Spying in Chocolate
By SarahsSupplyCloset
Author's Note: Hope these chapters are worth the long wait. Just want to tell you all since I've gotten a few messages asking and it's easier to just tell everyone here than answer individually (sorry I haven't responded, I've been swamped). I am not done with The Trapped Assassin. I honestly wrote myself into a corner and I now have to figure out how to webswing my way outta there. I will. I just haven't yet. I have plans for that story. In the meantime, have this one. Thanks for your reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck and I'm not making money.
The Nerd Herd phone rang just as he was about to head out on an offsite job, some kids party on a Saturday that needed help with their sound system that they bought from the Buy More.
Nobody else was around so he let out a put upon sigh and went back to the phone, shrugging his messenger bag off and grabbing the receiver.
"You've reached the Buy More Nerd Herd, this is Lester, how may I assist you today?"
There was a long pause on the other end.
"Hello? I'm sorry, if you're still there, I can't hear you. Might be a problem with the connection. Try calling ba—"
"Chuck? Is…that you?"
His eyes practically popped out of his head as he felt for his pocket, that crinkled post-it still there. "Oh. Sarah."
"Why'd you call yourself Lester? Is that your real name?"
"Oh hell no," he said quickly, laughing. "No, sometimes I answer as him or Jeff, depending on my mood. Especially if I'm about to head out on a job. It's kind of just an…inside…joke. With…myself? It-It's a long story…" It felt stupid now that he was trying to explain it to an incredibly interesting, very beautiful woman. And he felt like a jackass.
"Oh…o…kay…Oh wait, you're going to a job? Damn it."
"Why?" he asked eagerly. "Is there something you need? Phone on the fritz again?"
"No, no. Not that. I, um… What kind of job is it? Or is there some kind of HIPAA thing for the Nerd Herd?"
He laughed. "That's not a thing, don't worry. This kid's 12th birthday party is on the verge of ruination because they bought this giant sound system from our store and can't figure out how to install it and this kid's popularity rests on whether this thing works or not. So off I go."
"That's something they really send you guys out to do?"
"Mhm. It's all the way up in Altadena too. You should've heard the phone call. The mom had this really annoyed, done with life sounding voice as she explained the problem and asked me to come out, and I could hear the dad in the background going, 'Brenda, I've got it figured out!' And she just flat-out ignored him. Because he probably didn't have it figured out." He leaned one leg on the desk, half sitting on it.
"Your job must be interesting."
"It can be. But what did you call the Nerd Herd for? Are you already installing computers and all that?"
"Oh God. No. Um, it's not important."
"But you called the Nerd H—"
"I didn't call for the Nerd Herd, Chuck, I called for you."
He raised his eyebrows, nearly slipping off of the desk and onto the floor. He barely caught himself, adrenaline shooting through him. "W-Whoa. Oh, I mean. Oh okay! Me, huh?"
Smooth, very smooth.
She giggled. "Yeah, you. But you've got your job you have to go to and I'm not about to get you fired—"
"No, you aren't getting me fired!" he rushed out. "That's not a problem." He resisted saying that his boss wasn't even in the store at the moment, so he'd never really know what Chuck did or didn't do. "What did you need from me?"
"No, go do your job, Chuck. It's okay. A 12 year old needs his sound system to work so his birthday party doesn't suck and he spends middle school being the unpopular kid."
"Just tell me," he chuckled, shaking his head.
"Um, well…You see, I need a big strong man to help me out here. I'm at my shop…"
He rolled his eyes. "Me, a big strong man, that's hilarious."
"Don't sell yourself short, Nerd Herd. Literally. Get it? Because you're super tall?" She made a HA HA sound and he giggled.
He really liked her a lot and he wanted nothing more than to teleport across the parking lot into her soon-to-be chocolatier. He hadn't seen her for a few days, not since she made him spill his smoothie all over himself, and brought him into her kitchen where she practically put her hand up his shirt to rub some sort of miracle sharpie all over it to get rid of a smoothie stain, and bought him a new smoothie. And the hour he'd spent just talking to her, sitting at the counter on the stools he and Morgan used to sit on as they scarfed down egg rolls Sonny had made. Good riddance, Sonny. Sorry, Sonny, he thought to himself.
