Castle in the Air
By Steampunk . Chuckster
Summary: Sarah has opened her dream bookstore just before the holiday season, but when a corporate monopoly announces their reduced-price brick-and-mortar is going in a block away, she must band together with her fellow small businesses to fight for their lives, even if it means getting past a slew of bad first impressions to work with Chuck, the owner of the comic book shop next door. AU Charah.
A/N: Thanks for leaving me messages! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck or its characters, and any similarities in this fic to any corporate entities are just coincidence... shh.
Chuck ducked behind the Ashcan Comics booth and put his arm over Morgan's shoulders as the Beard handed over a bag of comics to a kid who looked to be getting his first dose of comic book magic.
"And don't forget to come back and tell me what you think of those, okay?" Morgan called, waving to the kid as his dad walked him away.
"Okaaaayyyy!" the cutie called back, waving at Morgan over his shoulder with a big grin on his face.
Morgan turned back to Chuck. "Huge Spongebob fan. I'm thinking about seventy percent of the jokes in that show go over his head, but it's cool, he doesn't care."
Chuckling, he tapped the iPad Morgan had in front of him. "How're the sales going?"
"Basically quadruple where we'd be on a normal Saturday, dude. Safe to say it's going well." He spun back as someone came up with a stack of comics. "Oh wow, you found some things." He turned and thumped Chuck on the chest. "Hey, buddy… you mind getting some backboards and sleeves for these for me?"
"On it!"
Chuck knew he'd probably been slacking a bit, letting his employees run the booth for most of the morning so far, but he had a walkie-talkie attached to his pants' belt loops and every so often, someone would pipe up with a question on there and he'd have to duck away to solve a problem.
He'd been tag-teaming problem solving with Casey, Chen, and Sarah—though less so Sarah considering she was the only one working the Castle in the Air booth. But every time he heard Sarah's voice pop up on that walkie-talkie, he automatically snatched at it so fast, holding it closer to his ear, his heart racing.
Like a damn schoolboy with a crush.
It would be embarrassing if anyone else noticed. Luckily no one had. He thought. He hoped.
He and Morgan worked together to slip the comics into their own sleeves with the backboards, but then Morgan pulled away to finish the transaction on the iPad with a wireless credit card reader, chatting with the customer about Sabretooth and whether he'd be back in the movies or not.
Chuck couldn't help stealing a glance past his best friend towards the Castle in the Air booth. She had four tables set up with a ton of books. She'd set them up in a way that sort of broke them into genres, but mostly it was piles upon piles upon piles. Ingenious really, because she'd set them up in a way that allowed customers to access them, pull them, buy them, without having to shift anything, without having anything topple down. How she did it, he had no idea. There must've been hundreds of titles, and they were a lot thicker than comics, so that was quite the feat.
He'd been stupid and butthurt for way too long, long enough that he'd ignored the signs that she was actually incredibly good at being a bookstore owner, incredibly good at selling books. What she needed was for people to know she existed, and then the sky was the limit.
As it was, she was literally rushing to and fro, helping people coming to her booth, handling taking payment from one person for the large stack of books they were buying, bagging the books, and answering a question another customer was asking, all at the same time. And all with a level-headedness and seemingly calm demeanor that was almost superhuman.
Chuck let Morgan handle bagging up the comics, checking over his shoulder to make sure Anna was helping other customers, confirming that was the case, and then he squeezed his best friend's shoulder and moved past him, sneaking through the small space in the tables to come around to the back of Sarah's sales space, slipping in beside where she was working.
She handed off the books to the customer with a, "Thank you so much. Have a Merry Christmas, okay?" and then turned back to the other customer with, "The difference between the first one you held up and the second is that the first one is more gothic romance, so it's darker, the guy she digs is broodier. The second one is more…hm…a social satire with romance, but the main guy she spars with isn't dark, enigmatic, or hiding secrets. He's more open and outgoing, a genuine nice kind of guy. It's definitely not gothic, either. S'that make sense?"
"Ooohhh. I want the broody guy." The girl put down the other one and came around in front of Sarah with the book she picked.
Chuck finally spoke up. "My sister's a big fan of Jane Eyre."
He kept it to himself that she admitted on more than one occasion that Mr. R-Whats-His-Face was clearly dysfunctional and would likely make Jane insanely unhappy if the novel were to continue… "but the writing is so good!"
Sarah spun to fix him with big eyes, and then she turned back to the customer with a smile, taking her cash, going into her cash belt to produce the change. Chuck took it upon himself to grab a paper bag from under the table, slipping the book inside of it and handing it over.
When the customer left, there were two or three folks still browsing, quietly checking out Sarah's selection. She took a moment to ask if anyone had questions, and when they politely declined, she finally turned back to Chuck. "Thanks," she said, smiling.
"I just put a book in a bag. No big deal. Not that it was necessary. Clearly, you're handling the influx of book buyers just fine."
She smiled harder. "It feels really good to be so busy. Like, barely getting a moment to breathe…It's awesome. I haven't felt like this since the grand opening."
"So you're doing well today?"
"Really, really well," she said, grinning. "Super well. Better than the grand opening."
"That's amazing! See?!"
