Matt spied a young man eyeing her up, and he smiled to himself. He couldn’t believe the number of looks that she’d been getting while they’d been away. In fact at this rate he thought, he was going to have to keep her in their room for the remainder of the holiday. Although in addition to the looks that she’d been receiving from all the men at their resort, Matt had also seen a number of women looking at her jealously after catching their other halves looking in her direction.
“We should do it again before we go home,” she said pulling on her T-shirt and putting on her baseball cap before bending down to rummage through her bag. She then stood up, undid the lid of what she was holding, and gently applied some cream to Matt’s nose, cheeks, and forehead.
“Your face has caught the sun,” she said as she put the lid back on the sun cream before throwing it back into her bag and grabbing her short denim skirt.
He normally loved to see her in this skirt, but he was disappointed to see her put it on now as he had been enjoying the view of the bottom half of her body in just her bikini.
“Um huh,” he said. Yet he wasn’t worried about his face, and he wasn’t really listening to what she was saying. He was totally lost in thought about her body, and he was wishing that she’d stop putting her clothes back on. He was also wishing that they were back in their hotel room.
Charlie leaned in towards him, and put her mouth against his ear and whispered; “why are you looking at me as if you’re about to put a fiver in my skirt?”
He smiled guilty, and pulled her into a bear of a hug before kissing her neck. “It’d be at least a tenner Mrs Grayson,” he whispered back grinning and then kissing her.
He could taste the salt on her lips from the sea, and he was enjoying the familiar sensation of his wife’s kiss when her stomach suddenly rumbled loudly and they broke apart laughing.
“Hungry?” He asked.
“Starving,” she said grinning back at him.
“I’ve got an idea,” he said.
Charlie eyed him suspiciously.
“Room service,” he said with a wink making Charlie laugh.
Matt grabbed all of their stuff from the beach, and began to jog towards the road pulling Charlie along after him. Unfortunately by the time they got into the lift of their hotel to go up to their floor and room, Matt was feeling self-conscious about the way that Charlie kept looking at him.
“What?” He asked nervously as he caught her eyes once again.
“Nothing, “she said quickly. But when he looked at her dubiously, she smiled and said; “it’s just that I haven’t seen you look at me this way since our wedding night.”
The lift doors opened, and Matt grabbed Charlie’s hand and pulled her towards their room. Unfortunately once they neared it he couldn’t get the door open quickly enough, and once inside he couldn’t get Charlie or himself undressed fast enough. Charlie started laughing, and she only stopped when Matt lifted himself up from on top of her and she noticed that he looked serious.
“You’re laughing at me?” He asked looking hurt.
She nodded and rolled so that she forced Matt onto his back. “Yes,” she said smiling and then leaning forward to kiss him. But Matt turned his face away.
“Why?” He asked still looking hurt
Charlie held his chin in her hand so that he couldn’t turn his face away again, and she kissed him whilst keeping her eyes open and locked on his. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said. When he smiled, she kissed him again. Yet as he went to pull her into a deeper kiss she pulled away. She smiled at him seductively and kissed his cheeks, his jaw, and then his neck. He smiled again, and she slowly started to work her way down his body.
Matt closed his eyes, and he enjoyed the sensation of Charlie’s kiss and touch upon his skin which was sending shivers down his spine. He looked down at her, and she smiled straight back up at him. He smiled and inclined his head to show that he wanted her to come back towards his face and lips, and once her face was above his again he kissed her and gently rolled her so that she was on her back. He then lightly pressed his weight down upon her, and his hands began to explore her body.
“I love you,” he said. He then spread her legs a little wider with his own, and he smiled to himself as he heard Charlie’s familiar gasp as he slid inside her and they began to make love.
“I love you too,” she said her voice catching on each word as her pleasure intensified.
Matt felt Charlie dig her nails into the backs of his shoulders, and wrap her legs more tightly around him. He looked into her face, and when she smiled at him he lost himself in her. He closed his eyes as he felt the familiar sensation mount within him, and when he heard Charlie let out a familiar scream he couldn’t hold back any longer and he groaned into her.
Charlie kissed his neck, and he lifted his weight off her and rested his head by hers as he caught his breath. She kissed his neck again, and he kissed her cheek before rolling off her entirely.
That night as Charlie slept with her head resting on his chest, and her left hand on his stomach, he lay awake listening to her breathe and thinking once more how incredibly lucky he was.
***
“Matt,” Oak said in his gruff voice making Matt look up and feel suddenly sick to his stomach.
He saw that Oak was looking at him as though unsure of how to say what he’d come to tell him, and he’d never seen Oak like this before. He was afraid. He was in fact terrified, and he was sure that Oak was about to tell him the news that he was certain that he couldn’t handle hearing.
“Charlie’s been taken into surgery. She’s bleeding internally, obviously from a result of being pinned in the car. She’s fighting, but your baby it…”
“It won’t survive the operation,” Matt finished for Oak in a deadened tone.
“No,” Oak said. “She also has some bleeding in her brain, but they won’t know the full extent of that until they get her into surgery.”