He wanted to see her so badly he hurt. So he nibbled on his lip, thinking. And he played with the post-it in his pocket.
"Give me 10 minutes?"
"Chuck…"
"10 minutes." He hung up the phone then and went in search of a fellow Nerd Herder.
Just Lester's luck, he was the first one he saw, leaving the employee back room, still finishing his soda he'd had with lunch.
"Well, if it isn't Charles."
"Lester, you've got a job," he said, slapping the address and the customer forms into the shorter man's chest. "If you hurry, you'll beat rush hour on your way home."
"Wait…why do I have to go?"
"Big Mike called and told me it was high priority and he wanted me to send my best guy." He shrugged as if it was obvious he'd pick Lester in that situation.
Lester puffed out his chest and held up a finger. "But of course. Of course you came to me first. Good thinking, Charles." He nodded solemnly. "I won't let you down."
"I know you won't, Patel." He snapped his fingers and pointed at him. "You never do. Godspeed."
"Wait…where are you going?" Lester asked as Chuck shrugged his bag back over his shoulders.
"I've got a job too."
"Oh, right of course."
As Chuck walked away, he threw over his shoulder, "Oh and I hope you like kids."
"I really don't. WAIT WHAT WHY?"
He ignored Lester, acting as if he didn't hear him, instead practically waltzing out of the sliding doors of the Buy More and making his way across the street. He didn't actually know why Sarah needed him in particular, but he still had that feeling in his chest from hearing her say she wasn't calling for the Nerd Herd, but was instead calling for him.
When he got to the still nameless chocolatier, he saw that the large glass windows were covered up with paper. He couldn't see inside. So he knocked, deciding not to try the door.
A few moments later, he heard a loud turn of the lock, and then the door swung towards him. He stepped back only to see Sarah dressed in dark blue denim overalls and a black v-neck cotton shortsleeved shirt underneath. She wore brown working boots with faded red laces, and her hair was pulled up into a high bun. She was covered in sawdust, flecks of it all over her brown shirt and her dark overalls.
He nearly tipped backwards onto his ass, she was just so pretty.
And the way she cocked her hip and lifted her hand that was holding a handheld sander so that it was propped on her shoulder, a smirk on her face. "By my watch, you're 2 minutes late," she said with an arched eyebrow. "You said 10 and it's been 12."
"Sorry. See, I had to cross the tundra to get to your door, miss." He gestured towards the massive parking lot. "Annnnnd also foist off that 12 year old birthday party to another Nerd, oops."
She laughed, holding the door open more and gesturing for him to come in. He did and she shut and locked it behind her. The paper on the windows had blocked out most of the sun, but she'd also turned on the lights.
The tile was all gone, the tables and chairs stacked precariously on top of the counter. Banged up wood with dings and dents remained. Oh lord, hence the sander she held when she opened the door for him. What was she getting herself into in here?
He decided to ask that verbally this time. "What are you up to in here?"
"Building my dream, what else?" She grinned cheekily, spreading her arms wide as she led him further into the shop. "Wait, did you seriously shove that job onto one of your coworkers?"
"I did." She laughed, shaking her head. "Look, this feels a lot more important."
"You don't even know why you're here yet," she said, giving him a dubious look.
"I said what I said."
She laughed again.
"So, I'm sanding this floor which has made this room feel really massive."
"Because it's hard?"
"Insanely hard. The good news is that none of the floorboards were damaged, because that would've been yet another layer of ridiculous work."
"Did you look that up online too?"
"Ha ha," she mocked, sending him a dark look, but her mouth was still curved in amusement. "So now I have to sand this floor and then I have to stain it."
"Are you seriously sanding it without an electric sander?"
"A what? They make those?"
Chuck just stared at her with wide eyes, and then he spun to look at the floor. She'd maybe covered about a tenth of the floor as far as sanding went and she'd done it by hand. "Sarah."
"This probably isn't a great start to this whole opening up my own business thing, is it?"
