Accidentally In Love (Peter Hale Fanfiction) ON HOLD

Chapter Two: Beautiful

            When I came to, my sincerest hope was that the attractive man, Peter Hale, would be gone. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to go? I pass out, he catches me and tucks me in bed before leaving without so much as a goodbye? Unfortunately for me, my life was not a rom-com. I woke up on the floor in my living room with a pulsating beat throbbing through my head and a nice view of Peter’s chest as he kneeled down beside me. Muscles twitched and rippled with his every movement, and I watched in dizzy fascination.

“Are you alright?” he asked in a voice deepened with concern and mild caution, and even in my borderline-comatose state goose bumps rose on my arms.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” I mumbled, sitting up and accepting the hand that he outstretched. While I’d like to say that sparks flew or electricity zapped from the contact, all that really happened was my blush deepened to the point where I felt tears spring up in my eyes and my knees began to tremble again. His palm was rough and scratchy, his grip so firm that it threatened to leave finger-shaped bruises on the back of my hand; the sheer masculinity that radiated off of Peter Hale was making my head spin.

“Um, so…hi. I’m Charlie.” Could you sound any more childish? Who even says “hi” anymore? I mentally berated myself as I attempted to break the awkward silence now that we were both standing and pretending that I hadn’t just fainted from Peter’s good looks. When I’d risen, I’d automatically turned to face Peter, while he had opened up to stand by my side, so now we stood uncomfortably, not quite looking at each other but not quite not either.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Charlie.”

“You, too. So, um, what b-brings you by?” I stuttered, running a hand through my loose brown waves and trying not to fidget.

“My niece and nephew, actually. They told me they met a very nice girl who lived in 6B, so I was planning on coming up to introduce myself when I heard a loud bang come from your apartment. I thought you might be in trouble, so I…knocked,” Peter explained, shooting me a sideways half-smile that made my stomach clench and another wave of heat engulf me. Yeesh, this man is too hot to be talking to me.

“Oh, thank you. That’s really nice of you.” The conversation was getting too awkward for me to bear and the urge to attack his face with my mouth was getting stronger by the second, so I decided to pull a classic escape.

“Well I’ve really got to get some sleep before work tomorrow, so…”

“Right. Well, um, I’ll see you around, Carly,” Peter said with one last nod of his head before he slipped out into the hallway and I nearly slammed the door shut as my cheeks burned so hot that I figured they’d caught fire when I wasn’t paying attention.

“It’s Charlie,” I muttered under my breath, pulling my hair back into a messy bun and dismissing the junk in my living room with a wave of my hand as I headed to my room. I had just enough energy left to put the sheets on and plug in my phone to charge before I buried myself under the comfort of my duvet and tried to forget my horrific encounter with the Hales.

***                                                        ***                                                      ***

            A couple days later, I was at work, sweeping a multitude of blush, bronzer, and eyeshadow off the floor when Annie came scurrying over to me, an elated expression on her face.

“A couple of teenagers just came in. Now’s our chance to get them to spread the word about the BB,” she told me in an excited stage-whisper, knocking the broom right out of my hands and gesturing for me to go over and talk to them. The BB was our acronym for The Beauty Bar, and Annie was getting anxious over the fact that most of our current customers were either women going through mid-life crises or obnoxious tweens who think that blush is just a popular brand of pink eyeshadow. With a heavy sigh and a painfully fake smile plastered on my face, I sauntered over to the two girls in the way that only saleswomen can.