It was everything he'd wanted out of this festival. It was packed with people since nine in the morning when they opened. People were digging the live band with their rock'n'roll and jazz holiday tunes, the food was a hit, every booth had crowds.
"Have you checked on our anti-Cadabra booth yet?" Sarah asked. "Are we getting signatures?"
He shook his head. "Haven't gone over there since we opened a few hours ago. You?"
She gestured at the books surrounding her. "I have been here all day," she giggled. "In fact, that giant coffee I had has meant holding my pee for, like, an hour now."
"What?!" he snapped. He pointed at her shop across the picnic area behind where their booths were set up next to one another. "Go. Now. I've got this."
"Oh… But… I can't ask you to…"
"Yes, you can." He picked up one of the books and turned it over, tapping the price over the barcode. "You sell these for the price that's on the book, right?"
"…Yeah. I can't afford not to." Then she looked around the table, snatching up a hardcover. "If it isn't on the back, it's in the inside flap of the hardcovers. Or see this?" She leaned in close and he smelled lavender, vanilla, something else nice that was probably just her. He focused on the number above the smaller barcode that she was pointing to. "The price is here, after the five. See, it says five, then twenty-one-ninety-nine. So the price is twenty-one-ninety-nine."
"Oh!" He turned to gape down at her. "I never knew that. I had no idea the price was right there. Holy sh—oooooba dabba," he corrected himself quickly as a little kid came up to pick up a Bluey book, showing it to her mom who followed closely behind.
Sarah snorted, patting his arm. "I'll be right back. Thanks so much." She ripped at the velcro, slapping it into his hands. "If you're taking a card, I've got it set up on here. Um, it's pretty self-explanatory."
"You're using the same card reader we use. I've got you."
"I've input all the books with their correct prices, so you start typing the title and it'll pop up."
"Got you."
The way she squeezed his wrist, he felt the pressure of her fingers there long after she'd gone, even as he leaned over the books in front of him to look at the Bluey fan. "You like Bluey?"
"Yeah! B'uey da g'eatest!"
"She's the greatest of the great! Can I show you something if you like Bluey?" He'd spotted it earlier while taking in Sarah's stock she'd pulled out from her store.
The little girl looked up at her mom and the mom gave her a reassuring nod. So she turned back and mumbled a shy, "Yes."
"Oh, you won't regret this. I promise. C'mere." He led her around to where Sarah set up a whole two tables of kids books. "This is Luna. She's a lizard."
"Does she bite?"
He giggled, charmed. "I haven't seen Luna bite anybody, not yet anyway. I used to babysit for kiddos who were around your age when I was in high school and they loved Luna the lizard." He took a few of the books and passed them down. "I read this one to them all the time. She has a classmate who doesn't get as many flies in their lunch as she does, and the other reptile kids make fun of 'em. But she takes the time to talk to the other reptile. And… Well, I won't spoil it."
"Do you want that one, Ursula?" the mom asked, leaning down and poking the book.
The girl nodded shyly.
"We'll get a couple of them if you recommend them…?" the mom said then. "Do they all have different characters?"
"It all centers around Luna," he said, taking the floppy square books and handing each separate one to the mom. "So here's one about a birthday party. Here's one about how important it is to brush her lizard teeth." The mom giggled. "This one is about parenthood, this one is about mental health for kids."
"Oh wow. That's deep."
"It gets pretty deep just like Bluey does, but maybe isn't quite as effective with it because it's a decade older."
"I want da one about da w'izoord teef, p'eese," Ursula said to her mom, reaching up to take the books and hugging them to her chest.
"We're going to get them all, okay?"
"Okay!"
He chatted a few more minutes with Ursula and her mom, even getting them to buy a picture book about a snow-woman searching for her carrot nose after a winter storm.
And by the time they left Castle in the Air with a bag of books, Chuck had added a sale of seventy-five bucks to Sarah's bank. He felt pretty good about it as he heard a shuffle of boots and turned to find she'd returned.
"Hey. Oh! Hey! You missed it. I sold a Bluey fan on a bunch of Lizard Luna books too, and—"
"I didn't miss it," she said, an unreadable look on her face. "I just didn't want to interrupt because you were making me some money." He saw amusement in her face then. "Thank you, Chuck. Good work."
He tried not to blush. "Well, hey, listen… I was just upselling. I learned all about that from you so thank yourself."
Sarah gave him a dubious look, coming up to take the money belt back from him. Thank God he hadn't strapped it on or it would've been a lot more…awkward. And then he wondered if he should've strapped it on anyway. Maybe it would force them both to stop avoiding last night.
"You learned upselling from me?"
"Yeah. I've seen you upsell to your customers more than once now. Thought I'd give it a try." He wasn't lying, either. She was really good at it, and he'd stuck little things he'd learned from watching her upsell into his own salesman arsenal.
She bit her lip and ducked her head. "Glad I could help, I guess. And thanks for covering for me."
"No problem."
"Excuse me…?"
Sarah spun then with a, "Yes, how can I help?", already strapping the money belt on. She turned back to Chuck with an apologetic look and went right back to work.
He took it as his cue to scoot back over to his own side of the tables, selling some comic books, actually manning his own booth for an hour.
