Four Player Ruse

By Steampunk . Chuckster

Summary: When a fake blind date goes wrong, Sarah Walker, president of a major frozen food developer, finds her life inextricably entwined with Chuck Bartowski, one of her company's top food researchers. Contracts, bad behavior, idiocy, madcappery...and maybe even love follows. AU. Charah and Ellie/Devon.

A/N: Thanks for the notes you're sending me. I hope you continue to enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own the TV show Chuck or its characters.

Chuck buried his face in his hands as Ellie cracked up. He moved his hands to his ears, trying to block the sound.

"You are such a brat, you know that?"

She covered her mouth as if trying to stop her laughter but he knew better than that.

She wasn't actually trying to stop the laughter.

"Is there any way you could make yourself look crazier?" she asked through the laughter. She used tongs to pick some beef off of the grill in the middle of the table between them and put some on the pile of rice he'd put on his plate for him. "There. Have some protein. It'll help."

Chuck sighed and picked up his fork, skewering the piece of marinated beef, gathering some rice, and eating it. As he chewed, he watched his best friend continue cooking the meat between them.

"You really dove into her car?"

"Yes." He groaned around the food, swallowing and tilting his head back to the ceiling, shaking his fist up at the heavens above. "Out of all the gin joints…"

Ellie giggled. "It's insane you dove into anyone's car in this day and age, but I just can't believe the nearest car to you was Sarah Walker's. I mean, that's just fate."

He glowered. "It is not fate. Me and Sarah Walker are not fated. Fate has me nowhere near her. I work for her family's corporation, that's about it. But I think I was nuts enough that she's really not gonna pursue this time. Ugh."

"I don't think you're out of the woods. You get crazier and she wants to marry you even more. I might just have to bite the bullet and tell Thomas to get the fuck back here and introduce himself as the real Thomas Baxter. This is getting too deep." She sighed.

Chuck could only stare at the Crawford Group princess. "Ellie. Are you seriously saying this now? I have been saying that same thing for days and you still made me do that shit last night. I think we've been too deep. We have no way out now." He groaned again. "This is the worst."

"Why's she want you so bad? There has to be a reason."

"Yeah, duh. Merging of the families. Walkers and Baxters. That's a lot of capital."

"But Ice Q Foods is way, way more successful. Marrying into the Baxters, while it'd be more profitable than marrying a fuggin' convenience store clerk, it's not going to add that much more capital to Ice Q Foods. Bottom line, there has to be something else." A sly smile grew on her face. "What if Sarah Walker is falling for you, dear Charles Irving?"

His eyes narrowed of their own volition, even as his chest lurched a certain way. "Can you please not say such ridiculous shit to me when I'm trying to digest?"

"Why shouldn't she fall for you? You're a cutie."

"Shut up. I'm so serious."

"Just the cutest little—"

"I'll shove this beer bottle down your throat."

"—violent nerd."

They laughed together and he shook his head. "You need to fix this. I clearly can't do it. Every time I do something nuts, she seems to cling harder. Thomas is a coward piece of shit and he won't answer your texts or calls, so he isn't gonna do it. So it has to be you. Girl meets girl, girl tells other girl that the guy she's going after isn't the guy she thinks, puts on a sob show about how the real guy is a cheating asshole who used her to wreck the blind date and then cheated on her…" He faked sobbing, taking a swig of his beer in the meantime.

"You really know nothing about women, hon."

"Yeah. Big surprise."

"Maybe if you didn't put all your eggs in one crappy basket named Shrill Uglyberts…"

"It's Jill Roberts. Stop coming up with shitty nicknames. It's not even clever."

"I thought it was kinda clever." She sipped her own beer, then ate a clump of rice with beef. "You would've dated a lot more if you didn't hang your hat on a rickety, broken hat rack all the time."

"I can't help it. And she isn't broken just because she doesn't return my feelings. It happens to people all the time."

"Maybe. But she has terrible taste. You've been right there from the start and she looks past you like you're a ghost. Tsk tsk. And at Stanford, how she dated that…Bryce guy who went off to business school and left her in the dust." Ellie stirred her rice distractedly then. "She deserved it."

"Ellie, that's so mean."

"She deserves mean. She may not have any interest in you, but you think she isn't purposely dragging you along on a string just in case she changes her mind and needs a nice cute guy around instead of the hottie model with the nice car?"

"That isn't how she is."

"Bet."

Chuck let out a rough breath. "Can we change the subject?"

