Mr. Prime Minister

Chapter 13

What to wear? What to wear when you're receiving the PM?

"Stop, stop, stop!" I cringed and slapped myself in front of my tiny closet "Just pick whatever. It's Charlie, just Charlie."

I opted for jeans and a salt and pepper sweater, boots and that's it, I was a regular chick dressed for a Sunday morning at home. When I finished making fresh coffee, the door buzzed. I beeped to open it downstairs and waited two minutes for the lift to ride up to my floor. When the front door buzzed, I felt the stupid need to run to the bathroom and throw up. Instead, I painfully walked to the door, opened it and met a hot looking Charlie.

He was wearing a similar outfit to mine; jeans, a white shirt with a black sweater over the top and a grey winter coat. His hair was perfectly combed back – that sexy messy way guys like Charlie are always able to carry off. His blue eyes were a bit foggy, and he had under eye bags, which was new.

"Hi " I greeted gently, holding the door.

"Good morning." He greeted, showing me a white paper bag "As promised, breakfast."

"Thanks. Come in." I gestured, opening the door wide "Where does Tyler wait for you?"

"Downstairs, by the car. He likes to stay close, but not too close. He doesn't like to interrupt my privacy" He shrugged, setting the bag over the coffee table.

I took his coat, and we stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds – it felt like eternity. Charlie leaned down twice, but only on the third try did he gather the courage to kiss my cheek softly. I smiled.

I guided him to the coffee table in silence. He took out two lattes, two yummy looking muffins, two croissants and yogurt. This was actually too fancy compared to my hard bread and bad coffee.

"So, now that I had my coffee... We should talk, right?" I stammered with a wince.

"Maybe you should start, because I really have no idea what went wrong, last night" Charlie shrugged, leaning back to the sofa.

"Ok, I'll start. I was nervous. I was freaking out" I admitted, playing with my latte cup.

"Well, you looked really cool about it" Charlie teased.

"I know. I'm the Queen of Subtle." I smiled "Look, I was overthinking things, and... Well, I had a panic attack."

"You had a panic attack?" He frowned, then winced "God, I didn't know going out with me could be that intense."

"Aren't you hilarious...?" I smiled "That's not it. I mean, it's not about you, per se. It's about... what people expect from you."

"I don't follow. How can that possibly affect you?" He frowned, taking a bite from his croissant.

"It affects me in the way that... We were having dinner, just us – supposedly just us –, and everyone was staring." I mumbled, gripping the latte in my hands "Judging us. Judging me."

"Alice, no one was judging you." He assured me, caressing the nape of my neck with one of his strong hands "They were just wondering why a girl like you would go out-"

"Don't." I snorted "Really, I'm not that stupid. Look, I know I overreacted. I hate attention, honestly. This one time, during a presentation at school-"

"You threw up?" He smiled tenderly, stroking my hair behind my ear.

"Well, summarizing the entire story, yes" I shrugged.

"Did you throw up last light?" A raised brow joined his smile.

"On a very nice Queen's shoes. Which reminds me, I need to buy Fantasia a new pair of boots" I winced.