Under Your Skin: Nick and Charlie fanfic

Halloween

My flat buzzer goes off at ten o'clock, I'm in the middle of getting ready for work, so I answer topless.
"Hello?" I ask.
"Hey, it's me." Elle says.
"Oh, hey." I say, buzzing her in.

I leave the door in the latch and go back into my bedroom to finish getting ready. I pull a black silk shirt over my arms, I don't really want to do this whole Halloween thing, but if everyone else is, I feel like I ought to.

"Charlie?"
"I'm in here." I call to her.
"I thought I'd pop in to see how you are before you go to work." She says, walking into my bedroom.
"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" I ask, buttoning up my shirt.
"You just didn't seem okay when we were all at the pub." She says softly.
"Oh, I promise I'm fine, just this whole Nick thing with is bothering me a bit."
"Do you think he might like you?" She asks.
"I really dont know, I doubt it. Does this look okay?" I ask, giving her a dramatic spin.
"It's very fancy for work isn't it?" She laughs.
"It's Halloween, we're being made to dress up. It was Nick's stupid idea."
"This is you dressed up for Halloween?" She laughs, "it needs more." She says.

She goes over to my chest of drawers, opening the box I keep my earrings in.
"This is perfect." She says, taking out a black hoop with a black crusifics attached.
"I haven't worn that since Halloween like five years ago." I laugh.
"Exactly, and now you're dressing up for Halloween." She says, passing it to me.
"I guess." I giggle, turning to the mirror and putting the earring through my lobe.
"Ooh, hang on!" She says, going into her back and taking out an eyeliner pencil.
"Really?" I laugh.
"Oh come on, it'll look good." She says, approaching me.
"Fine." I laugh.
"Look up." She says, holding the back of my head and applying eyeliner to my waterline on each eye.
"This is ridiculous." I giggle as she undoes two shirt buttons and opens my collar.
"There, you look gorgeous." She says, smiling.
"Thanks." I chuckle.
"Right, I need to go. I have loads to do today." She says.
"Oh, so you come here, tart me up, then leave?" I laugh.
"Yep, love you." She says as she leaves.
"Love you too." I giggle, turning to look at myself in the mirror.

Elle wasn't wrong, I do look good. Hopefully Nick's reaction will help me decifer if he is actually into me, or just flirting to wind me up. I'm still convinced it's the latter, but I suppose stranger things have happened.

I quickly run curl serum through my hair, spritz myself with my most expensive aftershave and head out the door. I'm working open until close today, which means a twelve hour shift, so maybe a silk shirt wasn't the best option.

I decide to quickly dash back into my flat and grab a normal black shirt, and my deodorant. I'm now running a little later than I'd like to be, and by the time I get into my car I'm feeling quite flustered. At least I'm opening on my own today, so I can zone out and get on with setting up before the rest of the staff start arriving.

I unlock the door to the pub, stopping dead in my tracks when I see Nick standing behind the bar. He looks absolutely delicious, I almost didn't recognise him with his hair slicked back. Red contact lenses and the trickle of fake blood from the corner of his mouth, tells me he's gone for a vampire vibe.

He's wearing a white shirt, the material of the sleeves stretched tight over his biceps. He has three buttons undone, revealing more of his chest than feels appropriate for me to be seeing, and a black waistcoat.

"Morning." He says, smiling at me.
"Why are you here?" I ask as I close and lock the door, my tone sounding a lot ruder than I had intended.
"Tom asked me to work an open till close."
"Oh." I say, approaching the bar.
"Are you okay?" He asks sincerely.
"Yeah, I'm good. I just wasn't expecting anyone to be here," I say.

I head out the back to take my coat off. I hang it up along with my bag, before going back out to join Nick behind the bar. He looks up, staring at me with a slight panicked expression on his face while polishing a glass.