"Yes, back to Sarah Walker."

"Right, her. Because you're going to sit her down and tell her the truth. Right?"

"Yes. I am. And I'm going to pit all of the blame on Thomas Bastard."

"That…I will cheers to. Ha."

They picked up their beers and clinked them together.

He could not wait to get out of this mess.

}o{

She delicately picked up the perfectly cooked piece of bacon between her fingers and took a bite, savoring it as her dad's cook slash maid poured her coffee. She glanced up at the woman with a "Thank you, Norma."

Norma smiled with a nod and moved away.

A booming voice nearly made her drop the bacon.

"There she is! My daughter! The soon-to-be bride!"

Sarah bit her lip and watched as Jack Walker triumphantly walked around to the other side of the table and took a seat.

"In no time at all, I'm gonna be Grandpa Jack. I can't wait. I'm gonna buy him those little model airplanes. We'll put it together, the two of us. Grandpa and Grandson. And if it's a girl? We'll…play with dolls! Yeah! I don't care, I'm just excited." He chuckled, shoveling his food in his mouth.

"You aren't…getting a little ahead of things, Dad?" She winced. "There's not even a date for any wedding…" In fact, as it stood now there was no groom.

"Not at all. We should have it at the hotel we own. You know that top floor has a beautiful garden room. I think it'd be perfect."

"Well, let's slow down a little. Nobody has…proposed yet."

That wasn't even true.

She had.

More than once.

And she'd been rejected more than once. It stung a little, but she also understood it.

And still… if she couldn't marry Thomas Baxter, she was slowly discovering that she wouldn't mind even just spending time with him, learning more about him, having someone she could be real with, herself with. Not that Devon wasn't a great best friend, but to have someone to start completely over with, who didn't know her backstory, her issues, sounded really nice.

"Nobody has proposed yet?"

"Don't worry, it'll happen," Sarah insisted. One thing she'd never struggled with was lying to her dad, telling him what he wanted to hear. She'd gotten really good at it. Devon was the one who struggled with it, the Boy Scout that he was.

"Good!" He clapped his hands together, eating more of the food. He spoke around the deviled egg he put in his mouth. "You know? It's so funny, Thomas Baxter has a reputation." He swallowed, licking his lips. Then he sipped the coffee in front of him. "Mmm. That young man is known for being nuts on blind dates. You aren't the first girl he was set up with. His parents are very serious about the blind date thing, getting themselves grandchildren. They're worse than me even. I just started on this…but they've been at it since the kid turned sixteen." He chuckled. "He's always scared them away by being insane on dates, really just crazy…"

"And you still set me up with him when you knew that?"

"I didn't know it until you told me you wanted to marry him," her dad said with a roll of his eyes. "Don't overreact." Oohhh wow, he knew how to push her buttons, didn't he? She could feel Devon wincing even though he wasn't even in the room. "I did some research on the kid!" He shrugged, sipping more coffee. "And that guy who couldn't get along with anyone else found a keeper in my daughter." He grinned happily. "Did I raise you right or what?"

Sarah tried her best not to clench her jaw so that he could see.

"He fell in love with my Sarah the moment he saw her. Yeeeeesh. Those looks, hon. I told you they'd be our biggest asset." He shook his finger at her and went back to his food again.

Sarah turned to look down at her phone as it buzzed with a text.

THOMAS BAXTER (2nd phone): "Are you free tonight?"

Relief went through her and she smiled. He'd texted her from one of his numbers. He wanted to see her. She texted back: "Yes. Where are we meeting?"

As a restaurant she was familiar with and a time popped up on her phone, she felt slightly better about things. If he wanted to see her, it couldn't be all bad. He was seriously confusing the hell out of her though. Jumping into her car even after rejecting her inside of the restaurant… though she still felt like he was acting extremely weird, besides the whole jumping into a random car thing. Like he was hiding or something.

He was weird.

There was no way of getting around that fact.

But the more she spent time with him, the more her future loomed daunting and frustrating in front of her, the more she decided she wanted him.

}o{

"Okay, there. She's coming. Now, instead of me, she'll meet you there," Chuck said into his cell's speaker phone as he tied his tie for work. "And what are you telling her?"

"You already grilled me enough on what to say, don't you think?"

"I'm just checking. We need to end this nonsense once and for all."

