Selling the Drama (23 page)

Charlotte threw the tissues into the bin and
got up to grab herself a glass of water from the kitchenette. "I
can pay for things myself you know. I have a job."

Ellie made no reply to that.

Charlotte looked at her from across the
room. In the silence, Ellie's phone began to ring. She pulled it
out and glanced down at the display.

"It's Toby. What do you want me to do?"

"Ignore it."

Ellie tucked the phone, still ringing, back
into her bag.

"I'm pregnant."

Ellie's head shot up, her gaze widening as
it connected with Charlotte's. They stared at each other for a few
more long moments before Ellie nodded with understanding. "He's
upset?"

Charlotte laughed then, without humour.
"That's one way of putting it. He wants me to have an
abortion."

Ellie's mouth dropped open, her eyes
widening with surprise. "He actually said that?"

"He even made me up a list of places where I
could go to get it done."

Ellie's body slumped back against the couch
then, her face filling with sadness. "Oh, Charlotte, I'm so sorry
to hear that."

Charlotte snorted. "You're not the only
one."

Ellie's phone rang again. She reached into
her bag and pulled it out, waving it at Charlotte. "It's Toby
again."

Charlotte turned around and placed both
hands onto the bench, leaning heavily against it. She turned with
surprise when she heard Ellie's voice, clearly answering the call.
Charlotte had assumed she would just let it ring out again.

"Hello, arsehole," she greeted.

Charlotte winced, clicking her fingers in an
effort to try and catch Ellie's attention, but she was deliberately
not looking her way.

"Yes, I am with her right now. And no, you
can't talk to her." Ellie paused as she listened to whatever Toby
had to say. "Don't be so sure. She's too upset to talk to you and
there is no way in hell I am telling you where we are." Another
pause. "Good luck with that." She flipped her phone shut and tossed
it back into her bag. Looking over at Charlotte, she bit her lip,
as though contemplating what her next words were going to be. "He
thinks you had the abortion this morning."

Charlotte burst into tears again.

Toby was hung-over. In the worst possible
way. He was onto his third can of Redbull and it was only nine
thirty. It was probably time to bust out the Nurofen Plus. Just to
take the edge off.

"Why the fuck do you look like death?" Jake
shouldered past him by way of greeting, a dark expression on his
face.

Toby slammed the front door and followed him
up to the kitchen. Crossing to the pantry, he pulled out a packet
of soluble aspirin, tearing off four and dumping them into a glass
of water. He set it down on the bench and fixed his gaze to the
fizzing froth, ignoring Jake for the time being while he sifted
through his clouded thoughts.

Running his hands over his face, he groaned,
sinking down into a chair at the table, at last casting Jake a
heavy look. "I expect you know what's going on?"

Jake sat down at the table opposite Toby, a
pissed off expression settling onto his face. "I know what Ellie's
told me, and I have to say, if what she says is true, then you've
made a dick move. Really fucking bad, mate."

Toby got up to grab his aspirin, now
dissolved. Looking out of the kitchen window, he drained the glass,
shuddering at the end as the undissolved residue hit his tongue.
Speaking without turning, he addressed Jake with a sombre tone, the
gravity of this situation weighing heavily on him. "Is Charlotte
alright? Sometimes there can be adverse effects-"

Jake hit Toby hard from behind, the
unexpected force knocking the glass out of his hand and causing it
to clatter into the sink, shattering upon impact. Toby spun around
only to have Jake grab him around the throat, his eyes wide with
fury, a look of disgust on his face that Toby could not help but
flinch from.

"I never thought I would look at you and
want to kill you. Not you. But right now, I'd happily squeeze your
throat until you passed out. I don't fucking know who you are. You
are so incredibly selfish it makes me sick. She's your girlfriend,
and you would send her down to some clinic to get your baby dragged
out of her so they can throw it in the fucking bin like it's some
piece of garbage you can't be bothered with. I am so disgusted by
you at the moment; you have no idea. No fucking idea." Jake
released his grip and shoved himself away from Toby, turning on his
heel and stomping out of the kitchen, slamming his way out of the
flat.

