Verity (jokeshopgirl) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-19 14:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, charlie pace, verity |
Who: Charlie Pace and Verity
When: August 13
Where: A local Diner
What: Lunch Date
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete
Soooo... this was a real date. Charlie couldn’t remember the last time he had been on one, especially considering Mia had always made sure he understood that none of their outings were ever to be called dates. They were just one-on-one activities between two people who were clearly more than friends, without kissing and definitely without more than kissing. Charlie couldn’t recall the last time he hadn’t flown solo on that, either...
Yeah, so he was anxious. And there was the added complication of Verity being seriously preggers. He’d never been on a date with a pregnant chick. Not in this world, anyway.
Seriously preggers. Verity was twenty-six weeks pregnant, and was nesting. She’d spent her time off in the baby’s nursery, going through clothes and sorting out diapers. She was sure that she’d have her place organized in time.
Today she was spending her lunch hour with Charlie. On a date. A real date. She didn’t really consider the time that she spent with Roland to be... dating. Not really. It was more him doing her a favor. She needed something that he was willing to give her. Sure, they were close, but Verity didn’t think he was interested in her that way. Charlie, on the other hand, had asked Verity out on a date. A lunch date. He’d used the word date! She was excited, and a little nervous.
She showed up to the restaurant straight from work, and broke into a smile when she saw him standing by the door. “Hi!” She said, excited at first, then a little shy. “Have you been waiting long?”
He greeted her with a hug, because that was the sort of thing Charlie didn’t think twice about. There was a nervousness in his arms, though. The hug was quick. “Not long,” he said, shaking his head. He’d only parked a few minutes ago. He was rarely early for things, but he was usually on time. “Shall we?”
He put his hand on the door handle and gave it a tug.
Verity was a big time hugger, so she didn’t mind the hug. The only thing she may have minded just slightly was how quick it was. “Good.” She gave him a smile, then let him open the door for him and led the way into the little diner. She’d come here with Steve Rogers not too long ago, and found that she really liked it. The portions were big, which was great. She could split whatever she ordered in half and take the rest home.
“...so... food. I love food.” She said, giving him a nervous smile.
“I’m pretty sure they have that here,” replied Charlie. As with most diners, they were taken immediately to an empty table, as if the hostess had been waiting for them. He went so far as to give the woman a little nudge. “You have food, right?”
“Yes, we have food,” she said over her shoulder, with a pleasant smile. She sat them down and passed out menus. They were the huge, pastic-y kind where they had listed everything they could think of. And then some.
Verity chuckled, then slipped into the booth opposite him. "Good. It'd be a rubbish diner if there was no food." The British slang slipped into her vocabulary because of the dreams she'd been having.
She accepted the menu with a little Thank you, then opened it to look. "I'm starving. I want a huge burger and a ton of French fries."
Charlie just assumed Verity was mimicking him, although he’d lived in America for a long time now and everyone back home would have said his accent was gone. No one in the United States would have agreed. “That sounds good. Me, too.” He even closed his menu.
Verity's grin only spread. He was friendly and suggestible. It was adorable. "Good. Let's order so they come quickly." She reached up to flag down the waiter, and knocked over a glass of ice water on the table.
“Oh, Jeez!” She said, springing up. But the water was all over the table now, and in her lap.
His eyes bugged in surprise, while his hands deftly pulled a handful of napkins from a dispenser at the end of the table. “Wups,” he murmured. It was no big deal, spilling water. But he wanted to soak it up as fast as possible. “Did it get you?”
“Uh.. .yeah...” Verity said sheepishly. He was fast on the draw there with the napkins. She gave a laugh, though, even as she grabbed a napkin and dabbed it in her lap. “Ohmygosh, I’m so clumsy!” She said, laughing. She had to laugh at herself, or else she might cry sometimes. Damn hormones.
“I didn’t get you did I?” She asked, looking apologetic, but she was still grinning.
The water had not reached him, though it had pooled close to the edge. Reaching for fresh napkins, he continued to clean the table. “I’ve worked in restaurants. This is nothing. A waiter once spilled a tray of wine glasses down someone’s back. And the guy was so pissed, he poured his water over the kid’s head.”
