Hi. This is Chuck vs. The Mini Skirt. Here's some stuff you might need to know or maybe you just forgot…
"I just thought I should let you know that there's something on your shirt. Don't worry, I'll get it off for you." Sarah got ready to step away from his outreaching hand aiming for her breast, but didn't expect Chuck in a split second reaching out and grabbing Dov's wrist before delivering a sickening punch to his face.
"Chuck!"
"BARTOWSKI!"
"…Oh, Crap."
l ll l ll l
Chuck sat in the uncomfortable chair under the uncomfortable gaze of Big Mike. The air was uncomfortably warm and he knew Big Mike used heat as an interrogation tactic. His tie was uncomfortably tight around his bobbing Adam's apple and his mouth was uncomfortably dry. There was an uncomfortable silence filling the air. All in all, it was an uncomfortable situation to be in.
He had been sitting like this for the past—Chuck checked his watch—eight minutes. Big Mike had yet to say a word other than "Sit," and he almost wished Sarah had been called in with him. She was like his very own protective force field. Absolutely nothing could happen to him when she was around. Unfortunately it had been only nine minutes since he had socked that guy in the face and in that one-minute grace period he hadn't had a chance to smooth things over with her. Right now he didn't have time to think about what to say to her, and instead was too distracted by the large man sitting across from him looking like he was imagining snapping his lanky frame in half. Finally Big Mike broke the silence.
"What in the hell happened out there, boy? This is the Buy More. You can't just go around punching people in the face for no reason."
""No reason?"" Chuck fought back, leaning out of his seat. "That guy made an attempt at sexual assault! On my girlfriend! He's lucky that's all he's got."
Big Mike furrowed his brow. "So all this," he said, motioning with his hands, "is about the girl? Is that what you're telling me?"
Chuck stuttered trying to think of a better explanation but before he could Big Mike was shouting in his face to the door. "Walker!" Chuck sunk down deeper in his chair at every click-clack of her high heels as she neared the manager's office for the second time that day. He had a feeling she was less than thrilled about the stunt he had pulled out there and sitting next to her without being able to talk to her about it was not something he was looking forward to. Chuck could feel when she walked into the room, like he always did, but he was too nervous to look at her. "Take a seat," the boss directed her.
Chuck was sitting in the seat closest to the door and so he could smell her shampoo as she swiftly walked past him. He had expected that as she walked behind him, but what he hadn't expected was her hand sliding along his shoulders comfortingly. Chuck shot his head up to look at her and was met with a tiny smile on her face meant to calm him down. It worked and he sat up a little straighter in his chair, ignoring that the smile hadn't reached her eyes.
Mike looked at Sarah. "Your boyfriend tells me that kid was trying to sexually harass one of my employees. Can you support this?"
Sarah knew what a cover-up sounded like and narrowed her eyes looking at Chuck and then Mike. "…Yes. I can. He tried to grab me and I was so helpless to defend myself that Chuck stepped in for me." Chuck immediately sensed a touch of sarcasm in her tone of voice but tabled that for another time and place.
"Very well then," Big Mike said, sounding pleased with her response. "It was a noble act of heroism, and in no way an unjustified act of jealousy-fueled violence. Got it?"
The two employees nodded their heads and were dismissed on the term that that was the story and they were sticking to it.
Walking out of the office, Chuck grabbed Sarah's arm as she walked away. "Hey, Sarah—"
"Not now, Chuck," she sighed without looking at him. She left him behind and he sighed in defeat as he watched her go.
"Hey there, champ," a voice said coming up from behind him. Chuck turned around and saw Morgan walking over. "That was quite the KO."
Chuck huffed and said, "Don't remind me." He watched as Sarah wouldn't even look in his direction and frowned. "Hey, buddy, do you think you could give Sarah and I the day off? I think we might need to get away from here." Chuck started walking away from the office with Morgan.
"Sure, man, no problem, take the whole week," he waved off.
Chuck's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"
Morgan laughed and shook his bearded head. "Are you kidding me? No, Big Mike would have my beard for that." Morgan then tripped on his shoes but rolled though it pretty well. "But, yeah, you can go, I'll just put Jeff and Lester on double-secret probation again to make them work harder. Maybe even Skip, too. Word travels fast around the mini strip. Sarah's first day, we've had more customers than we get in an entire week. Big Mike might even consider her for the next Buy More commercial. Imagine how many customers we'd get then. "Sarah Walker, real Buy More employee." Big bucks here, Chuck."