}o{
Sarah had no idea how many hours had passed, or how much money she'd made. She definitely didn't know how things were going with the gift baskets. Only, she'd seen a few people walk past with them propped in their arms, big grins on their faces. So it couldn't have been too much of a failure. People had obviously made their bids.
"Okay, boss, time's up."
Boss? Sarah lifted her head from her tablet, turning to glance over at the Ashcan Comics booth. Had Flint's voice carried from over there…? Chuck was actually selling comic books again instead of running around the festival like a stage manager of a high school play, his walkie talkie in his hand, phone out and in his other hand, solving problems.
But Flint's voice hadn't carried from the Ashcan Comics booth…because they weren't there… Instead they were standing right behind Sarah with their arms crossed, one pierced eyebrow raised.
"…Me?" Sarah asked.
"Yep. You're my boss for a couple hours while you get out there and enjoy the festival." Sarah blinked, confused. "I was commanded."
Sarah furrowed her brow. "Tell Chuck he doesn't need to force his employees to run my booth for me. But thank you."
"Oh, it wasn't Chuck. He's too busy fluctuating between selling comics, scampering about like a busy little mouse fixing problems, and bringing DJ Mudenda coffee and water. Apparently it's hot up on the stage and DJing makes you sweat." They shrugged.
In the scant moments she wasn't swamped by book buyers, she'd found herself looking across the grounds, eyes searching for him. She was only human. …As demonstrated oh so perfectly the night before.
The bookstore owner tilted her head, narrowing her eyes. "Wait. Hold on. If Chuck isn't making you come over here to sell books for me, who is? Did I ask you and I just forgot because everything is crazy?" Oh God, was she losing her mind?
"Ellie asked me to. And if Doctor Ellie asks me, I do whatever the hell it is. Because she's the best."
The way Flint said that so matter-of-factly…
It was true, though. Over the past two plus months, Sarah had grown very fond of the surgeon. In fact, she was counting herself exceptionally lucky that Ellie Bartowski walked into her store that day (and walked out of it again with five hundred dollars' worth of books). She kind of loved her and would probably do whatever the other woman asked, too.
"She is kind of the best, isn't she?" Sarah asked, crossing her own arms.
"Aww, you two stop it."
Sarah spun to find that the surgeon herself was standing on the other side of the table, her fingers delicately steepled on the stacks of books there, leaning forward, a big smile on her face.
She sent Flint a wink and Sarah thought she spotted a blush on their face. Understandable. "Good work, soldier. C'mon, Sarah. I'm stealing you away from the books for a little while, you workhorse."
Sarah cracked up. "Oh, come on, Ellie. You're ordering your brother's employees around now? This is my store, and I can't pay Flint."
"So? I'll pay Flint," Ellie reasoned as if it was nothing.
"Oh, no you won't," Flint interjected, already taking the money belt from Sarah's hands. Because even while she was arguing, Sarah took off the money belt. Chuck once said What Ellie says goes and that's that to her, and she wholeheartedly agreed. Even unconsciously. "Chuck is gonna pay me. This isn't the first time this rodeo's played out. Chuck has paid me more than once to pop over and help Sarah. I'm old hat at selling books now. He'll pay me for it; he'll insist."
"Oh, really?" Ellie had a significant look on her face that made Sarah feel heat rush up from her jacket.
Sarah rolled her eyes. "I've told you both that we aren't doing that anymore. Until I can hire a new employee, or pay you myself to come help, I'm not accepting that from him. No more."
"Right, except for today," Ellie said. "Come with me." Sarah shook her head and Flint gasped, as if deeply shocked Sarah's just said no to the Ellie Bartowski. "I said come. You need to have a little fun today. Right, Flint?"
"Right! Go, go!" Flint velcro'd the money belt to their waist stylishly. "Have fun. I'm selling your books. It's not like I have to process orders out here. Selling books, you know I can handle. Easy. I don't know your stock as well as you do, but I can work this thingy." She pointed at the tablet.
Sarah groaned. "Fine. But I'm paying you."
"Sure you are."
Both Ellie and Flint pushed and pulled until Sarah was standing out by the brunette doctor. And then Ellie kept pulling as Sarah looked back over her shoulder and mouthed "Thank you" at the comic book seller, earning a cutely sarcastic wave back from them.
"You know who I met?"
"Who?"
"Your friend. With the red hair." Oh God. "Carina…" No. Sarah must've gotten a stricken look on her face because Ellie cracked up, hugging Sarah's arm closest to her. "Don't look so freaked out. Sometimes you're so much like my brother." Sarah sent her a teasingly offended look, earning a snort. "I said sometimes. Thank God you're exact opposites most of the time."
Opposites attract.
Did they ever…
Last night had been like two bullet trains on the same track, barreling towards one another until…BANG!
"Oh. How? I didn't even know she was here, the little brat." She glanced around the festival, looking for a flash of red hair.
Ellie shrugged, the same happy look on her face she'd had there all day. "I was hanging out with my brother, trying to get him to slow down for a freaking second, and he must've met her at some point?" She looked at Sarah, her face way less readable than her brother's. "But he called out to her and she hurried over to—Well, she is very friendly, isn't she?"
Oh God, what had Carina done to poor Chuck this time? "Do I need to apologize to Chuck for what she did to him?" she asked tiredly.
