Our Love To Admire: Chapter 6
Chapter Six: Misguided or Her Serene Highness
Daniel Jonah Humphrey decided that he was the luckiest man alive. He had a beautiful and caring wife, three down to earth children, and a great job as a senior correspondent specializing in business and economics at the Chicago Tribune. When he got the job at the newspaper, after struggling for two years to find any well paying work in New York, Serena abandoned her gallery, friends, and family for the Windy City. Dan realized when they stepped out of the rented SUV that had brought them to the lavish Hamptons property, that it was time to stop running from the past. For the last ten years, he was hiding from the world that produced his breathtaking wife, and it was about time he made it up to her.
Serena rolled from her back to her stomach, throwing her long limbs over her husband in the process. “Hey,” he laughed in response, playfully shoving her to the other side of the double sun-lounge, “you’re gonna give me all kinds of funky tan lines.”
“I didn’t realize you were so concerned about tan lines!” Serena quickly straddled her husband, and kissed him teasingly with her hair creating a curtain around them.
“Ew! Get a room!” Madeline shouted at her parents from the patio’s French doors, prompting her mother and father to reluctantly separate. “Mom, your phone has been ringing non-stop for the past twenty minutes and I can’t concentrate on my work.”
Serena hopped off the chaise she had been occupying moments ago and snatched the phone from her daughter. “Thank you, honey. Now, the whole point of coming to the Hamptons this summer was for you to relax.” She put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders and playfully shook her. “So, you get out there and be a teenager.”
“Mom, there are thousands of homeless, starving children in Honduras that I would helping right now if it wasn’t for this ‘vacation’. So, if you would please let me concentrate on what little I can do while I’m stuck here…I would appreciate it.” She replied before turning on her heel and retreating to her MacBook in the library.
The blonde turned to her husband who was stifling a laugh from the exchange. “Where did she come from?” Serena asked with a shrug and shake of her head. The chirping from her BlackBerry began again and she happily answered her best friend’s call. “Hey B, I have awesome news!” she sang with excitement into the phone.
Dan got up from the lounge with the intention of getting a drink from the kitchen. He kissed his wife’s soft cheek just as her face creased in confusion.
“What’s wrong B? Speak up; I can barely hear you…”
Dan furrowed his brow in confusion and pantomimed towards the phone. She shook her head and waved him off trying to focus on Blair. He motioned to her asking if she wanted a drink, but she was shooing him again while walking across the well-manicured lawn.
“What kind of kiss…like ‘oh oops we kissed on the lips but its okay because we used to do that when we were twelve’ or was it an ‘I want to rip your clothes off, have crazy sex’ kind of kiss,” Blair had kissed Nate, her brother-in-law and her husband’s best friend, Nate. “No wait it doesn’t matter, how could you do that? You’re both married B! You have spouses to think about…not to mention kids!” Serena turned back towards the house when she heard yelling and doors slamming. “Hold on a second, I’m not done with you,” and then, there he was, waltzing out of her patio doors as if he owned the place. “What are you doing here Chuck?”
“Serena I tired to stop him,” Dan called out from the kitchen where he was picking up pieces of a broken glass. Chuck had stormed through their house leaving a path of destruction through their kitchen. Holding a plastic bag filled with the remains of his cup, Dan approached the door, “When I told him you were talking to Blair he stormed in.”
“Hello sis,” he walked up to Serena with an outstretched hand. “May I have the phone, please?”
Listening intently to Blair’s protests from the other end, Serena watched him with wide eyes. “Don’t call me ‘sis’,” she began, before taking a backward step from Chuck. “She doesn’t want to talk to you. She says that you should…B I can’t say that!” she shouted, turning her attention back to the BlackBerry. “Okay fine, she says that you should drive yourself to Brooklyn, drink all the scotch you can find, get herpes, castrate yourself, then jump off the bridge.”
“Please tell my darling wife that I love her too,” Chuck responded with a frustrated glare. “I need to speak with you, so when the two of you are done, I’ll be waiting on that chair,” he announced rudely, as if Serena was wasting his precious time, before making his way to the appointed lounge.
Serena could feel the anger burning in her chest when Blair quickly told her what Chuck had been up to in the moments after his name came out. Although Blair’s suggestion as to how Chuck could fix things seemed a bit harsh, Serena felt compelled by Blair’s honesty. “Well I guess you figured out my surprise,” she said, turning her attention back to the phone. “Come over with the girls later for dinner, I’m ordering Thai.”