"Yeah," Chuck said, "That's going to be a 'no'."
"Think about it," Morgan advised.
Chuck ended their conversation by walking up to his less than talkative girlfriend. He came up to the Nerd Herd desk she had her back to and rang the service bell. Sarah turned around and her hair splayed out around her shoulders at the movement. Her helpful expression dropped at the sight of him.
"I have a surprise for you," he said with a smile. She didn't say anything and only looked at him. "I got us the day off. Turns out you were right about sucking up to Morgan."
Sarah smiled sadly and looked down. "I think you need it a lot more than I do."
Chuck leaned in to the point where she couldn't avoid his gaze. "Hey," he said to her, making her look at him again. "Remember what we said to each other before you kissed "that guy you had feelings for in front of a bomb"?"
Wanting him to tell her, she asked, "…What?"
Chuck smiled and reached out to hold her hands in his. She didn't resist. "I said, "I guess you just bring out the worst in me," and you said, "And you in me." Remember that?"
Sarah smiled softly. "Yeah."
"Well, today I guess you just brought out the worst in me," he said with a dimple in his cheek but then switched to a sincere expression. "I'm sorry." Sarah stared into his brown eyes looking back and forth between them. If she really thought about it, any other guy in the world probably would have snapped way sooner than he had... Sarah shook her head in disbelief. She hated herself for how quickly she forgave him about everything, but it was just so hard to stay mad at him. Sarah took the hands he was already holding on to and laced her fingers with his.
"Let's go home," she said quietly with a small smile.
The infectious Chuck Bartowski smile lit up on his face and Sarah quickly met his with one of her own.
l ll l ll l
Across the parking lot John Casey grunted in disgust. Just when things started to get interesting Walker had to prove herself once more as the love struck fool she was. It wasn't that he wanted them to be unhappy or anything. It was just so boring at the Orange Orange. Maybe Sarah liked it but Casey was not thrilled at the idea of cleaning the same counter six times a day knowing he was the only one to touch it. In reality, he was happier now that they were together. They were so annoying with those longing looks.
But still.
She could have at least slapped him.
l ll l ll l
They drove home in a comfortable silence with Sarah gazing out the window. Chuck reached a red light and looked over at her. She looked so adorable.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked her.
Sarah sighed quietly. "Stuff."
"Oh, no way. Me, too," he joked.
Sarah turned her eyes in his direction and flashed him a quick closed-mouth smile before resuming her position looking out the window.
"…I love you," Chuck told her.
"I know."
Chuck's brow furrowed as he looked at her but had to go when he heard someone honking at him to pay attention to the green light. He accelerated and missed Sarah looking back at his bruised hand on the steering wheel.
His phone vibrated and not being one to text and drive, he said, "Hey, can you tell me what that says," handing his phone to her.
She took it and looked at the screen. "It's from Casey… "Nice work, Bartowski."" Sarah rolled her eyes and put the phone in the middle section between their seats.
Chuck didn't know how to react. He reached over and held her hand in his but winced a little from pain when he intertwined their fingers. Sarah ran her thumb over his hand lazily and the pain was quickly forgotten.
"It hurts?" she asked.
He nodded shakily and his eyes quickly glanced at her. "Kind of, yeah."
"Why did you do this to yourself, Chuck?"
Chuck swallowed hard and kept his eyes on the road. "…I thought I was doing it for you."
Sarah had grabbed her purse and pulled out a wet napkin to wipe some of the dried blood off his knuckles. There wasn't much but there was enough to make her wonder whose it was. "I can take care of myself," she said as she wiped his hand.
"So why didn't you?" he asked agitatedly, pulling his hand away. He gripped the steering wheel tighter and stared a hole through the road. Sarah sat there silently watching him, not having moved after his outburst.
Taking a deep breath, she calmly said, "Will you please let me clean off your hand?" Chuck scoffed and gave her back his bruised hand. Sarah's gentle fingers went back to taking care of it and she didn't speak for a while. Finally as her head was still facing down she softly said, "It's not that simple."
"Whatever, Sarah," he said dismissively.
Sarah felt her chest tighten and she put one hundred percent of her focus on his hand until they got home so as to not be aware of how hurtful he was being by not even listening to her.
