Over the course of the next few days Charlie and Bass' routine stayed relatively the same, during the day they mostly stayed inside watched TV, played video games, read books, or in Charlie's case did some writing. Bass had decided to hang out in Miles' office or on the balcony when he wanted to give Charlie some time to herself to write.
it had been a few days since their talk in the park, during their relaxation in the sun a woman and her dog had approached them, both Charlie and Bass had decided that after that incident they were going to stay in the apartment and order everything to the apartment door if needed. Day one in true isolation they ordered two weeks worth of groceries and had them left at the door, which both of them found very uncomfortable and awkward since they couldn't open the door to thank the delivery driver.
Charlie was standing in the kitchen pulling food out of the fridge and getting ready to cook dinner when Bass emerged from Miles' office. "Oh, making dinner already?" He slid up to the counter and leaned close.
"I was thinking chicken pot pie for dinner tonight." She smiled up at him over her shoulder, she was busy cleaning vegetables getting them ready to dice up. "Does that sound alright? I'm using premade crust though, for some reason I can never seem to get it just right."
"That sounds amazing, is there anything I can do to help?" he looked over at the pile of vegetables on the counter. "I don't wanna toot my own horn or anything but I can really peel with the best of them." Picking up a bowl and the peeler Charlie handed him the tools and helped him move the carrots and potatoes to the island so he could sit and peel. "once they're peeled toss them in this other bowl of water, it'll keep the potatoes from going brown while they wait for me to dice them up."
Bass settled himself at the counter and began peeling, they worked mostly in silence, Charlie hummed to herself occasionally as she stirred and Bass watched her as she worked. He couldn't stop himself from staring at her. he was in absolute awe of the woman in front of him and damnit he didn't care who knew it. Charlie had just popped the lid onto the pot to let the filling simmer before making its way into the pie shell when Bass came up beside her and leaned his hip against the counter facing her.
Turning towards him she paused and looked up into his bright blue eyes, she had a smudge of flour on her cheek from cooking, he loved it he loved everything about this woman. She was smart, witty, beautiful and such a mess in the kitchen but it was all wonderful, the last week with her was amazing and he couldn't wait to ask her on a real date when their confinement was over.
"What's up?" she tapped the spoon against the side of the sink after rinsing it off before placing it on the spoon holder. "I was just thinking about what we were going to do on our freedom date." She smiled up at him and leaned against the counter mimicking his stance, arms folded across her chest. Bass swiped his thumb across her cheek removing the flour, "I was thinking we go out to eat, maybe go somewhere we can go sit and eat around people, maybe go for a walk along the boardwalk." Charlie laughed in response "so basically anything that isn't inside this apartment."
Charlie couldn't seem to take her eyes off him, she was turning into a lovesick girl and she didn't care. "Anything we do will be wonderful i promise. we could eat hot dogs and hangout in a run down park and it would still be fun." the lid to the pot started to wobble and she had to tear her eyes off of him to deal with it. While she stirred the filling she decided to plan her own date, one she could pull off while they were trapped in the apartment.
While Charlie was finishing up the pie to pop in the oven, Bass wandered over to the wall of movies that Miles had collected over the last few years. Miles had all the streaming services but he liked having the physical copies of things, something about it making him feel like he was home. after years of being in the military and constantly moving around and going over seas for years at a time he decided that having the movies and books he liked in its physical form made him feel grounded.
Bass ran his fingers along the movie cases and pulled out a movie here and there to read the back, he was having trouble deciding what they should watch with their dinner. Charlie slid up beside him and peered at the movies around his arm startling him. "you're too damn quiet" he chuckled as he held his hand over his heart.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you, you were just so focused you didn't hear me calling you." She grinned up at him before turning her attention to the wall of movies in front of her. "so what are you thinking of for tonight?"
Bass sighed and rested his hand on the shelf in defeat, "I have no idea, he has lots of options but nothing is jumping out at me." Charlie reached around him and plucked a case off the shelf and handed it to him. "lets watch this." Bass looked down at the DVD and laughed. "Jurassic Park?" she shrugged and shuffled towards the bedroom. "its my favorite movie, don't judge me." she disappeared into the bedroom leaving Bass pondering how this movie came to be her favorite, she would never stop surprising him he was sure.
He popped the DVD into the player and while it was running through its usual advertisements he wandered into the kitchen to mix up a couple of drinks for the dinner and movie night. he was just stirring up a cocktail when Charlie re-emerged from the bedroom in her comfortable pajama pants and tank top, she decided her day was almost over comfy clothes were allowed now.
Bass handed her a drink while she checked on the pie, she sipped from the straw as she peeked through the glass window of the oven door. "How much time left on dinner?" Bass asked also sipping his own drink from a straw. Charlie looked up at him from the floor. "I'd say about 45 minutes." Setting his glass down on the counter he made his way to the door. "Perfect I'll be back in a few minutes" grabbing his coat he disappeared out the door leaving a puzzled Charlie still sitting on the floor.
