She'd fooled everyone except the one person who needed to be fooled most, but just as Sarah was wishing she'd pretended to be sick, Chuck answered the question.

"She hates olives," Chuck stated with confidence.

Sarah couldn't help but laugh a little. It was such a charming and yet ridiculous answer to the question.

Daniel narrowed his eyes at Chuck. Sarah could almost see the wheels turning in that horrible man's head. She so wished she knew what he was thinking. Had it worked? Did she need to start looking for a new career path?

"She's all that other stuff too," Chuck continued before Sarah could decipher Daniel's face. "You know the standard, funny, kind, beautiful and intelligent, but somehow there isn't anything standard about her… not that it's really any of your business and, actually, maybe I shouldn't have answered."

She was so grateful to him at that moment, she wasn't sure how to show him, until she heard the music come on. This meant they'd reached the dancing part of the evening. The wait staff must have finished serving dinner. As far as Sarah was concerned, they had perfect timing.

"Do you want to dance?" Sarah asked him, smiling and holding out her arm.

"Yes," Chuck said and he linked his arm with hers. They didn't speak as Sarah led him onto the dance floor. Once they stopped walking, Sarah turned to square up for the dance. It was only then that she noticed Chuck's face.

"I feel like I should warn you now," Chuck began as she placed her hand in his. "I can't dance. I said yes because I didn't want to refuse, especially in front of the jerk, but now that we are here, I am probably gonna make everything worse by being super embarrassing so, maybe we should just sneak away, or sway we would sway away how does that sou-"

Sarah cut him off with a finger over his rather chatty lips.

"We can start with swaying," Sarah told him kindly. "But apart from that, don't worry about it. You're here to have fun."

"I thought I was here to keep your cover intact," Chuck replied.

"Who says you can't do both?" she smiled at him.

Chuck didn't need more encouragement. He placed his hand on her back and began to sway to the music. The song playing was a rather slow one, which suited them just fine. Their gentle swaying fit in just fine. Sarah wasn't sure what would happen when a fast song played. She couldn't bring herself to worry about it though. There was something very peaceful about just standing here in Chuck's arms with the music playing. So relaxing. Sarah couldn't remember the last time she'd been so calm.

"Thank you," Sarah said with as much gratitude as she could muster.

"For what?" Chuck asked, surprised.

"What do you mean, for what?" Sarah replied. "For being such an amazing cover date tonight."

"Oh that," Chuck said. "No problem."

"I'm curious though," Sarah added. "How did you know I don't like olives?"

"Oh that was easy," Chuck replied. "Those skewer-things we were eating with the fancy cheese. You ate everything there except the olives."

"Impressive observation," Sarah said. She'd dated guys for months who seemed to know less about her than this man had learned in mere hours. There was definitely more to Chuck than meets the eye.

"Thanks," Chuck replied with a smile. He had a very adorable smile, quite wholesome and genuine. She found she rather liked it.

They swayed on the spot for a few moments more as the music played. Sarah felt quite content to just be here with him and didn't feel the need to speak. Chuck was a different story.

"So I've been thinking," Chuck began mid-song. "If we get into a situation like that again, maybe I should know a little more about you."

"I don't think he'll bother us again," Sarah replied.

"I think you are underestimating his jerkiness," Chuck countered.

"Very well then," Sarah said, after a moment's thought. "Ask a question." Sharing wasn't really her strong suit, but if it was what Chuck wanted, she thought she owed him that, at least.

"Did you always want to work in the movies?"

"I always wanted to work in martial arts," Sarah replied. "I've loved it ever since I was little. Then, when I grew up, I tried to figure out a way to make a career out of it and since I didn't want to teach, this is where I ended up."

"Makes sense," Chuck replied. "What about your parents? Do they live in town?"

"Mom and dad split when I was young," Sarah replied. "I usually only saw dad a few times a year growing up."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Chuck said, looking more upset than Sarah felt about the topic.