Ellie laughed. "I don't think he'll request an apology. Having someone who looks like her grab him by the shoulders and plant a giant smack on his cheek? Pfft."
Sarah snorted. "She…likes to terrorize people a little. Sorry…" She was actually a little bummed Carina had been so…deeply Carina-y with Ellie right there to witness it. It wasn't necessarily that she was ashamed of her best friend, but Carina could be overly shameless, and Sarah sort of wanted Ellie and Carina to get along. The new bestie and the old bestie…
"What're you sorry for? You should've seen the look on my brother's face, though." Ellie laughed, rocking forward. "The poor guy. I like her. She's got a lot of spice, and she's interesting. But she also seems nice under the…terrorizing thing you said."
Sarah beamed. Well, that went better than expected. "She's all those things."
"Carina told me you've been friends since you were kids practically. I doubt you would've kept her around for so long if she wasn't."
"That's the truth! If she'd merely been a terror without all of the squishy sweetness and her protective streak that meant kicking Brittany Edwards' ass for bullying me in the seventh grade—she hit her growth spurt before I did," she added, "I would've kicked her ass to the curb a while ago."
Ellie giggled. "Good for her. And screw Brittany Edwards. I hope she's matured since then, and if not, you and I can toast her deeply unhappy and unfulfilled life she's currently living with some spiked eggnog."
Cracking up, she gawked at the slightly shorter woman. "Oh my God! You are way more ruthless than your brother!"
Shrugging with a smirk, Ellie responded with a, "Well, how do you think I kept him alive all these years? That rash dork always getting himself into trouble."
Sarah snorted, fondness in her face. "I can imagine him getting into trouble. Definitely."
"We both did in our own special ways," Ellie said.
That sort of confirmed what Carina had realized the other night. That this was the same Ellie from that sad, exploitative messy show her mom always had on her TV screen when Sarah was a kid, and Chuck was that Chuck. They'd had to keep each other out of trouble. It must've been so hard with tabloid-ish true crime cultists constantly seeking access to them.
"Chuck likes her, too."
Sarah sent Ellie a raised eyebrow look. "He does?"
What exactly did Ellie see in the interaction between Carina and Chuck? She couldn't imagine Chuck had told his sister what had happened between him and Sarah last night against her ARC shelves in the back of her store, which meant she didn't know, which meant she might read into Carina's mischievous behavior towards the Ashcan Comics owner.
And Sarah most definitely didn't like the implications of that.
Ellie snorted. "He said the words, 'I like Carina. She keeps me on my toes.'" She made a huh face, raising her eyebrows. "If she keeps him on his toes, I like her, too."
A bloom of warmth assailed Sarah Walker, and it only got worse as they neared the music stage and Ellie stopped dead, her jaw dropping, her eyes rolling. "Oh God, I'm not related to that."
Sarah spun to look.
Martha was onstage, her speakers playing some sort of surf rock version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", and she was looking down at the makeshift grassy dance floor—the same grass Casey had groused would get all rubbed away if they let people dance on it, the grump.
Kids ranging from two to six or seven were dancing in various hilarious ways.
One kid in particular stood out, though.
Namely a grown-ass adult, all six feet and four inches of him, amidst children, dancing similarly to what she'd seen in MegaJamz that first time she met the record store owner. Only this time, he was even more unbridled, apparently not caring if anyone witnessing it thought he was ridiculous.
But if anyone watched this and didn't melt, they had no heart and certainly no soul.
The kids were all looking at him with so much glee, laughing as they danced.
He'd stooped down low to their height and was thumping his feet up and down against the grass, his arms above his head, waggling back and forth through the air, his fingers clamping open and shut like claws. What the hell? Was he being a crab or something?
The smile on his face was so big. He was clearly having a blast.
He popped up to his full height during a break in the song, freezing. All the kids froze with him. Silence… The beat dropped again and he got wild, hopping and letting out a howl. The kids howled too, jumping up and down, pumping their fists in exactly the same way.
Sarah heard the bubbliest laugh she'd ever heard in her life come out of someone…only it took her a moment to realize that someone was…herself. And Ellie was watching her closely.
She let out a drawled, "And that's my brother for ya," gesturing at the dance floor for the benefit of younger woman. And still Sarah felt her eyes on her.
"Really into it, isn't he?" she asked, widening her eyes, trying not to let Ellie know that she'd never seen anything cuter, or more attractive, than this tall comic book nerd connecting with kids he'd never met before over some surf rock Christmas music, dancing with them, like them even, to make them laugh. Or were they dancing like him? She had no idea.
"Chuck Bartowski doesn't do something if he can't put his whole self into it…" She pointed at him. "That right there?" Chuck did a really bad high kick, turned to punch the air a few times, and then did some sort of James Bond type of pose, pulling his finger gun to his mouth and blowing at the tip of the "gun", making Sarah giggle. "That's the nerd section of his whole self."
Sarah laughed harder. "He's dancing with kids. It's sweet. Look at how much fun they're having with him. They love him."
"Oh, kids adore him. I think they see a lot of themselves in him."
"Stop being so mean," she chastised, giggling as she gently elbows the other woman.
