"I don't really know if you can claim you beat me. I didn't know where I was going and you didn't tell me so of course I had to follow you." Laura rolled her eyes.
"I got here first so I won." Charles shrugged, climbing off the bike and ushering her on to the yacht, concious of the eyes on them in the busy marina. In hindsight it would probably have been a sensible move to change out of his Ferrari kit to make himself at least a little less recognisable.
"You cheated!" Laura protested again, allowing him to usher her inside.
Once inside, and safely out of view of all the people wandering around the harbour, his hands caught her waist and stopped her in her tracks.
The feel of his hands on her waist transported her for a moment back to that first night in the club, sending a shiver down her spine.
"Oh come on, don't be a sore loser." Charles laughed. "Besides it's probably going to be the only race I get to win this weekend. Just let me have this."
"Oh come on, stop being so dramatic." She rolled her eyes at him again. "How bad can it be?"
"Oh it's bad." He groaned. "It's the one race I really, really want to win and it's like the universe is plotting against me."
"I still think you're being dramatic... but if it makes you feel better then fine, you won. You beat me, an incredibly average cyclist, in a race to a destination I didn't know the way too." She laughed.
Charles grinned back at her, his earlier woes about his home race apparently long forgotten. "I do believe that means that I get my prize then." He smirked.
He leaned in a fraction as the two of them stood there, and just as she leaned into kiss him, she realised what she was doing. The feeling of guilt hitting her like someone had tipped a bucket of ice cold water over her head.
"I'm back with Mike." She announced, removing Charles's hands from where they were resting on her waist. "I can't." She shook her head, taking a big step back to put some distance between the two of them as Charles looked at her in confusion.
"You actually went back to him?" He looked at her in disbelief. "After all of that? What you left me here that night and went running straight back to him?"
Laura stared at him, unsure of what to say. When he said it like that it sounded terrible.
"Wow." Charles shook his head in disbelief. "I've spent all this time feeling bad for what I said that night, wishing I could take it back. Turns out I just made you decide what you really wanted?"
"It's not like that." She argued weakly.
"Is here, this weekend?" Charles asked, because try as he might he couldn't actually remember seeing the guy at the track earlier. He was curious to meet him and see what it was he had that would keep her coming back and forgiving him, after everything he'd done.
"Yeah." Laura nodded hesitantly.
"And where does he think you've been all this time that you've been with me?" Charles raised an eyebrow. It had been a good few hours since Anna had left them at the track by the time he'd shown her around the garage and they'd made it down to the yacht.
"I uh... I don't know actually. I don't know where he went. He just said he had to go." She mumbled.
She didn't want to think too hard about where he might've gone, it was a whole can of worms she didn't want to open. The way he'd been so glued to his phone, sneaking off and making whispered phone calls when her back was turned... it made her feel sick if she gave too much thought to it.
So she just chose to pretend it wasn't happening. It was far better than considering the alternative that all his promises that he'd changed and things would be different this time hadn't meant anything at all.
"You're feeling guilty for being here with me, and he's probably off somewhere with some other girl. You know that, right?" Charles asked.
"Stop it." She warned. "I made my choice, you don't get to make me feel bad about it."
"I'm not trying to make you feel bad about it." He took a step towards her and she took another big step back to keep the distance she'd created between the two of them.
"What are you trying to do then?" She asked. "Because it's definitely how it feels."
"I'm trying to make you see sense." He sighed. "You're hanging on so hard to staying with him and I don't see why?" He took another step towards her and she went backward again, now stood with her back against the wall and nowhere else to go.
He saw her glance towards the door. "Don't you dare make a run for it again." He warned. "You're the one who decided to come here with me, you can at least tell me why."
"Why what?" She frowned, crossing her arms defensively.
"Why you're still with him? Why you ran away that night? Why you're here with me now instead of him? Honestly I don't care which one. Just give me something, because for some stupid reason I can't stop thinking about what might've happened that night if I'd just kept my mouth shut." He let out an exasperated sigh, stepping towards her again and this time she had nowhere to go. His hands fell to her waist again, eyeing her warily as though he wasn't entirely sure if she might try and hit him.
"You've been thinking about me, have you?" She joked, trying to change the subject.
"We're not talking about that part right now." He shook his head. "Answer me."
"I don't know." She shrugged. "I went back to him because I loved him... or I thought I loved him... I don't know... and I don't know why I'm here right now. I shouldn't be here, I'm just as bad as him."
"I think we all know that's not true." Charles said softly, grip tightening on her waist just a little at the thought of her leaving.
"You were pretty quick to kick me out that first night when you thought I was cheating on him." Laura pointed out.
"How many times do I need to say I'm sorry I didn't hear you out?" He asked. "I'm sorry, I wish I could go back in time and not have done that. It wasn't about you it's... well it was about me and my ex but that's a whole other story for another time."
"I think that's actually the first time you've apologised." She laughed and a slow smile spread across his face.
"I apologised a lot of times in my head. I thought I'd said it out loud. But I'm sorry." He repeated quietly.
"It doesn't change anything though, does it." She sighed, her hand falling onto his chest and gently pushing him away to make some more space, even if it wasn't what she wanted to do.
"You could change it." Charles pointed out. "If you wanted to. You don't have to stay with him."
"You don't know me and you don't know him." She shook her head. "We shouldn't keep doing this, it's confusing. I shouldn't have come here. I'm sorry."
"Laura." He sighed. "Come on, we were having fun. I should've kept my mouth shut."
"I have to go." She sighed. "Mike's probably wondering where I am."
Although deep down, she knew he wasn't. He hadn't tried to call her to find out where she was, and if he was back at Anna's she knew her friend would have taken great delight in telling him that Laura was with Charles. So that only left the possibility that he'd snuck off with god knows who to do things she didn't even want to think about.
"Can I ask you one question before you go?" Charles asked, pulling her attention back to the man stood in front of her.
"What?" She asked.
"Why are you so, so loyal to a man who quite clearly doesn't give a shit about you?"
YOU ARE READING
Escapism (CL 16)
Fanfiction"Just a heart broke bitch High heels six inch In the back of the nightclub, sippin' champagne Drunk calls, drunk texts, drunk tears, drunk sex I was lookin' for a man who was on the same page"
