking whatever popped into her head, which often got her into trouble.
His knuckles on the steering wheel tightened and when he didn't say anything, Charlie steered them in another direction going back to simply telling him which way to turn and where to drop her off at.
She didn't really care that he avoided most of her questions; they didn't know each other well enough for an intense round of twenty questions. She was content with sitting in comfortable silence as she all but nodded off until he touched her shoulder gently, "we're here."
Groggily she rubbed her eyes and peered out the window to see her apartment in front of them in the parked car, she turned to Bass and lightly smiled, "thanks for the ride. Just tell Miles I'm ok, I just need some time. Tell my mom, whatever you wanna tell her."
Bass smiled and couldn't stop himself from blurting out a response to the question she had asked earlier, "I did it because you looked happy." When Charlie's brows furrowed in confusion he sighed, "the sweater, I wore it because maybe it didn't magically make me happier, but at the time it made you happy. I figured what was a little lost dignity."
"Well I'm just going to tell you right now that I value my dignity a lot more than you do," she tore the sweater off of her body before throwing it in the back seat and exiting the car. She fully closed the door before she motioned for him to crack the window; "also I hope none of your potential hook ups are on facebook because I'm posting the picture of you in the Christmas sweater tonight."
She smiled sweetly at him when his mouth gaped open like a fish, "wait you took a picture? That's not fair. That is cruel and unusual punishment. Besides you picked the damn sweater, what happened to you having good taste."
Charlie laughed, "oh I still stand by my statement, I have excellent taste, I happen to think you looked dashing in it. Get it? Dashing…Dasher?"
She barely got the words out before she was laughing hysterically beside the passenger door, she couldn't catch her breath from laughing so hard and when she looked at Bass' unimpressed face she started laughing again. She knew he was trying to hard to keep a straight face and be angry with her.
Finally he cracked a smile and started laughing before he playfully rolled his eyes at her lame joke telling skills.
"You can keep Santa, who knows, it might come in handy again. I'll see you later Grinch," she called out to him as she turned her back heading to the apartment.
Before she was out of sight Bass called out to her, "goodnight Cindy Lou who."
The middle finger he received from her at that comment was worth it. It was then that Bass remembered the drunkard probably still laying face down on his couch, by now passed out. When he took his phone out of his pocket he saw twelve missed calls, all from Miles, which he returned immediately, "hey sorry I didn't call my phone was on silent I guess but I found Charlie—"
"Are you bringing her here, is she okay? Can I at least talk to her?" The questions came all at once and all fluid, signaling that Miles had sobered up.
"I'm not bringing her there, I just dropped her off at her apartment, I'm on the way back now, and yes she's okay, said she just needed time, but she's gonna be fine brother, she's Charlie."
Even though Bass didn't know her as well as Miles' did he knew that statement would ease Miles' worry, "alright well I'm crashing on your couch mostly because I can't find my keys again and I'm too lazy to move."
Bass laughed not even bothering to point out that his keys were probably still right in front of him, Miles was oblivious to all things that were right in front of his face, Bass didn't know how he lasted as long as he did in the Marines, and a damn good one at that. "Ok sleeping beauty, I won't disturb your beauty sleep when I come home from tracking down your rebellious niece all night."
"Thanks brother, I really appreciate that, you're the only one I'd trust with her. Plus you couldn't have made it worse than I would have, we both how good I am at consoling someone."
Bass laughed, "You know I have your back Miles." He didn't mention that he probably would've done it anyway because he had Charlie's back as well.
Miles grunted his response and said his goodbyes since Bass was almost back at the house. Before going inside he looked at his phone and saw one new text message from Charlie. Attached was the picture of him in the Christmas sweater, what a disastrous sweater it was. All he noticed was the smile on his face and the look in his eyes.
Minutes later another text message came in from her saying "I felt bad that you had to waste your time tonight sobering my drunk ass up when you deal with Miles drunk on the regular so I thought I'd send this picture."
He laughed, she knew Miles like her back of her hand, before he could type out a response another message came in, "I felt bad, but not bad enough to keep myself from posting it. Danny and I already decided the perfect caption and everything. I just wanted you to see the picture before I sprung it on you. It was too good to waste, sorry not sorry."
Damn all the Mathesons to hell, and the rest of this holiday month.