He chuckled as she gave him a miserable look, her shoulders slumping. And then he shrugged off his messenger bag, put it next to where hers was on the counter, and took his Buy More jacket off, laying it over his bag. "Listen, I don't know you well—at all, really—but I have no doubts about you being able to pull off starting your own business. This isn't the end of the world." He took the sander out of her hand gently and held it up. "But you can see that this sandpaper isn't really getting the job done, or at least, not quickly."
"I can feel it too," she said, wincing. "In my shoulders."
"Is that why you called to see if I was at the Buy More? To ask me to sand the floors for a while?"
"I thought maybe we could trade off," she joked, and then she made her blue eyes big and pitiful. "I know…you don't know me. We basically just met and you owe me nothing. I probably even stained your shoes the other day."
"That, I can put your mind at ease about," he interrupted, lifting a finger. "I cleaned them and they actually look really nice. So thanks for giving me a reason to clean my shoes. They shine now." He winked, and she smiled, ducking her head.
"Well, be that as it may, I understand how presumptuous I am, interrupting you at work to have you come over here. But I…have a proposition." He raised his eyebrows. "It's up to you and I'll understand if you tell me to get lost, but I need help. I have a meeting with a contractor next week but I'm so lost trying to figure this out…I don't know. I think I'm nuts for taking this on myself when I knowing nothing about anything even remotely related to refurbishing wood floors." She paused and he heard a halting quietness in her tone. "Everyone thinks I'm nuts for this whole freaking thing. All of it, I mean. Not just the floors."
He stared at her for a long time, taking in the slump of her shoulders, the way she stared off to the side with an unhappy look on her pretty features. He wasn't sure how much he could say to this woman he'd barely met, who he didn't know at all, but who he already liked so much his chest hurt.
So he just opted for honesty.
"I don't think you're nuts," he said quietly, sticking his hands in his pockets bashfully as she gave him a searching look. "You kiddin' me? You moved to this new city with a dream, and then you found a place to rent, and now you're starting your business. And-And sure, you are trying to sand your entire wood floor manually by hand with a super inefficient sander instead of using an electric one, and I also don't see a mask or goggles anywhere, which probably isn't super safe." He winced. She winced back, and he at least saw amusement in her face, so she wasn't taking it personally. "But you're making this happen. If anyone is doubting you can get this business off the ground, if they're expressing anything less than utmost faith in you to make this dream of yours come true, you might wanna consider limiting your contact with that person," he said candidly, tilting his head. "Because that's not the kind of person or point of view that's gonna help you at all."
She was quiet for a long time, just staring at him, and then he watched as a small smile slowly grew over her face, and then she ducked her head and tugged a little at the strap of her overalls. She looked a lot younger suddenly. "That was a very sweet thing to say," she spoke up finally, her voice quiet.
"I meant it."
"I know," she said, still quiet.
The room felt a little tense, and he couldn't exactly gauge the temperature, so he cleared his throat. "But, uh, one thing is for sure. You can't keep sanding the floor with that. And also, you might need to seal the wood rather than just staining it. Are you getting it down to the bare wood?"
She pulled her gloves off and walked over to what she'd sanded so far. "Um, yeah I think so."
"You should seal it, then. The actual color of the wood is pretty. Unless you want darker, all you'd have to do is sand it, seal it, and then go over it with a finish."
There was a pause. And then she rushed out, "Okay the internet didn't tell me all of this. And this is actually why I called you. I know interior design isn't…computers or phones, but I thought there was a chance you'd know more about this than I do and I thought maybe you could give me some pointers." She gave him a helpless shrug. "Couldn't hurt to at least see if you knew more than me. What does sealing do that's different from staining?"
"If you spill on it or drop something, sealing it means your wood doesn't get ruined."
"Shit, I'm way out of my depth," she breathed, pushing her hands through her hair. "I thought it'd be two steps at the most. I'm not usually this inept, I promise," she hurried, looking embarrassed. "This just isn't anything close to in my wheelhouse. I bake, I make chocolate, I-I don't do interior design or home improvement stuff."
"It's okay," he chuckled. "Don't be so hard on yourself. You called the Buy More to ask me for help, and I'm here to help now."
"Yeah, you skipped out on your actual job."