"Ugggh fine," Ellie groaned out of his phone. "Thomas's asshole ass and I hired an actor through an agency to pretend to be him and act nuts and scare her off so that it was the worst blind date ever. But it backfired and now I want to set the record straight and apologize profusely. But also she should know that Thomas Baxter sucks the worst because he cheated on me after all that."

"Yes. Hopefully she pities you more than she's pissed at you."

"Great. I love to be pitied, it's my favorite thing," Ellie drawled.

Chuck was still laughing as he hung up the phone.

}o{

Sarah Walker loved Ice Q Foods with everything in her. But she would be lying if she said that meant she got her coffee from their café in the lobby every morning. She wasn't a big fan of all of the fancy stuff with the froths and the five million flavors and snazzy cups with the sippy lids and blah blah.

So she took her coffee at home. She made it exactly the way she liked it, and sometimes, she took even more in a travel mug if she knew her day would be extra stressful.

But this morning, everything had been off after breakfast and she didn't know why. She'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed, that conversation with her dad had put her off eating much, and she hadn't finished her coffee. She'd been running late for an early meeting and hadn't had time to put it in a travel mug.

So here she was, waiting for a hot latte at the Ice Q Foods employee cafe in the lobby. Because maybe the only way to tackle how backwards her morning had started was to embrace it and get something new. Not just coffee with a little cream and sugar, but a latte. Or whatever. She'd just gone with it.

"President Walker, your latte…erm, ma'am. Miss." The barista seemed stressed to find the president of the company standing at his register. He was sweating buckets. "I-I hope you enjoy it, I put a lot of…effort…into making it… I think it'll be the best latte I've ever made. Ahem. Miss."

She smiled at him. "Thank you…" She lowered her eyes to his tag. "Raymond."

He beamed, blushing.

She had that effect sometimes too. And she knew it.

Sarah decided not to go up right away. That earlier meeting had run a little long and she wanted to decompress with her…latte.

She took a careful sip, feeling how hot it was even through the protective cardboard sleeve. She peered at it, wondering if they could do better than this nonsensical thin strip of cardboard. Maybe something more recycled but something that properly blocked heat instead of conducting it straight into someone's fingers.

Sighing, she moved over to the floor to ceiling window and peered out at Los Angeles at ground level: the morning traffic on the street, people bustling on the sidewalk, a man and his dog sitting on one of the benches in the recreational area in front of Ice Q Foods. He seemed to be teaching his dog how to beg for treats.

"Shit!"

She spun just in time to watch as a cup filled with almond-colored coffee and ice crashed into the floor, sending droplets onto her expensive pumps and her shins.

"Oh! OH NO!" A man picked up the cup and set it to the side, grabbing a fist of napkins from a nearby table and staggering back.

She couldn't see his face as he knelt before her, mopping up the iced coffee drink.

"I AM SO SORRY! I'M SO SORRY! THE OUTSIDE OF THE CUP WAS SWEATING AND MY FINGERS ARE COLD AND THE WORST THING EVER HAPPENED I AM SO SORRY LEMME GET MORE NAPKINS!"

Sarah Walker found she was too in shock to say much back, merely frozen to her spot, looking down at her coffee-spattered shoes and legs.

Raymond was already there, damp cloth in hand. "Here, President Walker. For your shoes!"

She took it with a quiet thanks, kneeling to wipe at her legs thoroughly, when she heard Raymond turn to hiss at the clumsy employee in the lab coat. "Bartowski, what the crap! I gave you a napkin to hold it!"

"I-I-I didn't—I didn't think it'd be—I'm really so sorry, President Walker! I'm so sorry!"

She paused, watching as Raymond gave the other employee a scorching look even as he used another cloth to mop up the coffee from the floor. Bartowski…

Now less focused on her legs and instead dabbing at her shoes, thanking God she'd worn a smooth surface shoe rather than suede or something, she knelt even lower to where the men were and looked up at the offender.

The name tag made her freeze.

Charles Bartowski.

That lab researcher, the one who'd come up with all of those great ideas. The awkward guy who'd slid into the elevator with her, her dad, and Devon…after much coaxing…and who seemed very strange.

Now he'd spilled coffee all over the floor and her.

He couldn't catch a break, could he?

"It's fine," she reassured, finishing up and handing the cloth back to Raymond. "I've had worse. No harm done."

"I'm really sorry about this, President," Raymond said again, tossing the cloths into a bucket he brought with him. "I'll make sure this floor is sparkling soon."

"I-I can do the mopping if—" Bartowski tried.

