The Heartbreak Factor - Part Three

Chapter Forty-Five.

Walking through the streets of London, me and Chloe linked arms, trying not to get our heels stuck in the gaps in the cobbled pavement. “I think you’ve had too many,” I laughed as Chloe fell over onto the floor, giggling as she laid on the ground.

“Too little,” she grinned as I helped her back up.

I shook my head as I put my arm around her to support her as we carried on walking down the street.

“How come you’re not even the slightest bit tipsy?” she asked, looking at me with a suspicious look on her face.

“Let’s get a taxi,” I smiled. “You can stop at mine tonight.”

“Sammy..” she said.

“Alcohol messes up with my pills for this,” I smiled, holding up my bandaged wrist. Chloe shrugged her shoulders and seemed convinced by my lie – I wasn’t even on medication for my wrist.

We got to the main road and called for a taxi. As Chloe sat on the floor, leaning against the wall of a building, I stood writing a text to George. “You’ve probably only just landed but hope your flight was okay. Love you x”

Putting my phone back into my bag, I looked at Chloe as she sat staring at me. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t believe you.”

“What?” I laughed.

“I don’t believe you,” she said. “I know when you’re lying, and that – that was a lie.”

“What was a lie?” I asked, trying to hide the fact that I was panicking inside.

“Something’s going on, Sammy,” she said as the taxi pulled up.

I sighed a subtle sigh of relief as the taxi stopped in front of me and Chloe. “Come on,” I smiled, helping her up.

“I will find out,” she whispered as we walked over to the taxi and got in it.

*

The second we got out the taxi at my apartment block, Chloe looked at me in the same disapproving way as she did when we were waiting for the taxi less than half an hour ago. I paid the taxi and it drove off, leaving me to help Chloe up the steps to mine and George’s apartment. “Are you going to tell me then?” Chloe asked as we got to the top floor.

I looked at her as I rummaged through my bag to find my keys. “Tell you what?” I smiled, trying to keep my cool.

“Tell me what you’re obviously hiding,” she said.

I opened the door and walked in, putting my bag on the table and kicking my heels off. “I’m not hiding a thing,” I laughed, walking into the lounge, leaving Chloe stood in the hallway with the front door wide open.

Collapsing onto the sofa, I switched the television on to see a repeat of the Big Bang Theory starting. I heard the door slam and then felt Chloe fall onto the sofa next to me. “There is,” she said. “I know when you’re lying and you’re lying right now. Why can’t you just tell me? It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone, is it? I’ve known you longer than anyone – you know you can trust me with anything.”

I ignored her and continued to watch the television screen. As the opening titles began, Chloe grabbed the remote control from the coffee table and switched it off.

“Hey, I was watching that,” I said, trying to grab the remote control back off her.

“I don’t care,” she snapped. “We need to talk and we can’t talk if you’re too engrossed in the television.”

“We don’t need to talk,” I said. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Honestly?” she asked.

I nodded, looking at the television’s blank screen, trying to avoid any sign of eye contact with her at all.

“Swear on George’s life that there’s nothing that you’re hiding from me.”

I looked at her in shock. “You know I’d never swear on anybody’s life – regardless of whether it was the truth or not.”

“Sammy,” she sighed. “I know there is something that you’re not telling me. I knew there was something that you weren’t telling me earlier in the changing rooms at the shop with the dress. I know you weren’t too bothered about the wedding being pushed back as it was your idea in the first place. I know you’re not taking pills for your wrist. I just don’t see why you can’t tell me what you’re blatently hiding from me. You know..”

I interrupted me. “I want to tell you,” I blurted out. “Believe me. There’s nothing more that I want to do than just to tell you but I promised myself that nobody else could know until we were both sure that nothing could go wrong this time.”

Chloe looked at me. As I looked back up at her, I could tell that what I had just said had clicked in her brain and she knew what I wanted to tell her. “It all makes sense now,” she said. “No alcohol, emotional. This is why when we were at the hospital the other day after you got checked over, George was looking so happy. I knew he was going to be happy as you knew the truth and it wasn’t the end for you two, but.. you’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“And you didn’t want to tell me because you told people before and lost the baby,” she said.

I nodded again.

“Don’t worry,” she smiled. “You didn’t tell me. I worked it out.”

I shrugged my shoulders as I reached over to the coffee table and took the remote control, turning the television back on.

“Sammy,” Chloe said, putting her hand onto my leg as I sat watching the Big Bang Theory. “It won’t happen again.”

“You can’t promise that though, can you?” I asked.

She reluctantly shook her head.

“Nobody can promise to me that it won’t happen again,” I said. “I don’t want to go through that pain ever again – physical pain, emotional pain or mental pain. If me and George lost this baby too, I know that will be the end of it for me and him.”

“Sammy,” Chloe said, trying to calm me down as I began to get myself worked up into a state. “It will be okay. You’ve just got to put you and baby first.”

I nodded to her before I turned back and put all my attention into the episode of the Big Bang Theory.