"Well, I covered my bases first, so it's not the same thing as skipping out."
"It doesn't sound like you intend on going back for the rest of your shift…"
"Oh, no. Definitely not." She laughed. "And I promise, I'm not normally such a bad employee. I just—Okay, maybe sometimes I'm kind of…ill behaved. In the spirit of honesty. But I'm in such a rut at that place." He took a step closer. "And that's exactly why I think what you're doing here is so…admirable. And cool. You're taking your life by the horns. I'm like, clinging to the tail, just dangling there, not putting up any kind of fight because I'm…tired." He shrugged.
"What was it you just said a few seconds ago? Don't be so hard on yourself?" She smiled kindly. "Don't be so hard on yourself."
He grinned at her. "I'll try." Then he glanced over at the area where she'd been sanding. To her credit, she hadn't done a bad job. It was just that he didn't think there was any reason for her to continue like this when she could spend 30 bucks and make it way easier on herself. She could keep the manual sander for the corners of the room, but…
"Okay, field trip," he said then, making a decision to at least grab something by the horns, if not his own life.
"What?" she asked, frowning in confusion.
"We're going to a hardware store, and we're going to make sure we get what you need." She furrowed her brow. "Come on. Sander stays here. You can still use this for the corners," he said, going to set it down.
"Chuck, you don't have to—"
"You called the Nerd Herd desk, and you specifically asked me to come over here because you needed my help. That is my task today. Help the chocolatier get her chocolate shop's wood floor refurbishment all figured out. You wanted my help, right?" he asked, seeing the still shocked look on her face.
"Yeah, but I didn't mean for you to have to go to a hardware store and…"
"I'm not letting you do the rest of this without a proper sanders, a mask, and goggles. I'm just not. So come on." He beamed at her, backing towards the door as he gathered up his jacket and bag. "I can drive."
And much to his surprise, she narrowed her eyes at him and went to grab her sweatshirt and shrug it on, zipping it up halfway, before she grabbed her bag.
$…$
"No way." She gaped at the small red and white car with NERD HERD painted on the side of it. "Nope. I refuse. Not doing this," she said, immediately, putting up her hand and shaking her head. "No."
When she glanced to the side at him, the corner of her mouth tilting up in a smirk, she saw that he looked flustered, caught-off-guard, and maybe she even saw embarrassment there. That was peculiar.
"Oh. Um. Right. Sorry. I…" He cleared his throat, scratching the back of his head. "I should explain. This is kind of my usual mode of transportation. I-I mean, this is basically what I drive. I don't…have…a…ahem. A car. So."
Oh God, she understood now. Her vehement reaction was completely misunderstood and she felt awful. He'd thought she was ashamed and was refusing to get in the Nerd Herd car because she thought it was stupid or embarrassing or something.
That wasn't it at all, as silly as these vehicles were. She could only imagine what he was feeling, haltingly admitting to her that this was the only car he had access to. She suspected his wages at the Buy More meant buying his own car wasn't viable.
She really did feel terrible. And she tried to pretend she hadn't noticed his shame and mortification.
"You're already ditching work, Chuck. Because I asked you if you could help me. I do not want your boss or someone else spotting this obvious car out somewhere not where it's supposed to be. And especially at some random hardware store? You could get fired if your boss finds out!" she reasoned.
He turned to face her and blinked in confusion.
Sarah shrugged. "Maybe if you were on the clock and actually had some I.T. job at said hardware store, that'd be one thing. But what if someone sees me in the car too? They'll think you're taking some girl out for a joyride instead of doing what you told them you were doing."
Chuck gave her a thoughtful look, and then his smile turned a bit mischievous. "It isn't a joyride. It's a field trip."
She giggled, charmed even as she rolled her eyes. "Look, my car is back at the chocolatier. I'll drive. It's a lot safer for the future of your job."
As she led him away from the Nerd Herd car, she heard him follow behind, falling into lock step beside her. "I appreciate that Sarah, really, but this whole trip to the hardware store thing was my idea. You shouldn't have to drive when—"
"Yeah, it was your idea because these are things I apparently need that I didn't know I needed. Eventually maybe the Internet would have given me the right information and I would've had to go to the store anyway. You just cut out a lot of hard and unnecessary work for me. I'm driving. You tell me where to go."
