Chapter Text
“If you’ve got any laundry, Nicky, just leave it outside your door and the cleaner will collect it in a little while …”
Nick poked his head out of his bedroom door with a frown, calling down the two flights of stairs to where his mum Sarah was standing. “I think I can manage to put it in the machine myself to be honest,” he spoke with a hint of amusement in his voice, still not quite sure why his mother had taken on a cleaner when she’d always kept such a spotless house.
“Yes, well, don’t blame me if you forget and it doesn’t get done all week,” Sarah softly scolded, moving away towards the kitchen and sounding as if she was just about ready to leave the house.
Pocketing his phone in his joggers and then grabbing his ear-buds, Nick bounded down the staircase and almost collided with the older lady as she arrived in the hallway again. He gave her a gentle squeeze around the shoulder and smiled. “Do you really expect me to believe you’d allow my grubby bits and pieces to fester in my room for days without being cleaned?”
“It’s just a bit of a struggle right now, Nicky … this new job’s taking up most of my free time as well as the hours at the office.”
“And wasn’t it supposed to be a less stressful role? Something to ease you into semi-retirement …?” It was Nick’s turn to give his mum a gentle telling-off, though the fondness in his voice never wavered. His brows were raised expectantly but Sarah simply shook her head and tutted.
“It’ll get that way soon enough. The first few weeks in a job are always chaotic though. You’ll find that out for yourself when you’re working in September.”
Nick folded his arms across his chest and pressed his lips together with a grumpy hum, “That’s if I can actually find a school that wants to hire me.”
“Plenty of time, you’ll see,” Sarah’s chipper tone cut right through her son’s discontentment, and he was soon pulling one of his adorable lop-sided grins again, even if it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “And if it doesn’t happen, we’ll just find you a job at my place. The girls would love having you around.”
Nick knew exactly which ‘girls’ his mother was referring to, and he had to smirk at that term. Sarah was in fact the youngest in her office by quite some margin, and although her co-workers were wonderful ladies with wicked senses of humour and warm spirits, Nick could already imagine what working in close quarters with them all would be like and it made him visibly shudder. His mum swatted his arm with a chuckle and plucked her car keys from the bowl by the door.
“Alright, I’m off. Don’t forget someone from Spring Cleaning will be around this morning, but they’ve got a key if you’re out for a run when they get here. It’ll either be Tori or Charlie, and they’re both lovely … be nice, though.”
“When am I ever not nice?” The tall blonde feigned hurt as he pulled Sarah in for a hug. “And don’t they have a specific arrival time or whatever?”
“No, love – I’m never usually here for their full shift so chose not to be that formal. As long as they actually turn up and do their job I’m really not that bothered.” Shrugged Sarah as she opened the door.
“But then how do you really know they’ve even been here at all?” Nick countered.
“The house is cleaner …?”
“But how can you tell?!”
“Oh, Nicky,“ Sarah groaned, rolling her eyes and pressing the button on her keys to unlock her car. “I just can, okay? I’ll see you later. Love you.”
“Bye, Mum – love you too.” Nick pushed the door closed and sighed to himself, deciding to trust his mother’s judgement because he was fairly clueless about any of this stuff anyway. It was a relief to know that he wasn’t going to have to take up the task of cleaning the house in his mum’s absence anyway, so he knew he’d be wise to keep his head down and his mouth shut. That didn’t stop the niggling worry in the back of his mind that there were people in the world more than willing to take advantage of someone as kind-hearted as Sarah Nelson. There was no harm in taking a mild interest in any work he might see these people doing around his family home, should he be around to witness it. And with that decision made he decided to go for that run before it got too warm outside.
**********
Almost ninety minutes later, Nick was jogging up the driveway towards the house, music still blaring loudly in his ears and random lyrics spilling from his lips as he reached the door. Even though he had an okay singing voice, he was careful never to sing in public as a rule, but when he was alone he often couldn’t help himself. He tugged at his damp shirt, grimacing because the weather really was too hot for a mid-spring day and his body was suffering for it now. Groaning to himself, Nick unlocked the door and shut it behind him just as Henry trotted out of the kitchen to greet him. He gave the pug an affectionate rub behind the ear and then took the stairs two at a time to get to that much-needed shower. He was still singing along to his playlist and lost in his own little world as he entered the bathroom, not even bothering to remove his ear-buds before tugging his shirt over his head and dropping it to the floor.
