Accidents Happen - 17. Chapter 17 - What Will Be

Chapter 17 – What Will Be

Charlie took a deep breath and tried to wrap his mind around all that had just happened. So much for my nice quiet morning, the one where I get to figure out my dreams.

“You are awfully quiet, Charlie.”

“You taste of mint, you know,” said Charlie rather quietly. He heard Scott give a small chuckle.

Charlie looked up as Scott smiled.

“By the way, how the hell did you know where I lived?”

“Easy, Charlie. You left the cake container at my shop. You just happened to put your name and address on the bottom of it.”

Charlie stood for a moment remembering how he had labeled it the last time he brought it to school for one of the teacher’s breakfasts. He figured it might be the only way to guarantee he got his stuff back. Great, just what I need this morning.

Standing in the hallway, Charlie relished the kiss he had received. As reality came back to him, Charlie suddenly remembered another mortifying fact. My mother seen Scott and I kissing, and now I have to go in there and face them all. Christ, now what do I say or do?

“Charlie I think we should head inside your place. Unless you plan to do everything out here in the hall?” Scott’s eyes twinkled with a sort of devilish glint.

“Um, I have a problem.”

Scott looked down and nearly laughed out loud as he saw the concerned look on Charlie’s face. Then looking a bit lower, he did laugh.

“I don’t mean that. Look, Scott, honestly I have a room full of people in there. You sort of showed up in the middle of a disaster.”

Scott unwound his jacket from his shoulders and slung it over Charlie’s. His cast was still a virgin white and he moved with a bit of care. “So what would you like me to say? I’m not leaving you, Charlie. We have our own things to discuss.”

Lord, what did I do to deserve being punished like this? Was I really so bad?

“I guess you won’t just go away for now?” Charlie was sort of hopeful that Scott would take the hint and leave. That ended as Scott shook his head ‘no’ and headed back to the door of Charlie’s apartment.

“Great. Okay, let’s get this over with.”

Charlie wrapped Scott’s coat around in a vain attempt to hide his excitement and stomped back to his apartment. Scott stood patiently as Charlie took a breath and prepared to enter his apartment. As the door opened three heads turned in his direction and all conversation stopped. There are times I wish the floor would open up and swallow me.

“Scott, I’d like you to meet my morning company. This is my ex-roommate from college, Ted. This is Ricky, my nephew. And finally this is my mother, Mrs. Barbara Wagner.”

Scott nodded to each in turn and stopped cold when he recognized Barbara.

“So nice to see you again, Mr. Reeds.”

“Again? Mom, when did you meet Scott?”

“She is your mother?”

Charlie stopped and looked back and forth between his mother and Scott. He knew he was missing something but wasn’t sure what.

“Yes, Charlie, I’ve met Mr. Reeds before. After you finally told me about your accident I went to see him.”

At the mention of the word accident both Rick and Ted leaned forward.

“Charlie had an accident? When did this happen, Unc?”

“What do you mean accident? Charlie, what the hell happened?”

“Enough already with the third degree. Scott, sit down. Everyone else just stop.”

Charlie leaned against the counter while he highlighted the accident that had brought Scott and him together the first time. He went on to explain that they had met up again at school when Scott arrived to introduce his new literacy program and by luck of the draw he had been asked to take over the project from Justine.

“Uncle Charlie you never said a word to the rest of us. We didn’t even know you had almost been hurt.” Rick sat looking very unhappy.

“You talked to me a few times a week, Charlie. Don’t you think you might have mentioned this to your best friend?”

“First off, I don’t like to tell people my problems or mistakes. You should all know that by now. Rick, although I didn’t realize it when you mentioned it to me last time, you are right. I am willing to help everyone else with their problems, but I deal with mine by myself. Ted, in all the time you have known me when do I ever say when something has gone wrong?”

Ted and Rick sat there looking down at the table. Scott seemed to be watching it all and taking it in. This was his first time seeing Charlie interact with others and he was trying to stay out of it.

“Second, Mom you still haven’t explained how you got to meet Scott. I think it is time you laid your cards on the table for a change.”

Barbara looked up and she blushed. She knew she had been caught.

“Charlie, you told me how to find him. After you let it slip at the girl’s birthday party about the accident, I decided I wanted to thank him personally for saving your life. I was also interested to find out why you seemed so different when you talked about him.”

Charlie’s green eyes locked with his mother’s. She knew he wasn’t going to let her off the hook. Charlie was a bit too much like her, stubborn and always after the truth.

“So I went down to the book store to find Mr. Reeds.”

“Well that explains why you asked for me to personally show you around the store,” began Scott nodding as he remembered her asking for the manager.

“Yes, Scott. I figured I needed to thank you but as we talked I realized you were a fairly new business man. Charlie had an idea in college of a way to help out the kids with a literacy program. I explained to Scott how he could use it to help get the kids into his store and set himself up with school to help supply books as time went on.”

“Did you suggest he go to my school to implement my old idea as well, Mom?”