He gave her a frustrated look, as teasing as it was, and then finally relented with a dramatic sigh, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Okay fine. FINE."
She giggled and led him back to her car.
Chuck seemed to almost survey it with a critical eye as they approached it.
"What?" she asked, amused. "Something wrong with my car?" She rounded to the driver's side and put a hand on the roof of her navy blue Hyundai she'd bought used at a really good price her first week in LA.
"Not at all. Just…crazy how you got a car that matched your eyes. You can do that. I can't exactly get a brown car." She laughed at that, thrown off-guard. They climbed inside and buckled their seatbelts as she started her car then, starting to pull out of the parking space. Before she could ask him where she was going, he spoke up, looking almost disgruntled with himself. "Sorry. That was a stupid thing to say. Some people buy brown cars. Just like … WHY?"
Who was this guy? She giggled and shook her head. "I don't have the answer to that."
He blushed and shrugged, glancing out of the window.
"So…where we going?"
"Oh, right! Sorry! Head to the left out of the parking lot over here."
She did, and conversation was almost nonexistent for the 10 minute drive to the store he had in mind.
She felt a fidgety air about him as she drove and didn't quite understand it. Was the reality of ditching out on work starting to hit him and he was getting nervous about it? Had he been one of those kids in school who broke out in hives over the thought of getting caught ditching out on class? She could see a teenaged version of him being like that, she thought with an inward smile.
"It's over there. Bold Hardware."
She nodded and pulled into the large parking lot, maneuvering her car into one of the spaces a minute later. "You know, maybe taking off that pocket protector might make you feel a little safer," she said finally as she turned off her car, turning to him. He gave her a confused look. "I mean, 'cause you're ditching work, it's probably gonna make you feel safer if you aren't wearing your Nerd Herd badge and pocket protector. That's kind of…obvious."
He looked down and jumped a little. "Oh! Right. Yeah. Makes sense. I'm not all that worried," he said with a shrug, still taking it off and stuffing it in the glove box. His eyes widened then as he looked into it. "Oh. Shit, sorry. I just did that without asking."
Chuck went to take it back out again and she reached over to grab his wrist. "It's okay, Chuck. It's not like I have anything besides my car's insurance papers and stuff in there."
"Oh. Erm. Okay. Sorry I just popped it open like it was mine."
"Don't worry about it," she giggled, unbuckling her seatbelt.
They walked through the automatic doors side by side and she stared at the massive inside of the hardware store, rows and rows and rows of things she'd never use in her life. And some things she was going to have to learn to use pretty quickly here if she was planning on doing some of the improvements in the shop herself to lower the estimates of the contractors she was going to consider for hiring.
Chuck pointed off to the right. "I think the sanders are in that direction."
"Have you bought one from here before?" she asked, following him.
"Um, no. I'm spitballing to be honest. This just seemed like the right way to go."
She laughed and shook her head.
They wandered down an aisle with everything from lawnmowers to massive bags of sawdust. She didn't quite understand what that was for. Why would you need a big bag of sawdust?
They turned a corner and she found Chuck stopped at a small rack with bags of zip ties hanging from them. She couldn't resist muttering, "Hmm. Kinky."
And she watched him out of the corner of her eye as he froze for a good ten seconds, turning red. And then he straightened to his full height and let out a weak, "Haaa. Right?"
She smirked as she continued on down the aisle, scanning the shelves, not even sure what she was looking for besides the sander. And even then, what kind of sander? She'd thought she'd covered her bases just getting a manual handheld sander she had to put some muscle into.
She halted, though, when she heard someone nearby clear their throat. She turned to see one of the Bold Hardware workers in his bright yellow polo put down his price gun and grin toothily at her. He was like a darker haired version of Bryce and it made her feel distrust immediately.
"Hey, there, miss. Anything I can help you find? Gardening supplies are outside. I can take you there. We've got some really nice daisies that just bloomed. Or if you're more of a roses gal, we just got some new bushes."
"Uh, no. Thanks."
