Chapter Twenty Two
Cheryl yawned as she turned on the tap of the shower, running her hand underneath it in a futile bid to speed up the time it took for the cold water to turn hot. She didn’t get much sleep in the night, although it was for the sweetest reason possible so she certainly wasn’t going to complain.
She smiled to herself as a few memories of the previous night popped in to her head, each one more graphic than the last, until eventually she shook her head as if to mentally clear her head.
Sighing blissfully she resigned herself to the fact that those memories would probably be popping up on more than one occasion during the day. She jumped in to the shower quickly and hoped it would be enough to wash the sins of last night away.
“morning” Kimberley exclaimed as the bathroom door opened and Cheryl came out in her bathrobe.
“you don’t mind do you?” Cheryl asked, pointing to the bathrobe. She didn’t wait for Kimberley to answer, instead she walked over to the bed and sat on the edge whilst she towel dried her hair.
“of course not” Kimberley smiled and sat up in the bed, rubbing her eyes against the tiredness.
“I suppose you will be spending the rest of the day in bed” Cheryl teased playfully, although secretly wishing she could have stayed there too. It had been a few months ago that she was approached to do the X Factor, and at the time she had readily accepted, hoping that it would be something to focus on to fill the void that Kimberley left.
She had been looking forward to taking her mind off her problems and putting all her energy in to the X Factor at the time, but now, she was starting to wish she had reclined the offer.
“I might get up later and make some dinner…should I do you any?” Kimberley asked with a frown, it was over an hours commute away to get to London where the X Factor auditions were being filmed and she wasn’t sure whether Cheryl would be home late or not.
“you’ll probably be back in bed by the time I get home” Cheryl laughed, although it would probably be true, she wasn’t expecting to be home till gone midnight.
“I might surprise you” Kimberley joked before snuggling back down in the bed and pulling the covers over herself tightly.
Cheryl smiled before turning around and putting the hair dryer on. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach already and briefly wondered what state of mind she was in when she agreed to be a judge on a show as popular as the X Factor.
It was her first day and she was as nervous as was possible without actually being sick, but for the sake of both her and Kimberley, she played it down.
“you’re going to be great you know?” Kimberley said from the bed, once she had switched the hairdryer off, seemingly reading Cheryl’s mind.
“I hope so” Cheryl replied, biting her lip as she turned around on the bed to look at Kimberley.
She knew deep down that Kimberley was just saying it to make her feel better, but she was surprised to find that it was actually working, in the last year, she had got so used to being on her own, it was easy to forget that other people could provide comfort as well.
-
A month had passed since her first day and by now, her body was slowly getting used to 4 hours sleep a night, one solid meal a day and travelling from one side of the country to the other on a regular basis.
She opened the door of Kimberley’s cottage quietly with the key that the girl had given her and let herself in. It was gone one in the morning and all the lights were off, but the moon illuminated the living room meaning she didn’t need to turn the lights on.
She dumped her bag and coat in the hallway and walked in to the front room, stopping in her tracks when she seen Kimberley asleep on the sofa.
If it was at all possible, her heart might have melted at the sight. She had obviously been waiting up for Cheryl to get back home and fallen to sleep at some point, the remote control still in her hand.
She smiled to herself as she walked over to the sofa and wondered whether it would be best to wake the girl up and take her to bed, or leave her sleeping on the couch.
In the past month they had become like ships passing in the night, Cheryl coming in when Kimberley was asleep and leaving before she woke up, it was almost a rare sight to see the girl awake these days.
But even so, she resisted the temptation to wake her up and tell her about the excellent day she had had on the set. Although it was hard work, harder than anything she had done before, it gave her a lot of satisfaction, and she hoped that soon, when the workload eased off, she could finally pay some much needed attention to Kimberley.
She lifted the girls feet up gently and slid on the couch before putting them back down, resting on her knees. She looked over at her as she stirred in her sleep but settled back down peacefully.
Counting down the days until her next day off, she pulled the blanket from the back of the couch over Kimberley and covered herself with what was left and let the tiredness take over her body, and hoped that maybe Kimberley would pop up in her dreams as she usually did.
Sometimes it seemed she spent more time with the girl in her dreams than she did in real life at the moment.
