Chapter Four
Brax's P.O.V.
I packed up some of the stock we had from Angelo's to take to the barbecue. There was a lot left over so I'm sure nobody would've minded if I took anything. Besides, I did own the place right? I wanted to make something myself instead of always relying on the cooks here. The only problem was I didn't know what to make. Maybe if I was a good cook, I would know, except I'm probably the complete opposite. This is why I employ staff and hardly ever cook at home. I decided to ask Casey if he knows what she likes... Actually no, scratch that. He would start interrogating me again. Well she always comes into Angelo's for pizzas... How about some pizza bread? That should be pretty straight forward to make yeah? I scanned the kitchen quickly and noticed there was a lot of flour left over. Quite a few pizza toppings were lying around the room as well... I went outside just to make sure I had put the "closed" sign up at Angelo's. I surely didn't want anyone turning up while I was trying to cook.
I found a few recipes hidden under the pile of papers. They were all pizza recipes so I decided to follow those instead of making pizza bread. Vegetarian... Hawaiian... Meat Lovers... Margherita... Supreme... Which pizza topping was Charlie's favourite? Right, the receipts. We still have them. All I'll do is go through Charlie's transactions. I opened the draw closest to me. It was full of receipts. How was I suppose to go through them all in such a short amount of time? Trying the computer would be a lot easier. I searched her name. Oh great; she orders a huge variety of pizzas. I decided to go for the simplest one, Hawaiian.
Making pizza was a lot harder than I thought. All I thought you were suppose to do was follow the recipe but it was so complicated. There was so much stuff on the table. Oh awkward... I just knocked over a bag of flour. It went all over me. I was covered in flour all over. This was not going well at all. I poked my head out of the door, double checking that the coast was clear and walked to the bathroom.
"Brax! Is that you?"
Oh crap. Casey had seen me. I slid into one of the bathroom cubicles so that hopefully he would leave me alone.
"Brax? Are you in here?"
Ugh. Did he really have to come in?
"Uh... Yeah, I am..." I said slowly.
"I thought I didn't recognise you when I saw you..? Why are you so pale?"
"Oh god Casey, pale? I was completely white as I was covered in flour."
"Are you kidding me Brax? Since when have you baked?"
"Well I just wanted to do something special for tonight."
"To impress Charlie?"
"No. Can we please just drop the whole Charlie thing?"
"Fine."
"Now I want you to take off because I need to carry on with the pizza after I get myself cleaned up."
Charlie's P.O.V.
Finding something to wear for the barbecue was a bit of a challenge. I didn't know what everyone else was wearing. Usually I would just wear a pair of shorts and a singlet to a casual barbecue, but who knows what they did in Mangrove River... Ruby walked past my room, wearing a dress you'd usually wear to a school formal.
"Are you seriously going to wear that?" I asked her.
"Yeah, well Casey told me to dress nicely."
"Rubes, it's a barbecue! You usually wear some of your more casual clothes. Am I suppose to wear something nice too?"
"I guess?"
Well this was confusing. I didn't want to overdress in case it looked like I was trying too hard. I decided to just stick with a mini skirt and singlet.
Brax's P.O.V.
In the end, I had to get one of the staff to make the pizza for me. I watched him closely, so that I could learn any tips from him in case I wanted to attempt to make one again. Fat chance though. I'm not trying to sound like a girl or anything, but I wanted to look nice for Charlie. I guess it didn't matter too much of what I wore because I was hoping I would end up with just the board shorts on by the end of the night. Hopefully Heath would move the party down to the beach later that night.
Charlie's P.O.V.
"Rubes, are you ready?"
"Yup, but give me a minute or two," she replied.
It was time for us to leave for the barbecue. I keep asking myself why I'm making such a huge fuss over this. It's not like it should affect me or anything. This was suppose to be for Casey and Ruby. Well actually, it was for all of us to get to know each other better, but that could've been done way easier with me looking them up at the station.
Brax's P.O.V.
Guests had already started flowing in for the night. I always went to answer the door in case it was Charlie and Ruby. After about twenty people drifted in, I got tired of getting up and down so I just left it open. I made sure that I was watching the door at all times. That completely failed when Casey stood right in front of the doorway. That's when it hit me. Obviously Ruby was here or else he wouldn't be standing there for so long.
"Don't stand in the way Case," I said to him as I got up.
"Oh right, sorry bro."
Casey took Ruby into his room, leaving Charlie and I on our own. I offered her a drink, but she didn't want one. Well this was going well, wasn't it? I decided to take the whole "normal conversation" lead and asked her about how her work was going. I doubt it was the smartest move I've made, mainly because she was usually always after us. Thankfully she's a polite person and asked me about Angelo's.
Charlie's P.O.V.
Brax and I were having your typical "getting to know each other" conversation. "No Charlie, that's not what you want," I kept saying inside my head. I wanted to get closer to him, without being surrounded by all these people.
"Is it okay if we go for a walk?" I asked him.
"We?" he repeated.
"Yeah, just to get away from all these people. I don't usually like being in crowded places," I told him.
"Yeah, of course."
We sneaked outside the door without anyone noticing. Hopefully Casey and Ruby were occupied so they didn't need to worry about Brax and me.