"Do you know where the electric sanders would be?" Chuck burst into the picture, stepping up to Sarah's side, seemingly oblivious to the worker attempting to pick Sarah up with his grandiose sexism of trying to take the little woman to the gardening section and away from the power tools.
She read his name tag. Fred, the Bryce lookalike, looked surprised by Chuck's appearance. And then he gave Chuck a bit of a dismissive sniff. "Uh, sorry. I'm helping this young woman at the moment, but then I'd be happy to show you, sir."
"Oh, I'm with her," Chuck said, smiling."He's with me. So…the sanders…" Sarah added.
Fred deflated. "Yeah. Yeah, I can show you the section."
"You can just point, actually," Sarah said. "Don't want to interrupt your work."
He pointed over his shoulder. "Aisle 56. We got all the wood working tools you need there. Saws, varnish, finish, stainer…"
"Thanks so much for your help," Chuck said, and Sarah sent the worker one last smile before she pointedly wrapped her hand around Chuck's forearm and pulled him along with her.
As they turned the corner, Sarah rolled her eyes to herself. But Chuck must've seen it because he said, "Sorry, should I not have asked for help? I just figured if we knew where to look—"
"No, no." She turned to furrow her brow at him. "You really didn't see it?"
"See what?"
"That guy. The salesman. He was trying to hit on me."
He stopped walking and gaped at her so that she had to turn around to face him, smirking. "What? Seriously? Was he? So what you're saying is…he puts the BOLD in Bold Hardware." He did finger guns at her and even made the little bang sounds.
"Oh my God." She rolled her eyes and walked away from him. She heard him chasing after her.
"What?" he chuckled. "I thought that was pretty good. Do I need to go back there and beat him up for getting fresh with you?" She sent him a flat look. "No, but seriously, my teasing aside, you okay?"
"Of course I am."
He nodded, stepping up next to her. "You're probably used to that sort of thing." She sent him a questioning look. "I don't mean you deserve it." He blanched. "Wait, not that you don't deserve it 'cause you're not—I mean you're really pretty, so you deserve it in that way, but you don't deserve getting dogged by bros about your looks when you're just trying to buy a sander. You know what? I'm gonna split off and see what else I can find that might be of help to you. I'll just go do that," he said, gesturing over his shoulder with both thumbs. "Maybe I can find something to dig myself out of this hole."
She giggled as he gave her a grin and backed towards another aisle.
And then he piped up, just before disappearing, "Just give a shout if you need directions to the daisies, Sarah."
She caught the cheeky look on his face right before he ducked around the corner and out of danger. And she laughed, knowing that he had heard what Fred the Bold Salesman had said. And now as she stood by herself at the mouth of Aisle 50, she realized that meant he'd swept in to ask the other man for directions to the sanders to stop his attempt to hit on her. He'd heard the stupidity of the gardening proposal and he'd…rescued her from it.
And then he'd promptly acted cute like he hadn't heard it and teased her.
But she liked this, him keeping her on her toes, but also subtly saving her from another man's idiocy. It wasn't usually in her nature to stand for a guy getting protective, but there was something less possessive and macho about this, and more just tactful and sweet.
Ugh, she was in the wrong aisle, anyways.
She stepped out of it and looked up at the numbers to try to find Aisle 56. But she stopped short when Chuck popped out from an aisle, nearly scaring her. He wore protective goggles over his eyes. "Oh, hello!" he exclaimed.
Sarah giggled, shaking her head. And she reached up to tug on one of the curls that stuck up awkwardly from the band of the goggles. "I didn't think it was possible you could look any more like a geek, but here we are."
"Hey!" he cracked up, his jaw falling open.
He finally took the goggles off and they found the sanders together, hemming and hawing over which one she needed to get. Upon much discussion and waffling back and forth, she decided to go with Chuck's gut pick. The cheaper one made by a company he'd heard of before.
An actually helpful middle aged saleswoman confirmed that it was good bang for her buck, and Chuck snagged it, holding it as they looked at the sealing products.
