Chasing Charlie

by C. M. Newman

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: CHIVALRY ISN’T DEAD, BUT IT’S DYING

  “You were right about the shoes,” Angela told Vince, stepping out of them the second they entered the apartment. As soon as Jenna got up from the couch and asked them how their dinner had been, Angela wondered what Jenna assumed about her coming home with Vince after their date. “It was incredible,” Angela answered. “If I had the money I’d eat there every night.”

  “Glad you guys had a nice time. I just checked on Charlie an hour ago. Hasn’t moved a muscle. Thank you for the flowers, by the way.” Jenna gave Vince a quick hug, then went for her coat and shoes.

  “You’re welcome. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

  “Same to you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Vince nodded. “Goodnight. Be careful, it’s getting messy out.”

  “That was sweet of you to brush off her car for her,” Angela said once they were alone.

  “I do it all the time. I’m just that kinda guy,” Vince said playfully. He took Angela’s coat off her shoulders, unable to get enough of the fitted white organza cocktail dress she wore. It was so flashy that it was out of character for her—exactly why he loved it so much.

  He watched her pad over to the window, right past the covered fireplace, without even noticing it. He excused himself to use the bathroom, something he remembered he’d already done at the restaurant. He ignored the frequency of his bathroom trips for now. When he came back, Angela was still staring out at the falling snow.

  “Tonight was perfect,” she told him, touching her cheek to his when he wrapped her up from behind. “Thank you.”

  “It’s not over yet,” Vince said on his way into the kitchen. He pulled out a vase of red roses and set them out on the coffee table.

  “Those are huge,” Angela said in awe, leaning over to take in the aroma. “They’re gorgeous, too. Thank you.”

  “And…”

  “What now?” Angela asked with a giggle.

  Vince pulled the blanket off the fireplace, flipped a switch, and led Angela to sit on the couch.

  “Oh, wow!” she marveled quietly. “Look at the little fake flames, how adorable. I had no idea these things looked even remotely real. It looks heavy. How’d you get it up here?”

  “I paid to have it delivered, don’t worry. Get ready for this,” Vince said, stepping over again to find a small box he had stuck to the back of the fireplace. The looping sound recording of someone else’s fireplace crackling had them both chuckling and falling onto the couch. “It gives off heat, too,” he said, tossing his suit jacket over the back of the couch.

  “I can’t believe you actually bought this…”

  “It was your idea to begin with,” Vince pointed out. He whipped open a blanket, inviting Angela closer.

  Angela got near enough to wrap her arms around his middle. “What time is it?” she asked once she felt herself growing drowsy.

  “Eleven-thirty, I think,” Vince hummed against her crown. “Why?”

  “I’d love to stay longer and just relax with you, but it’ll probably take me an hour to get home at this point with all the snow. I should probably get going soon.”

  “Stay,” Vince said desperately. “You can take my bed, I’ll sleep out here. No sense in risking it, especially in your car. You were right; you need new tires.” He got up to look out the window. No sign of a snowplow or salt on the roads yet.

  “I don’t want to cross any sort of line,” Angela objected.

  Vince forced himself to think things through. “We wouldn’t be,” he concluded. “I just want you to stay safe. It’s innocent.”

  “You’re sure it’s okay?” Angela asked.

  “If you’d rather, you can take my car home and try to explain it to everyone tomorrow morning at work.”

  Angela wound up and tossed a pillow at him.

  —

  “Morning,” Vince said when Angela finally ambled down the hallway. He was surfing early morning television.

  “Morning,” Angela said, adjusting her dress. “I put the clothes you lent me in your hamper.”

  “Did you sleep all right?” he asked.

  She smiled. “Yeah, I did. I seriously would’ve been fine on the couch, though. Did you get enough sleep?”

  “I don’t really need to be up for another two hours. I’ll probably go back to sleep once you take off.”

  “Which would be now,” Angela said regrettably. “I’d love to stay and have coffee or something, but I need to get going now so I can get back to my place and get ready for work.”

  “All right, I’ll go brush off your car,” Vince said.

  “You’re in pajamas,” Angela argued.

  “And you’re in high heels and a dress.” Vince opened the closet, found his boots, and stepped into them without socks. He threw on his coat and eyed Angela sternly. “You take care of the coffee. I’ll be right back.”