Verity was shaking her head with a grin. At least she was a good sport about her clumsiness? And she was cleaning it up with him... “Were they filled with wine? I mean, if someone spilled red wine all down the back of my favorite white dress...” She settled back in her seat, a giant pile of wet napkins in front of her. It only made her chuckle again.
“At least I make an entertaining first date?” She said, smiling sheepishly.
Charlie nodded. The glasses were filled, so the guy had a right to be pissed. Still, it was a mess he didn’t like being called out to clean.
“I’m excited to see how you’re going to top yourself,” he said with a wink as he sat back down.
“I am, too.” Verity grinned, and blushed at the wink.
It was just about then that their waiter came out to take their orders. Verity had settled back in her side of the booth, and ordered her burger, fries, and a Vanilla Coke, and asked for a doggy bag up front.
Charlie asked for the same, only his Coke wouldn’t be vanilla flavored. Just a regular one for him, but he wanted lemons on the side. He liked to squeeze fresh lemon in his soda.
With the menu’s gone, he drummed his fingers on the tabletop for a moment. Although they were both playing off the spilled water rather well, it was obvious Verity for nervous. Figuring out why was easy enough: carrying one guy’s baby, on a date with someone else. There was no getting around that it had to be awkward.
“You’re... okay with this, right? The whole out on a date while you’re pregnant thing? I mean, I know you said yes, but I want to make sure you’re comfortable.”
The waitress wandered off to get their food started and left them to their own devices once more.
"Hmm? Oh." Verity went a little pink at his question, but was smiling shyly. "Yes. I'm all right. I mean, I'm... a bit nervous. First date jitters?" But she liked Charlie. She wanted to be there. "You're okay with this, right?" She nearly repeated after him. "It's not too weird for you?"
Charlie opened his mouth and closed it again, quickly deciding against bringing up Claire and her pregnancy. Dreams didn’t count, right? “No. I mean, it’s not typical, right? But it’s more like I don’t want you to be worried about stuff.”
"I'm not worried," Verity said with a smile. It was kind of him to think that, though. "It's not typical, but that seems to be my life lately." Should they talk about the dreams?
Dreams were one thing, but Charlie was more curious about Verity’s real-life situation. He hadn’t pryed when it came to knowing anything about the baby’s dad or why he wasn’t around. To be honest, he didn’t know a whole lot about Verity other than that he liked her personality. Her past was mostly a mystery.
“I mean,” he began slowly. “Is it okay if I ask what happened?” Before he unwittingly said something stupid.
Verity paused for just a moment. "Are you sure you want to hear about that?" She asked. She'd be willing to tell him. Her life so far wasn't a secret. And not only that, but she trusted him. "It's kind of a long story, and doesn't have the happiest of endings."
“Yeah, well... I’d assumed that,” he replied, a little bluntly. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s probably not date-talk. I... just was wondering.”
"His name is Oliver Wood," Verity explained, gently. As she spoke, the smile slowly faded from her features. "I was smitten from the start, and he took his time warming up to me. We started dating... it was before Christmas. Not that long ago, but so much has happened it seems like a lifetime since. He was... trouble. From the start." She said it fondly. Even though he left and broke her heart, she still loved him.
He scowled a bit. Charlie had heavy eyebrows, so whenever a dark cloud passed over his features, it was very noticeable. It took the sun right out his eyes. “Trouble?”
“We had different ideas about certain things.” Verity didn’t want to go into too many details about it all, that part wasn’t important. “I was... I had these really vivid, really, really realistic dreams. He was in them. That’s how I ended up...” She motioned toward her tummy. “Oliver and I never... not outside of the dreams. But we did a DNA test, and the baby’s his.”
The cloud that passed over Charlie’s features dispersed, but the look on his face was now blank. Was Verity really telling him that she and the baby’s father had never... never... “So, wait, you got pregnant through your dreams?”