"I'm teasing. He's a freaking sweetheart and is sometimes so unapologetically himself that it's hard not to be drawn to it." Ellie shrugged. "That's probably why kids love him. Kids tend to be like that, too. Before society teaches them to adhere to stupid rules to fit in and be normal."
Sarah watched as Chuck crouched next to a shy little girl who looked to be maybe four or five, and outstretched his hand towards her in a gentlemanly fashion.
Some of the other kids had been acting up, a lot less shy, wanting attention from the adult who'd come to play with them, and Chuck had caught sight of the shy one on the outskirts who seemed to want to be involved but didn't know how to make her way into the group.
She delicately put her little hand in his big one, and then he stood up and they began to jump, their hands clasped. It wasn't really dancing, but who cared? They even began to poke their elbows out and flap their "wings"… or something. Stomping their feet. Looking almost like strange chickens.
And it wasn't that she hadn't known this before, but it was much clearer now that this man was special. His heart was special. He was adorable. She was inexplicably drawn to him, powerfully drawn to him. The pull was intense. As evidenced by the fact that she'd had sex with him last night. Seemingly out of nowhere… And then not out of nowhere because the magnetism had been there for months, the pull. He'd become the one thing besides her store that she'd thought the most about.
She needed to come to terms with the fact that she wanted him.
Not just a quickie in the bookstore back room, but a deeper want. The guy who got unfairly chewed out for something he hadn't done, took it because he didn't want to throw anyone else under the bus, and was incredibly understanding when she'd apologized. He'd actually fucking listened to her, which was a shock to her system. To have someone respect her enough to listen?
But then Chuck turned just enough, his brown eyes lifting and looking right at her. He froze immediately, his back ramrod straight, eyes wide. A weak smile pulled at the edges of his mouth for a moment, and Sarah gave him a wide, closed-mouth smile, even tilting her head, knowing her eyes had to be sparkling.
Chuck turned, high-fived all of the kids, and then scampered towards Sarah and Ellie, almost skidding to a stop in front of them like a cartoon character. "Hi. Hi, you two. Hey. Uh… The kids were—Yeah." He gestured over his shoulder, turning to glance at the still dancing kids, and then turning back to the women. His eyes fell on Sarah then and his eyebrows shot up. "Oh. Crap, did something happen? Did you need help or something?" He snagged his walkie-talkie and wiggled it. "I probably couldn't hear because of the Ventures' Christmas music. Martha's so killin' it up there with her DJing."
"There are zero problems," Sarah said at the same time as Ellie taking advantage of Chuck's distraction to reach over and grab the walkie-talkie from him.
"H-Hey! What're you—?" Chuck made a half-hearted attempt to take it back.
"You have been working non-stop all day. Have you eaten any food?" Ellie asked, ever the big sister.
Chuck blinked. "Oh. Oh, wow. I guess I sort of forgot food was a thing I needed to have at some point."
Ellie turned to roll her eyes at him in Sarah's direction. "I knew it. Do I know you, or do I know you?" she asked drolly, turning back to him. He gave her a sheepish shrug. "Come on. I'm making sure both of you get some food. Anybody want some empanadas? They're on me."
Chuck met Sarah's gaze then, and she waited for him to take the lead in replying. A significant look crossed his face and he smiled, shrugging.
She smiled and shrugged back, the jumble of confusing, scary feelings crashing through her now that she didn't have selling books and running her booth distracting her.
}o{
It was about twenty minutes later, food nearly completely devoured as they shared a small table in the eating area of the festival, when he spotted the sudden change in Sarah.
She'd been quiet anyway as they waited in line at the empanadas food truck, and again as they sat to eat, contributing maybe a word or two to their conversation. But she'd seemed uncomfortable, almost a little squirmy even. And he had a good idea it was him. He was the issue.
This was such a rollercoaster, the way she'd smile, touch him, thank him for covering her booth while she used the restroom, the way she called him a nerd with that sparkle in her eye earlier when he swept past her bookstore booth to ask if she needed anything. And now, with Ellie right here next to them, he was seeing a much quieter, more thoughtful version of Sarah Walker. She was putting on a good enough show for Ellie, he thought, but he couldn't help noticing the way she stole little looks at him, then quickly turned back to his sister, and then another little glance at him…
But now, as he stole a glance back at her, he saw she was looking at something over his shoulder, near the entrance to the festival, and her blue eyes got big, eyebrows shooting into her hairline practically. Was she shocked? What was it?
He furrowed his brow and turned to look. He didn't see anything, or anyone, looking back back at them, so he spun back to Sarah. When she met his gaze, he mouthed "What?" at her. She gave a small shake of her head. He wasn't sure what that meant.
But then she looked at whatever it was again, and her shoulders dropped a little bit, before she climbed up from the table, putting her paper napkin in her empty plate and headed straight for a blond woman approaching their table with a wide but also sort of tentative smile on her face.
…Almost as if she was unsure if she should be there.
She was older than Sarah, in her late forties or early fifties, and almost half a foot shorter. But she was incredibly pretty. And it all clicked when Sarah gave her a hug, the woman hugging whom he now knew was her daughter back.
He felt Ellie's hand slide over his forearm that rested on the table. "Is that her mom?" she whispered just loud enough for him to hear.
