Bane of my Own Existence

Jessie started Charlie’s car, backing out of her driveway and heading towards the restaurant. Once she was on the main road, Jess reached over and found Charlie’s free hand and laced their fingers as she drove. “Oh poor Forrest. It’s a little scary for adults, I can’t imagine for a kid.” She let go of his hand, running it briefly over his hair before finding his hand again. “Lizzie has officially entered her terror threes stage. She gave me such a hard time today.” Jessie sighed, glancing over at Charlie for a second. “I don’t know how you do it with two kids.”

“I love your work stories, animals are so much more interesting than up and coming boxers.  I don’t want t feed into the stereotype that we’re all idiots, but it’s hard to find a conversationalist anywhere in my part of the gym, myself included.”  He relaxed into his passenger seat, he felt bad that he wasn’t going to be the best date tonight, but now that he had let his guard down he realized just how unwell he was feeling.  It wasn’t unexpected, a broken face bone, some painkillers and the fact that he hadn’t eaten all day were the perfect storm for a headache and an upset stomach, he pushed through it though, as he’d been missing Jessie and was looking forward to have some adult interaction with an adult who wasn’t trying to punch him.

Charlie smiled and squeezed her hand back, he was happy with her, even if he felt guilty for moving on after losing Ellie, but he knew she would want him to. “Yeah, I’ve looked the same his entire life, I think it’s just a little much for him.  He’s a sweetheart, but he gets overwhelmed so easily these days...I’m sure I’m babying him, but it’s hard not to.”  He was quiet for a moment and then smiled, “She’s just testing you, I remember when Dean was that age...the kid was on my last nerve for weeks at a time.  It’s tough , but if you stand your ground and be consistent and and you’ll be fine.”  He leaned over and gently kissed her cheek, trying not to wince as the sore side of his face touched hers, “I have complete faith in you.  You’re doing  an amazing job and giving Lizzie and amazing life, don’t sell yourself short.”

‘Okay, if your sure…but hold on.” Jessie help up a finger at Charlie, before darting back inside the house. She re-appeared a few seconds later with a bag of frozen peas in her hand. “I’m driving and you are going to be holding these to your eye.”  With a final wave at Dani, Jessie wrapped her arm around Charlies, squeezing his arm comfortingly. As they walked down the steps, Jessie glanced over at the man beside her. “Are you sure, Charlie? I don’t mind but gosh, I’m in pain just looking at you.” She shook her head, reaching up to touch her own eye. “I bet it was fun explaining this to the boys.”

Charlie smiled, “I’ve had some pretty impressive black eyes over the years, but this might be the best one I’ve ever had, and it’s not all that bad right now, I’m fine.”  He grinned again, “A pitbull? That’s an impressive story, much more interesting than getting sucker punched by an overly-excited boxing student.  I’m just lucky I haven’t broken my face before this, and it honestly could have been a lot worse.” 

“I’m sure,” he told her, but couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief as the peas touched his face, it felt so nice.  “Alright, I can’t argue with that,” he said, handing her his keys.  “I promise, it doesn’t feel great, but they give me some decent pain meds and they’re taking the edge off enough that I can function, it’s alright.”  He laughed, “Dean thinks it makes me look tough, Forrest has cried every time he sees me, but it doesn’t take too long to calm down, it’s going to be an interesting week or so until this thing goes down.” 

Giving a quick hug to Dani and placing a series of kisses on her daughter that earned her some giggles, Jessie finished grabbing her things. At the ping of her phone, a frown knitted at her eyebrows as she read the text message. “What did you get into now?” The brunette muttered under her breath with mild amusement as she opened the door. The mirth fell away fairly quickly the second her eyes landed on the nasty black eye on Charlie’s face. “Frankie….” She said softly, jumping on his earlier Frankenstein joke. Her fingers gingerly trailed along the side of his face, taking in the extent of the damage. If she dared to hazard a guess, she’d bet he fractured something. “Whoever put you together, didn’t do such a good job.” She joked lightly, sighing as she cupped his cheek. “Are you okay? We don’t have to go out; that looks like it really hurts. What happened?”

Charlie laughed and then winced just a little as she touched him, it wasn’t all that painful, but the area was pretty tender, “I’m a bit of a failed experiment, unfortunately.  It’s alright though, it looks a lot worse than it feels, I’ve had worse in the ring and the doctor says the bone should heal pretty quickly since it was just a small fortune. 

He gently touched the area himself, he needed to come up with a story that was believable and didn’t have anything to do with street-fighting.  It wasn’t that he was hiding it from her, exactly, he just never talked about it with anyone and he didn’t want to worry, but he needed the extra money the fights brought in, especially since he was one of the best fighters on the circuit.  “I just had some strong and enthusiastic newcomers at the gym this week, one of them got a little too carried away and really got the drop on me.  We can still go out though, unless you think I’m too mangled to be seen right now, I know it looks pretty bad.” 

He got out of the car and texted Jessie from the doorstep, “Hey I’m here, but full disclosure, my face is pretty mangled and I didn’t want to scare you, so when you open the door, it’s not Frankenstein, it’s me,” and with that, he rang her doorbell.