Splintered Memory (32 page)

Emily watched him get up and put his jacket on.
“Where are you going?” She asked him.

“I really ought to go back to the hospital and see out my shift
,” he said.

“Should I not be here when you get back
?” She asked.

“I’m going to take a couple of day’s annual leave. I need to get away to clear my head
,” he said from the back door. “You’re welcome here for as long as it takes you to find somewhere new,” he said sincerely. She then watched him walk out of the house and close the door behind him.

Emily raced to the door and opened it
, and she ran to catch up with him. “Matt,” she called.

He turned
round and looked at her quizzically.

“If it
was as you say most likely a lie then you won’t care,” Emily said; “but I need to tell you.”

Matt stood there waiting patiently
, and Emily composed herself.

“Charlie
has her memory back,” Emily said.

S
he waited for Matt’s reaction. She had expected him to either be relieved or to be furious with her for not having told him sooner, but he seemed nonplussed.

“As I sa
id,” he said; “Claire’s nothing but trouble.”

H
e walked away and Emily watched him go, and as she walked back inside the house she felt confused. She sat down again on the sofa and replayed the conversation that they’d just had in her head, but still she couldn’t fathom out what his nonchalant response to her revelation about Charlie had meant.

S
he got up to make a drink, and as the kettle boiled it came to her. Matt had never trusted Claire, and Claire had never liked Matt. It had been a lie. Claire must’ve told her what she had in an attempt to sabotage their relationship. Well the plan hadn’t worked. Their relationship had ended because Matt couldn’t commit, and he’d known that she’d wanted and needed him to.

Emily walked back into the living room and sat down on the sofa again, and as she did she looked at the one photo in the room of the two of them together. It had been taken at Rich and Bex’s wedding, and she couldn’t help but get up and walk over to it. Matt had his arm
around her and they were smiling, but where she looked genuinely happy she saw that he looked distracted.

She’d wanted him to love her desperately, but he hadn’t and now he’d left her. She was all alone again, and as this realisation hit her she began to cry once more.

He
hadn’t been able to get anyone to cover his Sunday shift for him, so he’d stayed on Rich and Bex’s sofa on Saturday night. During his Sunday shift he’d managed to arrange cover for his shifts on Monday and Tuesday, and he was already scheduled to have Wednesday off. He’d also called Claire, and after she’d ranted at him for five
long
minutes he’d finally been able to explain the reason for his call. He’d told her that he’d broken up with Emily and that he was coming down to see Charlie tomorrow. He’d wanted to know where she worked, and how to get there.

Claire had quickly forgotten that she’d hated him, and that she’d been furious with him, and she’d given him all
of the information that he’d needed. It had also transpired from their conversation that she still had the divorce papers that he’d signed. So he’d arranged to meet her to pick them up before going to see Charlie, but when she’d asked him why he’d wanted them he’d said that it was difficult to explain. It had been, but largely because he hadn’t known why he’d wanted them.

Matt had sat on the train from Birmingham New Street to London Euston feeling like a school boy again. He’d felt excited, but at the same time agitated. He’d found the journey incredibly tiresome, and the train had seemed to stop at every single station between Birmingham and London. He’d kept running through in his mind what he might say to Charlie when he saw her, but everything had seemed contrite and overly articulated.

He’d tried to make some notes, but that had seemed a bit ridiculous. What was he going to do he’d thought? Find her, sit her down, and give her a speech from his pre-prepared notes? He’d wondered if he should just kiss her, or maybe the first thing he ought to do was confront her about her memory. Yet maybe he should deal with that last he’d thought, or maybe he should just skip that part entirely and just tell her that he wanted her back.

Every which way he’d thought about talking to Charlie the conversation seemed fraught with issues, and he was terrified about how to approach the subject of his drug addiction. He’d felt irritated and he’d begun banging his fist against his head trying to think of the best way to deal with that, but he’d stopped when two businessmen in seats nearby him had stared at him.

When he got off the train at Euston, Claire was there waiting for him as promised. He gave her his overnight bag, which she’d agreed to take back to her flat for him, and she handed him his divorce papers which he put into his satchel styled shoulder bag that he was keeping with him.

“Matt, you need to relax a
bit. You’re looking dishevelled and it’s not very you,” Claire said putting her hand on his shoulder and smiling.

Matt looked at her and knew that he was feeling incredibly anxious.

“Look,” Claire said; “I’ve got you an underground ticket already. You need to go down the escalators and get onto the northern line bank branch going south. Get off at London Bridge and take this,” she said giving him a hand drawn map. “When you get off at London Bridge, follow this map. If you get lost, honestly, you’re either blind or an idiot, but if you do just ask someone for Hays Galleria. Okay?”

Matt nodded, putting the map in the back pocket of his jeans.

“I’ve asked Charlie to meet me outside her offices at five. She’s agreed, but I had to twist her arm a bit as she doesn’t normally leave work much before seven. I figured this would give you guys longer to chat though. Also it’s a Monday night so the bars around there won’t be too busy. Plus it’s a nice day,” she said; “so if it is busy around there you should be able to sit outside and talk.”

Matt was taken aback by how much thought Claire had put into all of this and he said; “thanks.”

Claire laughed and said; “nice person remember?”

Matt smiled and Claire rolled her eyes at him.

