Being Alive [Charlie Barber]

Chapter 3: Good Girl

You never thought that you would get the opportunity to be inside Charlie Barber's apartment.

But yet, here you were. Standing in his doorway.

His son's babysitter.

"Oh." You said lamely, unsure of exactly how you were supposed to respond after Nicole introduced you to the man who you had just spent your entire day with.

Nicole faltered, confused by your reaction and glanced over at Charlie who was nervously running a hand through his hair.

All of the dirty thoughts that Charlie had been having about you earlier that day hadn't been a big deal to him at the time because they'd been so separate from his home life. Before now, to him, you only existed at work.

But now you were in his actual home and you were talking to his wife and this was all just too much for him.

"We've met." He said, just as dumbly as you had. He couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of this, the fact that you had been in his thoughts all night and somehow you were in his apartment, as if he summoned you here.

"She's my new intern." Charlie explained, "She just started today, actually, this is a very... weird coincidence." He was looking in between you and Nicole, trying not to show how absolutely flustered he was.

Nicole understood now and she was embarrassed. It was clear now that they hadn't done much research as a couple on you, she hadn't even been able to recall your name to tell Charlie. She didn't like you seeing how underprepared they were.

"Oh." She said in surprise, feeling just as awkward and out of place as the two of you did. "Well that's funny," She forced a laugh that somehow seemed so natural, "I guess we didn't put two and two together." She tried to explain herself.

You weren't finding this as humorous as they were. You needed this job, it was the one of the only things that worked with the small amount of hours you had available in the day. "I understand if..." You trailed off, unsure exactly how to word it, "You want to find someone else? I don't know if this is what you were looking for..." You felt so awkward.

You were exactly what Charlie was looking for, but that wasn't really what you were asking.

Charlie wasn't really sure how to respond to that, he looked to Nicole for guidance, to see what she thought about this. As much as he wanted you around, he didn't know if it was the best idea to mix his personal life with his professional life in this way.

"Do you mind if we talk alone for a second?" Nicole asked you sheepishly, feeling bad that her mistake of not remembering your name or anything about you was a reason why you might have wasted your time coming here.

"Sure." You shrugged, you understood why they'd need to, even if this made everything very uncomfortable for you.

The two of them turned and went into the kitchen and you found yourself awkwardly standing in the middle of their living room.

"Are you my new babysitter?" Henry asked, staring up at you.

"I'm not sure, maybe." You answered with a shrug, being honest. You looked down to see what he was doing, playing with something. You introduced yourself and Henry told you his name in return.

You carefully moved onto the ground, joining him, "Are these Legos?" You asked, pretending to be excited about it, for his sake.

Henry lit up, happy that someone was paying attention to him. "Yeah, let me show you!" He said, thrilled.