She never thought she'd be the person who would say "this polyurethane is eco safe" but she'd said it. And Chuck had grabbed a matte finish, claiming it would preserve the original color of the wood. How he'd gotten all of this from watching a lot of TV, she didn't know, but she wasn't looking a gift horse in the mouth.
And the more time she spent with him in Bold Hardware, the more she found herself drawn to him, watching him closely, studying him. His almost innate go-to mode which was making funny voices, being a goofball, sending her weird faces.
She noticed that he didn't once make her feel stupid, just like he hadn't with her phone the first time she met him. Instead, he'd made the whole experience feel like they were a team, on equal footing.
And she couldn't remember a time when she'd laughed this much, and one of her ex-friends at Rambeau's had made the rounds on the D.C. improv circuit and forced them to go see his shows every so often. Granted, he hadn't been as funny as this guy was, at least not without a whole lot of effort, enough effort that it was a little sad, now that she thought about it.
And yes, she was being mean in her head.
She didn't care. It was in her own head.
Sarah had no idea where Chuck had gotten to once he'd set the sander and everything else they'd picked out down on the counter for her to pay with the cashier. But he'd disappeared somewhere.
When she finished paying, trying to figure out how she'd carry this out to the car without him, Chuck surprised her by stepping up behind her and grabbing some of the bags.
"I've got the sander."
"Oh. Um, okay. Thanks."
He smiled kindly and they made their way out of the hardware store, bags slung over both of their arms. She gracefully pulled her keys out of her overalls pocket and unlocked the trunk. It popped open and Chuck stuck the sander in there, as well as the rest of his bags, and then he took her bags gently from where they hung on her forearms, sticking them in the trunk as well. "That all of it?"
"Yep!" she said, and she let him slam the trunk shut.
The trip back to the Buy More shopping center was quiet again, and Chuck was fidgety again, and she didn't know why. He'd been so…bubbly, she guessed, while in the store. Natural and at ease.
And now he seemed uncomfortable again. She didn't know why. Had she done or said something? Was it her car? She liked this car. He'd moved the seat back enough so that his knees weren't sticking up or anything.
It wasn't her car, though. She had a feeling it was her. Or maybe something inward, something he was stressing about that had nothing to do with her.
She wanted to ask. But she didn't know him well enough to ask. That'd be so rude.
Sarah parked in the spot closest to her shop when they got back, and they filed inside, both of them piling the bags on the floor.
Chuck and Sarah straightened then and turned to peer at one another, and she felt an almost awkward tension there, before Chuck let out an equally tense, "Uh" before he hurriedly turned to kneel at the bags and start opening them.
"Let's look at the spoils from our little field trip, shall we?"
He then pulled two pairs of the safety goggles out of the bag and looked at them. Sarah blanched. "Oh no! I only meant to buy one pair of those! How did I end up with two? Crap. Is the receipt in one of those bags? Did I get charged for two?"
"Oh, no, no. You didn't pay for the second one. I did. I bought this for myself while you were buying the all of this other stuff and it was just easier to toss it in the same bag."
She blinked at him, confused. "Why? Are you doing home improvement stuff at your own place?"
"Nah, well…I don't have a pair of my own and how am I supposed to help you if I don't have a pair of my own?"
He asked the question so matter-of-factly, putting the goggles back on and grinning, his cheeks puffed out by the goggles, looking so adorable it almost hurt to look at him.
And in the meantime, she was proverbially drowning.
She was so confused by his unpracticed thoughtfulness, the kindness in him, in the fact that he'd just bought a pair of protective goggles to help her fix her shop's floors without prompting, without being asked.
"Chuck… You… I didn't mean for you to help me with all of this, I was just joking before. I was teasing you. This isn't your—I mean, this is manual labor. I'm not…"
He shrugged when she was at a loss for words. "I know. But I wanna help. This is a lot of floor. It's a big room. There are all these nooks and crannies." He pulled his goggles up on top of his head, his curls sticking out every which way, and she thought she might burst. She gave him a dubious look still, wondering how much of this gesture was because he felt bad for her. And he must've seen that in her look because he held up his hands and rushed out, "This isn't pity. I promise."
She blushed, not meaning for him to see that. She was usually a lot better guarded with what she showed people.
