Broken Truth (27 page)

“That smells so much better,” Xavier said, sniffing the air as she approached. He turned around to face her, his lips lifting into a lazy grin. “Here, make yourself useful,” he said, handing her a stack of shirts to put on hangers.

“Thanks,” she replied, laying out the shirts and hangers in front of her.

“So... What did you do last night?”

“Just had some drinks with Amelia.”

“No Lucy?”

Charlie shook her head which surprised him somewhat.

“It was unplanned then?”

“I suppose so.”

“Hmmmm...” Xavier lifted his hand to rub the small amount of stubble along his jaw. His brow wrinkled as he carefully watched her. “What are you hiding from me?” he asked, after a short period of silence.

Charlie ran her tongue over her suddenly dry lips. She really didn’t want to tell him about the offer to Milan just yet. She was still processing the idea herself and didn’t need the added drama that Xavier would cause right now.

“So what if Amelia and I had some drinks by ourselves last night. It hardly means we are hiding something does it?” Charlie challenged back defensively, her eyes hardening somewhat in defiance. 

His eyes widened at her outburst and Charlie could tell that Xavier was trying hard to hold his tongue. He clenched his jaw before he shook his head and turned his back on her with a sigh.

Charlie lowered her eyes guiltily and started pushing hangers through the garments. After she had finished the first pile, she watched as Xavier silently turned and took them from her to hang up on the rail behind.

Working eerily in silence for twenty minutes, Charlie felt an uncomfortable knot forming in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t like Xavier being mad at her, and she especially didn’t like having to lie to one of her closest friends.

“Charlie?”

She looked up to find Xavier watching her, his hands placed firmly on his hips. 

“I’m sorry,” he said as his arms dropped against the side of his body and his shoulders sagged forward slightly in defeat. “I’ve just been really worried about you this past month, so I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” he admitted.

The skin around his eyes tightened and she saw that his gaze had dropped. Registering the obvious signs of worry and distress across his features, Charlie moved towards him.

“Come here,” she said, beckoning him towards her. “I will always tell you if something is bothering me,” she affirmed as his arms wrapped warmly around her body.

Standing by the clearance rails, Charlie busied herself by tidying up all of the garments that customers had left in complete disarray throughout the day. She could never fathom why people couldn’t just leave things tidy. Judging by the state of things today, most people couldn’t even be bothered to place items back onto their hangers.

“I thought you had an appointment this afternoon?” Imogen questioned, appearing out of nowhere.

Charlie jumped back clutching handfuls of clothing in her hands. “Oh my God,” she gasped. “You scared the absolute life out of me!”

Imogen chuckled and braced her weight against the clothing rail. “So where is your appointment?”

Looking at the clock on the wall behind the checkout counter, Charlie was amazed to see that it was almost three in the afternoon. She knew that Annabelle was due in at any time after rescheduling her appointment yesterday.

“My client should be here from three onwards,” she explained whilst switching around the clothes on the rail.

“Okay,” Imogen replied, making no attempt to move from her position.

Although Charlie continued on with her tasks as normal, she made sure to keep a watchful eye on Imogen who she noticed was watching her every move. Perplexed as to why she was hovering over her shoulder like a pest, Charlie turned towards her. “Is everything ok?” she asked, gesturing towards her unnecessary presence.

“Did you want to talk about the offer at all?” Imogen’s eyes gleamed hopefully at a positive answer from her.

“Not really,” she replied.

Imogen opened her mouth to speak, but found herself spectacularly cut off as the snobby and obnoxious voice of Annabelle Carter echoed throughout the shop.

“I’m here to see Charlie,” she heard her rudely demand from one of her work colleagues.

Inwardly cringing, Charlie waved away Imogen before plastering on her best smile and turning towards where Annabelle was stood. “Annabelle,” she greeted, kissing her on each cheek. “How have you been? It’s lovely to see you as always,” Charlie said, continuing with her friendly and extremely false pleasantries.

“Charlie...” Annabelle crooned softly. “It is absolutely delightful to see you. I am so sorry that I had to cancel our appointment yesterday. A very close friend of mine needed my assistance urgently and I just couldn’t say no.”

“Don’t worry,” she waved with a flick of her wrist. “You are here now, so what can I do for you?”

The sound of the boutique door opening caught Charlie’s attention. Looking over Annabelle’s shoulder, Charlie felt the colour drain instantly from her face as she caught sight of the person who had just entered and was now making a bee line straight for them.

“No... No... No... What the fuck do
you
want?” she spat, taking a step backwards. “Actually, I don’t even want to know. Get out of here now!” she demanded as her hands balled into shaking fists.

“I knew this was a bad idea,” Annabelle muttered.

Charlie recoiled from her words. “I’m sorry? Do you two know each other?”

“I think you had better tell her now, Anna.”

Charlie turned towards Annabelle expectantly as a nauseas feeling stirred in the pit of her stomach. She had an inkling about what she was about to be told, but she wished she was wrong.

“Well I guess there isn’t any need for introductions,” Annabelle shrugged. “Claire is one of my closest friends, Charlie. We’ve known each other since we were teenagers.”

The nausea crept up Charlie’s throat causing her to retch loudly. She couldn’t believe this. She couldn’t believe she had been so easily played again.