"You've done enough," Raymond cut in, glaring. He bowed a bit towards Sarah with a smile, grabbed his bucket, and dashed off.

Leaving her alone with the researcher who had spun to look out of the window, his profile red as a beet.

"You aren't fired or anything," she tried to joke. "Don't worry."

"Hah. Um…" His voice was tight, caught in his throat. "Seriously, I'm so sorry."

Why wasn't he looking at her? She stepped a little closer to the glass to try to see him, but he seemed to flinch and turn his head even more so that she couldn't. Strange. Was he really that mortified that he couldn't even look at her?

"It's okay. Really. Accidents happen." There was a very uncomfortable air between them and she talked through it. "Charles Bartowski." She pointed to his tag. "You came up with the idea for the carb-watchers fried dumpling soup. Right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that was me." He seemed to almost wince.

"That was brilliant and I'm still pissed off they didn't approve it."

He gasped a little, turning just slightly more towards her, excitement rising to the surface. "I know! I was really disappointed. I worked hard at it b-but I think maybe it was ahead of its time…?"

"They said nobody watching their carbs is eating fried dumpling soup," she said, rolling her eyes. "But people who give up eating certain things, or cut down at the very least, love when they can keep eating the same unhealthy tasting crap but…healthier."

"Thank you! It's like vegetarians eating boca burgers!"

She giggled at that. "Or vegans drinking plant-based milk?"

"Yep! Oh, I feel so validated." He hissed. "I spilled coffee on you and then you swoop in to make my morning. I feel extra guilty now," he said, and a corner of his mouth tilted up in a smile.

She spied his tag again.

SENIOR RESEARCHER GROUP 1

CHARLES BARTOWSKI.

She was definitely remembering him.

"Don't feel guilty. There isn't any coffee on me now. The shoes survived. You'll need a new coffee though…"

He wrinkled up the part of his face she could see at least. "You know what? I'm giving up coffee after this. I think it's for the best."

Sarah snorted.

There was a dinging sound from his pocket and he made a sort of cute squeaking sound, scrambling to pull his phone out of his pocket. "Shit, my prosciutto is curing and it's done. I gotta go get it. You can't cure prosciutto too much, it gets all gross and dry!"

He spun to face away from the window, but now she was only looking at the other half of his face.

"Have a good day, President Walker! Thanks for being so nice about the coffee and I'm really sorry again!"

Sarah watched as he literally sprinted out of the cafe space and towards the elevators, looking like a tall, gangly…giraffe or something with a white cape flowing behind him.

Raymond came back, rolling a large yellow bucket with water, a mop sticking out of it. "Sorry again, President Walker. He's a good kid, that one. But he's kind of a dope. Good heart. But, man…spilling on the president? Not a great morning for him."

"Is he…sort of strange?" she asked quietly. She wasn't sure if she was even looking for an answer.

"Yeah. But as the café manager, I'm here pretty much all the time, and I can say for a fact, the guy comes in before I do and leaves after I do. All the time. Bartowski works really hard for this place. And he loves his job."

Sarah leaned back a little against the window, feeling the warmth of the morning sun conducting through the glass and into her shoulders. "Hm. Thanks for cleaning up, Raymond. And thanks for the latte. It's good," she said, even though she hadn't had a chance for even one sip yet.

"Sure. Sure thing, President Walker. Don't be too hard on the kid, either. He has butter fingers but…"

"I know," she said, shaking her head. "Strange he may be, but I like his work. A lot. He's an outside-of-the-box researcher. That's what we need here."

She bid the café manager farewell and took her coffee with her, heading for the elevators, almost a little disappointed when the coffee-spilling senior researcher had seemed to already catch one.

She stood alone in the elevator lobby and sighed, looking down at her latte.

And then she shrugged and pressed the button to call an elevator down to her.

}o{

Chuck still wasn't over the deeply embarrassing—and definitely unfair—mishap downstairs when Roan Montgomery, one of his superiors on the Researchers Group 1 team, sidled into the lab kitchen.

"Somebody spilled coffee all over President Walker in the café downstairs earlier. Did you guys hear?" He cracked up.

Chuck's ears went bright red. "Well, I'm…sure it was an accident," he mumbled, focusing on his prosciutto.

"I'm sure it was but I'd hate to be that poor sap," Roan laughed. "Ooohhh, funny. With how frigid and icy she is, it's a wonder they survived the mishap. Might've had a beheading right there in the lobby."