“There are loads of places to eat or to get a coffee down there too, so you should be able to keep yourself occupied till five. If you haven’t got a book or a paper or anything, there’s a WH Smith over there,” Claire said pointing towards the back of the station.

“I’ll be fine
,” Matt said.

“Okay, well then I guess I’ll see you later. Hopefully
,” she said crossing her fingers and smiling at him before kissing him on the cheek.

Matt watched Claire disappear into the crowd
, and once she was gone from sight he headed for the underground.

It only took him twenty minutes to get to where Claire had said Charlie’s offices were, and he looked at the postings of all the businesses in the building to make sure that he was in the right place. He spotted the name of the firm that Claire had told him that Charlie was working for, and satisfied that he was where he was supposed to be he walked into the nearest pub and ordered a pint of shandy.

He took his drink from the bar and went and sat at a table in the window where he spent the next quarter of an hour people watching. He then went and got another pint of shandy and decided to do some work. He pulled out some notes from his bag, and he set about trying to keep himself busy.

At a little before five, Matt left the pub and went to wait outside Charlie’s offices. He was feeling nervous, and he could feel that his hands were clammy and his stomach was doing back flips. It also wasn’t helping that as he stood waiting, watching the streets getting busier with the earliest part of the rush hour beginning, he kept getting bumped into and he thought that there was a good chance that he might miss Charlie. Yet as he thought this, she stepped out of the doors to her offices.

She was wearing a tight fitting grey pinstripe dress. It had a round neck, and the hem was just above her knee. Her hair had grown since the wedding but it still looked well styled, and he thought that she looked stunning as she swept her fringe out of her eyes as she looked around for Claire.

Matt smiled as he noticed the trainers that Charlie was wearing. She’d never have sported trainers with her work clothes in Birmingham, but she’d obviously adapted to the London commuting shoe attire. He walked over to her
, and watched her reaction as she saw him.

“Hi
,” she said obviously surprised at seeing him.

“Hello
,” he said smiling.

“
What are you doing here? I mean it’s just a bit weird to see you here,” she said.

H
e knew that he’d completely thrown her. He could also see that she was unsure of what to say, and she kept anxiously looking around for Claire. He guessed that she was hoping that Claire’s appearance, would give her the well needed excuse that he felt sure that she was looking for to be on her way.

“Claire’s not coming
,” he said making her look at him with even more surprise than before.

“How do you know I’m meeting Claire
?” She asked at the same time as being jostled by a harassed looking business man.

“Do you
want to move somewhere quieter?” Matt asked; “and then maybe I can explain.”

“Okay
,” Charlie said. Yet no sooner had she spoken than she was jostled again. This time though by a couple of tourists wearing I love the London Dungeons
T-shirts. Matt laughed and Charlie rolled her eyes and said; “tourists!” She then smiled and asked; “pub or coffee shop?”

“I’ve been sat in a pub around the corner most of the afternoon. Want to head there
?” He asked.

“Okay
,” she said again.

Matt led the way
, but as they walked there wasn’t any conversation between them and he couldn’t help thinking that their encounter was already off to a bad start.

“Drink
,” he said once they were inside the pub and they were stood at the bar.

She nodded and said; “I
’ll have a white wine spritzer. Soda…”

“Water not lemonade
,” Matt finished for her smiling. He knew what she drank.

“Back again
?” The barman asked him, and Matt nodded and smiled and said to Charlie; “want to grab a seat and I’ll bring them over.”

She nodded again
, and then walked over to the table that he’d just indicated to with a tilt of his head. He followed her with his eyes until she sat down, and then he turned his attention back to the barman and ordered the drinks.

He sat down in front of her and put the drinks down. Charlie sipped hers, but looked at him cautiously as she did.

“So, which question do you want me to answer first?” He asked trying to give her the cheekiest smile that he could muster, which he knew had worked because she smiled straight back at him.

“Where’s Claire
?” She asked still smiling.

“Okay
,” he said; “well that I actually don’t know, but I do know that she asked you to leave work at five. I spoke to her yesterday and saw her earlier, but it was always the plan that I’d be meeting you from work.”

“Since when did you and Claire plan anything, or even chat for that matter
?” She asked him quizzically.

“Yeah, we haven’t exactly been the best of friends over the years have we
?” He asked.

“You think
?” Charlie asked sarcastically.

“No, but then neither do you apparently
?” He asked deliberately trying to sound mystified by this.

He saw Charlie start to panic and he knew that he’d caught her off guard, but he felt guilty for playing with her like this and he decided to tell her right away that he knew about her memory.

“I know that you’ve got your memory back,” he said.

“What
?” She asked clearly trying to feign confusion but looking as guilty as sin as she did.

“Let’s just say that your best friend and my best friend are both useless at keeping secrets
,” he said smiling if only to try and lighten the moment.

“When did you find out
?” She asked, but she was looking at him so guiltily that he was starting to feel guilty for making her look at him this way.

“I found out on Saturday
,” he said.

Charlie looked lost for words, and the awkwardness
and tension between them continued to mount. Matt was actually starting to think that their silences were becoming audible.

“I’m not angry
or upset with you,” he said reaching out to touch her hand.

She looked from his hand, which he’d put on top of hers, to his face where she met his eyes head on.
“I didn’t want you to know,” she said sounding apologetic.

“I know
,” he said.