Getting out of the car they were both silent. They stayed that way walking into their apartment and Chuck went and sat on the couch and turned on his Xbox. Sarah sighed as she watched him and walked to the kitchen. This was not at all how she imagined her first day going. She was tired, and she really just wanted her boyfriend to be happy right now for her sake. She decided to leave him to his games and went to their bedroom to change.
Chuck had been trying for the past twenty minutes to blow off steam by shooting down some enemies but the combination of his frantic mind as well as his injured hand only made him frustrated as he repeatedly lost. He just didn't get it. Sarah could have broken any one of those guys in half and yet she decided to just sit there and take it. How could she expect him to watch that and not say anything? She just had no idea the affect she had on people and it's been driving him crazy. She's only supposed to have that affect on him.
After being killed for what seemed like the billionth time, Chuck angrily started another game. Right as he was racing through the mountains on an ATV, the game paused. He would have thought that it was a glitch in the game, but he looked at the console's green ring and saw that two places were lit, indicating there was another controller being used. Turning around, he saw his girlfriend with the one Morgan had left on the table. She wasn't wearing anything besides a rolled-up pair of his boxers and a spaghetti strap. Her hair was let down and she had removed all of the makeup she'd had on at work. This was his favorite version of Sarah. It was his Sarah, no one else's.
He didn't restart the game and she lightly put the controller back on the table and sauntered over to where he was sitting. She smoothly maneuvered herself so that she was straddling his lap and facing him. With her arms around his neck, she leaned in and kissed him softly.
"I love you," she said quietly.
Chuck put his hands on her boxer-clad hips and sighed before a smile formed on his face. "It's been a while since I've heard that."
Sarah dropped her head onto his shoulder. Turning her face into his neck, she mumbled, "I'm sorry. I completely forgot about us today. I promise it won't happen again."
Chuck wrapped his arms around her frame and held her tightly. He kissed her head and said, "I know it won't."
"Can we just forget this day ever happened?" she said, puffing out a breath against his five o' clock shadow.
"No." Sarah lifted her head and looked at him. Chuck looked back at her. "How can we just forget it when it's just going to happen all over again tomorrow?"
"It won't, Chuck, I promise," she stressed.
Chuck removed his hands from her body and put them on the couch. "I know you won't be the same, but every guy that hits on you will."
"So what, Chuck?" she said, also taking her arms down and putting them on her thighs. "What do they matter? They have nothing to do with us. Just don't care about them."
Chuck scoffed, "Easy for you to say. Trust me, if you were in my position you would not feel the same."
Sarah laughed and said, "Yeah, I would…"
She had no idea how wrong she was.
l ll l ll l
The next morning they both had been running late and were rushing to get to work on time.
"You ready?" Chuck said from the doorway.
"Coming, coming," Sarah said as she grabbed her purse and followed him out the door. Chuck watched her as they walked to the car. While yesterday she looked smoking hot, today she was just… Well, she was beautiful. Her hair was in a cute ponytail with her bangs sideswiped and instead of dark eye makeup it was light and made her blues eyes sparkle. Looking down, though, the mini skirt was still present. Chuck sighed. It was going to be another long day.
Chuck said he wanted to listen to the album he had just gotten and so they listened to the first three songs off of "High Violet" by The National on their way there. They arrived smoothly and walked hand-in-hand into the store while Chuck sang under his breath, "It's a terrible love and I'm walking with spiders…"
'He really does have a great voice,' she thought absent-mindedly.
Seconds after the swoosh noise of the sliding doors that they walked through, Morgan intercepted them on their way to the break room.
"Chuck!" he said breathlessly. "Thank god you're here."
Chuck looked at his watch and said, "Buddy, we're only four minutes late what could I have possibly missed?"
Morgan got a serious look on his face and put his hand on Chuck's shoulder. "We have an all day Puma situation."
Chuck froze. "…All day?"
"Puma," Morgan finished.
Sarah stood there holding onto her boyfriend's hand not having any idea of what was going on. She didn't underestimate it to be a stupid Buy More antic because Chuck seemed even more shaken than Morgan.
With his hand still on Chuck's shoulder, Morgan looked at Sarah and then back at Chuck. "Good luck, my friend." He departed into the home electronics aisle and that was the last they saw of him.
Sarah dragged her eyes away from the bearded one's retreating form and looked up at Chuck. "You mind telling me what just happened?"