“Wait – stop! Nooooo!! … Um … oh, god …”
Nick was acutely aware that the voice he’d just heard hadn’t been part of the song he was listening to, but it was also one he really couldn’t place. It had definitely been male, a little higher pitched than his own but no less masculine, and it led him to freeze and then glance around in slight panic. The wide, dark-blue eyes that stared back at him below a mass of thick curls looked just as shocked as he was.
“What the--?”
The other male swallowed thickly, seemingly lost for words now, and his eyes darted to Nick’s bare chest then back up, a red tinge to his cheeks. “I … I’m the cleaner. I was collecting the towels.”
Sure enough, the brunette was carrying the laundry basket which was close to overflowing. Nick reached out and grabbed a hand towel from it, holding it in front of him in a vain attempt to protect his modesty or at least spare the stranger’s blushes. His large frame was barely covered though, and it really was quite a comical sight, especially as the towel he’d chosen was one of his mum’s pink and purple flowery ones. He plucked a bud from his ear.
“Um … I thought … I mean – Mum said it’d be a woman doing the cleaning …”
“Did she?” The cleaner looked confused, chewing on his lower lip and shuffled uncomfortably on the balls of his feet. “It’s just that I’ve been here a few times and we chatted a bit. I don’t think she thought I was a girl …?”
The uncertainty in the other male’s expression had a strange effect on Nick’s heart, and he felt a sudden pang of affection as he tried to wrap his head around what was going on. And then it dawned on him.
“Oh.”
“Hm?” The brunette’s thick brows disappeared into his curly hair.
“Yeah,” Nick nodded slowly, “yeah, I’ve been a bit of an idiot.”
A frown was the other’s response, “In what way?”
“Is your name Charlie by any chance?”
Again, the cleaner bit his lip and nodded, blinking his big eyes at Nick and causing one side of the blonde’s mouth to quirk upwards bashfully. “Yeah, so I guess my ridiculous brain heard that name and instantly registered ‘short-for-Charlotte’ or something.”
After a moment’s pause, the other responded with the tiniest smile of his own, “Ah. Well, that was a little bit sexist of you, wasn’t it.”
“It was.” Nick’s embarrassed laughter rumbled from his chest, now very flushed from the armpits up. As awkward and mortifying as this was, he was finding it increasingly difficult to look away from the brunette, especially now that he was smiling like that.
“Um … I’m gonna –” Charlie was suddenly moving towards the door, all eye contact broken and an urgency to his movements that left Nick gobsmacked. He was all alone and feeling like he’d been deserted, the sound of the other’s footsteps dashing down the stairs rumbling away behind him. It took a few more seconds for his brain to catch up with the rest of him.
“No – wait!” Nick called out as he turned and stumbled downstairs himself, heading for the kitchen where he could hear the washing machine already being programmed.
“I’ll be out of your way in just a second,” Charlie muttered, eyes trained downwards as his long, thin fingers fumbled over the buttons and dials.
“No, I … I don’t want you to be out of my way. I mean – you’re not in it. My way, I mean.”
The brunette glanced up through his lashes and another shy smile found its way to his lips, “I kind-of was though, in the bathroom at least.”
“Okay, yes – that time, you sort-of were. But you’re not now,” Nick insisted.
“Oh. Well, I’m glad because my sister would never let me hear the end of it if I left any client’s home with my work half-finished.”
“Your sister?” Nick looked around quickly, wondering if he was about to have to explain his way out of this situation to Charlie’s baffled sibling. He clutched the towel even tighter to his chest.
“Tori,” the other male’s curls bounced as he nodded. “She’s not here though, don’t worry. It’s just that Spring Cleaning is her baby – I’m only a part-timer whenever I’m on a break from Uni.”
“Oh. Okay, that’s good then.” Nick’s relief was evident. He ran a hand through his hair and was reminded of how sweaty he still was. “Ugh, I’m a mess.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that …” Charlie clearly hadn’t meant to say those words aloud because he grimaced and turned away, looking as if he was hoping to find a hole to crawl into. Nick felt more throbbing in his chest, and he had to stop himself from reaching out and gathering the other male up in his arms to give him a cuddle. Instead he just smiled and nodded, turning to leave the room.
“I’m gonna take that shower. Won’t be long …” He had no idea why he was confirming that rather than just getting on with doing it, kicking himself that his words sounded oddly domestic like they were a married couple or something. There was something about Charlie that left Nick keen to reassure him for some reason though. He also decided to ignore the fact that his heart was racing even more than it had been while out running, and he just couldn’t get those stormy eyes and soft curls out of his mind.