The whole gang arrived soon. Casey was the first one there; he had been hoping for free samples and received several smacks by a wooden spoon for his troubles. The food smelt great, so great in fact that Casey did not even threaten to kill Chuck when he made a tease about Casey getting kind of pudgy. That for Casey must have meant that he was in a terrific mood.
Morgan arrived next, he came in spied Chuck and the two started playing Xbox in Chuck's room. The jarring noise of gun fire and explosions masked the noise of the doorbell so Chuck did not notice Sarah when arrived. Sarah came with a bottle of wine in hand. She wore a light blue cotton sweater and demin shorts. Looking around hopefully for Chuck, her face fell when she saw that he was not in the living room. Luckily for her, and not for Chuck, her keen sense of hearing notified her that Chuck was in his room.
She crept in quietly so as not to be heard, not exactly a daunting task considering the fact that Chuck was so absorbed in his game that it would have taken an actual explosion to alert him. As she neared Chuck, a voice sounded. "Dinner's ready." That voice sounded familiar, that accent was too nostalgic. She turned around and saw Lou standing by the doorway.
Chuck and Morgan instantly gave their usual response, "Be there in a sec." Lou had to walk over to Chuck and wrestle the white controller out of his hand before he even noticed that it was her who had called him. Chuck removed the head set from his ear and took Lou's hand in his. Then he saw Sarah.
"Oh hey Sarah, when'd you get here?" He asked as if nothing were wrong. His words cut through her like a blade, tearing at her insides. "He was back with Lou? What was so great about her anyway? Sure she had nice brown hair, a sweet smile and a pretty face. Well she could also cook and she smelled like meat, which guy doesn't like meat. Oh no…she's perfect." she mentally debated.
Chuck was waving his hand in front of Sarah's face trying to wake her from her coma-like state. "Hello? Earth to Sarah."
"Huh, what?" she asked, broken out of her stupor.
"I said aren't you coming?" he repeated.
"Oh sure." She then followed behind Chuck and his new girlfriend, Lou. Every second she walked behind the couple, she would recite a list of uncouth adjectives naming out each of the sandwich shop owners minute flaws. In fact she only ran out of words after the appetizers were served.
Dinner went by smoothly, Casey focused on eating, Chuck and Morgan talked about some game and Ellie and Lou were chatting. It burned Sarah how undeserving Lou was. She definitely did not deserve him. He was kind, sweet, gentle, respectful, majestic, hot… "Err Sarah, why are you starring at me?" Chuck asked reaching up to wipe the nonexistent food on his mouth.
He was so cute when he was confused, he would furrow his eyebrows and widen his eyes. "I wasn't starring at you," she protested. "I was admiring… er Ellie's lovely forks, yea that's right forks." Sarah mentally cringed at the weak excuse; there was no way Chuck was going to buy that.
"Uh thanks Sarah." Ellie said confused as she picked up a fork to closer examine it. Everyone at the table followed suit trying to determine exactly what Sarah saw in the forks. Chuck noticed the slight blush formed on Sarah's cheeks and realized that she was lying about what she was starring at.
"Oh yeah, they are really pointy." Chuck commented. Sarah was so touched; Chuck was probably the only man on Earth that would make himself look like such a fool just to ease her embarrassment. He was so sweet that way. So sweet and no longer hers…
Thankfully the whole topic on forks passed quickly after Chuck's comment. Dinner conversation picked up again but this time Chuck persistently tried to involve Sarah in the conversations. After the main course, the gang made their way to the living room. Ellie sat on Devon lap; Morgan sat with Casey and Chuck sat between Sarah and Lou. Sarah burned with jealousy when she saw Lou climb into Chuck's lap. That was her spot, who was she to take it. The sofa suddenly felt a lot less uncomfortable.
Chuck noticed Sarah's discomfort and asked Lou to stand up so that he could help Ellie with the deserts. Sarah smiled knowingly as Lou began getting off. But her smile turned upside down when Lou wrapped her arms around Chuck's neck and refused to let go. To add insult to injury, Lou even made pleading eyes to Sarah silently begging her to help Ellie instead.
Sarah, not wanting to attract suspicion, agreed and strided over to join Ellie in the kitchen. "So how're you holding up?" Ellie inquired.
"Excuse me?" Sarah asked unsure of what Ellie was referring to.
"About Chuck and Lou, being you know – together." Before Sarah could deny, Ellie interjected again. "And don't tell me you're okay with it because I've seen the way you look at him and seriously forks?"
"I'm seeing someone else now Ellie. He's a really great guy, his name is Shaw and he's handsome and great and smart and great and just great." she sobbed.
"But he's not Chuck" Ellie finished for her.
"No, no he's not" she agreed, fighting back tears in the process. "Chuck doesn't want me anymore." she cried softly.
"Oh no, no, no, come here honey…"Ellie soothed pulling Sarah towards her and leading her to Ellie's bedroom. They crept quietly with Ellie using her body to hide Sarah's expression.
Once inside, Sarah's cries grew in frequency and volume. Her once calm breaths were now sporadic and short. Black mascara stained tears trickled down her cheek and she grabbed onto Ellie's waist for support. "Chuck doesn't like me anymore, he has Lou. And she's pretty and cute and can cook and worst of all she's a brunette. Oh I knew I should have gone brunette, Chuck would have loved me if I did." All reason and sensibility had clearly left Sarah; she continued making ridiculous cries about the strangest things that she should have done to keep Chuck.
"No Chuck just needs to see other women first, I'm sure he'll come back to you one day." Ellie reassured while rubbing Sarah's back, urging the spy to pour out all her pent up emotions.
"No," Sarah said shaking her head on Ellie's lap. "He'll never take me back, I'm not pretty enough and after Hannah, I don't think he even want to see me again."
"Shh…" she silenced. "Sarah you are so pretty and Chuck told me he broke up with Hannah because you were the right one for him, not her."
"No, he only said that so he wouldn't have to tell you the real reason." The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
"What?" Ellie asked. "What's the real reason then?"
"Well…" Sarah stalled for time, trying to think of a valid reason. "He knew how much you liked me and he was afraid that if you found out that he was ending it with me, you'd clobber him. About Hannah, she and Chuck had some difficulties and Chuck felt bad about leading her on so he ended it with her. But…but now he's getting back together with her."
Sarah then dried of her tears on her sleeve and followed Ellie out. Ellie had put on a befuddled look, a result of all the new things she had learned about Chuck. The two girls walked out and brought the deserts to the rest of the gang. Everyone took a cup of Ellie's crème brulee and dug in.
"Sarah are you tired? Your eyes are kind of red." Chuck pointed out.
Chuck's concern warmed Sarah's heart. She had to hold herself back from tackling Chuck and kissing him in front of Lou. When Chuck did not get an answer, he reached over and poked her. "Sarah?"
"Oh uhm yeah I'm pretty beat." she answered finally. When Sarah admitted this, everyone suddenly realized how tired they were. Yawns and stretches followed, before one by one everyone started to leave. Lou whispered something into Chuck's ears and a deep blush formed on Chuck's face.
Sarah could not bear it any longer; Chuck's affectionate acts with Lou were too much for Sarah. She stood up and practically ran out the door. Unfortunately her untimely departure caused her to miss Lou walking out the door minutes later with wells of tears in her eyes.