Chapter Two
It had been five days since Sarah and Chuck had first met each other inside Echo Park. And Sarah hadn't been able to shake her mind clear of thoughts about the mystery man she had met. She actually returned to the park at the same time each day every single day hoping to catch him again, as she berated herself for leaving it how they did. Sarah couldn't help but feel extremely attracted to the charming young man but he hadn't been back since, which was a shame, as she had enjoyed her brief conversation with him...
Sarah was now on her lunch break and was heading into the local Buy More with her boyfriend's phone who had asked her if she could drop it off at the Buy More for him, as he had an old college friend who worked there. Shaw had actually often spoken of his friend Chuck Bartowski who worked at the Buy More. However, whenever he spoke about him it was always like his old friend was some kind of klutz. Shaw had made out to Sarah that his old friend was some kind of idiot that did not deserve his time or his friendship. Shaw did however fail to inform Sarah of one important detail: and that was he was always jealous of Chuck. Everything that Chuck did while they were at college together had turned to gold. Shaw had told Sarah that Chuck was just a Buy More employee, which had been a complete lie. Not only was Chuck a Stanford Graduate, he owned the Buy More.
Chuck was a confident young man who had become successful despite being abandoned by his parents. Ellie and Chuck had worked so hard all their lives and now it was finally paying off. Shaw had made a big mistake when he had sent Sarah into the Buy More to have his phone repaired that day. Chuck still considered Daniel Shaw to be a friend of his, he had tried for several years to tell him that he had nothing to do with Jill showing up at his dorm wanting to have sex with him but Shaw had held a grudge ever since. He secretly hated everything that was Chuck Bartowski.
So when Shaw had asked Sarah to take the phone to him, she thought 'Oh the klutz.' She said to herself as she smirked as she recalled it as she entered into the Buy More for actually the first time, this was Sarah's first visit to the store.
She headed over to the Nerd Herd where Shaw had told her to go to. The first thing she noticed at the Nerd Herd desk was a bearded man talking to a tall man with broad shoulders who had his back turned to her.
"Come on Chuck buddy, I need Wednesday off. I need to take Anna on a date." Morgan begged Chuck.
"Morgan, that is the third time in two weeks! I have a conference with Buy More Corporate that day." Chuck responded.
"Are you buying the Encino Branch?" Morgan asked inquisitively.
"It depends on what my accountants say."
Just then Morgan saw Sarah, "Stop the presses, who is that? Vicki Vale! " Chuck had been busy talking to his accountants on the phone and had not paid any attention to what Morgan had said.
Sarah chuckled at Morgan and she thought he was Chuck. "Hi Chuck, I am Sarah." She said to Morgan.
"I only wish." Morgan replied.
Sarah looked at him confused.
Morgan tapped Chuck on the shoulders and he had just finished talking to his accountants on the phone. He turned around, "Yes, what is it Morgan?"
"This lady Sarah thought I was you." Morgan replied with a huge grin on his f ace.
Chuck looked at who Morgan was pointing towards and immediately dropped the phone and Sarah gasped as her eyes met once more with the man from the park a few days previously. Chuck was once more lost in that same set of beautiful oceanic eyes. Sarah equally, was darting her glance right back at him. They were just so mesmerized by one another. Morgan was watching on as his best friend of nearly twenty years and Vicki Vale were glancing intently at one another.
Sensing that neither of them were about to talk any time soon as they had forgotten why they were presently here Morgan interjected, "How can we help you, ma'am?" Morgan asks, as Chuck and Sarah both snap out of their gazes to look at Morgan the offender of the disruption.
"I'll take it from here Morgan." Chuck says as he leaves the Nerd Herd section to greet the young blonde woman who had been in his thoughts throughout the past few days.
Morgan had followed Chuck out from the Nerd Herd as he also wanted to have a conversation with Vicki Vale. Chuck stops walking. "Excuse me one minute please Sarah." He says as he turns and grabs Morgan's arm.
"Morgan, if you want that day off you will disappear right about….. Now." He says as he looks at his watch as time runs out for Morgan.
"Disappearing right now sir." Morgan says as he bows his head and turns to engage in conversation with Jeff and Lester.
Chuck turns once more to greet Sarah "Hello again." He says to her as he sports her an enormous trademark Bartowski grin.
"Hi yourself." Sarah says, as his grin rubs off on her and she returns the grin with one of her own that could easily rival one of Chuck's.
"How can I help you?" he asks her, as he's very interested in what the beautiful woman he had met five days ago was now doing standing in front of him in his store. Of course he was extremely delighted to see her again, he had berated himself the entire walk back to his home for not attempting to try to remain in contact with her, but she quite literally had made him speechless, he had never really had those type of feelings about a woman before so it was an awkward situation for him and he didn't quite know how to approach asking her out so he reluctantly parted ways with her, she probably had a boyfriend anyway, she was too beautiful not to.
"This is actually pretty crazy and I have only just myself pieced the puzzle together when you turned around." Sarah paused briefly to laugh. "I'm actually Daniel Shaw's girlfriend and he asked me to come here with this." She says pausing to show him his phone. "Apparently, he's an old friend?" Sarah asked inquisitively, as this Chuck she had met five days ago absolutely didn't seem like the klutz that Shaw had told her about over the years, on the contrary it was quite the opposite. 'What else has he lied about.' She asked herself as she stood here gazing at her boyfriend's old friend.
"Oh, boyfriend huh?" Chuck asked briefly, slightly demoralized before snapping out of the brief depression to return his intoxicating grin once more. "Sure, I can absolutely help with that." He says, as he reaches to take the phone out of Sarah's hand and as their hands touch once more, that exact same spark present again once more that was present five days previously when they touched hands with each other.