Chuck only nodded, watching as the two women pulled back. Sarah said something he couldn't hear, the woman nodded, glanced around the festival with a smile, squeezed her daughter's bicep, and then her blue eyes fastened on Chuck.
Sarah spun, looking very uncomfortable, but still, she kept a smile on her face as she guided her mom to the table.
"Um, Chuck and Ellie, this-this is my mom, Emma. Mom, these are my friends." The bookseller stuck out her hand towards Ellie, and then Chuck. "That's Ellie…and Chuck B—Um, yeah, Chuck owns the place next to my bookstore."
"It's so nice to meet you, Emma," Ellie gushed, her usual charming, warm, amazing self as she hurried to her feet and walked around Chuck to take the hand Emma offered in both of hers, sandwiching it in her grip and squeezing.
"It's good to meet you, too," Emma said, quietly, seeming almost a little shy.
Chuck got to his feet as well when his sister relinquished Sarah's mom from her grip. What he wanted to do was wrap her up in a tight hug, but that felt like something that would not be received very well. He didn't know why he felt that way.
Instead of hugging her, however, he took her hand as warmly as he could, smiling genuinely. "Very nice to meet you, Emma."
"Chuck, was it?" she asked. "You own the shop next to Sarah's?"
"Yes! I sell comic books."
"Comic books?" She let out a quiet laugh, her eyes glittering. "I haven't seen one of those in years." Chuck heard his sister let out a tiny titter and he sent her a half-glare, mostly amused.
"They're…heh…more popular now than they were when I was growing up," he tried, feeling himself shrink a bit.
"You should see the way people stream into his comic book shop like they can't get enough of those things," Sarah spoke up then, her eyes fastened steadily on him. "Comic books are popular with everybody now, Mom. Kids and adults."
He couldn't stop the big, crooked smile that arched across half of his mouth if he tried, not sure if the blooming feeling in his chest was a lot more than he'd bargained for in this thing he had with the bookstore owner. He didn't want to think too hard on it, instead focusing on the cute you're welcome smile she gave him, complete with a one shoulder shrug.
"That's nice," her mom said. "Good for you, Chuck."
"Thank you," he said with a nod, sticking his hands in his pants pockets, feeling bashful, which was ridiculous. Only, this was Sarah Walker's mom, and he had no idea what the story was with Sarah seeming almost uncomfortable—no, more like unsure—with her mom here, but he wanted to make a good impression anyway.
Things had seemed pretty strained with her and her dad the day before, and now they seemed a little strained here with her mom, too. He just got a vibe.
And yet… this was her mom.
He cleared his throat and ran a hand down the front of his jacket. "Emma, have you had lunch yet? There are amazing food trucks if…" He trailed off, gesturing towards the trucks.
"Oh! Yeah, Mom…W-Why don't I get you something? My treat," Sarah cut in, sending him a quick but grateful look.
"That'd be nice. Thank you," Emma said, smiling. And she turned that smile back on the Bartowskis. "Will you stick around? I want to know more about Sarah's friends."
"We'll keep the table warm," Ellie said with a giggle. Chuck beamed in agreement and Sarah guided her mom away, a look on her face telling him that wasn't exactly what she'd been hoping for.
And as the two blondes made their way towards the food trucks, Sarah's head was bent towards her mom, and she was saying something he couldn't hear. Her mom's shoulders were a little tense, too. Defensive, maybe?
Then he felt his sister wrap her hands around his arm and she leaned in close. "Are you getting a tense vibe, or is it just me?" she asked quietly.
Chuck spun on his sister. "It is not just you."
"Maybe we should've bowed out and let Sarah have some one on one time with her mom?" Ellie winced, then moved to the table. "Or maybe we let Sarah handle her own affairs and she'll let us know if she wants us to find somewhere else to be."
"That," Chuck said, sitting in the same chair he'd been in before as Ellie plopped into her own seat. "Sarah knows how to be clear about what she needs." She'd been clear enough last night, telling him to mind his own business about her dad, but in nicer words. And then for a moment, it'd been on the tip of his tongue to tell his sister about the strange Sarah's dad sighting and how cagey she'd been about it last night.
But he stopped himself.
Because it wasn't his business to tell anyone any of that. She deserved the privacy. If she wanted her dad to be a secret, he wasn't going to blab that secret to everyone, not even to the one person who he always talked to about pretty much everything. Nobody was entitled to Sarah's private business. And even after last night, after the passion they shared in the back room of her bookstore, he knew he hadn't earned having this woman open herself up to him.
And he needed to stop thinking about that. Immediately.
Was it hot out here?
No, it was in the upper-fifties. It definitely wasn't hot out here.
"Um, let's just…change the subject, maybe," he said, clearing his throat. "It isn't our business."
She nodded with a smile, sipping her hot chocolate.
}o{
"All I'm saying is if somebody asked John Casey, 'Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?' he'd grunt out a grumpy, 'No! I only listen to car engines revving and warplane propellors buzzing!'"
Sarah watched as her mom bent forward over the table laughing.
This had been a very interesting twenty minutes of watching Chuck Bartowski ever-so-subtly charming Emma into a lot of laughter. And she was being more talkative than Sarah thought she'd ever seen her mom outside of having friends in to play a card game at their apartment when she was growing up.