  Angela saved her thanks for later and started up an extra strong pot. She found a travel mug for own coffee. By the time she made it outside, Vince was only halfway done with her car.

  “Just a few more minutes, sorry. It’s heavy, wet stuff,” Vince said, his breath fogging up in front of him.

  “I locked the apartment, here’s the key. Here, let me get the rest,” Angela insisted. “It’s really sweet of you, but you need your energy for today.”

  “It’s just snow.”

  Angela bit her lip in agony as she watched Vince struggle needlessly to do something nice for her. “You’re going to get sick. You know the chemo wreaks havoc on your immune system. The last thing you need right now is a cold.”

  “Old wives’ tale,” Vince said. “You can’t catch a cold just by going outside when it’s cold.”

  “But your body uses all that energy warming you back up instead of fighting infections. Just…give me the brush, please.”

  “I’m almost done,” Vince said brightly.

  Angela did her best to remain composed while Vince brushed the remainder of the snow from her car. Letting him do so crushed her heart, but he already felt poorly enough about himself without her questioning his capabilities.

  “All set. Should be nice and warm inside,” Vince said, tossing the brush into Angela’s back seat. “You sure you can’t stay a little while?”

  “I would love to, but I can’t. Listen,” she said with a struggle, unable to keep her opinion to herself, “this was really sweet of you, but I would rather you relax and not use up your energy on being chivalrous. You can take off my coat and hold doors open all you want, and I love it, I really do, but I don’t want you to get hurt or sick. I know how…emasculating it probably is for you to hear this from me, but I can’t help it. I love you more than I love having my feet warm and dry, okay?”

  “I’m fine, really,” Vince said, breathing heavily.

  Angela sighed quietly and nodded. “Okay,” she said, realizing Vince wasn’t in for a conversation right now. “Thank you. It was really sweet, like I said. And thank you for last night. Hands down, best date of my life.” She circled her arms around him, rubbing his back briskly as she burrowed her face into his chest. They enjoyed the embrace for a time longer than what Angela had available.

  “I love you,” Vince said, pressing his lips to her forehead. They met eyes steadily for the first time that morning, really, right before joining for a kiss.

  Angela beamed and forgot her frustration for a moment. “I love you, too. Call me after chemo, let me know how it went. See you tonight,” she said, once again in a hurry. “Your brother’s still coming tomorrow, right?”

  Vince nodded. “Yeah. Looking forward to it. I’ll call you later.” He watched Angela back out of her parking spot, waving on her way out. He waved back and hurried back inside and into a hot shower. When he got out, he could hear Charlie moving around in his room. “Morning, buddy,” he said, poking his head in.

  “Hi, Daddy. Can I take a shower tonight instead of a bath?”

  “You wanna try showers again?”
The last time Vince had tried to introduce Charlie to showering about a year ago, he had wanted nothing to do with it. He’d had the same reaction the year before that and the year before that.

  Charlie nodded. “I’m a big boy,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “You sure are. Shower it is, then. Get dressed for me, ’kay?”

  Charlie nodded eagerly and headed for his dresser just as Vince heard his phone ringing.

  “Hey,” he greeted Jenna.

  “Good morning. I just had to tell you something before I forgot. I just remembered something completely random about Angela and I wanted to tell you. Remember how your team took a day off a case to come pay their respects to Katie and keep you company?”

  “Yeah.”

  “When Harry—the older gentleman—that’s him, right?”

  Vince chortled. “Gentleman? Yeah.”

  “He said that they had to get back to work, Angela started arguing with him.”

  “Arguing about what?”

  “About whether to leave. Everyone else insisted that they had to go, that you’d be okay without them, and from what I could hear of the conversation—they were talking pretty quietly. Anyway, she threatened to quit her job if Harry made her go back. Obviously, she didn’t stick to that, but I remember now. She was livid.”

  “Really? She never told me that.”

  “Yeah…I just thought it was something you might like to hear. See you in a bit?”

  “Yeah. Thanks for letting me know. It was nice to hear.”

  “No problem.” Something sounded off in Jenna’s voice, but Charlie came down the hallway with his head stuck in his sweater sleeve, so Vince didn’t have time to play detective.