Him and I {Chuck Clayton}

Chapter 10

I slip off what's remaining of my clothes and get into the hot shower. The water pressure releases what little tension I had left in my back and neck and for several minutes I just stand there, taking in the massage the water was giving me.

Tap tap tap.

"Hey, are you okay in there?" Chuck's voices booms through the door.

"Y-yeah," I call out grabbing my sponge and loading it with honeysuckle scent soap.

"Okay, just wanted to make sure you were alive," Chuck chuckles. "The food will be done soon."

"Mmkay," I reply as lather my body with soap and step back to wet my hair.

I wash my hair and step away from the water and squeeze the water  out of my hair and step out of the shower. I quickly put on lotion and wrap my towel around my body and jet out of the bathroom. I get into my room and rummage through my drawers, hastily grabbing blue faded shorts, a blue tank top and black lace panties. I decide to skip the bra considering Chuck has already seen me without one on and I didn't care to put it on anyway. Brushing my hair back into a quick messy bun, I creep into the hallway and I see Chuck's back is toward me shuffling around humming a tune I'm unfamiliar with. I watch him in sort of amazement how in a few short weeks I went from swearing off men and focusing on me to casually dating someone as sophisticated and handsome as Chuck, or whatever this is we're doing.

"Serena, the food's done," Chuck calls out spinning around surprised to see me. "You stalking me?"

"Mm, maybe," I walk over with a sly grin.

The island is full of eggs, bacon, pancakes, sausages, fruit and cartons of orange juice. My mouth salivates a little as I grab a plate and load it with one of everything in front of me. I peek my eyes at Chuck who's watching me with a shocked look on his face.

"What?" I quiz him pouring myself a cup of OJ.
"Nothing, I'm surprised to see a girl eat a lot." Chuck says nonchalantly.

I'm not sure why it pinged me a little but it did. I shrug whatever he said and head to the table to my couch to eat and I turn on the tv. Jerry Springer is on and two men are arguing over one woman who later revealed sleeping with one of the men's girlfriend. I feel movement to the left of me and notice Chuck is sitting next to me with his own gigantic plate of food watching the show with me. We both laugh when the audience members ask their questions to the guests but overall it was a pretty quiet meal. I finish eating first and see he's done eating as I get up to wash my plate.

"Do you want me to take your plate?" I ask.
"Nah, I can take yours and wash the dishes. Just relax," Chuck responds silkily grabbing my plate and motioning me go sit down.

I sit back on the couch and start to get sucked into Maury and the cheating scandals. Not long after Chuck joins me in the living room, t shirt wet with soap suds on it. I raise my eyebrow and giggle.

"I see you made a mess," I joke with him scooting over so he could sit next to me.

"It's no more than the mess you made on my face earlier," Chuck bantered back laughing hysterically.

"CHUCK," I exclaim joining into his laughter.

He leans me into him and kisses me and I silently thank myself once again that I'm sitting down as my legs melt like butter. Not losing focus on the conversation we have to have about Josie, I reluctantly pull my lips  away from him and I kneel my forehead into is.

"We have to talk babe," I whisper, my eyes closed visioning his soft lips against mine.

"I know," Chuck whispers back, cusping my chin in his hands.

"So where do you want to start?" I ask getting from the couch to get myself another cup of OJ.

"Let's start with two years ago. How Josie and I got together in the first place," Chuck sighs with his face slightly pale.

—————
"Josie and I met at Riverdale high school. I used to play football and Josie and her group Josie and The Pussycats used to perform at every town and school function there is." Chuck pauses for a moment and clears his throat. "I used to see her in the hallway and I always thought she was cute and I let that be known but she always was into music and never really cared about anything else. Once we got together we were like the Jay Z and Beyoncé of the school."

"Why because you're black?" I interject.

"Yeah.. guess so," Chuck shrugged. "I loved Josie but I always felt like I was last on her list of priorities. It didn't matter what I accomplished or what I was going through, if it didn't directly affect her then she didn't care in the ways I needed her too."

"Okay," I pause for a moment, sinking it all in. "So why did you guys break up then?"

"We were on and off for two years. We would fight, break up, get back together and do it all over again. I got fed up entirely one night and I got real drunk and cheated on her. Turns out that same day she cheated on me too."

I look up and blink rapidly at him, shocked and not expecting that at all. I sit in silence once again taking it all in.

"Wow, um, that's a lot," my voice cuts through the silence like a butter knife.

"I'm not gonna lie, I was a jerk back then. A real ass. I'm not the same person I was then and I hope that me telling you this doesn't change your view on me."

"No..." I say wording my response in my head. "We are okay. I don't know that Chuck then. I know you now and I like what I see. All I ask is that you treat me right and you tell me the truth. No matter what. Agreed?"

I reach out my hand expecting Chuck to
shake but to my surprise he pulls me over to him and gives me kiss.

"Agreed."

Falling under his spell under, all I could do is sit back and laugh at what just happened.