“Okay,” Matt said dropping his head. “So we wait.”
“We wait,” Oak said.
Matt felt Oak put his hand on his shoulder, and he nodded in recognition of the gesture. He knew what needed to be done next. He knew that there were people that had to be told.
He looked up at Oak and said; “I need to call her parents, and mine.”
Claire
She was sat on her sofa holding her phone between her hands and against her chest. She hoped that Matt would call her with an update even if he was furious with her, and she hoped that Charlie was okay. She couldn’t be too badly hurt she told herself. Matt hadn’t sounded upset when they’d spoken she thought. No she said to herself reassuringly, he’d just sounded angry.
She looked at the screen on her phone and willed it to show Matt calling. She knew that Charlie would be okay, she had to be. There were too many people that depended on her for her not to be okay, and Claire knew that she was just one of them.
Charlie and Claire had been best friends since they were babies. Charlie’s mum and Claire’s mum had been best friends at school, and they had had the girls within two months of each other. From the moment that they were old enough to talk and know each other, they had been the best of friends and had shared everything.
Whilst Charlie had been the girl next door growing up; pretty, sporty, and popular. Claire had been the trouble maker; loud and abrasive, and very aware of her own sex appeal to all the boys at their school from a young age. Yet whenever Claire had done something wrong, which had been often, Charlie had always been the first person that she’d confided in. She’d just always known how to solve Claire’s dilemmas, although it had often entailed her taking a share of the blame for Claire’s actions.
Many people had tried to come between the two of them over the years; other girls that had wanted to be as popular as they were, or boys who’d tried to play them off against one another, but nothing had worked. The two of them had been and to this day remained above such things.
Charlie knew Claire be
tter than anyone in the world, and in return Claire felt sure that she knew Charlie better than anyone else as well. Although she knew that Matt would likely disagree with this, but then she and Matt rarely saw eye to eye on anything.
Claire had tried to get along with Matt for Charlie’s sake, but he was uncompromising towards her and she’d long since given up trying with him. She was civil, but he knew as well as she did that this was for Charlie’s sake and not his. Recently though, the animosity between them had intensified and she blamed him for this. He hadn’t liked it when she’d started dating Nick, and he’d been fairly vocal about this, but his reaction had riled her and she’d made that apparent.
She knew that it was no secret that she’d been a commitment phobe, and had moved between relationships at speed, and whilst she knew that this wasn’t her most endearing quality it had still annoyed her that Matt hadn’t even been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt when she’d gotten together with Nick. He’d just seemed intent on splitting them up and on getting Nick to see the error of his ways.
Charlie had defended Claire whenever the subject had come up, but Claire knew from Charlie’s recent silences in conversation that her relationship with Nick was taking a toll on Charlie’s relationship with Matt. She felt guilty about this, and she knew that until her and Nick’s relationship had begun Matt and Charlie’s had seemed impenetrable.
What had made her feel more guilty, was that she knew that all of Charlie’s support and arguments with Matt about her and Nick hadn’t been worthwhile. She had after only recently having moved in with Nick, had a one night stand with a man that she’d met in London on work.
Typically though, when she’d confided in Charlie she’d been nothing but supportive. She hadn’t thrown any of her arguments with Matt in her face, and she had instead just listened to her concerns over her relationship with Nick. She’d let her unload her conscience over her one night stand, that had actually by the time she’d confided in Charlie turned into a full blown affair, and she’d been reassuring and kind and just how she always was.
As Claire sat there hoping that her phone would ring, she couldn’t help but think that she was partly to blame for the accident. She could have stopped Charlie coming to see her. She could have gone to the clinic with someone else she thought. She shouldn’t have made Charlie skip work to be with her. It wasn’t fair, and she knew that she’d been taking advantage of their friendship recently.
She knew that Charlie had been going over and above what was expected of her as a best friend with the regular trips to Bath to check that she was okay, but she hadn’t thought to tell her this or even to stop her. She’d leant on Charlie the same way that she always did in a crisis, and she’d once again – just as she always did, taken advantage of her best friend’s overly generous nature.
Her mind kept turning back and running through the conversation that she’d had with Charlie, in her and Matt’s bathroom, on the night of her thirtieth birthday. If only she hadn’t told her about her pregnancy Claire thought desperately.
***
“Charlie I need to talk to you,” Claire whispered urgently as she followed Charlie into her bathroom.
Charlie looked at her with concern etched in her face and asked; “what’s wrong?”
Claire burst into tears, and Charlie shut the bathroom door. She pulled Claire into a hug, and then gently put her hand against Claire’s face and said; “don’t cry, whatever it is we’ll fix it.”
Claire felt herself smile through her tears. This was typical Charlie she thought; calm, reassuring, and one hundred percent confident that any problem could be solved.
“I’m pregnant,” Claire said turning away from Charlie to put the lid on the toilet seat down so that she could sit on it.
“And obviously delighted,” Charlie said perching on the edge of the bath and smiling playfully.