"It's alright," Sarah smiled, trying to reassure him. She decided that was more than enough about her. Sarah had never been one for sharing. She'd rather be the interrogator.

"Your turn. What about your parents? Do they live in town?"

"My parents died when I was nine," Chuck replied. "Car accident. My older sister raised me after that. She's been like a mother to me."

"I'm so sorry," Sarah said. She wished she hadn't mirrored his question now. It had seemed like a fun idea at the time, but his answer had turned everything serious.

"Thanks," Chuck replied. "It was a long time ago. Apart from my sister and her husband, I'd say my only family is probably my best friend, Morgan."

"The same Morgan I met with you at the Buy More, right?" Sarah inquired.

"The very same," Chuck replied with pride. "We've been friends since we were both in footie pyjamas."

"When you were toddlers together, did you aspire to grow up and work side by side at the Buy More?" Sarah asked next with a cheeky grin.

"No one always wants to work at a Buy More," Chuck laughed.

"What did you want to be when you grew up, then?" Sarah asked.

"When I was a kid, I watched way too many of those spy movies," Chuck explained. "Ellie, that's my sister, she tells me that when I was about six, almost seven, I stood up on the kitchen table and announced to the entire house that I was gonna be James Bond when I grew up."

Sarah couldn't help but laugh. It was a genuine and pleasant laugh. It had been a while since she'd laughed like this, and she couldn't help but enjoy it. The image of a tiny Chuck climbing up onto a kitchen table to announce such a thing was just so charming and adorable. The image couldn't help but lift her spirits.

"That was pretty much my entire family's reaction," Chuck replied with an offhanded smile. "I also remember wanting to be an astronaut for about two weeks during space camp. Then my sister ruined it by explaining exactly how easily the vacuum of space can kill you. She was very descriptive about the whole air being pulled out of your lung as you die slowly… thing. Even before she became a doctor, she was always into that kind of medical stuff. She was always looking stuff like that up to freak me out with it." He laughed, then added, "One time she decided I really needed to know that humans are made up of like 90% microbes. I asked what those are and she'd say germs in like a really dramatic way, then chase me around the house with the lysol wipes." Even while he was smiling like her enjoyed the memory, Chuck looked annoyed. It was such an odd combination. Sarah thought the ability to be both annoyed at someone while thinking about them with affection had to be a sibling thing.

"Sorry," Chuck said, interrupting himself. "You don't want to hear about this.

"I don't mind," Sarah smiled. "Honestly, those are some great stories, Chuck. Your sister sounds like quite the character."

"Oh she is," Chuck agreed. "Do you have siblings?"

"Only child," Sarah answered. Again, she really didn't want to go into details about herself, so Sarah moved the attention back to him. "The burning question now is how did you go from a super astronaut spy to retail?"

"Ah yes that," Chuck said slightly awkwardly. "Well the Buy More was kinda meant to be a temporary job."

"Makes sense," Sarah replied. "So what happened?"

"Oh just life, I guess," Chuck dodged the question. Sarah decided if he didn't want to talk about it, then she wouldn't push. After all, they were here to have fun and she couldn't exactly pry into his life while hiding herself, or at least she couldn't do it without becoming a huge hypocrite, and Sarah hated hypocrites.

"Life does tend to take us places you never planned to be," Sarah agreed.

"The Buy More has worked out rather well for me lately, though," Chuck added with a smile.

"Oh how so?" Sarah inquired, thinking he was about to say he was getting promoted or due a pay increase or something.

"I thought that was obvious," Chuck answered. "I mean I was lucky to be there working when you walked in."

"Oh," Sarah rolled her eyes. "I think you have that backwards. I got lucky that my silly idea of finding a cover boyfriend at a Buy More actually worked."

"How did you come up with such a brilliant idea anyway?" Chuck asked, clearly curious. Sarah thought his use of the word brilliant was rather ridiculous but didn't comment on it. "I would have expected you'd try a bar, or did you do that first?"