“Yes, because you do teach the young kids, Charlie. The fact you two ended up working together was not something I had control over.”

Well I was the one that willingly did the switch with Justine for this project. I was the one that let her go to her daughter’s concert.

“I take it this little pow-wow wasn’t planned by all of you. So what are you all planning to do now?” Scott asked sounding a little concerned.

“Well for starters, Ted get your ass back to bed. You are falling asleep at the table. Go sleep it off.”

Scott watched as Ted got up and moved toward the bedroom. God, he isn’t going to get over this anytime soon. I, unfortunately, still have other fish to fry. His eyes narrowed as he saw the door close behind Ted.

“Well at least one of you will listen to me. Now, Mom, I am more than willing to let Rick stay here. However some notice might have been nice. Rick, you know where my spare key is.”

“Listen, Charlie, I …” began Barbara.

“Mom, truthfully, I don’t want to hear it. I haven’t had time to pull my own act together this morning and I’ve had to deal with one problem after another.”

“I understand, but ...” tried Barbara again.

“No, Mom. No buts this time. I have enough on my plate at the moment. Rick do you want to stay here for now or are you heading out?”

Rick Junior looked up surprised he was being asked anything.

“I have a choice?”

“You know I won’t force you into anything. I however am going to head into my bedroom, grab some clothing, and get dressed. Then I am going out for coffee, accompanied by Scott, if he likes. The rest of my day, I have no idea what is happening, but for now I need a break from everyone else. Rick, any way you look at it, I will see you for dinner. Scott, don’t move till I get back here.”

With that Charlie got off the counter and proceeded to go into his bedroom. The three remaining sat looking stunned at each other.

“I don’t think I have ever seen Uncle Charlie look so pissed off.”

“I’m afraid I am the cause of that, Rick. As you heard me say, I’ve sort interfered where I wasn’t suppose to in his life.” Barbara sat looking very uncomfortable.

`”Well you aren’t the only one causing waves for him, Mrs. Wagner.”

“Scott, just call me Barbara. Everyone does.”

“Okay. But Mrs. Wa … I mean Barbara, what do we do now?”

“Well for starters, I’m leaving. You and Charlie have some things to sort out. Rick, do you need a lift or are you staying here?

“No, I’m going to take his spare key and I would appreciate it if you dropped me off on main street, Grandma.”

“Fine, Rick, I will drop you off. Nice to see you again, Scott. Please, tell Charlie I’ll call him later.”

Rick and Barbara quietly left the apartment leaving Scott alone at the table. Seeing the mess was still there he slowly gathered the mugs and put them in the sink. He walked back over and grabbed the plate from the table and added it to the mess already there. Then he wandered over and looked at how neatly everything seemed to be kept by Charlie. Scott sauntered over to the window gazing out over the street below.

“I see I am not the only one who can get lost in thought,” stated Charlie softly from behind him.

“No, you aren’t Charlie. So, where do you want to go for coffee?”

“Let’s head into the village. I’ll buy you lunch. It seems we have some things to discuss yet.”

“That we do.”

Charlie handed Scott back his coat while pulling on one of his own. The walk down to Scott’s car was quiet.

“You know you didn’t bring it,” began Charlie as the silence stretched out.

“Bring what?”

“My cake container. You said you got my address off of it but you didn’t bring it with you to my place.”

“Actually it is in the car. I wanted an excuse to talk to you and I figured saying I forgot it in the car would force you to talk to me again while I tried to make you see how I felt about you.”

“I think the kiss pretty much made that apparent, don’t you?”

Scott laughed and turned to look at Charlie. Once again Charlie was caught in the deep blue of his eyes. How the hell does he do that? With a simple glance at me I feel totally exposed to him.

“Well, I didn’t exactly hear you complaining.”

“No,” Charlie mumbled and kept walking as Scott grabbed his arm.

“Charlie, this is my car.”

“Oh.”

Charlie knew next to nothing about cars. He knew this one was a classic though. The design of the car was a throwback to earlier times.

“This is my baby, which was totally restored. It is a 1969 Jaguar XJ6 sedan. “

“It’s … um … very nice.”

Scott looked at Charlie like he just pissed in his cereal.

“Charlie, nice is a cup of coffee. Nice is a winning game of cards. This, this is a work of beauty.”

Charlie shrugged.

“You have no soul, Charlie.”

“It’s a car, Scott. It gets you from point a to point b. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

Scott shook his head as he opened the door for Charlie. Then he got in and eased his car into the flow of traffic. Instead of heading for Main Street, Scott drove the car down near the water and pulled into one of the restaurants by the bay.

Charlie turned and glared at Scott. Now why on earth did he bring us here to such an expensive restaurant?

“I thought we were going out for coffee and to talk?”

“If we are going to sit and talk, Charlie, we might as well have a great view.”

“You better hope we get a quiet corner .We still have a lot to discuss. However, since we are here I guess we can have something to eat too.”

Scott smiled as he slowly followed Charlie into the restaurant. His eyes never once left Charlie’s retreating form.