Ch. 2
I apologize for the glaring errors in my first chapter…like I said, it's been a while and I did some editing without looking before and ahead, so to speak. I hope everyone enjoys ch. 2, we'll just wade through the fluff until direction reveals itself to me.
As Sarah had anticipated, Chuck opened the door and stepped back immediately, appreciating the effort she always put into her looks. Then almost on cue he quickly realized he was staring, looked her in the eye and turned to flank the door, gesturing rather sheepishly for her to enter the apartment. She watched him shut the door and turn around slowly, as if he were scared to find her looking at him when he turned to face the room. He was dressed handsomely, a crisply starched off-white shirt hung nicely over his shoulders, a feature that Sarah had been noticing more of lately. She thought he had been looking a bit stouter since Bryce had shown up and left, and smiled at the thought that he had been working out to level the playing field a bit.
Chuck ushered her upstairs to his room, gently placing a hand on her lower back as they walked up the stairs. Their agreement to be friends after the Lon Kirk debacle had remained in tact these past few months, and neither acknowledged the tingling sensations that occurred when they had to make physical contact. Their cover needed no work here at the Bartowski home of course, but Chuck had recently become a bit more comfortable with touching Sarah, it seemed. Not that Sarah minded, of course.
They entered Chuck's room, closing the door behind them. Chuck turned the television on in the background to give a bit of noise to cover their conversation and turned back toward Sarah. "So, what bases do we need to cover tonight?"
Sarah looked at him and smiled. "What, no small talk? Tonight's not all business, you know. It's technically our six-month anniversary as a couple."
"Right, right," Chuck replied. "Our six-month anniversary would be huge in Chuck-world, if our relationship were remotely real." Sarah tensed a bit at his use of that particular phrase, he hadn't said that since they brought Zarnow in. That had been a long time ago, before they had gotten to know each other very well; Chuck had been doing so well these last months since their agreement at the Christmas, er, Holiday party at the Buy More.
"Well," Chuck quickly continued, "Ellie will be surprised and honored that we've invited her and Awesome along for our anniversary dinner date." He stood up and walked the couple steps to the closet as he continued, "If you could explain that it was important to you for them to be there it would be great." He picked up two ties from a hanger in his closet and held them out for Sarah to choose one.
"Other than the normal small talk, is there anything you'd like to bring up in conversation?" Sarah asked the question as she pointed at the dark red tie in Chuck's left hand, because of course she wanted them to match tonight. It was their six-month anniversary! "Something at work, or the idiot who cut us off on the way home the other day? Or maybe something that happened the other day on our lunch break," she added with an impish grin.
Chuck had the unfortunate timing of hearing the last comment Sarah made while right in the middle of a deep drink of the Bawlz caffeine-charged beverage he had just opened. A large portion of the carbonated liquid ran down his windpipe as Sarah's inappropriate remark and saucy eyebrow raise caused him to sharply draw a breath. Coughing loudly and regurgitating the liquid down the shirt he was wearing, he waved Sarah off as she sprang to his side to make sure he was all right. Taking a couple of deep breaths as he stood up, he looked at himself in the mirror and realized that it was a good thing he had taken more than just one shirt to be cleaned and pressed the other day. He walked to the closet to pull two other shirts from the bar and hold them out for Sarah's approval.
Twelve minutes later Chuck held the driver's door to Sarah's Porsche open for her and walked around to the passenger side, thinking that it was going to be a fun night, for once. There was no mission, no bugs, no directives, no nothing. Tonight was just going to be a night out for him and Sarah, with Ellie and Awesome. They were going to the nicest steakhouse in L.A. and were going to walk the strip afterward. As he settled into the passenger seat and pulled the seat belt across his chest, he looked across at Sarah and smiled. He didn't know why he'd been so worked up earlier, this was going to be all right. Sarah smiled back at him and put the car in gear.