Chapter Text
“Can you run down to Generate for a sec? We’re in the front.”
“Yep, on my way down.”
Charlotte made her way down from her 3rd floor office to Generate, which was on the ground floor of her building. When she walked in to the door at Generate, she could see Jake - the owner of her company - standing near the door with Chad, the owner of Generate, and a dirty-blonde, wavy-haired stranger. The stranger’s burning blue eyes flicked up to hers as soon as she came into view. Charlie nodded her head slightly at him in recognition. Jake turned to her and plastered on a fake smile. Nothing new.
“Charlotte, this is Tom Hiddleston. Tom, this is our assistant, Charlie - er, Charlotte.”
“Charlie’s fine,” Charlotte interjected gracefully.
They shook hands, Tom looking dutifully into her eyes as they did so. “Pleased to meet you, Charlie,” he practically cooed.
“Likewise,” she chirped, ready to accommodate him. As the office manager and executive assistant, it was really the thing she was best at and most often called to do - accommodate guests. Especially the important ones. Tom Hiddleston counted as an important one, whether Jake realized it or not. Those eyes.
“Charlie, do you mind taking Tom upstairs to the kitchen and getting him some coffee or something? There’s going to be a little time in between meetings down here and I don’t want him to have to just sit around.”
“Sure, happy to. Is there a specific time you all need to reconvene?”
“Yeah, like 10:30 or so? Do you mind bringing him back down around then?”
Charlie nodded and turned to Tom. “Well, if you’ll follow me…” he did, and once she entered the elevator and turned around to face him, she noticed his eyes slide up her form from the ground as he fully stepped in. He didn’t seem to even realize he’d done it. She remained impassive, professional, though he was making it a bit difficult. He was somewhat sleight in build but definitely attractive in an off-beat sort of way. The fact that he was so obviously checking her out was a little distracting. He stood beside her, his body slightly turned toward her as the elevator slowly made its way up to her floor.
He glanced over at her, brow furrowed. “Are you sure ‘Charlie’ is alright?”
Charlie nodded with a smile.
“Thanks so much for coming to get me.” His voice was a strange marriage of smooth and gravelly, his accent a very well-to-do London one. It was absolutely lovely to hear.
“It’s no trouble at all, Tom. Now, did you want coffee, soda or tea?” she asked as she led him to the kitchen.
“Mmm,” he muttered. “What type of tea have you got?”
“I’ve got a few herbals, and - don’t tell anyone - I’ve a secret personal stash of PG Tips if that suits your fancy a little better. It’s not amazing, but it might do you.” Charlie chuckled.
Tom’s face lit up. “Oh, I’d love a cuppa that, are you sure you don’t mind me stealing from you?” They were in the kitchen now, and Charlie reached into the cupboard and pulled out her box of English Breakfast and brown sugar.
“For a secret, that’s not very well-hidden, now, is it?” he teased. The corners of his ginger-hair-ridden mouth turned up to bare beautifully straight teeth.
“Well enough,” Charlie laughed. “No one else wants English Breakfast anyway. Seems to be all coffee fiends in the ad world.”
He leaned against the counter as he watched her prepare two cups of tea, taking the quiet to admire the creativity of the space around him. Once the cups had been filled with a tea bag and water, she turned back to Tom, slightly apprehensive. She was so not good at small talk. “Do you take milk or sugar?”
“Just one sugar and a dash of milk, please. Thanks so much for doing this, Charlie.”
Charlie didn’t respond. He was staring so intently into her eyes with such interest that it was downright unnerving. However, she managed to meet his gaze with a playful, wordless recognition, a slight lift of her eyebrow; at which Tom’s lips quirked into a smile. The look in his eyes did not change. Instantly regretting her internal response to this she whirled around, took a few steps away from him and then leaned over the breakfast bar to continue the conversation from a safe distance. With a giant, stone object in between them she was sure to be unaffected, right?
