#rrl02r7

❦ Founder Household, Day Forty-Four ❦

The trip out to Selvadorada was long. Several times on the plane, Robyn wondered what she was really doing. If this was the right decision to make and even when she landed in the foreign area, a place she’d never been, she still questioned whether or not she should just hop on a plane and go back home. 

But she was here now and the cottage she’d rented was a beautiful little thing in the forest near town. It felt bigger than what she needed, with multiple bedrooms and a place for entertaining, but Robyn was here on her own and didn’t need all the space. She got to work quickly, heading into town for groceries and while she was in Selvadorada, she was going to eat like she was in Selvadorada, which meant following a video recipe on some of the local cuisine. 

❦ Zest Household, Day Forty-Five ❦

“Does it look bad?” Felix asked Charlie at breakfast. Charlie bit his lip, not wanting to tell his boyfriend that his face looked fucking awful, but it looked fucking awful. One of his eyes was swollen and pink, infected and crusty. Still, he thought Felix was sexy, but man, that case of pink eye was really getting in the way of that. 

“It’s not...that bad,” Charlie said, unconvincingly. 

Felix snorted in amusement, reaching up to rub at his eye and Charlie reached across the table to grab his wrist, pulling his hand away from it. 

“Don’t irritate it,” he told him. Felix gave a loud sigh, showing that he was already over this nonsense of pink eye, but he did as Charlie told him. 

❦ Zest Household, Day Forty-Five ❦

“Hey, Mom,” Charlie greeted as he stopped by Robyn’s house. She’d called him in the middle of the day to tell him that her computer had messed up and she didn’t know how to fix it. While he wasn’t horribly computer savvy, he knew enough that he thought he’d be able to help her out. Plus, it was always nice to see his Mom. 

Charlie worried about her being in that house all by herself. She didn’t even have a dog anymore to keep her company and in all honesty, he didn’t know what she did with her days all the time. He hoped she wasn’t terribly lonely and if he had a bigger apartment, he’d offer to have her come and stay with him if she was. Although, knowing his Mom, he didn’t think she’d ever accept something like that. She never liked to be a burden for her kids, she’d made that much clear. Though, Charlie didn’t know how many times he had to tell her that she was never a burden. 

❦ Zest Household, Day Forty-Six ❦

“I don’t know what to say,” Charlie whispered as Felix slipped the ring on his finger. 

Felix gave a chuckle and told him, “You could start by saying yes?” 

Charlie was quiet for a long moment. Everything he’d been feeling the past few weeks, that he wasn’t good enough, that something needed to change in their relationship, that he wasn’t good at expressing his feelings or letting people in. All of those feelings and emotions were right out there in the open, but Felix was on one knee telling him to get out of his head and just say yes. He swallowed thickly. 

“You really mean this?” Charlie asked timidly. 

“I mean this. I’ve discovered so much about myself thanks to you, Charlie. You mean the world to me.” Charlie stared at him and let out a slow breath. The thing was...he wished he could say the same thing. He was happy with Felix. Content and thought Felix was a great guy. But was he ready to marry him? More importantly, was Felix ready to re-marry? And a guy at that. They’d been together less than a year and a lot had happened in that time but he still felt like that connection wasn’t there. Something wasn’t there. 

Despite it all, he found himself giving a small smile, looking at the ring around his finger. It should be enough that someone thought to put it there, right? It should be enough that Felix thought the world of him. But was it? Was he about to do Felix a disservice by saying, “Yes.” 

“Yeah?” Felix asked, grin on his face as he stood up. “You’re saying yes?” 

“I’m saying yes,” Charlie repeated, for better or for worse, he’d have to find out. 

Relationship Update: Engaged

❦ Zest Household, Day Forty-Six ❦

Charlie had tried his best to explain to his Mom that something needed to change in his relationship with Felix. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what. He’d told his Mom that he thought either they should get engaged or should break up and she was absolutely right that those two things were vastly different from each other. But it was true. They’d gotten to a point in their relationship that was comfortable. Too comfortable. 

Maybe it was a self destruction thing. Maybe Charlie should just be happy that they were happy. As a couple. But things felt...different. Not stale, per say, but getting to the point where they were teetering on the edge of one thing or another. His Mom had suggested that he talk to Felix about it, but so far, he hadn’t. He didn’t know how to have that conversation without offending him. And maybe that was the answer there. He didn’t know how to have conversations like that. Not just with Felix. With anyone. He’d never been good at that sort of thing. So instead, he just let it fester. Just let Felix think everything was alright with him. What was the worst that could happen while he was trying to wrap his head around it all?

❦ Zest Household, Day Forty-Five ❦

In an effort to make Felix feel better about having pink eye, Charlie got out his guitar and started to sing him a song. He had no idea what he was doing, just strumming along and singing out of tune to some chords, but it did the trick and Felix was laughing along with him in no time. 

It made Charlie realize just how much he loved Felix. He wasn’t good at showing his emotions, or talking about things with Felix, but he knew he was in love. Thought again about Harvey getting married to Samantha and maybe it was time to talk to Felix about the idea as well. They’d been together for a while now and maybe it was time. He almost put the words into the lyrics he was singing, but couldn’t quite get over that hump of embarrassment or fear of rejection. 

Skill Up: Singing Level 2

❦ Zest Household, Day Forty-Three ❦

After the call from Harvey, Charlie stayed up a little bit later playing video games, kissing Felix goodnight before he stayed up for another hour, mindlessly playing the games while he thought about marriage and Harvey. By the time he headed into the bedroom to go to bed, his mind was reeling and he stood beside the bed, looking down at Felix sleeping. 

Marriage seemed like such a foreign concept for some reason. He loved Felix. At least, he was pretty sure he did. He liked having him around, liked having him here, but there was just something about the idea of marriage that scared him. Felix was such a great guy. He asked him questions all the time that spoke of how much Felix loved him. But Charlie wondered if marriage was something Felix would want again. Maybe a normal person would just ask. But Charlie had always been quiet, always been stuck in his own head with those type of things. 

It bothered him as he crawled into bed next to the man, laying there for a long moment and thinking about waking him up and just asking if he’d want to get married at some point. But he didn’t. 

❦ Founder Household, Day Forty-Eight ❦

Still reeling from the death of her dog Liesel, but coming down from the high of her vacation to Selvadorada, Robyn went to pay her grandkids a visit. Nathaniel had come down with some sort of cold or something and had passed it on to Maggie as well. So far, the older kids were spared from the cold and Robyn was going to take them out for the day to try and keep it that way. 

When she got there, she was greeted by Parker, who immediately told her how sorry she was for the loss of her dog. Even if she could tell that Eris set her up to saying something, she was still grateful and thought Parker was a sweet little girl to say something like that.