You're Not What I Was Expecting To Find

For most of the ride, Charlotte stared out the window in the passenger seat of Matt’s car as it cruised along the road. Every so often Matt would glance away from the road to look over at her. He would smile at the wistful look in her eyes and look to what he was doing. He drove without thinking, having taken these familiar roads many times. He had lived in his current house for many years, most while having Val with him as well. He loved that house, and was proud of himself that he had picked it out on his own.

Yet, after he had broken up with Val, he considered selling it and moving into a smaller house, maybe closer to the beach, since it was just him now. There were so many memories that the two had shared, and he was constantly reminded of them whenever he stepped inside. But he held off on actually selling it, hoping that the memories would fade and he would be able to move on.

Well, he had been wrong, at least about one part. The memories had never faded, and he doubted they ever would. But he had definitely moved on. Shooting a glance at Charlotte again he saw she still had her eyes trained on the view outside as they drove along.
But his thoughts were interrupted as Charlotte reached up and stretched, exposing her stomach, showing just a sliver of skin. He wanted to reach out and touch the satin smooth skin but stopped himself. He held on tightly to the wheel as he drove down the road to his house.

Pulling into the garage, he turned the ignition off and quickly climbed out of the low-slung car. He grabbed Charlotte’s bag from the back seat and made his way to the garage door. Pressing his code into the security system beside the doorknob, he let them in and walked into the kitchen.

Setting Charlotte’s bag on the island in the middle of the cold tile floor, Matt turned around to see Charlotte looking around his house, taking everything in.

“Did I ever tell you how much I love your house?” she asked him. Matt turned around to look at Charlotte as she smoothed a hand along his kitchen counter. He smiled. She looked so at home here, she looked like she belongs. As if she had lived here her entire life.

Matt shrugged as glanced around the large kitchen, and said, “I think I might sell it.”

“Why?” Charlotte asked, wandering into the living room. Matt followed, hands shoved deep into his pockets.

“Lots of memories,” he explained, “I’m looking for a fresh start.”

“Sounds reasonable,” she told him, sitting gently down on the couch, “I understand there are a lot of memories here.” she asked, tilting her head towards him.

Matt casually paced over to stand beside the coffee table. He shrugged, hands still in his pockets. “It’s not too bad. I try to spend as little time here as possible.” He went over to sit beside Charlotte, leaning back into the deep cushions. “Sometimes I crash at the studio. Or sometimes I’ll have just a little too much when I’m over at Brian’s, or Jimmy’s and crash there. But they have their own lives and I don’t want to intrude. It’s harder at night,” he admitted.

Charlotte frowned, looking down at her lap and asked, “Is it harder, having me here?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Well, I’m sort of your rebound girl,” Charlotte said, sounding unsure.

“Baby, you’re a whole lot more than just a rebound girl,” Matt reassured, speaking softly.

“Well, you know what I mean. I’m the next girl after Val.”

“I know. And I was with her for a very long time. But what I felt for her is nothing compared to what I feel for you, right this second.” He leaned in to kiss her and their lips met, Charlotte tilting her head up wanting the kiss to last. Normally, he would deepen the kiss and bring her into a hot make-out session, but remembering her confession from earlier, he held off. He kissed her once more lightly and pulled away.

“What movie do you want to watch?” he asked, quickly standing up from his sitting position on the couch. Charlotte watched him walk over to his cabinet full of movies.

“It doesn’t really matter to me.”

“I picked last night, it’s your turn.”

“I don’t know what movies you have,” Charlotte told him. She got up and went to stand beside him, scanning over the hundreds of movie titles.

“You choose. I’m going to go change.” Matt kissed her hair, and left her alone in front of the cabinet. He made a pit stop in the kitchen to grab her bag before he jogged up the stairs and into his bedroom. He set her bag on his bed and grabbed a pair of lounge pants and an old t-shirt from his drawers before stripping down. Slipping on the clean clothes, he threw the dirty ones into the hamper. He noticed it was getting full and made a mental note to do some laundry tomorrow after he got home from the studio.

Before going back downstairs he made his bed and tidied up in the bathroom. He wasn’t sure where Charlotte would want to sleep tonight, so he took a couple of precautions, just in case. With one last look around he left his room and jogged back down the stairs.

Upon returning to the living room, he found Charlotte still staring at the movies. He chuckled lightly and went to stand behind her. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he felt her stiffen than relax at the sudden contact. He noticed she held a movie in her hand and he reached in to take it from her.

“Another horror?” he asked, looking down sceptically at Charlotte as she turned around to face him.

“I actually kind of like watching horror movies. That other one was just stupid,” she insisted, and stepped around him. She noticed he had changed out of his jeans and she looked down at her own. Shifting from one foot to the other, Charlotte suddenly felt overdressed. She made her way into the kitchen as Matt set up the movie, intent on finding her clothes. But when she saw her bad wasn’t where she had put it minutes earlier, she returned to the living room.

“Where’d my bag go?” she asked Matt.

“I put it upstairs in my room,” he told her, “Is that okay?”

Charlotte knew he wasn’t just asking about where he had decided to put her clothes. He was asking if it was okay if they slept in the same bed tonight. But he had promised no funny business, and she had come to trust Matt, only if she’s only known him for a couple of days. At least with her, he’s never gone back on his word.

Finally, Charlotte nodded, “Yeah, that’s fine. I’m just going to go change and brush my hair and stuff. I’ll be right back.” She made her way upstairs and into his room, locating her bag quickly on his large bed. She pulled out the pyjama bottoms she had packed earlier, a tank top and a white sweater.

Once she had changed, she brushed her hair, brushed her teeth and went back downstairs. Matt was already settled on the couch in front of the TV as the movie previews played across the screen. She tiptoed over to him and sat gently down to his left, several inches away.

“What are you doing?” Charlotte heard Matt ask. She turned to look at him.

“What do you mean?”

“Get over here,” he said, gesturing for her to move closer. Charlotte looked down shyly, but shifted over, so they were touching. Matt moved his arm over so it settled on her shoulders and they both trained their eyes on the movie as the opening credits appeared on the screen.