AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Charlie spent the rest of his lunch filling his mom in on the wedding and showing a few of the photos he had on his phone of the decor and Lewis and Liv. His mom seemed happy to talk about that.
He went back to work in a better mood than when he left. He was happy to see his mom and talk a few things out, but he also was a little worried about his future with Violet. Maybe she wouldn’t be able to get past her feelings. Maybe they would always be stuck like this.
When he got home, he figured Violet would be upstairs, as far away from him as she could get. But the dining room light was on, and Violet was sitting at the table, hunched over pieces of construction paper. Roo sat on the corner of the table, batting at a piece of balled up paper.
“Hey," Charlie said, wondering if he was dreaming. She was downstairs? Willingly?
She jumped. “Shit,” she said, and she began gathering her pieces of paper. “Sorry, I can go upstairs. I lost track of time down here.”
“You don’t have to leave because I got back.”
Violet turned a little red. “I figured you would want your space.”
“No, you can stay. Whatever you’re doing looks like … a lot.” He eyed the pieces of paper, which had random bits of sentences on them.
“The desk upstairs wasn’t big enough,” she said. “I’ll be done soon.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m making a sentence structure card game," she replied. “One of the focuses this year for us is sentence structure, and I know some of my kids are struggling with it, so when we get back, I’m going to play this a few times to see if it helps.”
Holy shit. That was adorable.
Charlie opened his mouth to say something, but Violet was already back to writing. Her face was focused, with her brows pulled low on her forehead, and a little touch of her tongue poking out of her mouth as she cut paper.
He pulled his eyes away, not trying to make it weird.
Charlie wandered to the kitchen to get some dinner, before he sat in front of his TV to play some video games. He watched Violet out of the corner of his eye, remembering the last game night with Lewis, and how it had felt something like this.
He couldn’t focus with her around. Charlie used to think it was because he was worried she would throw something at him, but now it felt like something else.
She felt like a magnet in his home, pulling his eyes to her at any moment. He wanted to drink her in and memorize everything he could about her. He wondered if he could possibly know every inch of her personality, and if she would still find a way to surprise him.
Roo being adorable next to her also didn’t help.
“Am I bothering you?” She asked, looking up. Charlie jumped - knowing he had been caught.
“W-what?”
“I feel like you can’t focus because I’m down here.” Violet frowned. “I’m not going to throw anything or make faces at you. I promise.”
No, that wasn’t what he was worried about. Not in the slightest.
“No, it’s not you. Some of it is Roo going after that paper like it’s a mouse.” Right on cue, Roo threw the balled-up paper across the room and darted. Violet watched the small white cat go with a smile on her face. “And I’m curious about what you’re doing.”
“Oh,” she said. “Like I said, it’s a silly game for my kids at school. It’s nothing important.”
“I’d say teaching the next generation of kids is pretty important.”
“You’d be the first.” She sat her scissors down and rubbed her hand. “I think I’m done for the night. I’ve been at it most of the day, and I think I’m starting to see floating words.”
As Violet gathered her things, he desperately reached for something to get her to stay, some conversation to start to root her with him.
“How is your apartment coming along?”
It wasn’t the best conversation starter, but she paused for a moment.
“Um, I don’t know. I’ve driven by but everything is sort of looking the same, and my landlord is dodging questions. Why? Do you want me to leave?”