Claire smiled back in spite of herself, but then said desperately; “I don’t know who the father is.”
Charlie didn’t say anything for a second, and kept a completely composed face, but then as only she could she said something that completely threw Claire’s panic stricken train of thought.
“This other guy, Adam right, is he super hot? Okay hot? Or not that hot, but fantastic in the sack so all else is forgiven?” Charlie asked smiling again.
Claire started to laugh, and she tore off some toilet tissue from the roll on the holder next to her and wiped under her eyes. “He’s a hottie for sure, but more Rich hot rather than Matt’s ridiculous level of hotness. He’s absolutely amazing in bed though,” Claire said smiling.
Charlie nodded approvingly and then asked; “and what does he do, aside from satisfy you sexually of course?”
Claire looked at Charlie and they smiled at each other.
“He’s an investment banker in London. I met him when I was there finalising a deal with work. He was one of the bankers involved with the leveraged finance part of the acquisition,” she said.
Charlie nodded again and asked; “and does he make you happy?”
Claire smiled and nodded, but then she said sadly; “really happy. I think I’m falling for him.”
“What’s the situation like with Nick?” Charlie asked.
“He’s perfect Charlie, but I’m just not sure I love him. Everything about him annoys me,” Claire said; “and I’m mean to him for no reason.”
“Claire. You only think he’s perfect, because you two being together works in our group. You’re the two of us that weren’t paired off. When you got together,” Charlie said reaching across for Claire’s hand and then holding it tightly in her own; “you made us this set of four couples who’d all grown up together. But if he doesn’t make you happy, then you know he’s not perfect for you and you shouldn’t stay with him. You need to break up, and get with this banker!”
“But I’ll lose all of my friends,” Claire said miserably starting to cry again.
Charlie squeezed Claire’s hand and said; “you won’t lose me. You’re stuck with me forever.”
Claire rolled her eyes, and Charlie turned her right hand over and held it out in front of her. She then turned her own left hand over and put it alongside Claire’s.
Both of their hands had small, no more than an inch or so in length, thin white lines on them. Scars that they wore as permanent reminders of a summer spent watching too many films about friendships that ended in tragedy, which had led them to make a pact that they would be friends forever no matter what happened as they got older.
Claire looked from the scars on their hands back to Charlie’s face and half smiled. “What am I going to do about the baby? I can’t keep it. Not when I don’t know who the father is,” she said as she looked almost desperately at Charlie as though hoping she’d tell her what to do.
“Look that doesn’t matter. You need to make the choice for you. Do you want a baby?” Charlie asked her, and Claire shook her head crying again.
“So you don’t want a baby, that’s your choice. We can fix this Claire. You and I,” Charlie said smiling; “we can always fix things.”
Claire smiled back at her.
“I’m here for you, always and forever. Anytime you need me I’ll drop everything to be in Bath in a flash, even if it’s just to hold your hand because you’re feeling sad. Or even if it’s just to give you a hug because your hormones are all over the place,” Charlie said smiling again.
“Will you come with me if I have an abortion?” Claire asked nervously.
Charlie put her palm together with Claire’s, and then she looked into her face and said; “anything you need, I’ll be there for you. You want me to come with you? Then consider it done.”
Claire was so overcome with gratitude that she flung herself at Charlie, but the force of her hug sent Charlie – and her with her, into the bath that Charlie had been perched on. The two of them burst out laughing, and they were still trying to get untangled when Matt walked in on them.
***
Claire wished that she could go back in time and not tell Charlie about her pregnancy. She could’ve dealt with the situation on her own she said to herself. There was no reason that she always had to be so dependent on Charlie she thought angrily to herself. If she hadn’t relied on her then Charlie wouldn’t have been in Bath. If she hadn’t been in Bath then the accident couldn’t have happened. If the accident hadn’t happened then Charlie wouldn’t be in the hospital right now she told herself.
She started to cry. It was all her fault, and what was making her feel worse was the thought of the impact that her actions had obviously been having on Matt and Charlie’s relationship.
Claire believed without a doubt that she knew Charlie better than anyone. Yet she got the distinct impression, thinking about things now, that Charlie hadn’t recently been all that honest with her. She also got the sense that she’d been keeping things from Matt, and she wondered whether he’d known that Charlie had been coming to see her as frequently as she had over the past few weeks. Or for that matter, if he’d known that she’d been away from Birmingham at all.
Charlie was the most honest person that she knew. It wasn’t like her to keep secrets, especially not from Matt. Claire knew, embarrassingly, that Charlie told him everything and vice versa. They just didn’t keep secrets from one another. So if Charlie had started to, then Claire could only assume that their relationship was in a bad way.
She wondered distractedly how much she was to blame for that, and if this had been the impetus behind Charlie’s seemingly sudden decision to want to start a family.
Matt
Mr and Mrs Young arrived, along with Matt’s parents, a couple of hours after he’d called them. He hugged his mum tightly, and then Charlie’s mum hugged him.
Splintered Memory Page 5
