Charlie was in the doorway with three crates of fruit in his arms, the door opened just enough to where Sera could spot Tessa, her posse, and even Krista gawking at his muscled back.
He's like catnip, she thought.
Once Charlie walked in further and the door flapped shut, she peered up at him. He was already staring at her, his dark blue eyes unmoving from hers.
She swallowed in nervosity, which his eyes noticed immediately. They dipped down to her neck and then back up to her eyes, making her skin turn red with blush.
"Hey, Charlie, I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up," Micah announced.
Charlie finally looked away from Sera, noticing the other presence in the room.
"Sorry," Charlie apologized without a trace of emotion on his face, "a crate got knocked over in the truck. I had to clean it up."
"Oh, well you should have told me, I would've helped."
Charlie didn't say anything to that, looking back to Sera again. She squirmed under his gaze, pressing her lips together before dropping her eyes to one of the kittens on her cardigan. She frowned at the embroidered calico cat looking back at her.
Great. My granny sweater. Why do I always look so ugly when I'm around him?
"Do you two know each other?" Micah asked, looking in between the two.
Sera glanced at Charlie before sheepishly turning to her brother. "We met yesterday when I went to the orchard."
Micah nodded to himself, stopping when a small grin appeared on his face. "Um, Sera, why don't you show Charlie where to put the produce?" He suggested.
"But don't you normally do that—?"
"Oops! I forgot something in the car!" Micah said suddenly, heading towards the door. Sera wasn't blind to the mischievous wink he sent her over his shoulder. He was up to something for sure.
The effects of Micah's absence were immediate. The energy in the room felt awkward, especially with Charlie's penetrating gaze on Sera.
"Uh, um, follow me," Sera muttered uncomfortably, not sure whether to meet the man's eyes or not.
She led him towards the back corner of the kitchen where the large fridge and storage room were located.
"You can just set everything there," Sera said, pointing to the stretch of counter next to the fridge.
He did as he was told, then turned to look at her expectantly.
"Oh, um, I've got it from here. You're all good to go," she told him, avoiding his stare. She began to sift through the crates and pick out what needed to go into the storage room.
"Tell me how I can help," Charlie said.
"Oh, really, you don't have to help, you've helped enough in the past twenty-four hours alone."
"I want to help," he clarified.
Sera met his determined eyes before deciding to relent, telling him what produce he could put in the fridge.
Leaving him to do his task, she heaved open the heavy door to the storage room and entered with two bags of fruit in her hands.
It didn't take her long to put the fruit where it needed to go, but her stay in the room got extended when she noticed the corner of a large bag of sugar hanging off of the top shelf.
Knowing that her perfectionistic grandmother would be angry at the sight, Sera stood on her tiptoes and did her best to shove it back onto the shelf.
This method did anything but work.
Sera shrieked when the bag ripped open at her forceful push, sugar flowing out like a waterfall.
She froze for a moment in shock, before she eventually gathered her wits and backed away from the steady stream of sugar.
Charlie appeared next to her in the blink of an eye, looking over the scene set in front of him. He quickly pushed the bag of sugar back and away from the shelf's ledge, preventing it from wasting anymore product.
"Are you okay?" He asked Sera, turning to face her.
"Y-yeah," she replied, her cheeks heating in embarrassment. Her eyes found the dusting of sugar on the ground as she awkwardly tilted her head to the side and undid her hair from her ponytail, raking her hands through her locks in an attempt to remove any sugar crystals.
"Where can I find a broom?" Charlie asked, already surveying the storage room as if to find the answer to his question.
Sera straightened up to look at him, grimacing when she felt bits of sugar travel down the back of her shirt.
"Uh, don't worry about it. I'll clean all this up."
Charlie stared at her a second longer before turning around and leaving the room.
Not putting much thought into where he was going, Sera resumed her mission of trying to get the sugar off of her.
She took off her cardigan and shook it out with a frustrated sigh, adding to the mess on the ground.
Today is just not my day, she thought to herself. No, not day. Week.
She began shaking the cardigan with an aggravated vigor, her misfortunes of the past week fueling each angry jerk.
My hair is orange!
I fell out of a tree!
Tessa and Matt!
I got a flat tire!
I was splashed by dirty road water!
"Move aside," Charlie freed her from her thoughts, a broom in hand.
Sera halted her actions, pressing her lips together in embarrassment when she realized how stupid she must've looked angrily waving the cat cardigan in the air like a lunatic.
Charlie didn't seem to pay her antics much mind, however, because he was too focused on the bruise on her arm.
Oh, great.
His grip on the metal broom handle noticeably tightened.
"Is that from yesterday?" He asked, his voice low.
Sera looked down at the bruise and then back up at him. "Um, yeah," she answered.
Charlie set the broom down against the wall and closed the space between them. He dipped his head and eyed the bruise in scrutiny, his hand reaching out as if to touch her before quickly retreating back almost as soon as it had appeared.
Sera noticed his jaw harden, the only indication of emotion she could find in his features.