Shaking his head, he looked up, feeling a little defensive. "She isn't frigid and icy." Roan, Diane, and Morgan all turned to give him looks, and then they exchanged looks with each other. "So I've…heard. I heard she's not that standoffish actually and she cares about the company a lot."

Morgan shrugged. "Well, yeah, I'm sure she cares, buddy. She's way better than the asshole they fired for embezzlement at least. And I don't feel anxiety over getting fired for the smallest things like I did before. Still, I hear she is kinda…erm…frosty."

Chuck just shrugged back because arguing was only going to make him look suspicious.

He needed to keep his mouth shut.

But Morgan let out a little groan as he went back to work. Moments later, he let out another. Seconds passed, and he groaned again.

"Okay, you're over here sounding like the Titanic slowly sinking," Roan said then, crossing the kitchen to nudge their junior colleague. "What's with you, kid?"

"Remember how I said I maybe had a dating prospect?" He frowned. "I think I was being played. Or well…gosh, really I think I played myself."

Chuck turned and frowned. "Hey… Buddy, what happened? I thought you met up with a girl at a restaurant or something and you kept going back because there was something there. Didn't you say you asked her on a date and she said yes?"

Morgan's shoulders sagged and he frowned, turning to lean back against the counter. "She just started dating an old ex or something again. Some guy who was out of town for, like…business school. She let me down easy, said she thought I asked her for coffee as a friend. She actually believed what she was saying too, which is…" He groaned again. "So much more embarrassing, you guys. I thought there was something and she was like 'oh this bearded gnome wants to be friends, how cute, I'll give him a shot I guess'. Oh, I'm such a loser."

"Stop it," Chuck said, nudging him with his fist. "You aren't a loser. I've misread things with women before. Everyone's misread." He shrugged. "Who was this girl, anyway? You never said."

"She owns a restaurant near Chinatown. It's a really fancy, expensive hotshot restaurant. The one called Collette's. It's French cuisine."

A cold sweat broke out as Chuck froze. Diane and Roan looked up in shock as well.

"Wait, is that the Jill Roberts restauranteur? That kind of pretty girl with the brown hair and bangs and glasses who is starting to get buzz for her new restaurant?" Diane asked.

"The same. Uuugghhhh." Morgan held his hands in his head and looked up at the ceiling in misery. "Why did I ever think she would want to date meeee? Just because she was nice when I went to the restaurant with my mom. Oh Godddd."

Chuck almost let out a commiserating chuckle. He knew their newest employee wouldn't take it the right way though so he held it in. He knew exactly what it felt like to fool himself into thinking he had a shot with Jill Roberts. He'd done so for just about seven freaking years, ever since meeting her in college.

"I get you, man."

"Does he ever," he heard Roan mumble. "Ow!"

Diane jabbed him with her elbow and sent daggers at him from her eyes. He shrugged as if what he'd just joked about wasn't shitty.

"What d'you mean?" Morgan asked.

"Oh, nothing," Roan chirped, going back to his work.

Diane cleared her throat. "Jill and Chuck go way back, that's all Roan is saying. So Chuck…understands…what you mean about…ahem, Ms. Roberts the restauranteur."

Morgan turned to Chuck. "Oh yeah? You two have a history?" He gasped. "Oh no, is it a romantic history? Dude, I didn't know! I would never have—"

"No, no, no," Chuck rushed out, squeezing Morgan's shoulder. "Dude, don't. Really. There's nothing. Seriously."

"One-sided…" Roan said, receiving another elbow. "Ouch! What? We tell the truth in Group 1 lab kitchen."

Morgan turned back to Chuck again. "Well, you don't have to worry about me. Doubt she'll even wanna be friends at this point. She let me down real easy. Ugh. Sorry for stepping on toes."

"You didn't!" Chuck insisted, feeling extremely uncomfortable. "Whatever those two say about it, the—Look, Jill and I aren't a thing. Never have been. Never will be." He swallowed the lump in his throat. "We're, um, we're friends. We've known each other since college. That's all."

Everyone went back to work again, but something Morgan said suddenly came back to the forefront.

Jill was back with an ex now? An ex who'd left for business school?

Bryce.

Bryce Larkin must have moved to LA. The slick, cool, always driving nice cars, looking like a model, accounting major at Stanford had gone back to the East Coast where he'd grown up for business school after graduating, leaving Jill behind.