"Nope, that logical conclusion didn't occur to me," Sarah replied. "What I thought of was that the last time I'd gone into a Buy More to get a birthday gift, I noticed the abundance of men. There wasn't a single female worker in the whole store!"

"In our defence," Chuck responded. "We used to have Anna, but she moved."

"Ah, okay. One vs a dozen," Sarah laughed. "Much better ratio." Chuck laughed too. Sarah was really enjoying his sense of humour this evening.

"I never said it was a good defence," Chuck added with a smile. "Still doesn't explain how you thought a lot of guys meant you'd find a date."

Sarah shrugged. "I guess I figured my chances of finding a cover were better with a larger pool of candidates."

"Just be glad you didn't end up talking to Jeff or Lester," Chuck stated seriously. "That would have put you off the entire plan in seconds."

"I'll have to take your word for it," Sarah replied.

Chuck didn't answer right away and Sarah took the opportunity to rest her head on his shoulder. It was nice just swaying here with Chuck. She couldn't remember when she's last been so comfortable.

Their little bubble was ruined by the start of the next song. Swaying on the spot was not going to work with this song. It was a fast paced pop song. Sarah could feel Chuck tense up.

"Don't worry about how you look," Sarah told him. "Just dance like you would hanging out with Morgan."

"You don't want to see that?" Chuck replied.

"This is a one time thing," Sarah reminded him. "You have nothing to lose. Just relax and have fun."

Something seemed to shift in Chuck. Sarah wasn't sure exactly what it was. What she did know was that his dancing very suddenly changed.

Chuck pulled away from her just slightly before he started to dance freestyle. Sarah stopped dancing entirely to watch, her mouth falling slightly open.

She'd never seen anyone dance like this before. Chuck had a freestyle thing going that was some cross between the robot and a chicken dance. He was flapping his folded arms up and down with bent knees, then he'd switch to a more robotic style movement with lots of sudden starts and stops. Sarah couldn't help but laugh. She wasn't laughing at him, though. She just couldn't help but be entertained. Chuck was seriously fun to hang out with.

Chuck must have gotten the wrong idea from her laugh because as soon as he noticed her sniggering, he stopped.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"No, I loved it," Sarah told him genuinely. He still looked kinda down, so she decided to cheer him up.

Taking the dancing into her own hands, Sarah started moving to the music while Chuck stood there like a very tall awkward bean pole. She moved in closer to Chuck and danced then moved back again. Her goal was to include him in the dance without him needing to be good at it.

When the pop song ended, Chuck looked a bit stunned but not upset. Then he said he needed to sit down. Sarah really wanted to make a joke, asking if any of his blood was still headed in the direction of his brain but she stopped herself. That wasn't fair. Chuck had been a perfect gentleman tonight. So instead she took his arm and together they walked off the dancefloor.

"That was amazing," Chuck said once they'd found some chairs in the corner of the room.

"I liked your dancing too," Sarah told him, but Chuck only rolled his eyes. She felt sure he didn't believe her.

"Thanks for saying that," he said. "God, I can't believe I did that!"

"I thought it was a great dance," Sarah tried again to reassure him.

He didn't seem to take her words to heart, so Sarah decided he needed a distraction. "Do you want to see if they are serving dessert yet?"

The idea did seem to cheer Chuck up. She wasn't sure if this guy just had a super fast metabolism, or if he was secretly a gym rat. How he could eat so much and still be so skinny was beyond her. Thanks to her job, Sarah had to be very careful with her diet. If she changed too much, she wouldn't match the actors body type anymore and couldn't be the stunt double for them. She'd had to put on weight once for a job, which was fun until she had to lose it for the next job. After that, she stuck to doubling for women who were already her size.

Standing up, Sarah held out her arm and Chuck took it. Together they walked around the room and found the dessert table on the opposite wall. The mass of bodies on the dance floor had obscured their view before.

