Page 27 of Charlie Takes a Chance

I parkthe truck in front of the general store and studiously ignore Charlie. We haven’t spoken a word to each other since leaving Darlene’s.

I’ve successfully made things weird between us. Or maybe Darlene has. I heard her comment to Charlie about me wanting to date her. I’d been quietly slipping my boots on in the hallway when she mentioned it to Charlie.

It couldn’t be further from the truth. Because I know what Charlie is: a heartbreaker. She’s a complete package that someone would want to keep all for themselves only to find out there’s a different address on the label.

There’s nothing to entice her to stay here with me, and I suck at long distance. Any attraction I have for her is going to stay where it belongs: buried.

The general store is mainly a liquor store, but it does have a few other products, like milk and eggs. It’s nice to have something closer than Bend to go to if you’re running low on groceries. And the owner is decent enough to take special orders that he’ll pick up on his weekly trip to Bend.

It’s strange that he got the lumber today, because the Bend trip is usually on Fridays. It’s over a two-hour drive one way, and with the roads snowy, it’s a little longer. I don’t know how he got them here so fast for Charlie unless he had some extras just lying around.

We walk inside the small store, and I watch Charlie’s face as she glances over the display shelf of brown bananas that are questionably old, and I watch Henry turn into a completely different man.

I’ve never metthisHenry before. I didn’t know he even existed, but the second he sees Charlie, he blushes—actually blushes—and jumps up to greet her. That man does not jump up for anybody. The only time I’ve seen him move quickly was when he thought someone was gonna knock over his first cup of coffee in the morning.

But here he is, leaping up to greet Charlie, not me. I don’t think he even realizes I’m here yet.

“I got those boards in this morning when I went over to Bend. I hope they’re what you had in mind,” he says shyly.

As if the guy has never bought two-by-fours before.I clench my jaw as I watch him fall all over himself for Charlie. Yes, she’s pretty, but it doesn’t mean you have to fall all over yourself for her.

Charlie smiles at him, and it’s one of those sincere smiles. “I can’t believe you were willing to go get them! That was so nice of you.”

Henry smiles like he’s just won a Nobel prize. He’s in his late forties and divorced, and it’s the first time I’ve given thought to Henry’s relationship status. Now that I think about it, it’s not like he’s a bad-looking guy, either. I don’t know. Maybe some women are attracted to stable, hard-working, decent-looking men. How would I know? My girlfriend ditched me even though I thought I met those basic qualifications.

“What do you need here, Max?” Charlie asks as she opens her purse to pull out a checkbook.

“Hmm, somehow I expected you to be a pay-with-your-phone type of person.”

“Actually, I’m a like-a-good-old-fashioned-check-for-business-purposes kind of person.” She says it with a smile that says, ‘Eat dirt.’

I smirk at that and walk down the small grocery aisle and grab a bag of potatoes and a gallon of milk. “Henry, are you out of spaghetti sauce?”

“I’ve got some jars of alfredo sauce in the back,” he calls back to me.

“Can I get a couple of those?”

“Sure.”

I grab a box of noodles off the shelf and walk back to the counter. I set my nutritionally diverse meal plan on the waxy wood surface.

“Do you want anything from the cafe before we head back?” I ask Charlie as she’s hunched over that checkbook. It’s such a novel sight I can’t help but chuckle. I can almost picture her in another fifty years with her pearls and gray hair, wearing her work boots and still writing checks.

“I’m good, but if you want to stop by and grab something, that’s fine by me.”

“Nah, I bought a container of soup when we left earlier.”

Charlie straightens up and rips the check out just as Henry comes back with two jars of alfredo sauce. “That soup has been sitting in your truck all afternoon with the heater running. You’re going to get sick from it!”

I pull my wallet from my back pocket. “I think I can handle some leftover soup.”

“Don’t come blame me if you get sick,” Charlie chides as she passes the check to Henry.

“Fine, we’ll stop at the cafe, and I’ll get another container of it. Happy?”

She smiles up at me. “Immensely.”

“I’ll run and put those boards in the back of the truck for you,” Henry says eagerly. Charlie watches as he disappears.

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