Toby was gripped with a feeling he had long
been without, and as the shaking began and the sweat erupted, so
too did the anxiety of his youth. By way of fortune he was still
standing in front of the sink as it all came pouring forth. He only
wished he could purge out the rot that was embedded deep within
him, yet it held fast, gripping to the core of him, as it always
had. Tears coursed down his face, yet these were not as a result of
his hurling, although it had perhaps induced them. What maintained
them was a sorrow that brought him low and he wept, grief
overcoming him as he leaned into the kitchen sink. There was a very
real possibility he might never be able to make up for this hurt he
had inflicted upon Charlotte. He was worse than his father. So much
worse. There was something almost cruelly liberating in seeing
yourself in such a toxic light. There was no further to sink, no
lower to go, no more shame than what already existed.

"So, what do you want to do?"

Charlotte shrugged dejectedly. "I don't
know."

"Do you want to stay with me and Jake?"

Charlotte looked at Ellie gratefully. Her
offer was generous, but entirely impractical. "I can't do that to
the two of you."

"Jenna?"

"Maybe." Charlotte sighed heavily and tears
filled her eyes, once again. It seemed she had done nothing but cry
for the last two days. "I could always just go home. To
Cairns."

Ellie was quiet beside her. "Yes, you
could."

Charlotte looked over at Ellie, connecting
with her wide blue eyes. "I miss my dad. I would go home in an
instant if he were there. But if he were still there, I wouldn't
need to. Because Toby would never have done this if Dad were still
around. Everything is ruined because he left! Everything!"
Charlotte wailed as tears ran down her face.

She dropped her face into her hands, well
aware that she had crossed the line into hysteria. It was unfair to
blame her father for this, but it hurt so much that he was not here
for her right now. She could go home to Cairns, but who could say
what her mother would be like when she got there. Iris simply
drifted in and out of each day now, living at whim, entirely devoid
of any interest whatsoever in Charlotte's life. What would she say
if Charlotte were to turn up on her doorstep with a baby on the
way? She would likely just ring Toby and insist that he come and
pick her up.

Ellie's arm wrapped around her shoulder,
pulling her into a hard hug. "I'll take you to Jenna's. It's a good
place to start."

"Toby will find me there," Charlotte
replied, tearfully.

"Charlotte, Toby will find you
anywhere."

This was entirely true of course. The minute
she left this hotel he would be able to find her. She could leave
her phone turned off all she liked, but he was not stupid. He knew
there were only three places she might go for any extended period
of time. It was just going to be a matter of seeing how long he
would wait until he sought her out.

"Do you hate him for this?" Ellie's voice
had a hard edge to it now.

Charlotte shook her head.

"How can you not hate him for this?" Ellie
appeared to already hate him enough for the both of them, but this
was not unsurprising. Ellie and Toby had always been careful around
each other. Neither Charlotte nor Jake really knew why; nothing had
ever happened between them, yet as the years passed by, it was
becoming more and more apparent that they put up with each other
out of duty and obligation, with no real affection between them
whatsoever. "I can't think of a more despicable thing he could have
done to you. Jake is furious with him as well, and that's saying
something, because Jake has always thought the sun shines out of
Toby's arse."

Charlotte lifted her head from where she had
it buried in her hands to look at Ellie sorrowfully. "Don't make
Jake take sides. Seriously, I don't want that."

Ellie shrugged. "Jake will do what he wants.
Toby deserves anything and everything he gets from this."

Charlotte stood up and walked away from
Ellie. She was unable to deal with this right now. There was a baby
inside of her who had a father who did not want it. She did not
have it in her to think about how other people were feeling about
this right now. She hardly knew what she was feeling herself.
Wiping her face from tears, she spoke to Ellie over her shoulder.
"I'll go to Jenna's for a couple of days, but I have a job, a good
job, and I'm not going to give that up because I don't want to see
Toby right now. I'll spend the time at Jenna's working out what I'm
going to do. I don't need to figure it all out today."

"Okay. Do you want to go back to the flat to
get any more stuff?"