Sarah took half a nanaimo bar, while Chuck put three or four things on a small plate. One looked like a macaroon, while the other two were some kind of chocolate bars with nuts in them.

They took their desserts over to a table closer than the ones they'd left. Talking with Chuck was so easy and enjoyable that Sarah quite lost track of time. They got into a few interesting conversations about their jobs and swapped gossip about coworker drama. Sarah learned a bit more about Jeff and Lester, enough to be glad she hadn't met them in person.

They even went back out on the dance floor, once Chuck's embarrassment wore off. Sarah didn't feel like he had anything to be embarrassed about, but respected that he'd needed the break.

Sarah spent a solid hour teaching Chuck a few very basic dance moves. He wasn't nearly as bad as he thought he was. Even so, they did spend every slow song just swaying on the spot. Sarah rather loved it when the slow songs played.

Pretty soon people kept coming up to say goodbye to them. The director was one of the first. He'd had a bit too much to drink and desperately wanted his bed. Some other members of the crew swung by to say their farewells as well. Even Carina called it a night earlier than Sarah and Chuck. She didn't just come by to bid them goodnight, though. Carina also wanted to make sure Chuck knew she wasn't going to meet any fan that was only a fan of her Batwoman movie.

"If he liked even one other thing. I'm in then, maybe as a favour to Sarah," Carina explained with a hint of huff. "But if that's all he knows of me, then he'll get the same thing out of meeting me as he would looking at my poster!"

There was a pink to her cheek that Sarah didn't often see. She suspected Carina was a bit tipsy. Once she'd said what she'd come there to say, Carina bid them good night and headed for the door.

Despite the fact that so many people she knew were leaving, Sarah didn't really clue in that the night was over, until Chuck said something.

"It seems the party ended without us," Chuck said, gesturing to the large and mostly empty room.

"I didn't even notice," Sarah marvelled. For the first time that night, Sarah pulled out her phone to check the time. It was well after one in the morning. Where had the time gone?

The last few stragglers, apart from them, were all draining the last drops from their champagne glasses before heading for the exit. The catering staff was tidying away the empty trays and collecting dishes. Sarah did see one sneak the last dessert on the tray, when they thought no one was looking. She smiled to herself. Perk of the job she supposed.

"I guess we should be leaving, too," Chuck said begrudgingly, and Sarah knew how he felt.

"Can I offer you a ride?" Sarah asked. She knew he needed one, but more than that she wanted the excuse to spend a bit more time with him.

"That would be great," Chuck said, looking relieved. "The skytrain doesn't run at this hour."

"Why not?" Sarah asked. Despite living in Vancouver for the last two years, she'd never actually taken a skytrain. "I thought they were automated and driverless?"

"They are," Chuck explained. "But they also need maintenance repairs and stuff which is done at night, so they stop running about nowish."

"Makes sense," Sarah replied. "Though I'd never thought of it before."

"When you have a car as unreliable as mine, you learn alot about skytrains," Chuck explained ruefully.

"I'll take your word for it," Sarah laughed.

Together they walked arm in arm towards the exit. There really wasn't anyone looking anymore, and Sarah knew she didn't need to keep up appearances, but she liked walking arm in arm with him, and since he wasn't objecting, there didn't seem any harm in it.

When they reached her car, Sarah unlocked it with the button on her fob and got in.

"Where to?" Sarah asked once Chuck was in the passenger side and the door was closed. He gave her the address and Sarah started the car.

She drove him home and waved goodbye as he got out. Sarah couldn't help thinking as she started her engine to head home that she very likely would never see him again. She didn't even have Chuck's phone number since he'd never texted her.

Hopefully this clearly up anything I didn't include in chapter one. My beta and probably many of you are disapointed by the lack of kissing. All I'm saying is give it time. ;)

Also thank you guys for answering my question so well. I think I'm going to worry less about having a sneak peek ready before uploading. If I have a really good one that doesn't give anything away I might add it but otherwise I won't worry about it.