"It's not as bad as it looks," she said, shifting her long hair to cover her arm. The move effectively cut off Charlie's stare-down with the bruise, which prompted him to turn his gaze back to her.
"Do you still not want me to tell your father about Stuart?" He asked, an edge to his voice.
She nodded.
"Okay," he finalized. He didn't say anything after that, just looked at her bruise and then back to her one more time before grabbing the broom, detaching the dust pan and setting it on a shelf, then getting to work.
"You really don't have to do that," Sera told him. She was beginning to become concerned with how helpful he was being. It unsettled her.
Charlie glanced at her over his shoulder as he swept. "I know."
"W-well then why are you?" She questioned, waiting for him to reveal his ulterior motive.
"I want to help," Charlie replied, reusing his same answer from earlier.
Sera looked at him like he just spoke Latin.
'I want to help?' What does that even mean?
She was starting to understand what Mr. Leno was talking about when he said that there was something "off" about Charlie. He was different from many of the men his age, more mature and confident in his actions.
His eyes held wisdom, and sometimes showed what he was thinking. He was good at hiding his emotions, which made her question if he even had any to begin with.
Feeling useless, Sera wheeled the trash can that normally sat in the corner of the small room over towards the mound of sugar, the wheels making a scraping noise as they dragged granules of sugar along the way.
"Seraphina?" A new voice called out from the kitchen.
Sera sighed aloud and scowled at the sound of Miles's voice. She was in no mood to deal with him today.
"Are you alright?" Charlie asked her, freezing mid-sweep.
It didn't take her long to slap on a happy smile and nod as she slipped on the ugly cardigan. "I'm good," she blatantly lied, leaving the room before he could ask any questions.
Miles stood at the convection oven, pulling out the apple pie with an oven mitt-clad hand. He caught Sera's eyes when he set the pie down on the counter, a boyish grin taking over his lips.
"Wow, Seraphina, you look absolutely beautiful today!" He said, taking off the mitt and tossing it onto the counter.
Sera cringed internally, pulling the cardigan closed uncomfortably. The way Miles's eyes raked over her was another reason why she didn't like wearing such tight clothing.
"Thanks," she managed to say.
He must've noticed that he was eyeing her, because he quickly snapped his eyes back up to hers with a bashful smile. "Um, so are you ready for our date? Only a few days away."
She felt guilty seeing his happy expression, but nodded anyway.
"Me too!" He exclaimed. "And dress nice, okay?"
Nice? "Um, okay . . ."
Miles neared Sera, his smile widening with each step. It took everything in her not to take a step back for every one of his steps forward.
"Did I mention that you look very beautiful today? Because you do." He said flirtatiously once he was only a few inches away from her. He reached down to take her hand in his, but added distance between them when the storage room door opened.
Charlie entered with his signature emotionless expression on display, his eyes shifting from Sera to Miles, lingering on the latter.
Miles's eyes widened slightly, taking in the large man as he came to a stop next to Sera.
"Who are you?" Charlie asked coolly, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I'm, uh, Miles Wallace," Miles said, adjusting his voice an octave deeper mid-sentence.
They shook each other's hands briefly, Miles pulling back quickly as if he had closed his hand around a hot poker.
He looked back at Sera, many questions in his eyes.
"Charlie works for my dad," she told him, hopefully answering a few. Feeling an awkward silence beginning to settle, she quickly spoke up again. "So, Miles, what are you doing here so early?"
"Oh, Mrs. Edith called and told me she had to leave—said that you and Krista were opening by yourselves," the corner of his lips lifted in a proud smirk, "so I decided to come in early to help."
Sera tried not to frown. She knew he was trying to earn brownie points with her, not that he actually wanted to help out.
An ulterior motive.
"Um, well thank you," Sera said. An idea popped into her head when she looked down at the steaming pie on the counter. "You know, I totally forgot to set out the pies in the fridge. Do you mind doing that for me?"
Miles's eyes shifted between her and Charlie warily, but he eventually shot Sera a smile and a nod.
"Anything for you," he grinned, exiting the room.
She let herself breathe out in relief when he was gone, the tension in her shoulders lessening. Talking to him was starting to become draining.
"You don't like being around him," Charlie stated suddenly, his eyes latched on to hers. "Why?"
Sera turned towards him in surprise. She had almost forgotten that he was standing next to her. "Why do you say that?" She questioned, as if he hadn't just hit the nail on the head.
"Because I can tell," he replied.
Another thing she was beginning to notice about Charlie was that he only said what he needed to, never elaborating or going into detail.
Her brother re-entered the room then, effectively relieving her from avoiding Charlie's question any longer—although a small part of her wanted to answer his question, much to her surprise.
"Hey guys," Micah greeted, his mischievous smirk still intact from earlier. "Did anything happen while I was gone?"
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2,043 words!
Question: What was your favorite grade or year in school?
My favorite would be a tie between 6th and 8th grade, oddly enough. I feel like a lot of people hate middle school more than elementary or high school but for whatever reason I thrived during those years.
PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT TO MAKE ME SMILE!!!