In Charlotte's Eyes

Violent

Two slices of pork sizzled on the pan. Charlotte was occupied playing a game, waiting for Parker to finish cooking. A small pot of corn was sitting, fully cooked, waiting to be scooped. Yeah, Parker may have lied about having something new and special to cook, but he couldn’t come up with a better excuse to have Charlotte come over. He was surprised she actually bought it. Although, maybe, she just wanted to spend time with him. Maybe he didn’t even need a crappy excuse to have her come over. He hummed lowly, flipping the pork chops over. “Hey, it smells good.” Charlotte commented loudly from the TV screen. Parker looked up at her. She was still facing the game, focused.

He smiled. “Thanks. It’ll be done soon.”

“Good, because I am absolutely starving.”

A few more minutes passed. Parker finished cooking the pork thoroughly, setting both pieces on separate plates. He then added a few scoops of corn to the sides of the pork, lightly salting them. He added a few dashes of herbs to make it look nicer, then set them on his table. “Okay, they’re done, Charlotte.” He called her.

She paused the game, standing up and stretching. She yawned. “Mmh! Alright..!” She said excitedly, straining. She turned around and sat down, studying what he had cooked up for her. She hummed. She was smiling, but she raised a brow, looking up at Parker as he sat across from her. “Wow, this looks really good, Parker.” She stabbed the fork he gave her into the pork. “But, honestly, I was expecting something more fancy."

"Well, sorry I couldn't deliver that. I'm not exactly a master chef."

She cut a piece of meat off of the chop. "Yeah, I know. But this isn't a difficult meal to make." She commented, snickering. "Hell, I could make something like this easily if I wanted to." She began chewing the piece she cut. A resounding, approving hum escaped her lips.

He chuckled. "I guess it isn't, is it?" He began cutting his own piece up.

It took a moment, but Charlotte swallowed. "But, seriously, how could you possibly accidentally make more than you could eat? All you need to do is cook one hunk of meat." She put a fist on her cheek. "Is there something you aren't telling me?" She smugly smirked at him.

Parker played along, gently laughing. "Okay, okay. I may have lied when I said I wanted you to come over because I wanted to try cooking something new." He admitted.

She chuckled, a bit pridefully. "I knew it." She giggled softly. "You just want to spend time with me for no reason. Very sweet, Parker."

"Not for- no.. reason.." Parker awkwardly smiled, looking away.

Charlotte nodded. "Uhuh." She said sarcastically.

"No, seriously!" Parker took a breath. "I was- hoping.. we could talk about something."

Her smile faltered, a brow raising. "Talk about what?" She asked casually but cautiously.

Uh oh. He didn't want her to feel threatened. The last thing he wanted to do was get into another fight. "It's nothing that important." He assured. "We can talk after we eat." He smiled.

She hummed, shrugging. "Fine by me."

The two began eating, making small talk in between bites. The whole time, Parker ran through scenarios on how to best approach this conversation. I mean, Charlotte is a good person. This shouldn't be that difficult. It'd be okay.

…

They didn’t end up talking after they ate. Not right away, at least. They played a co-op video game together, then afterwards played chess to get competitive nerves out.

“Damn,” Parker put a hand on his chin. “You got it.” Charlotte had alleged that he was put into checkmate. After looking around for a minute for a possible move, he assessed that she was right. She had won the game.