"It's just…helpfulness. I like being helpful. It's helpfulness."
"It's sheer kindness," she said quickly, before she could filter. "And it's sweet." She might as well keep going. "And you're…" Wait, maybe she wouldn't. Maybe she would just leave it there, blushing.
She was here in LA with virtually no one. Trying to make all of this work. And honestly, she was struggling. She could at least be honest with herself about that. She knew it would be hard and, well, it was hard. Extremely hard. She had Bryce's asshole voice in her brain, shocked she was doing this, trying to appeal to her sense not to do it, as if he gave a shit about what happened to her.
And somehow she found that she was homesick, when she wasn't sure if she'd ever really even settled into a single place enough to feel like it was her "home". It wasn't a particular city she was homesick for, but the urge to feel that home feeling. She'd never felt like she got her footing anywhere. And she definitely wasn't getting her footing here in LA so far, even though she had something of a history with the Angel City. There was so much she felt like she had to do still, and she was watching those numbers ticking down in her bank account.
In a lot of ways, she felt like she was in limbo, struggling to find some semblance of solidity, trying to get her feet on the ground.
And, to circle back to the biggest point, she was entirely alone.
But then…
Here comes Chuck…
Offering to step in and lend an extra pair of hands when she sorely needed one. She hadn't asked. She'd been too proud to even ask her own mother, for god's sake. She absolutely wasn't going to ask some guy who'd kindly fixed her phone and then hadn't called her when she stupidly left her phone number.
"I'm what?" he asked quietly, smiling a little as he pulled out one of the N95 masks she'd bought and surveyed it in his hands.
He was kind of wonderful, wasn't he? But she didn't say it. Instead, she closed the distance and went up onto her tiptoes and wrap her arms around his shoulders, hugging him from the side. It felt a little awkward like this, but she'd take it. He deserved this.
She felt Chuck freeze, and she almost pulled back when he blushed bright red and ducked his gaze, but then he turned to look at her and she felt his arm wrap around her lower back, squeezing warmly.
It was the first touch she'd felt since bolting out of Washington, D.C….The first real touch she'd felt since the last time her ex-boyfriend had touched her which was months ago now.
And she felt an aching want awaken inside of her. It was so sudden and powerful that when she slowly pulled back and he turned towards her, their faces close, chests pressed together, eyes wide, she felt heat crash through her.
It made her feel crazy.
So she plastered a smile on her face and stepped back, looking away from him as she held onto the edge of the counter, squeezing until her knuckles turned white.
Sarah Walker's heart was racing.
Even though she reminded herself about that desperate moment when she wrote her phone number on a post-it, with her name, and a flirtatious little graphic. He'd never called her. He'd never used that phone number, but he kept it in his pocket. He confused her, he drove her half-mad, and she felt like she wasn't in control of this thing. Of herself around him. She couldn't handle that feeling. She hated that feeling.
She was already feeling like she didn't have control over starting her chocolate making business.
And now this?
She was on shaky ground here.
Chuck the Nerd Herd supervisor was practically an earthquake. But instead of protecting herself and shoving him out the door, she pulled the bag down and out of the way to reveal the electric sander she bought. "So… This thing come with instructions?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow at him.
He shrugged his jacket off and rubbed his hands together. "Probably not but electric things are my bread and butter. And this is probably about to be one of the manliest things I've ever done in my life." Lowering the goggles over his eyes, putting his mask on, he grabbed the sander and turned it over, thrusting his hand out towards her. "Hit me with that sandpaper, Chocolate Maker."
Sarah took it out of one of the other bags and slapped his shoulder with it. "There."
Chuck cracked up. "Okay, that was just silly."
She grinned cheekily and then let him take the paper from her fingers, that heat still there in her stomach. Taunting her.
I was going to do a whole April Fools thing where I said at the top that I was done writing and couldn't spare the time anymore, and then down here at the bottom, I was going to yell APRIL FOOLS! But I couldn't even do that because I love this show too much to even joke like that. I get too much joy writing these stories. It feels good. So I'm not going to joke like that. I'll be back. Thanks for reading. Please review, thank you!
SarahsSupplyCloset