Charlotte shook her head. "Not yet." She was
not ready to do that and it had nothing to do with the possibility
of running into Toby. There was a finality to packing up everything
that she was not yet ready for.

Jake's phone rang mid-conversation. He
paused, looking down at the screen before raising his finger.
"Sorry, I have to take this. Back soon." He slid out of the booth
and headed to the exit.

Toby looked over at Ellie who was studying
her plate of food with a level of concentration that came over as
completely false. He contemplated just ignoring her for the
duration, her continued rudeness to him was seriously pissing him
off more and more each minute he was forced to endure her company,
but right now, she had information he did not. Information he very
much wanted. So instead of meeting like with like, he smiled over
at her, nudging her foot with his own.

She looked up at him with a dark expression,
saying nothing.

"So, how's things?"

She shook her head at him with contempt.
Could she be any more obvious with how much she hated him?

"All peachy, thanks."

She stared, assessing him carefully before
taking a look around the restaurant. Looking for Jake, no doubt.
Toby braced himself for whatever onslaught she was about to let
loose on him.

"You remember that time I killed Porter?
Right before he was about to hurt Charlotte even more than he
already had done?" She waited, taking a sip from her drink, holding
his gaze all the while.

Toby sighed heavily but gave her no
response.

She took his silence as a mark to continue.
"I never ended up feeling bad about that."

"Well, some might say that makes you a
psychopath," Toby replied dryly.

"You'd know all about that," she replied
tartly. "My point though, is that given the right motivation, maybe
we, as humans, can shrug off an otherwise heinous act. I mean, I
would never kill Jake, for example, just for the sake of it. But
you, however, are a different story. If you hurt Charlotte any more
than you already have, I will kill you." Ellie smiled widely then,
a look upon her face totally at odds with the threat she had just
issued.

Toby looked at her with barely concealed
rage. "Did you take her to Jenna's or put her on a plane to
Cairns?"

"Go to hell."

"Whatever." He shrugged. "I'll just go to
Jenna's and find out for myself."

"Good luck with her giving you anything more
than I have." Ellie drained her drink, sucking hard at the dregs
clinging to the ice cube, a loud slurping noise breaking the heavy
silence between them.

Toby sat back then, reaching into his pocket
for his wallet. He pulled out a twenty and tossed it at Ellie.
"That's for my share of dinner. Tell Jake I'll see him tomorrow
afternoon and he can talk to me then. I'm not waiting here with
you."

She looked at him from beneath her
eyelashes. "Ooh, poor Toby. It's tough when you can't get your own
way, isn't it?"

Toby slid out of the booth, ignoring her
snarky glare. He bloody hated her. With a passion. And she knew it.
She also did not give a damn. He had been reluctant to go charging
back up to Jenna's. If Charlotte was indeed there, then Jenna would
now know the reason why Charlotte had left him, and if there was
one woman on this earth who would be inclined to try and stick a
knife in his eye over this, Jenna was it. You would think, in
hindsight, he might have considered this lesson from the past a
little earlier than now.

Jenna had a new boyfriend living with her.
Well, he was not that new, they had in fact been together for about
three months, but he was new enough that Charlotte had not yet had
an opportunity to meet him. His name was Chad, thirty two years
old, unemployed, incredible to look at.

Jenna's standard criteria had by all
accounts been met.

He may be unemployed, but Charlotte could
not fault him as a housekeeper. Jenna's place had never looked so
good, both inside and out. He could cook as well, and not just meat
with three vege, but all sorts of food that Charlotte had never
even heard of and that tasted out of this world. As the days
slipped by, Charlotte was beginning to think that having a man who
was employed outside of the home was a little overrated.

She waited for Toby to show up, or to call,
but he did neither.

"How did you and Jenna meet?" Charlotte
glanced up from the salad Chad had made her for lunch and met his
eyes across the table. They were alone together each day during the
hours Jenna was at work. He was easy company. He talked if she
asked him something, offered her food at regular intervals, and
pretty much left her to her own wallowing and self-pity in
between.