Ellie surprised them all by gasping and grabbing Chuck's arm, looking up at something over his head.
Chuck jumped. "Oh God, he's right behind me, isn't he?" he asked in a panic, spinning in his seat to look. And when he saw that nothing was there, he turned back with the flattest look Sarah had ever seen on his face, directed right at his sister.
"No, I just wanted to scare the crap out of you," Ellie sang. Sarah couldn't help but laugh, her mom joining in as Ellie gave her brother a massive shit-eating grin, leaning in to kiss his hair, even adding a jaunty "Muah!" to it.
"You're such a brat," he chuckled. "I thought it was all over. Jeeesus."
"C'mon, Chuck. You know if he heard you say that, he'd agree with it," Sarah said, still smiling at him.
"Mhm, and then he'd promptly murder me." He laughed, his eyes glinting in her direction, and she felt herself leaning into it, beaming right back at him.
She realized belatedly how long the moment lasted when she felt someone's foot nudge her leg under the table, and she pulled back, looking away from him, scanning Ellie and her mom's faces, only to see a thread of bald-faced interest on the latter's features. So it had been her mom's foot that nudged her significantly.
Crap.
This raging, powerful rush of…something… between her and Chuck was not something she wanted her mom knowing about. Or her dad, which was why she'd avoided introducing them to one another yesterday. She hadn't had a choice today.
And she was still not sure what in the hell Emma was doing here, anyway. She'd told her about the festival, yes, but with the distinct knowledge, the absolute certainty in fact, that her mom would not be coming. She hadn't even visited her shop to see it yet. Why would she come to this huge festival full of people when her whole life, Sarah'd always heard the same refrain from her mom's lips? Honey, I'm surrounded by people at the casino all day long. When I'm home I don't want more people around, I just want to rest.
Now, she was surrounded by people, and kids were all over the place. Sarah had nearly gotten run over by the taco truck workers rushing past with an ice chest full of pre-packaged salsa verde and salsa roja.
After she'd hissed a few choice "What are you doing here?" types of lines in her mom's direction, though, so maybe that'd been karma.
It was just so confusing. Emma insisted she came to see how the bookstore was going, to support "the whole community thing", to support her daughter. But still… Sarah couldn't stop wondering why.
After all these months of only asking as an offhand, last question…of course not until she'd asked for help with a million different things, including the new phone…she showed up now?
Did she need something else from her daughter?
And why'd she show up here the day after her estranged ex, Sarah's father, had visited?
That was a question she still hadn't asked, and she wouldn't. Emma always spiraled into an angry storm cloud mood whenever Jack was mentioned.
That wasn't what Sarah wanted from this day, especially not when her mom seemed to genuinely be enjoying herself with Chuck and Ellie Bartowski.
That made sense, though. They were who they were. And she'd never spent this much time in the same space as both of them together. The way they played off of one another, the way they joked at one another's expense and took it in good humor when the tables were turned, the way they so clearly loved one another, was something to behold.
She imagined getting through everything with their parents disappearing one day and being hounded by a TV show and true crime fanatics the next had forced them to clutch even tighter to one another. There was no other way to go through that and come out the other side as adjusted and sweet as they both were unless you had another person to cling to, to keep you sane.
Sarah felt a silly prick of envy in her chest and pushed it down again. She had both of her parents, as dysfunctional as Jack and Emma were. But to have the kind of bond with another person that these two shared? The closest she'd ever come was Carina, but there still wasn't the level of comfort that she felt between Chuck and Ellie. And maybe that was her own fault, as much as she kept everything to herself.
For instance, it hadn't even occurred to her that Carina might be a person to go to about the explosion between her and Chuck after both of their stores closed last night. She didn't want to talk about it. At all. Certainly not with Carina. She'd get some sort of loud, honking I told you so and then her friend would ask too many personal questions about how it was. And it would just make everything feel so much more uncomfortable and awkward.
And scary.
But this was surprisingly lacking in the deep discomfort she thought might exist today, seeing him again… When the last time she'd seen him, he'd had her up against the shelves in the back of her store and was upending everything she thought she'd known about sex.
Well, it was lacking in deep discomfort. But now she was thinking about last night again and she could feel herself squirming, the heat rising up from the collar of her jacket.
She made a silly mistake and lifted her gaze to Chuck. His unapologetic openness, the kindness in his face as he gestured to her mom's plate and asked, "How'd you like the dessert empanada? They say that one is made the Cuban way." …Sarah wasn't sure how but the deep ache behind her belly button was there again. She quickly looked away from him, reaching up to tuck some of her hair that escaped the tie behind her ear.
"It's absolutely sinful," her mom muttered, polishing the last of it off. He giggled and nodded, the two of them sharing a pleased little look. "So!" she said then, seeming a lot bolder than Sarah'd ever seen her in public before. And then, there was the fact that she'd rarely actually seen her mom in public, come to think of it. "The important question. Have either of you seen any men hanging around this daughter of mine?"
Chuck choked a little on his coffee as Sarah exclaimed, "Mom, please!"
The innocent look on her mom's face was downright evil as Sarah felt a deep embarrassment assail her. She pressed one hand to her forehead as Chuck and Ellie both seemed struck silent.
