Unexpected

Chapter 7

A/N: Please vote or comment if you're enjoying the story!! Thanks! S

This chapter's dedicated to NektariaMarkakis, thanks so much for your support and comments!!

After wisely deciding against driving ourselves, even though it would have only been in my mule, we slowly made the way up the beach to my villa. I had a momentary worry about whether or not it was a good idea to have some guy I’d only known for a few hours come back to my secluded home but couldn’t hold onto the thought for long enough to really process it. Any concern I might have felt was alleviated when we got in eyesight of the villa, as I could see the gardener working outside. If nothing else, she would be able to hear my screams and call for help, right?

“Welcome to Serenity Bay,” I said as I opened the door. “Kitchen’s this way.”

“It’s beautiful,” Alex said, taking his sunglasses off and looking around.

“Thanks,” I said, then cracked up again. “I don’t know why I said thanks, I had nothing to do with it looking this way! It is gorgeous though.”

Heading into the kitchen, I looked back at Alex and said, “Do you trust me?”

“Why does that feel like a loaded question?” he asked, following me.

“It’s not, promise. I just wondered if you wanted to make your own sandwich or you trusted me enough to make one for you.”

“Oh, in that case, yes, I utterly and completely trust you.”

“Anything you don’t like?”

“I’m a fairly adventurous eater, so anything will be fine,” he said, coming up behind me as I stopped in front of the fridge. Brown. His eyes were brown. And delicious.

Focus, Charlie, focus. “It’s just cold cuts so don’t expect much. You can go out and sit on the deck -- I’ll bring our food out in a minute.”

“It feels wrong for you to be doing all the work while I lounge around,” he started but I cut him off.

“Shoo, out you go.”

A couple minutes later, after making the food and doing a quick check in the bathroom mirror to ensure I looked ok, I walked out onto the deck, carefully balancing two plates and a couple bottles of water, a real challenge in my less-than-sober state. After handing him his lunch and drink, I sat down at the table across from him.

“Oh, music, just a sec,” I said, trotting back inside. I grabbed my iPod out of my bag and put it on shuffle in the dock. ‘Babylon’ happened to be the first song that played.

“David Gray, nice choice. Did you choose that specifically for me? Do you have a British mix for just such an occasion?” Alex asked, a smile lifting the corners of his mouth despite his attempt to keep a straight face.

I rolled my eyes at him, hoping he got the ‘as if’ message as plainly as though I’d said it. “It’s on shuffle, promise. I do have quite a few U.K. artists on here though. Maggie calls my music ‘sad bastard’ music, but I prefer to think of it as mellow.”

He chuckled at my comment. “This is delicious, thank you so much. Is that salami on there?”

“Yep, salami always pushes a sandwich from the ‘ok’ category over into ‘great,’ in my opinion. That and pickles. Sorry, you didn’t ask for ‘Deep Thoughts on Sandwiches, by Charlie Maxwell.’ Apparently I have a lot to say on the subject.” Although the food was helping, I was still drunk enough to be babbling about nothing.

Somehow Alex was halfway through his sandwich -- I offered him the second half of mine as I wasn’t all that hungry and he took it, after much convincing on my part that I wasn’t going to eat it. “I’m feeling much better, this hit the spot,” he said as he finished up his food, “thanks again.”

“You’re very welcome,” I replied. We sat smiling at each other for a moment before I looked away, feeling my face getting a bit red.

When I could finally look back at him with some degree of composure, I asked, gesturing towards his face, “Is the scruff something you normally sport at home?"

“No, just laziness. I got my hair cut fairly short for the same reason, I’m very low maintenance currently. This is the holiday version of me.”

“Low maintenance looks good on you, not that I have any basis for comparison,” I said, then internally cringed. Was I being too obvious? I made a joke quickly to lighten my comment, “Maybe you’re way hotter clean shaven and floppy haired though.”

“Floppy haired might be a stretch. And I don’t think ‘hot’ is a word that is typically used to describe me, at best I get ‘boyish good looks.’”

“Tell me about it, I get ‘girl next door.’” I sighed dramatically, then laughed so he knew I wasn’t serious.

“If that’s the case, I would have enjoyed living next to you very much,” he said, looking me right in the eye.

“Why Alex, did you just say something nice about me? All I’ve gotten from you previously was ‘not fat,’” I said dryly, hoping it wasn’t super obvious that I wanted an indication from him that he was interested in me for something more than just a nice conversation and a free sandwich.

“Are you fishing for compliments, Charlie?” he asked. Apparently it was, in fact, super obvious. Dammit.

“No!” At least, not exactly. Just declarations of love or, at minimum, lust.

“Charlotte, I think you’re quite possibly the loveliest person I’ve ever met, both inside and outside. You’re gorgeous, hilarious, and, from all indications, completely brilliant. I can say with complete honesty that I cannot remember having as great of a day with anyone as I have had with you so far today.”

Gulp. I guess that would do.