Cheek To Cheek

Chapter 9

Ten million thoughts were buzzing through Chris' mind as he sat next to Charlie on the park bench as the laced up their rollerblades. 'This is a stupid idea, what girl wants to go roller blading as a first date? She probably doesn't even feel up to going on a date with losing her job yesterday. You're going to screw this up Chris. Why is your fuckin' response always overthinking and sweating so much? Make this a perfect first date, she deserves that. Make it perfect' His brain told him.

"Hello, earth to Chris," Charlie joked while waving a hand in front of his face.

"Sorry," He chuckled while finishing pulling his roller blades on. "Ready to go?"

"I guess we'll find out," Her eyes squinted up with a smile.

Chris stood to his feet, balancing on the roller blades before holding his hands out for Charlie's. Once he had a good hold on both of her slender hands, he pulled her up and the skilled dancer caught on really quickly.

"Looks like you can rollerblade a lot better than cook," He joked as they skated down the pathway and Charlie let go of his hand so she could skate ahead of him and spin around, even lifting a leg up to stand in her ballerina pose as she spun.

"Well for being an old man, you can skate a lot better than I thought," Charlie sassed him right back.

"Wow," Chris couldn't fight the giant smile on his face while he skated up next to her and said, "I didn't expect to be getting my chops busted on the first date."

"I think we both know I've been busting your chops long before today," She giggled before adding, "Besides! You started it by telling me i'm a shitty cook."

"No, no, I just said you can rollerblade better than you cook," His bearded face smirked while his blue eyes twinkled.

Charlie just stuck her tongue out at him and went to keep on skating but Chris reached out and tried to grab her so he could playfully shake her around in his arms but instead, he just managed to throw her balance off and caused Charlie to fall onto the pavement.

"Oh my god, Charlie, I'm so sorry!" Chris' eyes grew wide while he quickly dropped to his knees.

She sat up and winced while bending her knee to show where the pavement had scraped it and caused the skin to break and her knee to be covered in blood that started trickling down her knee. Chris grimaced when he saw it and put one of his warm hands on her thigh while he inspected her wound closer.

"I'm so sorry Charlie. Does it hurt? Should we go wash it out or I can take you home or we can stop and get something. I feel terrible," Chris ran his free hand through his short brown hair.

"It's my own fault for overestimating my skill," Charlie tipped her head back and laughed.

"It's really bleeding a lot," Chris felt terrible as he noticed. "I'll take you home."

Chris stood to his feet and put his hands out for Charlie to help her up but she just sat there, a disappointed look on her face while she asked, "I thought we were going to go see a movie?"

"Well yeah but I don't want you to be sitting there in pain," He hated that this date got off to such a bad start.

She put her slender hands in his and let him effortlessly pull her up before assuring him, "Oh I'm fine, I promise! Let's just stop at the store on the way and get a bandage so I don't bleed all over and we can go."

Chris rested a hand on her hip, looking deep in her eyes as he asked, "Are you sure?"

Charlie nodded, "Yeah... I don't want to go home. I want to be with you."