Charlotte and Louis were sunbathing on the final day of their holiday, the time passing by too quickly. Charlotte sat rubbing suntan lotion into her arms, paranoid about getting burnt.
"You should put some on," she said scolding Louis.
"I can handle a bit of sun," he laughed. "Pass that here and I'll do your back."
She scooped her hair up and swept it off her neck as he began to lather the lotion into her skin. "This has to be pretty close to perfect," she said watching the sea's gentle waves.
"Why not perfect?"
"I miss Jamie, I know I'd have missed him if I'd stayed at home though." She let out a small sigh. "Sorry I shouldn't have brought him up."
"Don't be sorry, I know you have a son. I don't expect you not to mention him around me."
"It's just Nick's his father..," she broke off unsure how to explain.
Louis paused, his fingers resting lightly on her. "We broke up and you had a whole other life. I don't have an issue with Jamie cos of who his dad is."
"I guess I'm not giving you much credit," she said sheepishly. "But years ago you'd never have said anything like that."
"No, but we hadn't lived then." He grinned at her, "I remember when you were obsessed with getting straight As."
"I'm not going to remind you what you were obsessed about," she teased back.
"Touche." He resumed applying the lotion to her back. "Charlotte, you've gotta make the best of your life. I hope I'll be a part of it, but whatever happens with us, you have to move on."
She momentarily froze. "I know but Jamie deserves to have a normal family life, and that's not going to happen because of me."
"I'd say that your husband was more to blame."
She turned around to face him. "He was, but I was pretty immature. I had no idea of what having a husband and a child entailed."
Louis scoffed. "I'd have thought the husband would take care of himself."
"Yeah but I had this romantic idea of happy ever after and I guess I was a pain in the ass," she said her face flushing.
"Stop making excuses for him," Louis said chiding her. "Your case is coming up and you need to be completely focused on your side of things."
She groaned looking away. "Don't remind me but you're right, old habits die hard. I've got to make a witness statement, to try and demonstrate how he was mentally cruel." Her shoulders sagged. "It's actually more difficult to explain than 'we had an argument and he slapped me.'"
"So why don't you use me as a sounding board?" Louis suggested. "Pretend I know nothing."
She paused, conflicted. On the one hand, she wanted to keep her past as far away from Louis as possible, on the other, she had to write a convincing statement. "Okay, I'll try."
"Charlotte where's the paperwork I left on the table?" Nick asked, picking things up and putting them down impatiently.
"I put it in a pile over there," she said indicating to his desk.
"You did what?"
His raised voice startled her.
"You'd left a big mess on the dinner table so I tidied it up..." She faltered as he glowered at her, his jaw clenched.
"I was working on those papers, I had them in order."
"Oh." She recoiled hearing the barely concealed anger in his voice.
YOU ARE READING
Shattered Hearts
Romance(On adultfictions reading list) Can you fall in love with the same person twice? "I can't be with you, I just can't," she said turning away. "Why not?" She let out a heavy sigh. "It didn't work before when we had everything going for us, there's no...