“Get out,” she croaked, trying to swallow the rising bile in her throat.

“I was hoping to talk to you,” Claire said, studying her from a distance.

Shaking her head, Charlie wrapped her arms around her stomach. She couldn’t deal with this right now. She just needed them both to leave.

“What’s going on over here?” Xavier’s concerned voice smashed through the tense exchange between the three women. He placed a hand protectively on Charlie’s lower back and inspected the scene before him. It didn’t take him long to work out that no good was going to come from both women staying in the shop. “I would be grateful if both of you would leave please,” he demanded firmly.

Doubled over and clutching her abdomen, Charlie kept her eyes trained on the wooden floor beneath her feet. She knew that one movement would have her spilling the entire contents of her stomach.

“Fine...” Annabelle huffed as she turned on her heels and headed straight for the door. Making her frustrations clearly known, Charlie flinched at the sound of feet stomping angrily across the floor.

“And you,” Xavier dismissed.

Charlie lifted her eyes a little to see the bottom of Claire’s legs. She watched as they started moving towards her until they were mere feet apart. “There are some things that you need to know, Charlie. I would like to speak with you if you are willing to meet with me to discuss?”

Remaining silent, she saw a business card hit the floor by her feet.

“I’ll be in the restaurant at The Arms Slough hotel at around midday tomorrow. I do hope you are able to attend. As I said, there are things you need to know,” Claire finished.

Charlie sucked in slow and steady breaths as Claire’s feet disappeared towards the door and out of the building. “Fuck!” she cursed, staring down at the business card that lay at her feet.

Twenty Six

Pacing backwards and forwards outside of The Arms Slough hotel in Piccadilly Gardens, Charlie bit her lip indecisively. She had spent the most part of last night and this morning trying to decide whether meeting Claire today was the right decision to make.

Although she had worked through the pros and cons at least a million times on her way over to the hotel, now that she was actually here, she found herself running through the list once more.

 “Oh fuck it!” Charlie resigned.

Running a hand through her hair, she took a deep breath and entered the hotel.

“Good afternoon,” said a smiling gentleman who she assumed to be the maître d’. “Is it a table for one?”

Charlie’s face flushed. “I’m actually meeting someone,” she replied, scanning the various tables for sight of Claire. When her eyes finally landed on her tucked away at a side table, she graciously slid past the gentleman and made her way over.

Approaching the table, Charlie saw Claire’s eyes snap up from the menu she was reading. She could see the relief flash across her face instantly. “Thank you for showing up today,” she nodded as Charlie took a seat opposite her. “I understand how difficu-”

“Look... I don’t want
to be here anymore than you probably want to be. Shall we just skip the pleasantries, hey? It isn’t like we are friends meeting for a glamorous mid-week lunch,” Charlie snapped, flicking a glance at Claire’s astonished face before returning her eyes to her menu.

“Very well...” Claire muttered, cupping her hands together and placing them on the table in front of her. “Did you want to eat or did you want to have some wine before we start?”

“Wine would be appreciated,” Charlie replied, closing her menu and placing it flat on the tablecloth. As much as she wanted to eat something, she knew that once the conversation got going she would probably lose her appetite completely.

“Excuse me?” Claire raised her fingers in the air to signal the nearby waiter who approached them in a flash.

“Yes madam?”

“Please could you bring us a bottle of your finest red wine? I am not particularly picky, so I shall leave the choice in your capable hands.” She smiled sweetly at the young man as he turned away to fulfil her request.

Charlie watched Claire cautiously, not wanting to give too much away. She made sure to keep her exterior as calm and collected as possible, whilst her insides twisted and coiled with unease. She wasn’t sure what Claire was planning to reveal, but it had to of been important to meet with her face to face.

“Thank you very much,” Claire replied after the waiter returned to fill both of their glasses with his choice of wine. He placed the bottle in a freestanding bucket of ice next to their table before departing with a low bow.

Gripping the glass with more force than necessary, Charlie raised it to her lips to take a large gulp. The fruity liquid gushed down her throat helping to ease her nerves a little bit.

“Not bad...” Claire said placing her glass back on the table. Clearing her throat, she looked directly at Charlie. “There are some things that I need to talk to you about. Things about Callum and I that I think you ought to know.”

Charlie started to shake her leg up and down under the table. Swallowing hard she lifted her glass to take another sip, hoping that the continuous flow of alcohol would help to settle her anxiety.

“Go on,” she pressed.

“Well... Let me just start off by telling you that Callum has not been the same since that night at his apartment when you found out about his past. You have completely ruined him, Charlie. I have never seen a man so utterly destroyed and heartbroken.”

“Am I supposed to feel some compassion that his dirty little secret got out? It was always going to end badly with a secret like that...” Charlie shrugged nonchalantly. “And anyway, he is
your
husband, shouldn’t you be at home consoling him if he is so beaten up over it. I don’t understand why you are here talking to the mistress that has caused all of this?”

“Look, I’m not here by choice,” Claire snapped irritably.

Charlie flinched at the sudden harshness in her tone and lowered her eyes to the table. Waiting for Claire to continue, she traced the patterns on the cloth with her finger.