Chuck immediately goes to work on the phone and Sarah watches on as he displays an excellent craftsmanship. He had actually almost finished fixing it after just a brief minute or two when suddenly, a father had came to Chuck's Nerd Herd desk desperate. The father had forgotten to put a film in the camcorder and hadn't been able to record his daughters ballerina dance.
Chuck glanced between the father and Sarah.
"Could you please excuse me Sarah, I promise to be right back." He says sincerely to her.
"Sure." Sarah managed to say. She didn't really trust herself to say any more than that around him.
While Sarah waited, she also took a moment to take a really good look at Chuck. He was very handsome and confident, not to mention well put together. Everything that Shaw had said about his friend was simply not true. 'Why had he said those things about his friend?' She asks herself as she watches Chuck helping a little ballerina and her concerned father.
Chuck told Morgan to fire up the wall. Then he had the little girl do her little Ballerina dance and she did a wonderful job. Her father thanked Chuck from the bottom of his heart. The little girl gave Chuck a kiss on the cheek and said to him, "Thank you. I always have trouble dancing because I am tall."
Chuck leaned down and said to her, "I have a secret to tell you: Ballerina's are supposed to be tall." The girl smiled brightly at Chuck and Sarah's heart immediately melted. Daniel had described Chuck as arrogant and selfish. 'Oh he couldn't be more wrong. If anything, he is selfish. He would never do this for anybody. He doesn't even do it for his own girlfriend!' She thought to herself.
Sarah said to Morgan who was also watching, "He is a wonderful employee."
"Employee?" Morgan laughed, "Chuck owns the Buy More."
Sarah's eyes widened. 'Daniel told me he was just an employee. Can I even trust a word he says any more?' She thought to herself.
Chuck came back to Sarah and his smile was so infectious, all she could do was smile back at him, her eyes were sparkling. "Sorry for the delay Sarah," He says as he handed her Shaw's fixed phone back.
"Thank you Chuck." They held their gaze on each other for a long time and finally it was Sarah that broke their starring match. "Well I have to go. My lunch time is almost over." She replied sadly as she did not want to leave Chuck's warm company in any way whatsoever.
"Did you even get chance to eat lunch Sarah? I kept you waiting. I'm sorry. I sincerely apologize."
"No I didn't, and Chuck you do not have anything to apologize for." 'Daniel does.' she thought to herself. 'For making a sweet guy like you sound like a loser.'
"OK, well I am sorry anyway. Bye I guess." He gave her an enormous Bartowski smile and it made Sarah's heart flutter once more.
Sarah walked back to the Orange; Orange slowly, her heart was pounding. 'Get it together Sarah. you are with Daniel remember.' She told herself. However, she simply could not help looking back, 'Wow.' She thought.
Sarah was now back in the Orange, Orange bored out of her mind and her stomach was growling. 'Oh well I guess I have to wait until dinner.' She tells herself as she cleans the surfaces of the counter.
Sarah had heard someone come in, she looked up and there was Chuck with a big smile on his face and a bag from Lou's deli in his hand.
"Chuck, what a surprise." She said happily with her face showing just how delighted she actually was to see him again once more.
"I felt bad you had wasted your lunch waiting on a phone Sarah." Chuck replied truthfully.
"Chuck, it really is alright." Sarah tried to protest.
"No, it's not. I just feel bad that you had to go hungry so I went to Lou's deli and got you a sandwich. I hope you like it, it's my favorite." Chuck replied whilst sporting Sarah a warm smile.
Sarah thought that was the kindest most adorable gesture ever. Her eyes were sparkling and her face was lit up radiantly.
"In that case would you like to share it with me?" Sarah offered.
"Uhh." replied Chuck unsure and nervous.
"Please?" Sarah asked giving Chuck a puppy eyed look that was so infectious to Chuck it caused him to choke as he hadn't seen anybody look at him like that before.
"How could I resist such an amazing offer. Especially after that beautiful look you just gave me." Chuck replied with another huge Bartowski grin on his face.
Sarah almost fell to her knees on hearing his compliment. It touched her heart so much she couldn't trust herself to say anything to him so she simply returned the facial gesture in kind.
Nobody came into the Orange, Orange while Chuck and Sarah had lunch together and they got lost in the most wonderful banter she ever had with anyone. Chuck was funny, kind, warm, considerate and most charming, and cute as hell. Frankly he was the most amazing man she had ever met, and that wasn't an exaggeration.
After lunch Sarah and Chuck said their goodbyes. Sarah made a mental note to return the lunch favour. Of course she knew she was with Shaw but Chuck Bartowski was just so damm infectious to her. 'Screw the consequences.' She had decided to herself.
Later that evening Sarah gave Shaw the phone that Chuck had fixed. "I see you got to meet that loser." Said Shaw when he seen the phone in Sarah's hand.
"Daniel, how can you say that? He owns the Buy More for goodness sake. And he is not arrogant and selfish. He's..." She stopped herself short completing the rest of that particular sentence in her mind, 'He's the most kind and caring guy I have ever met.'
Shaw whipped around and glared at Sarah menacingly, "He's what?! Why do you care anyway Sarah?"
"Because you lied to me. What else have you lied to me about? Everything you have said about him is untrue. "
Shaw got right up to her face, "Never question me again do you hear me!" He then flicked Sarah pretty aggressively with his finger on Sarah's nose.
Sarah was shocked, she could not believe Shaw's behavior. However, that was just the beginning of a downward spiral. Shaw, because of his cocky nature got into an argument with his boss and got fired. Soon after he started drinking and started to become more and more aggressive...
End of Chapter.
A/N We're still past tense, this is still months before the present day.