The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

42: Such A Darling

What had come over her? Usually she could barely get a sentence out in the presence of an unfamiliar boy, much less one as handsome as this, and yet here she was, having to sit on her hands to make sure she didn't touch him without permission.

Yes, she was in big, big trouble, and she wasn't sure there was anything she could do about it.

Looking back up, James answered her question with a shy half-shrug. "I like to read."

Entirely without meaning to, Charlie made a squeak in the back of her throat. "You do?" she asked, all wide-eyed and wonderstruck. James nodded, and she smiled so wide her eyes scrunched up. "Me too."

"You do?"

This time it was Charlie's turn to nod and, when he was satisfied that she was telling the truth and wasn't making fun of him (such a darling, where on Earth had the army found such a sweetheart?), he asked with total sincerity, "What's your favourite book?"

Charlie went on to talk for a solid five minutes about Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and how much she loved it and why she loved it and why James absolutely must read it. Then, when she'd finished her speech, she asked him the same question and he had no reservations in explaining to her why Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky was, in fact, the best book ever written.

"I've never read it," Charlie confessed when he asked her her opinion on it.

Incongruous to her words, a smile grew on his face. "Well, then the next book I read will be A Tale of Two Cities and the next book you do should absolutely be Crime and Punishment."

Charlie grinned and held out her hand for him to shake. "Deal," she said as he shook it, laughing quietly all the while.

The entire time they'd been speaking, Charlie hadn't realised she'd not glanced away from James once. It was when Mabs spoke that she even remembered there was anyone else there at all. "As much as I'd love to sit and watch you two bond over books for hours, I need a shower, so the rest of us are gonna head home, darlin'," Mabs said, addressing Charlie. "You stayin' out a little longer?" In contrast to the implicating smirk she'd worn earlier, now her smile was soft - pleased, even, that Charlie and James were getting along so well.

Charlie desperately wanted to stay out longer and just talk and talk and talk to this boy who seemed to just inherently understand her, but she knew it was too hot outside to go anywhere else but home. She hadn't even touched her ice cream - Boo had stolen it, at some point, so that it hadn't gone to waste - so perhaps she could stay and get another one, but she found she didn't care about the ice cream anymore. Did James want her to stay? Would he ask her to stay? She really hoped he would, but as he stared back at her his mouth formed words that he never gave voice to.

"I'll come home," Charlie decided at length, not wanting to push her luck. She liked James but she didn't want to stifle him with her presence. If he liked her as well, maybe she'd see him soon. She hoped so. She really, desperately hoped so.

Charlie got to her feet along with the other girls, and the replacements rose from their chairs, too. Distantly, she wondered whether everyone had stayed longer than they'd intended to to allow her and James to talk a little longer, then wondered whether it was presumptuous to assume that.

The group of them made their way out into the stifling heat once more, then parted ways with called goodbyes and waves over their shoulders. Before Charlie turned, she looked at James and he looked at her and they shared their own secret smile.

"Will you be out tonight?" he asked, folding his hands behind his back and rocking back and forth on his heels.

Charlie shrugged. "Will you?"

"Yeah." He nodded, that endearing flush back in his cheeks. "And, uh - well, I'd like to see you again, and talk to you some more."

"About my superior taste in books?" she asked quietly, joking and unsure of what else to say in reply to his honest invitation.

James laughed lightly, lifting one shoulder in a shrug and letting it fall as he answered, "About anything and everything."

Slowly, a smile spread across Charlie's face like the first rays of sunshine over the morning sky. This boy and his smile and his dimples and his ocean blue eyes. Just, his sweetness. She didn't know what to do with herself when he looked at her like that.

"I'll come," she said eventually with a decisive nod. "And we'll talk. About anything and everything. And maybe also about my superior taste in books."

James' smile widened as he drank in her words. He chuckled under his breath. "Good. Great. So I'll see you tonight?"

"Yes," Charlie said, her eyes stuck on his and her feet glued in place, not a single part of her wanting to part from him. "I'll see you tonight."