“It’s okay if you don’t believe me,” Verity responded quickly, now worried that he was going to think she was insane, or a religious nut, or something. “Not many people do,” she added, and there was a hint of sadness in her voice on those words. “But that’s what happened. See, I’m a witch in my dreams. And we used magic to help us get pregnant, since I couldn’t--we couldn’t--” she shrugged softly, not liking that train of thought. “...and after the night we did the magic, took the potions, and … well, y’know... in the dreams... that must be when I conceived here in real life, too.”
Talk about artificial insemination! Charlie scratched his head, a little wigged out because he believed her so readily. The dreams definitely could control things in real life, that much he was sure of. “...I’ve just never heard of so big a thing being affected before.”
“I’ve heard of a girl turning pink from her dreams. And there’s a bunch of people with weird ears or wings or whatever.” Verity said, shrugging again. “Anyway, he was a football player from Scotland. When his injuries all healed up, he went home.”
“Bloody Scots,” Charlie muttered, though he wasn’t sure he truly meant the whole lot of them. This one, definitely.
A little chuckle escaped her. She was a little bitter--and rightfully so--about the whole thing. "Funny. That's my sentiment exactly." Verity said, then broke the angry demeanor to give him a smile. Definitely not first date material. They should do more of the getting to know you stuff. "Tell me about you now." That was a much more interesting subject.
Charlie picked up his Coke, which had arrived at some quiet point in their conversation, and took a sip. He cleared his throat as he swallowed. Talking came easy to him, talking about things he liked especially so, but talking about his actual life was always a bit of a challenge these days. The road had been bumpy. Though, to be honest, he knew his story sounded like small potatoes compared to an unplanned, supernatural pregnancy.
“Well, originally not from around here. Obviously. Manchester. Go United!” He didn’t shout it, but he gave a little pump with his fist. “I moved here when I was seventeen, so it’s been almost exactly ten years now. Er, there was this band we were in, but we didn’t exactly make it, so... things fell through. I stuck around, though. This is my home now, so... yeah.”
“I heard about that. The band. They played that song on the radio every ten minutes back in the day,” Verity said, playfully. She gave him a warm smile. It should have been obvious that she wasn’t interested in him for his music, or because she was a fan. She was interested in him because she liked him. Charlie. Who had a kind smile and played music so beautifully... and was willing to stop and help the pregnant girl in the supermarket grab the pesto off the top shelf.
“I know what you mean about this being your home. It’s my home, too, as much as my mother wants me to move back up to Marin.”
“Marin?” Charlie asked, as the burgers arrived. The smell of bacon for pungent. “Where would that be?”
Verity was mid-sip when the burgers arrived, then felt slightly guilty that the waitress left before she could say ‘thank you’... but the smell of the burger was enough to take those thoughts from her mind. She cut it in half, then doled out half of her meal straight into the doggy container. Her stomach was being squished by baby, and didn’t have enough room for the full meal.
“It’s up by San Francisco? About forty-five minutes north. Really great place to live and grow up.” She said, then started in on her food. Oh. Bacon. Heaven.
“Ah. All right,” Charlie said with a nod. It was possible he’d been there before, on tour. A lot of those concerts were a blur, he couldn’t reliably say where any of them had taken place; and he hadn’t even been the one snorting drugs backstage. “I take it you’re not planning on moving back, though. You just moved into a new place.”
"No. I'm pretty much here to stay," Verity said, doing her best not to speak with her mouth full, but that was hard as greedily as she was eating. "What about you? Are you here to stay?" She hoped so. Maybe they could stay... y'know... together. They were on a date after all.
“Well, I just got back from trying to track down my brother...” He took a moment to swallow a bite, as well. “I think things should be quiet for a few months before he turns up again.” Or turned up dead, to be brutally honest.
That only made her more curious about his brother. She didn't want to press for info, but she did want to know. "Well, here's to a good couple of months, then." She lifted her soda in a little toast, grinning brightly.
Charlie lifted his, tipping his forward until the rims touched. The plastic didn’t clink, but the little thud was still pleasing. “Cheers.”