Crappity crap. How in the world did she completely forget about Royce? Hearing the knock made her blush and feel guilty for forgetting him at the exact same time. Immediately after that came the feelings she sort of shed with her tears on the couch. And then came the recollection that she wasn't alone. Then glancing at Noah, her attention was caught by the mug of steaming hot chocolate, and the blood drained from her face when she realized that Royce was coming over for a warm dinner that wasn't even cooking yet.
Damny damn damn. "Hang on, I'm coming," she called to Royce while throwing Noah an apologetic look. But he wasn't even paying attention to her. Likely distracted by the newcomer at the door who suddenly thrust open the door and strolled in.
For the first time since she had met him, Charlie felt mixed reactions at seeing Royce. There was the still-raw side of her that wanted to run into her room, slam the door shut, and beg him to go away. But even those fears couldn't stop her from stilling her breath, stunned by the overly bright blue eyes, the huge smile, and Royce's general masculinity, all shining brightly and happily upon gazing at her. All at once, Charlie had to revoke her earlier suspicion that she was merely falling in love with Royce. If she were any more head-over-heels, she'd be in danger of tripping over her feelings.
"Hi," she said, breathless and a tad dazed. Two steps brought him from her door to her feet, and he flourished a bouquet of butter yellow daisies and some blue-ish bush of flowers that she didn't quite recognize because she was too busy being dazzled. Hey, I got these for you. Do you like them? And then he kissed her cheek, and then her heart sort of... stopped.
It took an embarrassingly long minute for Charlie to collect herself enough to realize that he was waiting for her to speak, and even longer to remember what it was that he said. She had to clear her head, and leaned down to sniff the flowers. "T-they're... they're beautiful," she whispered. "T-thank you."
"U-uum... Royce, I'm... I'm sorry, I sort of... lost track of the time, and didn't start dinner yet. And I think my cats were sort of feasting on what was supposed to be the bulk of this dinner, so I need to go shopping again... unless, of course, you don't want the meat. But I sort of need it because... well, you do eat a lot, and I really have no problem feeding you or your sister, I actually enjoy it, but meat is filling, and... you know... so... IIII'll just put these in a glass," she mumbled.