Chuck shot his head down to look at her. "Hm?" he said skittishly. Pointing to the direction Morgan had gone, he said, "Oh, that? That… That—That was nothing. We just have out first offsite install. So… let's go… do that." Chuck sighed and walked with her to the Nerd Herd desk where his job description was sitting in a small manila envelope. Sarah was a little weirded out by how much it resembled a CIA mission assignment. He let go of her hand and opened it. He skimmed the page and then put it back in the envelope. "Great. Got it. Just let me grab my tools and we'll hit the road." He then left to go to the back room.
Sarah stood alone at the Nerd Herd desk and surprisingly didn't notice that Jeff had appeared there. He was creepier than she gave him credit for. He looked practically abysmal, though. She told herself to just ignore it but her curiosity got the best of her. "Something wrong?"
Jeff looked at her glumly. "Lester quit JEFFSTER again. For good."
"Oh," she said.
"But I don't want to have to give up my dream just because he walked out. I just need to find a singer. Better than Lester. That'll show him." Jeff looked her up and down and she felt even more uncomfortable. "What about you?"
"Horrible singer," she said immediately. "Terrible. Not good. Bad. Awful, really. Stage fright, too. Really bad." She couldn't think of any more negative words to use to describe her performance skills and reasons for never ever being in a band with him.
Jeff kept staring at her. "You're hot. We could just have you stand there…"
Sarah was starting to get panicked and without thinking she threw out, "Chuck! Chuck has a great singing voice!"
She watched Jeff's eyes light up at the suggestion. "Lester's always been jealous of Chuck. It's perfect!"
Sarah's eyes widened. 'Oh, god, what did I just do?'
"Ready to go?" Chuck came up from behind her and she jumped. "Woah, you alright?"
"Fine!" she lied before grabbing his arm and walking to the exit and saying, "Let's go."
Chuck wasn't so sure she'd be as excited about this trip once she knew what it was. When they got in the car and started driving he tried to weigh the options. Tell Sarah, don't tell Sarah, get a flat tire, fake his own death… None of this really helped him but it did remind him over and over again of what could go wrong.
"I love you…" he said in an attempt to build up to what he was going to tell her, "so… so, so much."
"I love you, too," she said with a smile, having learned that it was best to always respond with that answer. She reached over and took his hand. "…What's wrong? Your hand is all sweaty." She looked at him more attentively. "Are you nervous?"
"What?" he said flustered. "Don't be ridiculous, of course not." He looked into her eyes and they didn't show any sign of belief. He could feel his façade cracking under her cold, hard stare. His willpower was melting away like an ice cube in a microwave in the middle of the desert. "That's a lie," he spit out, shaking his head and then nodding. "Yes, I am very, very, very nervous. A 'Puma' means a… um… well, I guess it's sort of like a… cougar?" Sarah raised one eyebrow significantly. She could have made The Rock tap out with that look alone.
"Why did you get assigned to it?" she asked like Casey would when he was trying to keep his calm.
Chuck shot his eyes from the road, to her, to back at the road, to back at her. "She kind of… uh… asked for me specifically."
"How did she know who you were?"
Chuck squinted his eyes and blew out a puff of air as he drove. "I've, you know, helped her out before."
"How many times?"
"Oh, you know…" he said reluctantly, "Three, four, five, six times maybe."
"Six times."
Chuck swallowed hard. "…Yup." He wished this drive were a lot shorter than it actually was.
Sarah sounded softer when she asked, "Is she single?"
"You know, we, uh, never… We never really got to that," he lied.
She caught him. "Tell me."
"More or less," he answered. "She and her husband have an… understanding. Is how she puts it."
Sarah narrowed her eyes. "And how many times has she "put it" that way?"
"Oh, you know…" he said reluctantly, "Three, four, five, six times maybe."
Sarah's stare, if at all possible, intensified.
It was a much longer drive than he remembered it to be.
l ll l ll l
When they reached the house, if it could be called that, Chuck had to lean out of the window to press the buzzer that would let the guard know he wanted to come in.
"Name?" the speaker box said.
"Uh, Buy More Nerd Herd," he said. "Someone called about a speaker installment."
With no other words exchanged, the large metal gates slid open and Chuck drove through up the terrace to the mansion.
"Who knew the Buy More had such a wide range of customers," Sarah said as she stared at the exotic peacocks in the field they drove by.
