Nothing In This World (BWWM) ✅

Chapter Twenty Eight

Hot plates were laid out on the kitchen table and right in front of Charles and Darla's faces. Right when Charlene sat down, the front door opened and in walked an out of breath Lance. "Dinner is- Are you okay?" Charlene asked as he turned to lock the front door. "Did someone bother you?"

"Uh... no," He barely looked her in the eyes as he walked through the living room and stopped at the basement door. "I'm going to bathe and I'll be right up."

That wasn't a good enough answer. Charlene pushed herself out of her chair and followed him down the steps. The moment they made it to the basement floor, Lance turned to face her while pulling his hair out of his head almost. "Lance," she said in a warning voice.

"She put me in a bad spot, Char. I didn't want to be rude because it's supposed to be me and you Charlene!" She softly grabbed his wrist and pulled his hands away from his head. "It's supposed to be..."

"Tell me what happened?"

Lance made it to the end of the street to catch his breath at the stop sign. He immediately thought about the muffins he discarded in someone's yard and had no choice but to turn back around to clean up his mess. He figured someone must have seen him do it and he couldn't risk getting a bad name in an unfamiliar area.

When he came around to the muffins, he picked them up and kept walking in that direction. He kept walking until he was in front of the house he didn't want to go back to. He kept walking until he was at the front door. He didn't stop until his fist was hitting wood and that door opened up once again.

"Wow! You're back!"

"I have a wife." The muffins crumbled in his hands as he spoke. "And I love her." The corner of Joanne's mouth twitched as she tried to keep the smile on her face. "She's never done nothing wrong. In fact, she's the reason I'm even here right now. Despite the war raging in her heart, she put it aside so I can do something I wanted to do. So she's not some wife... she's my wife!" The smile fell off her face when his voice got sterner. "Now I came here to return this cause I don't want your muffins and I don't want your banquette."

Just as she looked down at her ruined muffins, she could see his hands start to shake. "No you didn't. You just told yourself that bull crap as you walked back up here. No man takes my muffins that serious." She batted her eyes once again and Lance could feel his cheeks heating up. "She ain't as pretty as I am, ain't she?"

"Cha- Charlene is beautiful."

"Then what is it? Ain't satisfying you in bed? Or is it you're just a man and we all know men have needs." Lance threw the muffins on the ground and grabbed Joanne by her waist while locking his lips to hers. He made sure to close the door behind them while unhooking his overalls. Next was the buttons to her dress and she didn't hesitate to help him with that.

Before he knew it, her petite breast fell out of her top and she was massaging one with her free hand. She moaned as she touched herself then stopped to grab Lance's hand and replace hers with his. Their lips connected once more and he parted to lift the bottom of her dress up just enough to pull her panties down. They both grunted when he picked her up to put her on the kitchen table. Her palm smashing right into the muffins as she propped herself up.

"You can have all of me, Lance." She moaned out while bucking her hip to his.

Those were the words that snapped Lance right out of the action he was in the process of doing. "What did you say?" He slightly pulled away from Joanne who was confused as to why they stopped. "I... what did I just do!?" He took two large steps back as he watched Joanne scrambled to button her dress back up.

"Are you serious right now?! What on earth is wrong with you?" She threw the ribbon that fell off her head straight at him. "Get out of my house you creepy idiot!"

Lance didn't think twice when he hooked his overalls back on and left her house in such a rush that the front door was wide open.

"Lance! I said to tell me happened right now?" Charlene repeated with anger in her voice.

Lance looked at his hands just as a tear slipped his eye and landed on his palm. "I wanted to grow and I think my decision might have meant that I would have to grow without you." He looked up at her with a broken smile. "I'm not going to the banquette. She's not worth breaking our trust. You hear?"

"Lance, I did this for us. You told me-"

"I know what I said but I was wrong. You were right. The cost is too high." He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles before getting up and taking his shirt off. She watched him closely as if the truth would be tattooed across his back. "You go on and enjoy dinner with your family."

Charlene jumped up and wrapped her arms around his sweaty waist as if begging him not to leave her. Her cheek pressed against his warm back and she could hear his heart beating from inside. "They are your family too. Is that what you miss?" He disagreed. "I got a letter from my mama today. She explained everything. Told me that she didn't want the good life Charles described in all his letter to take me away. Then went on to say how it didn't work. How I left anyway. I did it because I love you."

Lance pulled her arms off his body despite how hard she held on to never let go. "Charlene. I just want to bathe."

"I can see in your eyes that you regret it all!" Once he pried her hands away, he turned to face the little woman before him who was also holding in her tears. "If it's too much we can always go home. We ain't never felt this complicated about each other."

"I don't feel anything but love for you. It's you who makes a big deal about it all then leave me feeling like shit when it falls through."

"You two really are in love." The both of them turned to Darla who was taking slow steps down the stairs. "Caring about each other's every emotion in life even when it goes against your own. The only problem I'm seeing is there is passion instead of proper communication."

Charlene wiped the tears from her eyes in a hurry. "We talk all the time. We're talking right now."

"No. Y'all are talking right through each other. He tells you one thing. You tell him a thing. Next thing you know you're going back on your word and neither one of you know what the others going through. It's more then decision making. It's understanding."

"I just want to take a bath. Please."

Lance was visibly not interested in any more conversations or arguments. Charlene knew something was beating him down but she didn't know how to get it out of him. Darla must have known what she was talking about because Charles isn't the easiest person to talk to about certain situations.

When it was just Darla and Charlene, both girls took a seat on the edge of the bed and held hands. "Things were so much better when it was me and him at the farm with no other distractions."

"He sees a lot more in this world than you do. Them country boys come here and get down right wild all the time. They ain't never seen the people or the opportunity. It's something you gone have to let pass. I think he's trying but he ain't there yet."

"Lance always wanted to go to the city. Go to college. Be anything other than-"

"But he has to make sacrifices to get there. Trust me. There were times I stayed up all night wondering when the hell Charles was gone get home. I was five months pregnant and he was still partying and waking up that very morning to work twelve hours or more. But he's better now. They always get better if you allow them that space."

"Space? Being away from him all damn day is hard enough, Darla. I never know what he's doing and when I do think I know he acts like that! Like he ain't even doing what I thought he was doing!"

"Space. Patience. He's got it so good he just don't know it yet. But you can't tell him. He's got to see it."