A/N: Changed the formatting a bit, but the story is the same.
The next day, Amita was awakened at 11:00 by a ringing phone. She groaned and groped blindly around on her nightstand for the phone, answering it on the fourth ring. "Good morning, sunshine!" Charlie's cheerful voice came through the line to her ear. "You have exactly one hour to get ready, and I will be at your door ready to pick you up for the day. Don't be late!"
Before she had a chance to respond, the line went dead. She opened her eyes and smiled up at the ceiling, then bounced out of bed.
True to his word, Charlie was at Amita's door by noon. She greeted him warmly, grabbed her purse, and bounced out to the curb, where his car was waiting. "Where to first?" she inquired.
"Ahh, but that's for me to know and you to find out," he replied mysteriously.
They hopped on the 110 freeway and headed west, talking animatedly about work and Amita's trip to India, catching up on all they had missed the past two weeks that in which they had both been too busy to exchange more than quick conversation.
"The La Brea Tar Pits?" she asked incredulously, as a parking lot attendant waved them into a space.
"Yeah! Have you ever been here? Dawn of time, early man, animal versus sticky hole in the ground… Did you know that there are actually places right around the museum where tar is still bubbling up through the ground? " Charlie waved his hands around animatedly as he spoke.
Amita captured one of those hands and held it still, and for a moment, they just looked at each other. "Charlie? Thank you. I really needed this today," she said quietly.
"Anytime," he answered her, a soft smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
The rest of the day passed in a blur of happiness. They posed with mammoth tusks, watched a film on prehistoric man, and talked with a group of scientists excavating a pit of animal bones right on-site.
Charlie bought Amita a pencil sharpener shaped like a saber-toothed tiger skull, and Amita bought him a tie pattered with animal bones. Charlie was fascinated by a pool of tar seeping up through a crack in the sidewalk, and managed to get tar on the knees of his jeans and the tips of his fingers before Amita finally tugged him up off the ground.
After the tar pits, they grabbed a late lunch before strolling a block down Wilshire to the LA County Museum of Art. By the time they got out of the art museum, it was getting dark, and they headed back to the car, unwilling for the afternoon to be over.
They climbed into the car, and Charlie turned to look at Amita. "How are you doing? If you're ready to head home, I can take you back, or we…" He trailed off uncertainly.
Amita leaned toward Charlie, taking his head in her hands, kissing him and ending any further argument. "I'm not ready to be done," she murmured against his mouth, kissing him again.
Five long minutes later, they came up for air, and Amita rubbed her hand along his cheek. "I distinctly remember you promising to shave for me," she teased. Charlie grinned at her, eyebrows raised.
"There's always later tonight," he suggested, and received a playful push on the shoulder from Amita. Laughing, he started the car and backed out of the parking space. "So, how do you feel about the Marx Brothers?