Chuck laughed as he weaved through the driveway. "Well it'd be kind of strange if Moses Finkelstein used the Geek Squad." Sarah turned her head and stared at him.
"This is Moses Finkelstein's house?" she said incredulously.
Chuck shot a look over his shoulder. "Oh, yeah. Did I not tell you that?"
She shook her head and then paused. "Wait. Are you telling me the woman we're doing this for is his wife?"
Chuck didn't say anything for several seconds but eventually he let out a barely decipherable, "…Mhm."
Sarah sunk into her seat. This just kept getting better and better.
When they reached the circular driveway in front of the mansion Mrs. Finkelstein was already there waiting for them in a bathrobe that ended mid-thigh. It was suggestively tied loosely around her waist and she held a wineglass in her hand. The diamond on her finger was almost as big as the half-full glass. Sarah of course saw at it as a glass half-empty.
"Hi, Mrs. Finkelstein," Chuck said as they walked up to the door.
The woman laughed much louder than necessary and sighed, "Oh, Chuck, darling, I told you. Call me Sarah."
Sarah Walker's jaw dropped. This was a joke. Chuck coughed and looked at his girlfriend to see her staring a hole into him. "Well, uh, actually her name is Sarah, too. So I don't want anyone getting confused," he said.
Mrs. Finkelstein then directed her attention towards Sarah and looked her up and down. "Hmph." She held out her hand palm facing the ground at Sarah. "Sarah Finkelstein."
Sarah smiled tightly and didn't meet her gesture. "Sorry," she said fakely, "Hands just have so many germs on them."
The woman grimaced in disdain at the suggestion her hands were covered in germs. She was not a fan of the blonde. Mrs. Finkelstein waved at Chuck before walking into the house. "The speakers are by the pool," she said over her shoulder. Chuck took one more look at his partner and stepped into the house with her following behind. Sarah was somewhat used to being in expensive mansions belonging to assholes so she wasn't exactly out of her element.
The woman showed them to the pool in the back and explained to Chuck one last time where she wanted each speaker to go. "If you're ever in my hot tub, you'll have the experience of a lifetime," she added for what would be true once the speakers were installed, but she looked straight at Chuck when she said it. "I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job." She then walked back into the house, wineglass still in hand.
As they watched her go, Sarah leaned up and in his ear whispered tensely, "Chuck Bartowski, you will never be in that hot tub."
"The only time I would ever want to be in that hot tub was if it was with you, sweetheart," he said smoothly.
She eyed him and said, "You've been holding onto that line for a while, haven't you?"
Chuck smiled and put his hand on her back to turn her towards the speakers. "Since we got here."
"So now what do we do now?" she asked, looking at all the speakers they needed to install. Well, he needed to install them. She didn't know the first thing about how to install poolside speakers.
Chuck sighed and put his hands on his hips as he looked at everything. "Alright, well if you want to cut down how much time we'll be spending here today, which I know you do," Sarah raised her eyebrow and tilted her head in agreement, "how about you just hand me all the tools I need. They're all labeled so it's not too complicated."
"That I can do," Sarah said, turning and walking to his toolbox. It was on the ground where he'd put it so she bent down to unlatch the locks. Chuck couldn't help but stare at her bent over form in that short black skirt. He had a feeling she was doing it on purpose just to tease him. "What do you need first?"
Chuck blinked a few times and shook himself out of his lust-filled daze. "Um, the Exacto knife, please. I've got to cut open all the boxes first."
"Oooh, can I do it?" she pleaded like a little kid begging to put the quarters in a parking meter. Except instead of quarters, it was a knife. If Chuck had learned anything in the three years he'd known her, it was that no one should ever get between Sarah Walker and a knife.
"Uh, sure, honey," he stuttered, "Go right ahead."
Sarah sliced through the boxes in record time and looked very content while doing so, he noticed. He made a mental note of that for any future fights they may have. Next time she was angry, just give Sarah a knife and… No. Wait. Bad idea.
They worked together for a about an hour piecing together all the different equipment involved. Sarah was Chuck's obedient little helper and he did most of the heavy lifting, both literally and figuratively speaking.
About two hours in Chuck suddenly got the cold feeling of a dark ominous cloud hanging over his head. He realized that feeling was caused by all of the negative energy radiating off of his girlfriend as their client walked towards them.
"Sorry to interrupt," the woman blushed, "but I thought you might need some refreshments." She lifted up the tray she was holding with a pitcher of lemonade and empty glasses on it. She even had the tiny umbrellas.