"Mom, can you not do this?" she hissed, grabbing her mom's arm. Oh my God…
"What's wrong with what I'm doing?" Emma asked, shrugging. "It's a simple enough question. You never tell me anything, so I'm forced to go to other sources." She gestured to Chuck and Ellie.
"Yes, and this is why," Sarah groused, covering her face.
"I never hear anything about who she's dating, I never get to meet them, she never brings them by for dinner…nothing. Oh, stop that, Sarah. Come on. You're on this new journey with your store, surely there's a man somewhere…a customer or something?" God, she really couldn't stop, could she?
Sarah pushed her hands through her hair and gave her mom the meanest glare she possibly could without the Bartowskis thinking she absolutely despised her mom. At the moment, she was close to it. Why was she doing this here? Right now?
"I don't have time for that right now, Mom. Opening my own store, no employees, just me doing all of the work on my own… it's taken up my whole life. I don't have the time or, frankly, the energy. Please stop embarrassing me in front of my friends," she ended in a pleading whisper.
Emma cut her hand through the air, rolling her eyes. "Nonsense, that's an excuse."
"I'm not dating anybody right now and I'm not going to," she said steadily, carefully avoiding Chuck's gaze. He was the only person at this table who knew that she'd had sex last night, because he was the one she'd had sex with.
"Sarah doesn't need a man to be successful. I think that store is bigger and better and more of an impressive feat than any relationship with whatever guy could ever be," Ellie cut in, seeming to finally find her voice. "Starting a business is way harder than dating."
Chuck emitted a high-pitched hum of doubt and everyone turned to stare at him, Ellie with something of a glare. He cleared his throat and picked up his coffee, taking a gulp, looking down at the table in front of him and pursing his lips.
"I'm with him," Emma said, pointing at Chuck. The pained look on his face told Sarah he was well aware that her mom siding with him wasn't getting him out of trouble in the slightest. "Dating is harder than hell, but you hafta try!" She propped her crossed arms on the table, and leaned closer to her daughter. "You're never going to have anything happen if you don't try."
"I don't have time to try right now. Have you ever opened your own business, Mom? It takes a lot of work. I don't have employees right now. I'm running everything on my own. Doing all the orders from publishers," she said, counting everything off on her fingers, "reordering things that were sold because I need them back on the shelf, running the website and social media—sparse as that is—receiving shipments of books that come in, putting them in my POS system, then shelving them in the right place, pulling special orders, calling people about their orders, and running things on the sales floor, too. I get one day off a week, Mom. One. And that one day ends up being me at home, still working. Or I'm here and working but the store just isn't open. I'm just…trying to catch up. I don't ever actually get time off from working! And you want me to try dating?"
Sarah realized belatedly that she'd sort of gone on a downward spiral, her mouth running, no one stopping her—God forbid she stop herself. She halted and pulled her lips back between her teeth. She could feel how red her cheeks were.
And then her mom reached out to put a hand over hers, squeezing, and her voice interrupted the tense quiet at the table.
"See? God, Sarah, you need to give yourself a break."
Sarah shut her eyes tiredly, pinching the bridge of her nose. As always, Emma wasn't listening to her. Not at all. She rarely did, always too busy thinking about the next thing to listen to Sarah's response.
But Sarah wasn't going to blow up at her mom in front of these two people, easily the nicest people she was sure she'd ever met.
So she just sighed, sent Ellie a bit of a flat look, and muttered, "I do need a break. I know. I just can't right now."
"Hire someone. Then maybe you can date some handsome guy who loves books." Emma giggled, moving her hand to tuck more of Sarah's hair back and away from her face. "When you were younger, your little friends were talking about Prince this and Prince that, and here's my Sarah going on and on about wanting to be with someone who loves books as much as she—"
"Okay, and we're done," she interrupted, mortified.
Chuck was literally right here. The Chuck Bartowski. The man she was very obviously and clearly interested in—as evidenced by the sex they had last night.
And maybe her mom knew that in some way. Not that they'd had sex, but that there was a thread of interest or maybe even harmless crushes that developed between them. Emma had nudged her with her foot when she stared a little too long into the nerd's very gorgeous eyes.
So why was she torturing Sarah? Was this payback? For all the years she kept things from her mom? Would she really do something like that?
There was a certain smirk on her mom's face that made Sarah think maybe she would.
"Oh! There's a slow song playing. People are doing the thing. Devon isn't here and I need to get my slow dance on so you're it, brother." Ellie grabbed Chuck's arm and got up, pulling at him.
"I-I don't really…dance…"
"You are today. C'mon."
He looked back at Sarah and her mom, something seemed to click in him, and his eyes went wide. "Okay. Yeah. I'll, um, get over it. I need to go, erm…" He got up to his feet, his sister tugging on him. "…help fulfill my sister's dance bug. Excuse us, please."
"Of course," Emma said graciously.
Sarah nodded, and she watched them scamper off to the dance floor, aware of the fact that the Bartowskis were making their exit so that Sarah could talk to her mom truthfully and without other people sitting there staring at her as she did.
She couldn't decided if she loved them for it…or if she hated them.
A/N: There is more of the festival in the next chapter. Thanks for reading and please leave a review if you're able.
Thanks!
-SC