Chuck looked over his shoulder, trying to be stealth about his spying, and attempting to ignore the death glare from Dan. At first, he wished that he was at Eric’s right now, but he could not risk Grace’s reaction. Now, he just wished for a scotch on the rocks.
“Get out of my house, Chuck!” Serena yelled in her stepbrother’s direction after hanging up on Blair. “You aren’t going to get any pity from me this time.” She said after walking right past him. Serena bumped Dan’s shoulder when she walked into the house, wordlessly signaling him to get rid of the offending presence.
The two men stood in an awkward staring contest, Chuck by the pool chair he was occupying and Dan leaning against the doorframe leading to the kitchen. When he heard the upstairs bedroom door slam shut, Dan stood straight with his hands stuffed in his pockets. “I’ve got an eighteen year old bottle of Macallan if you’re interested.”
Chuck sneered instinctively in Dan’s direction. “I don’t need pity scotch, especially not from you.”
Dan sighed and shook his head. “I seem to be the only person willing to be civil towards you at this point, take what you can get,” he ignored the hostility directed in his direction well. He knew that living with Blair couldn’t be the easiest task, so he always took a bit of pity on Chuck.
“Fine,” Chuck responded with a wounded huff. “I suppose I can live with Macallan, but I’m buying you a bottle of Glen Garioch so you can taste some real scotch.”
“That would be a nice gesture considering the torture you’re about to put me through by telling me what’s going on.” Dan turned back into the house without looking at Chuck, knowing that the other man was following close behind.
*xoxo*
One bottle of Macallan 18 and three-quarters of a Johnny Walker blue label later, Chuck and Dan had come to a sort of…understanding. Chuck would drink $200 of Dan’s liquor and mumble about his “feelings”, while Dan would sip and listen, inserting the occasional sarcastic quip, with the promise of a $2500 replacement for his top shelf.
“As the girls got older I felt like it wasn’t about me anymore,” Chuck began, in his full voice, for the first time that afternoon. “She was in love with everything I had given her. The twins, the money, the society lifestyle; it’s like I was just a stand-in…”
Dan took a long gulp of his whisky at that point, draining the whole glass. “Are you telling me you’ve been thinking that for six years?”
Chuck looked darkly over at his companion. “I thought you were just going to listen. It’s not like I talk about feelings on a regular basis Humphrey,”
“Right, sorry,” he was about to continue but Chuck’s glare stopped him. “Shutting up.”
He watched as the brown liquor mixed with ice when he swirled the glass in his hand. “When it was just us, she promised me things,”
Dan grimaced involuntarily at the comment, which sounded vulgar coming from Chuck’s lips.
“Not like that,” in his drunken state Chuck waved him off before continuing. “When we had the girls, they became our whole world. Everything else got pushed into the background, including our relationship.”
“That happens Chuck,” Dan began refilling his glass as he spoke. “Serena and I had to move to a different time zone before we got back on track when West was born.”
Chuck pushed his glass towards Dan, silently requesting a refill. “We’re not you and Serena. I’m selfish and emotionally stunted.”
Dan choked on his liquor; he was dumbfounded by Chuck’s blatant honesty.
“In vinus veritus,” Chuck swirled his glass and brought the amber liquid to his lips. “You and I are here because you want to know why I do what I do.” He began in lazy drawl. “Well there’s a scared little boy named Charlie Bass who thinks that if he screws up enough everyone will leave him.” He turned to Dan who sat it hazy amazement. “Up until Blair, everyone managed to prove Charlie right. Too bad Charlie is a selfish little prick who can’t be wrong.”
“You’re pushing her away because you’re scared of losing her,” Dan stated as matter of fact. “I never thought that I would say what I’m about to say, but you have to trust yourself Chuck. Blair was there when you hit the bottom, why would she leave now?”
His jaw clenched as he stared forward into the mirrored bar. “She’ll realize that I never deserved her,” he whispered, “that the biggest mistake of her life was the day she married me.”
Dan placed a tentative hand on Chuck’s shoulder and tried to hide his surprise when it wasn’t shrugged off. “You gotta tell little Charlie to shut the fuck up and go win back your woman.”
Chuck ran a hand roughly through his hair before standing on uneven footing. “Daniel,” he began, when the other man stood from the neighboring stool. “This was…helpful,”
“Don’t worry; I fully expect this to be the last drunken heart to heart we ever experience,” Dan replied.
He nodded and readjusted his suit jacket. “I’ll call Monica about that Glen Garioch, your scotch is shit.”
Before Dan had an opportunity to respond, Chuck had slammed the front door, his Lanvin wingtips carrying him into the Southampton dusk.