Chuck looked up from what he was doing and raised his eyebrows at Sarah. She rolled her eyes but didn't protest, so he said, "That sounds great, Mrs. Finkelstein. Thank you."
She put the tray down on a poolside table and poured two glasses. She handed the first one to Chuck, and then as if it was an afterthought, went to hand a glass to Sarah. Except instead of reaching Sarah, the glass collided with Chuck's torso and spilled all over his white shirt.
"Oh!" Chuck said in surprise.
Mrs. Finkelstein put the glass down and grabbed some conveniently placed napkins on the tray. "Oopsies," she said as she took it upon herself to wipe down his chest, "Clumsy me." The shirt was clinging to his abs and entirely see-through. Dropping her hands, she said sounding defeated, "This shirt is ruined. Here, give it to me and let me see if I can't wash this out." Sarah's eyes narrowed and Chuck began to protest but the woman fiercely said, "I will not take 'no' for an answer, Chuck." Chuck sighed and tried ignoring how Sarah was looking at him while he began to unbutton his shirt. She was the CEO's wife after all.
He can't remember how exactly because he must have blocked it out of his mind, but Chuck was soon shirtless and Sarah was absolutely fuming. That "accident" could not have been any more forced if it was in an infomercial for spot remover. Sarah had half-expected the undead Billy Mays to randomly pop up out of a bush and hold up a bucket of OxyClean. Not only that, but that horrid woman had sure taken her sweet time while surveying his naked torso before going into the house.
It was an uncomfortable silence after Mrs. Finkelstein had left. Sarah refused to look at him and Chuck really had no words to defend himself. Finally he weakly suggested, "Should we get back to work?" With her arms crossed, Sarah gave him the dirtiest look he'd ever seen and walked over and sat by the toolbox. "Alright." He looked around and picked up one of the speakers. "Hey, have you see the Phillips screwdriver? I know you handed it to me earlier but I don't know where it is."
"I don't know, Chuck," she answered shortly, "Maybe it's up your ass."
Chuck's head shot around to look at her staring at him smugly with venom in her eyes. She held his glass of lemonade and took a long, slow sip out of it, never taking her eyes off of him. Chuck sighed and said, "I'm sorry." She didn't say anything in response, so he began working on his own realizing she was not going to help him any time soon.
The dark ominous feeling had stuck with him the entire time he was shirtless, so he couldn't tell any difference when Mrs. Finkelstein had returned outside. Sarah had taken to the idea of reclining in a pool chair and not speaking to him, so he received no warning before Mrs. Finkelstein came up behind him.
"Marvelous job you're doing, Chuck. Just look at those muscles at work." Chuck jumped at the sound of her voice and was startled to see her in nothing but a white and gold designer bathing suit with a large sunhat and equally large sunglasses. She of course still had a wineglass in hand and after smiling at Chuck, went to lie down in a chair far away from Sarah. "Oh, Chuck!" she called from her spot, "Could you be a doll and bring me over my suntan lotion? Silly me must have forgotten it over there." Chuck looked at Sarah and the only thing that gave away she had heard was her nails digging into the armrest until her fingertips turned white. He stood there for several seconds before grabbing the bottle and walking quickly over to her. "Thank you, dear," she said before he walked back to where he was working.
Sarah's eyes were closed but she had to bite back a smile when she felt someone place their large hand over her smaller one and kiss her forehead. She waited until she felt him walk away to sneak a peak at the man she was madly in love with.
Chuck continued to work under the hot sun and his muscles were glistening with sweat, a sight which Sarah would have enjoyed had she been the only Sarah enjoying it. It was a half hour of that before Chuck turned to Mrs. Finkelstein and asked, "Do you know if there's an ETA on my shirt? Sorry, I'm just feeling a little exposed here."
Mrs. Finkelstein lowered her glasses on her nose and looked at him. "No need to be ashamed, darling. You look absolutely delicious." She finished with a wink and Sarah's jaw dropped. She couldn't pretend to ignore this any longer.
"Excuse me, ma'am," she said, sitting up, "would you like me to check the dryer?"
Mrs. Finkelstein seemed almost outraged that Sarah was addressing her, but putting on a façade of toleration, she said, "No, no... I'll do it." She stood up out of her chair and walked around the pool past Chuck. Sarah could see how blatantly she was trying to show off to him and smiled inwardly when Chuck paid no attention whatsoever.