Bass returned with a paper bag in hand and a big smile on his face. Kicking off his shoes he made his way into the kitchen and setting the bag on the counter he smiled wide at a confused Charlie who was sitting on the couch playing video games. "I realized we didn't put anything sweet on our grocery list." he pulled out a container of strawberries followed by sponge cake, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. "Don't worry I'm not going to do anything... suggestive" He wiggled his eyebrows laughing at her suspicious look. "I just asked the kid at the store to get something good for a dessert and apparently this stuff was on sale so here we are"
Charlie abandoned her game and approached Bass who had his back to her as he put away the cold items. When he turned she was standing smiling softly up at him, his thoughtful gesture made her want to grab him and kiss him senselessly, she tentatively placed her hands on his shoulders, he responded but sliding his hands to her hips and locking eyes with her. her fingers slowly made their way into his blonde curls, she was gently pulling him down to meet her waiting kiss when the oven started buzzing loudly with its timer for their dinner. Charlie dropped her hands back to his shoulders and her forehead landing on his chest as they both laughed at the obnoxious way the moment was broken.
After dinner they were on either side of the coffee table playing a vicious round of the board game Life. Bass was determined to prove he could win the game by starting on the career path and not the college path right away. They were half way through when Bass realized he was losing badly, he decided he needed to distract her and steal her money.
He barely had time to think of what he was going to distract her with when she suddenly stood up and made her way to the kitchen. When her back was turned and she was deep in the fridge grabbing herself a pop she reached across the table and quickly took half of all the bills on her side of the table. he was just jamming the last of the stolen bills under the board with the rest of his own cash when she started returning to the table.
Charlie settled back into her seat on the floor and glanced at the table, her suspicions were immediately raised when he looked away from her and awkwardly started to chug his drink through his curly straw, something Charlie insisted on. She narrowed her eyes at him and scanned the board trying to figure out what he did. She gave up her search when his deceit was not immediately obvious, they continued on with their game.
Bass tried diverting her suspicions by unabashedly flirting, from stroking her fingers across the table or complimenting her smile and eyes. His flirting wasn't enough to distract her when she landed on square that required her to pay taxes for all the children she acquired and she realized that she not only didn't have enough cash to pay the taxes but she only had one of each of the types of bills.
Her eyes slid up from the board and locked onto his sheepish baby blues. "You." Her tone was dangerous and threatening. "You stole all my money you filthy cheater." She laid her hand in the center of the board and slid it sideways until it was almost tipping right off the table. "You will pay for this treachery." Bass leaned back and grinned wide and raised his hands in defense, "I thought you wouldn't notice, and I was losing what else was I supposed to do, let you win and listen to your gloating?" while he was spewing his excuses Charlie was slowly crawling across the table her eyes never leaving his.
Charlie leapt off the table tackling him into the couch, in her leap she shot the game board off the table sending the bills, little cars and people flying all over the floor, to be left and ignored for at least the rest of the night.
Once Charlie had him pinned to the couch both her laughing and smiling. "You are truly the worst, how dare you cheat during a wholesome game of Life." She straddled his hips holding him in place as she leaned down to whisper in his ear. "I don't think we should play games together anymore, we can't stop cheating." Bass shrugged still smiling up at her, they both were hoping the other couldn't feel how hard their hearts were beating in this close proximity. Charlie leaned down as Bass reached up to tangle his fingers in her long blond hair and bring her down into a soft slow kiss.
Charlie was the first to pull away, she grinned happily at the man still pinned below her, Bass scooted back so he was now sitting with Charlie sitting in his lap. "Well that was sooner then expected." Bass chuckled softly, Charlie brought her arms up to rest on his shoulders as she took in every inch of his face from this close proximity. "I've been waiting years for you to kiss me like that. it wasn't soon enough as far as I'm concerned."
He ran his hands up her thighs resting them just before her hips. "Was it worth the wait?" he tilted his head ever so slightly with the tiniest of smirks on his face. "oh boy, your going to get all cocky now aren't you." She rolled her eyes with a smile on her face, she leaned back and went to move off his lap when he pulled her back against him. "Charlotte, don't get coy with me now." He pulled her into another kiss that she didn't protest.
they spent the rest of their evening snuggled close on the couch sneaking kissing in-between soft conversation about nothing in particular, when sleep started to tug at them both they decided to part ways and sleep separately to preserve their incredibly new dynamic. He didn't want to blow his chance with her and she didn't want to rush through all the things she'd been waiting for. They only had a couple days left of their isolation left maybe they could hold out until they were allowed to go on a real date outside this apartment.
Smiling shyly at Bass after their final good night kiss. "I'll see you in the morning I guess." they stood in the bedroom doorway like they were ending a first awkward date and they were both unsure of what their next steps were. "You will, I promise." He brushed her long hair over her shoulder as he leaned in and kissed her softly on the cheek, he then placed his hand on the door handle behind her and nudged her into the bedroom. "You need to head to bed, and this door needs to close or I'm going to try and use all my charms to convince you to invite me in, and I very much want to be good." Charlie laughed and shoved him back. "Get out of here. Good night." She crawled into bed feeling very warm and fussy inside, Bass threw himself on the house feeling very content for the first time in a long time.