Coffee with Stacy

Chapter Five: Late Brunch

Wrap- tap- tap!

Stacy jolted awake from the sudden tapping on her window. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and reached onto the dashboard for her glasses. Peering through the window next to her was Charlie. She smiled groggily and rolled down the window.

"Woah! Nice glasses," Charlie said, smirking. Stacy laughed and tilted her large round frames.

"I usually have my contacts, but you caught me off guard. What are you doing here so early?" she asked. Charlie pointed to the clock on the dashboard. It was nearly noon.

"I drove by this morning on my way to work and noticed you sleeping in your car. I figured that after a rough night you could use a good brunch," Charlie handed her a large blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee, "Chai latte again. Hope you don't mind."

"Mind? Your chai lattes are amazing. This is the best morning surprise I could have asked for. Thank you so much, Charlie!" she said, "Do you want to come inside for a while?"

"Inside the car or your house?" he asked. Stacy remembered the piles of dust inside her new home.

"I don't think I'm ready to face the mess in there yet," she said.

"Car it is then," Charlie slid over the hood of the Impala and opened the passenger side door. He picked up the ukulele case Stacy had been using to prop her feet and sat down.

"Do you play?" he asked, taking the small instrument out from its shell.

"Hardly," she said, "but I figured that with all this free time I could pick it up." Charlie adjusted the tuners and began playing a tropical-sounding melody.

"Well, if you ever need a teacher, I'm your man," he said. He finished up his song and Stacy clapped.

"I'll have to take you up on that offer sometime. Do you play any other instruments or are you strictly a ukulele guy?" she asked.

"I dabble here and there," he said, "I usually bring my guitar to open mic nights around the area and sing." Stacy's eyes lit up.

"That's great that you're getting yourself out there. I bet you're going to be the next big thing," she said.

"Do you really think so?" Stacy nodded, he continued, "I just don't know how to get there. How did you do it? Become a famous artist?" Yikes. There was that word again.

"I'm not really famous," she clarified, "It was a fluke that my painting ever sold for that much. I'm really not all that talented. I mean, I'm the girl who just moved across the country because I can't paint right now."

"Stacy, I've seen your stuff. It's crazy good. I could never paint like that," he said.

"Well I'm sure that I could never sing or play an instrument as well as you."

"Oh, don't be too sure about that one. You haven't heard me sing yet."

"Then sing."

"No," he laughed, "I'm too shy to put on private concert for a celebrity, but there is an open mic night coming up at the Hidden Gem. Lorraine and I are planning on doing a number." He handed her a flyer with the Gem's logo and info for the event on it.

"I'll be there to prove myself right," she said. Charlie opened his car door.

"You'd better be! Until then I should get back to my job. I'll see you around!" Stacy waved. She crumpled the wrapper to her muffin and took one last sip of latte.

"Now let's see if the McLaughlins left a leaf blower lying around anywhere," she said to herself, "I have some dust to bust."