Ten minutes later she came back out with his shirt in hand. "Again, I do apologize for spilling on you, Chuck," she said to him as she walked over and handed him the shirt. "My mind must have been…" she gave his body the once over and finished, "someplace else."
Once Chuck had his shirt back on he got back to work wiring the speakers through their mounts in the ground. He sat down and worked hunched over, tools scattered around him. One wire he had been working on had frayed at the end and was refusing to go through the ridiculously small hole in the mount. He tried inserting it for over four minutes with no luck and finally he saw out of the corner of his eye a roll of electrical tape. The thing was, it was at his eye level. Chuck turned his neck to see Sarah sitting down next to him holding up the tape for him. He smiled wide but didn't say anything, knowing it was best to just continue on than put the spotlight on her. No words needed to be said between the two and he simply took the tape from her hand and ripped off a piece. "Thank you," he said sincerely, handing it back to her. He wrapped the tape around the frayed wire and easily got it to fit through the hole.
With Sarah by his side, he finished everything else in under an hour. They started going around and packing up everything they had taken out over the course of the day, and when Mrs. Finkelstein saw this she said sounding hopeful, "Oh, Chuck, you're not done, are you?"
"Yes, ma'am," he replied. "Just have to test it out and then we're all set." He went over to his bag and got out his iPhone. Walking up the iPod dock he put in behind the hot tub, he connected it to the dock and pressed play.
"Birds flying high, you know how I feel…"
Sarah smiled knowingly and looked at him.
"Sun in the sky, you know how I feel…"
Chuck smiled knowingly and looked back at her.
"Breeze drifting on by, you know how I feel..."
They both started walking towards each other.
"It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me. Yeah, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me…"
When they reached the midpoint Sarah slid her hands through the hair on the back of his head and leaned on her toes and kissed him.
"And I'm feeling good…"
l ll l ll l
When they were all packed and getting ready to leave, Mrs. Finkelstein walked up to them and said, "Let me show you out." Sarah wasn't thrilled about having to spend one more second of time with this woman but she kept her mouth shut and followed them through the mansion. "I knew it," Mrs. Finkelstein said with a laugh. "I said it right from the start. You are without a doubt the best of the best, Chuck."
"Oh, I don't know about that," Chuck said nicely.
"It's true," she insisted. "So what are you doing with her?," she joked about Sarah—but not really. Sarah face darkened and Mrs. Finkelstein turned around and lied, "I'm kidding! But seriously, Chuck, what are you doing with her?" She brought her hand to her chest. "Oh, I'm terrible!"
Chuck thought he might have heard a growl come from behind him. He wondered not for the first time that day if Sarah had any knives on her.
Finally they reached the large front doors. "It was a delight seeing you again. Come back any time, Chuck."
Chuck just smiled nervously and walked out of the doorway. Sarah followed behind him and bumped into Mrs. Finkelstein hard enough to cause her to spill her glass of red wine all over her white bathing suit. She shrieked and Sarah brought her hand up to her mouth insincerely. "Oopsies," she said fakely, "Clumsy me." Mrs. Finkelstein was too shocked to speak.
Sarah walked out of the house and all the way to the Herder with a content smile on her face. Chuck was in the front seat and when she got in beside him he made no effort to start driving. He just sat there staring at her. Sarah ignored him for a while, deciding to just stare ahead. Finally her wanting to get the hell out of there overweighed her pride and she rolled her eyes with a sigh.
"Okay… You were right," she admitted with a mumble about getting jealous.
Chuck was now the one with a content smile on his face and he put the car into drive. "Thank you," he sang before turning around and driving out of there. Sarah was a pretty sore loser and that was something she had come to accept.
"I wouldn't be so happy with myself if I were you," she warned. "Considering you're first on the list as the new addition to JEFFSTER..."
Chuck slammed on the brakes, and turned to her with a horrified expression.
"What?"
l ll l ll l
Sorry about the long wait. Tryouts start in a week and then school starts in two so not sure when the next update will happen. Reviews do help a ton, though. I often get ideas for future chapters from your feedback and right now I have no ideas.
Music featured:
"High Violet" by The National (album - and a pretty amazing one at that.)
"Terrible Love" - The National
"Feeling Good" - Nina Simone (Chuck vs. the Honeymooners)