And like an idiot, Chuck thought that him and Jill settling in Los Angeles together and Bryce being on the other side of the country and likely not coming back meant he might have some semblance of a shot, but he was a fool for thinking that.

Still, the feelings lingered like plaque on his teeth. No amount of flossing would get that brilliant freaking chef and entrepreneur out of his teeth. Damn it.

Bryce was back.

They were dating again.

He hadn't felt this low in a while.

}o{

She really had done all of this to herself, only this time she'd yanked Chuck along into her mess too. And she had a lot of guilt about it.

He was right. She needed to take responsibility this time and she couldn't get Chuck to bail her out.

As many times as she'd bailed him out of trouble, the bullies she'd wrecked before he started growing into his big feet, the time she took the blame when Chuck put a dent in Stephen's brand new Chevy truck when they were in high school to get the heat off of him… They always came out even in the end.

Only this time she wondered if she'd gone too far.

Ellie only hoped she could get Chuck out of it this time, and in the process herself.

She would throw Thomas Baxter under the bus so hard, and she hoped Sarah Walker reversed the bus over his limp body afterwards, too. It served him right.

Maybe Chuck was right. If she played her cards well, she could get the president of Ice Q Foods to pity her enough that she wouldn't completely despise her.

"Ah!" Ellie slammed her foot on the brake when she found a spot along the street, wondering why she'd picked a restaurant with notoriously bad parking. But the moment she did, she felt a thump against her back bumper and her car jolted forward. "Shit! What the hell?!"

She spun in her seat to look. A large black SUV hadn't stopped in time and she felt awful for not even thinking to look behind her before she stopped so suddenly.

She'd have to take the blame for it and who knew if they'd try to fleece her if they found out she was high up in Crawford Group?

Ellie pulled into the spot quickly and skillfully, then climbed out as the owner of the SUV got out from behind the steering wheel.

Her jaw practically fell onto the pavement as the deliciously built blond came around to the front of the SUV and stopped, fixing his glasses on his nose. "Oh. It's you."

"It's you," she breathed at the same time.

The man she'd ran into outside of the convenience store.

"M'sorry, I-I-I sh—I should—I should've looked," she rushed out, wondering how in the hell she acted so stupidly in front of this man of her fucking dreams. This was too cruel. Was this a bunch of karma in a row or something?

"No, no. Please. I should've been quicker with my foot on the brake. Uh…"

"Your car okay?" She knew she was blushing so hard as she went into her purse to take one of her cards out.

He glanced back at it and then smiled kindly at her. "If anything, it's a minor dent that can just be buffed out. It's no big d—Oh."

She thrusted her card into his hand. "Please take that. Call me to cover any repair work."

"You-You did an exceptional job, erm…with the parallel parking, though. All things considered."

And he was sweet, too?

She was in lo—

"Eleanor Crawford?" He swallowed hard. "L-Like Crawford Group? The big beauty products place? Crawford beauty supply stores all over California and New York? Th-That's you?"

"Joyce Crawford is my aunt. So I guess so." She smiled her most dazzling smile. "And you are?"

"Oh. Right. Dev—"

"What happened out here?!"

They both turned and Ellie watched as one of the most gorgeous women she thought she'd ever seen in her life came towards them along the sidewalk as if she'd seen a commotion from inside of the restaurant and hurried out. She wore a beautiful burgundy dress that went to her knees and her hair was wrapped in an intricate updo behind her head. The black wrap around her shoulders looked like satin or something. God, she was elegant, put-together, close to perfect.

And that was just how all of this seemed to work out these days, so this had to be Sarah Walker, president of Ice Q Foods…and Chuck's boss's…boss's…boss's…boss's…boss? A lot of bosses existed between their rankings.

"Mr. Woodcomb, everything okay?" she asked when neither of them spoke up, concern in her pretty blue eyes.

Mr. Woodcomb? Ellie spun to look at her dream man. He looked right back at her. He didn't understand. He couldn't. But this was all so much more complicated than she'd hoped for.

"Yes, Ms. Walker. We just had a small bump of bumpers." He chuckled adorably. "Nothing terrible."

"Oh. We can compensate you for any damages, miss. It's not—"

"It was my fault!" Ellie interjected. "Totally. I stopped dead to try to get this spot and… You're Sarah Walker. Aren't you?"

The blond woman blinked, straightening her spine a bit and pulling her shoulders back. "Yes…?"

"Then you're who I'm here to meet."

