Chuck Bartowski is a huge nerd. (chuckmate) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-12-28 13:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, chuck bartowski, sarah walker |
Who: Chuck and Sarah.
When: December 18.
Where: Orange, Orange.
What: An unexpected meeting.
Rating: Low.
Status: Complete.
Chuck had driven to work the same way, every day, since started at Stark Industries. It was a quick route, but he was starting to realize that there was still a lot of the surrounding area he had yet to see. What if he was missing out on some super great deli or something? So, on a day he was out early, Chuck decided to do something different. He decided to take a different route home.
He'd barely gotten out of the parkade when a small strip mall caught his eye, but, more importantly, a yogurt shop. An Orange, Orange yogurt shop. He had to physically rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, because, as far as Chuck was concerned, those didn't exist outside of his dreams.
Chuck drove over and parked his car, then took a deep breath. It was cool, right? Sort of weird, but, hey. He knew he had to go in. So he did. It looked eerily familiar. Chuck cleared his throat and dinged the bell on the counter.
Sarah had been in the back grabbing some supplies to stock the shop when she heard the bell ding. She made a noise of annoyance as she quickly grabbed the items, tucking them into the crook of her arm, and made her way back out front. She was wearing the Orange Orange tank top and a forced smile as she stepped through the doors to greet the customer. Luckily she had gotten off her crutches last week so she didn't get pity looks, but she still took it slow.
"Welcome to Orange, Orange," she called out before finally gazing upon the customer. He was ridiculously tall and he looked like a geek chic business man you saw in some magazines. At least he had a friendly look about him so her smile relaxed into something real, "how can I help you?"
When Chuck glanced over, it was not at all what he’d expected to see. He stared. A lot.
“Sarah!” Chuck paused and blinked. “I …. Forgot to give Sarah those papers. Shoot.” He hit himself on the forehead, then laughed and shrugged. “I’m such a space cadet. Sorry, I need to send a text message.” And he did, but he sent it to himself to say DON’T BE AN IDIOT. Once he put his phone away, he flashed what he hoped was a charming smile. He hoped.
“Sorry about that. Just realized I left a co-worker hanging.” He didn’t work with a Sarah. Of course not. But it would be creepy to suddenly and randomly know somebody’s name. Because of dreams no less. “So. What’s good here?”
The staring was somewhat uncomfortable and Sarah’s face turned into a frown as her brow furrowed. The man was a little strange and she was surprised when he said her name, which he quickly tried to cover up with some excuse about work. She arched an eyebrow and debated internally if she wanted to even question him on that one. Well, she was wearing a name tag, but he seemed to yell her name in surprise, which was strange since they had never met before.
“Suuuuuure, that’s fine,” her face was still etched with confusion as she reached up to scratch her forehead and then deadpanned, “The frozen yogurt.”
Then she remembered that she should really be nice to the customer and not sarcastic. Especially if her boss heard about this incident, so she tried to wipe away her sarcastic nature for a moment, “Sorry, it depends on what you like. Do you want basic chocolate or vanilla type of yogurt or are you feeling fruity or are you feeling savory? I really like our cinnabun flavor right now.”
“Cinnabun, you say,” he said, looking far too interested in the flavours of yogurt. “If that’s what you like, that’s what I’ll take.” Honestly, it sounded awful, but Chuck’s brain wasn’t really working. It kept stopping and starting up again, and the headaches he’d had from a week or so ago were coming back along with these strange snippets of things he couldn’t remember ever seeing. It still wasn’t very hard to stay focused on Sarah, though.
“So. How long has this place been here? I work just over there and I’ve never seen it before.”
“It’s better than you think,” she commented. It actually tasted really good and it wasn’t what you expected at all. She realized fairly quickly that he was the kind of customer who tended to get lost in their own thoughts, so she grabbed a container from beside her and moved to put some froyo into it. When he asked about how long the place had been in business she paused for a moment, “A few months. I just became manager about a month and a half ago. You might not have noticed the name change. Orange, Orange took over from the previous YO! Gurt tenant, so it’s still a froyo shop, but the name changed.”
She dispensed a decent amount of yogurt into the container and then moved back towards where the toppings are, “Answer a few simple questions: Chocolate - yes or no, gummies - yes or no, are you allergic or hate anything that might be in this case?” A playful smile was on her lips when she asked and gestured to the toppings bar. If he answered her questions she could make a decent guess on what he would want.
“Weird,” Chuck said, looking bemused. But it was completely weird, and even weirder that he’d never ventured to this side of Stark Industries until now of all times. He walked along the other side of the counter, keeping stride with her.
“Uh. Yes, yes, no. Load me up. I trust your wisdom.” He gave her a grin. Apparently he seemed to have made up for his total slip-up with her name from earlier.
