In another life

21

After his talk with Marjorie the other week , Reece decided to see if he could get anything out of Mia. Which of course was a long shot, but he couldn't stop thinking about how weird the two women were acting.

"Mia?" The man looked over at the desk opposite him,
"What?"
"What's up with you recently?"
"Excuse you?" She looks up,
"Well you've been extra moody" Mia glares at the man,
"Mind your own business"
"Fine" he looks back down at his computer, "Charlotte's been acting weird too" he mumbles, catching Mia's attention, however the woman couldn't let Reece know that.

"And?"
"It's just a bit strange, no? Ever since she covered here, she's been acting different. Just like you"
"If you have something to say Reece, I suggest you spit it out"
"What's going on between you two?" He asked,
"Why do you assume something is going on? I barely know the woman. I've spoken to her once"
"Once. Which happened to make her run out of the building in tears" Reece catches Mia rolling her eyes.

"Look, all I did was introduce myself. Something must have happened after she left. I didn't say anything" Reece didn't totally believe her. He knew there must be something else. Or was he just going crazy?

Despite not being at the nursery more than a month, Reece wanted to protect the staff such as Charlotte. He also knew what Mia was capable of and didn't want Charlotte or any one else getting hurt because of her. Even if he had only known Charlotte for a short while, she meant a lot to Marjorie. Which meant she meant a lot to him too.

...

Charlotte had managed to get through another two days at the nursery and was so ready to leave for the weekend.

She was exhausted and finally ready to go home after hours of fake smiling and what felt like months worth of work in a week. Mia had not stopped thinking about the woman all week, well, since that day she first found out the truth. But since she had been working here, each thought was just hurting her more. And pretending as though each other doesn't exist; she didn't know how long she could keep it up.

She wasn't exactly thinking straight when she saw her walking down the hall. Or when she put her arm out to grab Charlotte's, pulling her into the office.

"What the fuck?!" Charlotte steadies herself and looks up at Mia in surprise. Their eyes meet for the first time in weeks and the pounding in their chests scream for each other.
"I'm sorry" Mia lets out a breath, Charlotte looks away from her practically searching for another place to look around the room, "Char, please, just talk to me"
"I have nothing to say" she shrugs and tries to walk out of the door but Mia grabs hold of her wrist again,
"What do you want Mia?" Charlotte sighs.

"I'm sorry, okay? I never meant to hurt you Charlotte"
"Whatever?" She shrugged, "I'm over it" Mia took a step back, silently questioning who this woman was, because she didn't sound like Charlotte. She wasn't acting like Charlotte.

"Over it? You've been acting like a completely different person! Shouting at parents? Talking back to Marjorie? Reece told me all about it. That's you acting fine is it?"
"Don't act like you care Mia"
"I do care"
"Bullshit" Charlotte looks away and rolls her eyes.

"Come on Charlotte. Talk to me, please"
"I can't do this. Not here, not now"
"Then when Charlotte because I can't keep going on with you acting like I don't exist"
"Don't exist? I fucking wish I could pretend you don't exist! You're in my mind every second of every day. Every time I close my eyes I see you there. And it hurts. It really fucking hurts Mia so no, I can't do this. Ever. I can't forgive you Mia" Charlotte begins to leave again,
"Charlotte please. I wish I could go back and-"
"You know, I wish we could go back too" she replied, "I wish I never helped you that day in that bar" Charlotte said before walking down the hall.

After the 'talk' with Mia, Charlotte went straight to her car and let out her tears. However she had to quickly gather herself for her girls. So she made her way to Kathy's to pick them up.

...

The girls were playing in the living room with Charlotte sat on the sofa, she propped up the usual smile every so often and kept up her act for her girls as Elsie danced around the room and Izzy cheered her on.

"Mummy? Can we have a special sleepover?!" Elsie asked. She had missed them a lot and it was Friday,
"Alright, it has been a while since we had one" the last time the girls were with her they did ask for a sleepover but Charlotte couldn't bring herself to do it, knowing that was the last happy memory she had with Mia.

"Can Mia come too?" Izzy pipes up,
"Yeah! We haven't seen her in like, forever!" Elsie smiles. Charlotte's smile falls at the mention of her. The conversation today still stuck in her mind.

"Actually girls, I need to talk to you about that" the girls sense how serious she was through her voice and sit down on the sofa next to her, "Mia and I, we had a little falling out. So you won't be seeing her again for a while" the girls look at each other and then back at their mother,
"I'm sorry mum" Izzy smiles, seeing how upset she was from her face
"It's okay mummy! Me and Alice fell out last week but we are friends again because she helped me when I fell over in the playground. So maybe you and Mia can be friends again too!" Charlotte smiles at her little girls pure heart of innocence.

"Maybe sweetie" Izzy wrapped her arms around Charlotte which she gladly returned and then Elsie jumped onto the two. Charlotte took in ever moment of it. Her girls may not understand the full extent of the situation and they never will know, but they do certainly know how to cheer her up.

"So can we have McDonalds for tea?" Elsie smiles and Charlotte and Izzy burst into laughter, a laughter that Charlotte certainly needed.
"Of course we can"

Charlotte spent the rest of the night with her favourite girls and it was definitely what she needed after the time she was having. For once she didn't have to fake a smile at all. Because no matter how bad things could get, her girls would always find away to make her laugh.