She furrowed her brow. "You are? Who are you?" And then something must've occurred to her then because she huffed in frustration and rolled her eyes back to look up at the moon. "Did Mr. Baxter send an assistant or something instead of coming himself? I swear, I—"

"Uh, Sar—Ms. Walker? I wouldn't—" Mr. Woodcomb tried.

"This man is shameless. He's the one who set this up—"

"Ms. Walker, this is Eleanor Crawford. Not…Thomas Baxter's assistant."

She looked confused again. "Crawford? Why's that familiar?"

Ellie tried to convey every ounce of kindness she was capable of as she moved to the sidewalk and approached the other woman. She was tall, Ellie realized. Much taller than she'd figured on the president being. It…weirdly fit with how tall Chuck was. And she didn't know why she was thinking that in this dire situation.

"Please, can we go inside to our table? I'll explain everything. I promise. And wine might be necessary."

"Our table? I'm afraid you're mistaken. I'm meeting Thomas Baxter from the Baxter…" Her voice faded and it seemed realization was starting to settle in the clearly intelligent woman. "He isn't coming. He set this up for you to come in his place. Didn't he?"

Ellie winced. "Yes. But please don't send me away. This is my fault—well, mine and Thomas's—and I need to fix it. Please, Ms. Walker."

She felt a lot more guilty suddenly as she saw what seemed to be disappointment under the blonde's curiosity. Did she…actually like Chuck? Or Chuck pretending to be Thomas, rather?

Sarah Walker nodded and gestured for her to follow her inside.

When they sat at their table, Sarah immediately asked for a red wine, sending Ellie a questioning look, to which Ellie smile and nodded. She'd drink anything at this point. Crap, this was so awkward.

"So answer me one thing first," Sarah said when they were left alone at the table. Ellie took in her surroundings and knew immediately that Sarah Walker had gotten a nice romantic table with a view of the sea. The guilt piled on.

She did like him. She actually liked him.

And now Ellie would dash her hope, kill any amount of like Sarah Walker had harbored, and completely obliterate the woman's pride in the meantime. She felt awful for it.

"Of course," Ellie replied, folding her hands on top of the table.

"Does Mr. Baxter hate me this much? All this yanking me around on a chain…"

Ellie frowned. "He doesn't hate you." She clicked her teeth in annoyance at herself and shut her eyes for a moment. When she looked at Sarah, she saw the other woman was being patient, her arms crossed at her chest. She really was insanely pretty. If Chuck had fucked up at any point and wasn't crazy enough in front of this woman, Ellie completely understood it now.

"Sorry. I'm going to ask that you just listen. And I know this is going to make you…very angry. Thomas Baxter is my ex. Well, sort of an ex. We were seeing each other but we didn't…label it or each other." She winced, seeing the surprise and a hint of distrust in the other woman's face. "First thing you need to know is that he's an asshole."

Sarah's eyebrows went up. "Did he send you here to warn me away from him? Because that isn't necessary—"

"No, it's not that. Because it isn't actually him." The blonde was confused again. "The person you've been meeting, the person you went on a blind date with a few days ago…that isn't Thomas Baxter. It's a…hired guy from an agency."

Her arms dropped from where they were crossed, hands falling into her lap.

"…What? Hired?"

"Thomas and I were seeing each other, his parents were forcing him on this blind date with someone he didn't want to date since he was already seeing me. I didn't want him to do it either…" She shrugged. "So we did something shitty and we…went through an agency to send someone to pretend to be him." Ellie pulled her phone out as she saw anger starting to rise in the woman's pretty face. "I'm glad I didn't delete everything I took with Thomas when he two-timed me and I broke it off with his cheating ass, but here." She turned the phone to show Sarah Walker one of the selfies she'd taken with Thomas when they were watching TV on his couch late one night. "That's Thomas Baxter. The man you met isn't him."

Sarah's jaw fell open and she sat back against her chair again. And then she snapped her mouth shut with a loud click and her jaw clenched. "So I was conned."

"No, no. Money had nothing to do with this. He was supposed to act like a madman, you would leave the date never wanting to see Thomas again, and that'd be that. Only you…"

"I liked him." Sarah cursed and pressed her fingers to her forehead. "This is one of the more mortifying moments of my life."

"For what it's worth, I'm terribly sorry for my part I played in this. I didn't mean for anyone to be hurt by it. I suppose we figured you didn't want to be on that blind date either. That you were there to appease a…parent or guardian or something. Certainly we didn't expect you to…"

"Fall for a madman?"