His eyes squinted at her, amused. But he did not speak.
“So you’re an actor, correct?” Charlie asked. She wasn’t living in a hole, and he had to realize that.
He nodded, his lips suddenly in a tight line, and instead of his eyes burning into hers he was now watching her face. His tone did not betray him, though. “Yes, some days anyway.” It was accommodating and gracious. Too gracious.
She chuckled, refusing to fall into the trap he seemed to be expecting, however subtly. “Anything fun recently?”
He still watched her, possibly slightly wary - as to whether he changed into “dealing with the public” mode vs his current ease. She didn’t want him to switch. It didn’t matter to her what he did. Her attraction to him, this game, was nothing to do with anything other than what was in front of her at that moment. “At the moment I’m coming off for a bit of a holiday. Thor 2 has wrapped as has the press for it, and I haven’t had much time to myself in the last five or six years.”
“Sounds nice. I hope you don’t have too many more of these business meetings, then!”
He shook his head. “Not after this week, really. I’ve been trying to explore different aspects of the television and film business, so my management actually recommended that I speak with Chad. It was easy enough to make a stop in Minneapolis on my way to LA before I officially began my holiday.”
“Makes sense,” Charlie agreed. “Chad is one of the best in the biz, despite them being a small shop. Worth talking to.”
She looked at the clock and saw it had been a couple of minutes since she started the tea and so she moved to get the milk from the fridge. She quickly realized he had shifted so he was practically propped up in front of the sugar, leaning with his backside against the counter, the sugar peeking out behind him. Fuck. Instead of awkwardly asking him for it, she prepared the cups without it, and she could feel his eyes on her intently as she moved around the kitchen. Once the bags were in the trash and the milk was in the mugs, she was left with little choice. She glanced up at Tom’s face and took the few steps toward him. “Excuse me,” she said softly. He smiled politely, knowingly, but didn’t shift. Fine. She ever-so-lightly brushed against him to reach around and grab the bag. She was close enough to smell him and though his posture didn’t change to show whether or not he was affected by their closeness (it was his own fault, anyway), his breathing quickened just slightly, falling warm and soft over Charlie’s shoulder and sending a jolt up her spine. As she stepped back she noticed his pale knuckles gripping to the counter behind him. She dared a smile as her gaze reached his. He was visibly fighting a grin. “Just one, you said?” She asked innocently.
He nodded, lips still quirked upwards. She stirred his cup first and held it out to him, a coy grin on her lips. “Careful, it’s really hot.” He smirked as his graceful, slender hands encased hers, making it impossible for her not to allow their fingers to intertwine as she slid hers away and allowed him to hold his tea. She realized she had been WAY too focused on the image of their fingers sliding against each other, and failed miserably at hiding her eyeroll when she realized he was grinning triumphantly, his eyes sparkling as they regarded her.
“Thank you, darling,” He said quietly, earnestly, and took a sip. “This is lovely.”
Charlie caught his eye as she stirred her own cup, her stomach doing a flip at his casual reference to her as “darling,” no matter how usual she knew that was. “My pleasure.”
They chatted amicably for the next half hour, about Tom’s experience in the city, about Charlie’s job at SASS Advertising. About whether she lived in town, and how long he was planning to stay. At 10:20, she offered him a fresh cup of tea to take down to Generate with him and he politely declined, though he indicated that he planned to find her if they let him out of the conference room later, to get another one.
She accompanied him downstairs and as he joined Chad and Jake he shot her a promising glance, his face remaining impassive but his eyes betraying his desire to remain in her company. It was unmistakeable. Wasn’t it? She returned the favor in her own way as she headed back, allowing her hips to swing a little more than usual, her slightly-flared pencil skirt dancing around her knees and heels clicking rhythmically on the tile. She grinned to herself as she stepped into the elevator, finally out of his view. She’d heard how it took Tom a couple of seconds more than expected to answer a question Chad directed his way and knew he had to have been watching her.