Unexpected - Charlie Barber

Layers

Henry will be like most children at 11, his a little mouthy now . SPOILED. He learns something about her family that's disturbingly. ALSO there's sexual tension clearly happening between Charlie and Olivia.

California bound.
Nicole and her boyfriend were waving goodbye to Charlie backing out of their driveway. He politely waved back. He may have been over Nicole. But he still carried the pain of seeing how great she was doing without him. How she had fallen in love all over again and he hadn't even had a actual relationship since the divorce .

Bitter sweet. ..
He was driving Henry to a surprise after they had picked up lunch at a burger joint. The drove consisted of honking and cursing at all the idiot drivers .

'Fuck. Come on, it's called a turn signal." He honked at a man taking his time to turn off.
He checked the rear view mirror to see if Henry was sleeping. He had been quite the whole ride. Not to his surprise, he saw him texting on his phone. That damn fucking phone ...

"Hey. Who are you texting? Is everything okay?" He asked in his concerned dad voice. Always second guesting if he was happy .
The unbearable feeling that Henry was texting his mother that he was "already bored ".

"Um...yeah. My girlfriend sent me this funny video on YouTube.."
"Your friend. Who is a girl??" He corrected his kid. He kept looking back at his son.
"No, my actual girlfriend dad, we've been dating for a week." He said dry and irritated.
"AND..YOUR MOM KNOWS THIS?"
"MHM..Yes Dad."
Charlie put out his hand threw the back seat. Having enough of how Nicole was letting him get away with everything.

He thought he was extremely to young to be having a girlfriend. HELL, his first girlfriend was at 16 and his 11 year bet him to the punch line.

"PHONE! , Now, hand it over." Charlie demanded. He kept his hand out waving it around until his son gave it up.

"This is why mom doesn't tell you things." He mumbled under his breath, taking out his switch now from his baggage. Another form of ingoring his dad.
He put the phone in the glove compartment. Slamming it shut. Angry at how bratty he had become.

"Where are we going anyways? We've been on the road for a while?",Henry asked , he felt Henry kick the back of his chair a bit.
"Stop kicking..well, sweetheart I have a surprise for you, something I've been thinking about for awhile. I think you'll like it. " Charlie said buttering up his son.

Charlie had once again been on Olivia's social media and saw for 2 days they were were waving the fees for animal adoption at the rescue. Henry had been hinting towards a dog for awhile. BUT Nicole said "No dogs at HER place. " A dog would just have to stay with Charlie.

The drive was a little over a hour, Henry feel asleep in the back. Which was perfect, because he didn't want him see where they were going. Making it to the rescue. He shook Henry in the backseat. "We're here, let's go get that surprise. " he said with a big smile. Henry's face lit up, unbuckling himself . Opened the car door and saw the sign on the bricked building. "BAKERFEILD ANIMAL RESCUE. "

His son clapped his hands together. "No way, dad!! A Dog? Am I getting a dog?" He basically screamed.
"TECHNICALLY, we're getting one. But let's see." his hands go in his pocket and leans against the car feeling good about this.
BARK. WOOF. BARK.
The walk down the aisle of dogs was loud! Some jumping against the kennels, that had Henry jumped back from. Scared of the bigger ones.
"This one dad."
He runs over to a calm older dog. A beagle.

His father was looking behind his shoulder often, keeping his eye out for Olivia.
Which he completely missed her being in front of him.
"Hi guys, do you have any questions about the-- oh my God. Charlie!??"
"Hey Olivia!!" He said excited. He Immediately started to groom his hair out of being nervous. She went in for a hug and he returned it. It wasn't a short embrace, her head against his chest an he placed his head on hers, rubbing her back.