Ellie winced hard. Had she fallen? This would be so so much worse if she had.

"So…" She made an annoyed sound and just then the waiter came back with the wine. She seemed quite eager for him to pour and as he left the bottle and moved away again, Sarah picked up her glass and downed it, pouring more immediately and downing that, then pouring more again. "Shit. So that wasn't Thomas Baxter."

"It wasn't. If it makes you feel better, you dodged a bullet…unlike me. I definitely got mine," she drawled flatly, rolling her eyes. She sipped her wine, leaning her cheek in her palm, elbow propped on the table rudely. "Not too long after that first blind date, I caught the piece of shit seeing another woman."

Sarah hissed, wrinkling up her face. "Did he really?"

"Mm."

Tilting her head, she raised an eyebrow. "Interesting…"

Ellie wondered why this was going very different from what she'd expected. She'd expected rage, humiliation, maybe she'd throw things or flip a table. Instead, she'd been mortified, angry, sure…but there was almost a contemplative air to her at the moment. It was almost scarier.

"Interesting?" She leaned in a little, knowing she was sort of sticking her neck out to get chopped sitting like this.

"Mhm. You might wanna ask the Fake Thomas Baxter how much he actually knows about the Real Thomas Baxter because one of his tactics to make me run in the other direction was to boast about how he's a womanizer. That's quite a thing to make up only for it to be absolutely true about the real guy."

Ellie stopped for a moment, Sarah's words settling…and she found herself giggling. And then the giggle became a laugh, a very nervous laugh. Sarah merely smirked. "Sorry. I don't mean to laugh, only that is…a little funny. I suppose I can laugh now, but I wasn't laughing when I found out he was such a fucking bastard."

"Hope you weren't in love…"

"No," Ellie groused, shaking her head. "It was just fun." She shrugged then, sipping more wine. "I really am so sorry. Things got out of hand when you kept wanting to see…Fake Thomas." She nearly said CHUCK, God help her. "The hole kept getting dug deeper and deeper. So I asked him to text you for one last date so that I could meet you and tell you everything. I'm so so sorry, Sarah. Ms. Walker, I mean."

Sarah shrugged. And then something seemed to click in her mind as she narrowed her eyes at the brunette. "Hold on. You said you contacted this…agency hire. Who is he?"

Shit. This really wasn't going the way she'd expected. Sarah getting angrier, blowing her top, and stomping out would be much better than this.

"Oh. Um…I don't know. The agency just sort of sent a guy and I-I called him…erm…Thomas. I think there's, like…a privacy thing."

And now she was lying extra hard. Damn it.

"I see. That's unfortunate."

Ellie cleared her throat, crossing her arms on the table. "Are you…planning to get back at the actor guy? I mean, he was just doing his job…"

Sarah Walker pointedly didn't answer the question, which scared Ellie shitless. "You do know this whole thing won't look good for you, right? The fact that you and this Baxter guy conspired to con me instead of letting him go on the date himself is pretty damning. If he's as much of a bastard as you say, I'm sure the date wouldn't have gone well anyway." She shrugged, sitting back against her chair, crossing her arms, and raising an eyebrow.

Oh boy. She was formidable. And she was plotting something. Ellie could tell, only she didn't know what was being plotted. She had a terrible feeling.

"Maybe you can just say it didn't work out with you and Thomas Baxter and call it all off? And not mention all this other stuff?" Ellie winced, knowing she was asking for a lot. "My aunt already hates my guts. This will make it so much worse for me at the house." She hid her face in her hands and groaned.

There was a long, thoughtful pause, and she peeked up at Sarah carefully.

She was gnawing on the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. "How about we make a deal then? I'll drop my pursuit of Thomas Baxter—that's a given, I definitely don't want the real one—and I won't tell them the details about why, I won't say what you did. I'll refrain from making you a pariah in our social circles…" Ellie's heart was in her throat. "…if you bring the man the agency sent to me. I want to see him. Bring him to me and sit him in front of me, just like we're sitting now. I want to know who he is, and I want to meet him again."

Ellie knew she must look ridiculous with the way she was staring at the other woman with her mouth gaping and green eyes wide, but did Sarah Walker just blackmail her to be her own personal bounty hunter?

She was trying to get Chuck off of the hook, and she thought this meeting just made things so much worse for them both.

A/N: He's in so much trouble. Heheh. Thanks for reading. I'd appreciate y'all letting me know what you think if you have the time.

-SC