“Great,” she commented with a smile as she picked out a few different toppings to put on his yogurt. She picked out some chocolate stuff and some gummy bears to put on top. Then she topped it with some chocolate sauce and a cherry on top. Once the spoon was in the bowl she handed it over to Chuck as she started to ring him up on the register, “I hope you like it. I’m Sarah, by the way.”
Chuck couldn’t decide if she was messing with him, or if she generally felt this combination of things tasted good. Either way, he was going to take that yogurt and he was going to eat it and it was going to be the most delicious thing he’d had, because he’d will it to be so. He took the cup with a bit of a toast and then took a large spoonful. It wasn’t half bad.
“Sarah,” he said, nodding. Like he didn’t already know. “That’s a good name. I’m Chuck. Charles. People call me Chuck.” Chuck cleared his throat and ate some more yogurt. “So, uh, how long have you been here, Sarah? In the OC.”
She had quite a sweet tooth and she liked chocolate mixed with the cinnabun flavor. As he took a bite of the yogurt she crossed her arms loosely over her chest and watched him with a quirked eyebrow. It didn’t seem like he absolutely hated the flavor, so maybe she was better at this than she thought.
“Chuck…not many people out in the world named Chuck. Kind of fun. There’s a million Sarahs in the world. And I’ve only been in the OC for a few months. I moved here from New York for a change of scenery.”
“I like to stand out from a crowd,” he teased, shrugging. He listened to her pretty closely, and, for all accounts and purposes, she seemed pretty normal. Nothing suggested this was his dream world playing a massive trick on him or anything. “Well, you know, you should try this place called Valar. It’s a network of a bunch of people that live in the area. Super great people, actually. It might help you get settled in better.” And give Chuck a chance to keep in touch.
“Valar?” she tested the name out on her tongue and gave him a slightly confused look. She had never been invited to be part of a internet network before and wasn’t really quite sure what to do on something like that. It was also kind of random for this guy to offer it up to her - what if he was some kind of Craigslist killer or something. But he seems basically harmless so she smiled, “Ahhh, that might be helpful. I don’t know much about what’s around here. Maybe I’ll have to check it out. So, Chuck, what do you do for work?”
“Yeah. It’s pretty much the best way to keep up with what’s going on around here. Super great people and stuff. You’ll make lots of friends in no time.” A pause. “Not that you need friends! I bet you have lots of friends. Just … Oodles.”
Chuck shoved his mouth full of yogurt to get himself to stop talking. “Me? I work just over there. At Stark Industries,” he said, once he’d swallowed his food.
A gentle smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as he continued to shove his foot in his mouth before letting out a soft chuckle, “I don’t have a lot of friends here. Yet. And did you really just say oodles? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that word used in real life.
"Ahh...Stark Industries. Home of the billionaire playboy genius, Tony Stark. You must be pretty smart then to work there. What do you do? I’m assuming work with computers,” she was kind of thankful that it was slow right now because having an actual conversation with someone was nice. Chuck seemed quite nice and kind of cute, albeit quite nervous.
“Yep, that’s the place.” Chuck grinned. Then he shrugged and looked a bit embarrassed, so he waved a hand dismissively. “There are lots of people there way smarter than I could ever be. I mean, but, yeah, I help with the programming and stuff. Make sure the company computers are updated and everything.”
"Don't sell yourself short, Chuck," she scolded him gently as she reached a hand up to brush some hair out of her eyes. He was smarter than she was at least in the world of computers. But she could probably kick his ass if she wanted to, but for now she didn't want to. He was more sweet than harmful, "So, how is the ice cream? Did I do alright?"
He almost choked on the yogurt. It was too much like dreamSarah for her to say that. But then he swallowed and nodded, having the last spoonful. “Yeah, it was good. Surprisingly.” He teased. When he glanced out the window he made a face. “Eesh. Talk about some freak weather, right? And it looks like it’s getting worse. Maybe the two of us should head out of here before we’re snowed in.” A pause. “Not together. Seperately. To our own homes.”
As she walked out from around the counter to make her way to the window she couldn't help but let out a loud laugh, "I almost want to tell you sure we can go back to your place just to watch your reaction, but I will be nice. But I agree, it doesn't look good out there. I should probably close up early so I can drive safely."
Chuck laughed, because he didn’t know what else to do, then cleared his throat. “Yeah. You should probably get out of here as soon as you can.” He tossed his yogurt cup into the garbage and stood there awkwardly for a moment before coming back to his senses. “Okay, well. I guess I’ll maybe see you around, then.”
"If you work close then I expect to see you around," she countered with a cheerful smile. Closing up and leaving sounded like a good idea, "Thanks for coming. It was really nice to meet you, Chuck. I will check out that network. Drive safe." She couldn't help but like the guy. He seemed nice enough and she wondered how often he would come in now.