❥𝑹𝒆𝒅 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆

Chapter 79

Narrator

When Charles heard his name, he looked up to who was calling him. Of course, he already knew it was Valerie before seeing her visibly with his eyes.

"What are you doing here?", she asked slowly, confused by his presence in her office.

Charles looked around.
He held a glue stick in his hand, the broken pieces of the model car in front of him spread across the table.

"I uhm-"
He thought about it for a second. "I had some time, and I found your construction plan of the model so..."

Charles was rather nervous about it.
He had nothing to do with the incident causing her model car to be broken. And if he ever found out who it was, he would waste no time to make a fuss.
But he knew how much it mattered to her.
So he tried to fix it.

His manual and craftsman's abilities or skills were out of question here - it would not look as perfect as when Valerie built it.
But Charles wanted to fix it anyways, for her.

"You...uh..."
Valerie just looked at him, not knowing what to say. "It's late.", she mentioned as she took a peek at the time.

"I know," Charles replied and focused on the project again, "but this has to be done until tomorrow, no?"

A shy smile appeared on his lips.
The driver was still kind of shaken up by the argument that occurred mere hours before. Nevertheless, he searched for ways to do her a favor. So Charles just showed up here and started to glue the pieces back together.

And he assumed that Valerie was still mad at him, too.
So he wasn't quite sure how she would react.
A frown was expected on her face. Maybe she would send him away, even.

But... oh. Was that... a smile?

Valerie approached the desk and looked over how far Charles had come.

"You did all that while I was away?", she asked curiously, her eyes glimpsing with new hope.

The contours of a car were already slightly there to be seen. Maybe not in the most flawless way, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed by a professional - Valerie.

"Yeah. I tried, at least.", Charles answered softly and met her gaze again.
She didn't seem angry at all. Just eager to fix her project.

"Well, it looks good so far."
Valerie commented, grabbing another chair and placing it next to Charles. He made space for her as they both observed the car model in front of them yet to be finished.

Pride grew inside of Charles' chest as she praised his effort.
"Here," he said and handed her another glue stick, "the more hands, the quicker the end."

Valerie took it with a little chuckle and studied her construction plan to figure out what to do next.

As they were working and glueing on the car together in silence, Valerie peeked a glance over at her project partner every now and then.

"I'm sorry, about earlier.", she suddenly mentioned and broke the silence.

Charles turned to her, studying her face as she apologized. He stayed quiet.

"I know you'd never do this," Valerie continued, looking back at the desk, "I shouldn't have accused you of destroying the model."
Her words were meaningful, and honest.
Charles immediately knew that.

"It's okay.", he responded after a moment of silence between them.
"You had a reason to be mad at me, I guess."

She kind of had, yes.
She saw Charles talking to Rebecca and assumed the worst, even though they weren't even together, it bothered her when that woman was near him.
And they started a fight about it.
Only shortly after, she finds her project destroyed, torn apart.
So it was not wrong to assume he had something to do with it.

But deep down, Valerie knew Charles would never do such a thing.
She felt guilty for accusing him. For even thinking he might've done it.

"But I shouldn't have just gone off with my first hint of anger. It was wrong."

"I appreciate it."

Charles sent a warm smile over to her.
When was the last time things were so... easy between them?

"I would've never expected you to sit here, though.", Valerie stated after a while, putting another piece into place.

"I know how much it matters to you, so..."

Charles stopped for a moment and looked at her.

"It does.", she finally replied.

"How did you get this idea, anyways?", Charles asked with curiosity as he viewed the model car for another second.

Valerie's eyes began to sparkle at his question.

"Well..."

The next minutes were filled with the story of her little project that turned out big, getting roots and all. Her eyes shined while talking about her idea and how she created the model car, the request from the design team and how long it all took.
She talked with pride and excitement.

Charles continued to rebuild the car, but his attention was drawn to her story and what she told him.

As she just went on talking, and talking, he stopped for a second to admire her when she wouldn't notice. The passion she spread while speaking about her work was something he always shared admiration for.

When Valerie came to a pause for a second to look to her side, she noticed him staring with a soft smile.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing.", Charles said quickly, looking away. "I just like it when you're happy."

Valerie softened. She sighed, looking at him.
He was the one who would always listen to her.
She could talk the whole evening and he would still not get tired of it. Just like it always used to be.

Raphael didn't even ask about her project when he noticed it. Valerie didn't want to admit it at first, but that truly hurt her.
That wasn't what it's supposed to be like.

Valerie picked up a piece, put glue on it and positioned it at the rear wing, glancing over at Charles.

"Can you hold that for a second?", she requested and waited until he would assist.

"Sure."

Charles moved his hand in place, holding it exactly like Valerie did.
But she didn't move her own hand away.
Charles' hand went above hers, holding it together with the piece.

Immediately, their eyes met.
It was like time had stopped, the air was buzzing of tension.

An electric wave seemed to sparkle between their hands.

And neither of them wanted to let go.