Splintered Memory (36 page)

“One year above you at school
remember? So if we’re thirty six, then that makes you thirty five,” Rich said squeezing Claire’s shoulders on his way past her to Matt who he clapped on the shoulder and then shook hands with. “Many happy returns mate.”

“Cheers
,” Matt said as he followed Rich and Claire inside.

“Happy birthday
,” everyone said in unison as Matt walked into the kitchen.

Matt smile
d and nodded his head in thanks. He then shook hands with Adam who’d just put his arm around Claire’s shoulders. Then with Nick, who was stood by a woman that Matt didn’t recognise but who he assumed was the new girlfriend. Then he walked over to Ben, who was sat on a stool next to Rach. She leant up and kissed him, and Ben clapped him on the back. He finally reached Bex, who he hugged and said a quick thank you to before pecking her on the cheek.

“Where’s Charlie
?” Nick asked him.

“She had to work late so she’s still in London,
” he said as positively as he could; “but she’s coming up later.”

“That i
s such a lie!” Charlie said from behind Rich, who was stood in the doorway from the kitchen to the entrance hall grinning widely.

Matt whirled
around and his face lit up, which in turn made everyone smile. Charlie included.

“Gotcha
,” she said squeezing past Rich and walking over to him.

He wr
apped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, kissing her as he did. He’d meant to give her just a quick kiss, but there was something about the moment. His relief and delight at seeing her had made him kiss her as passionately as he would’ve done if they’d been alone.

“Alright mat
e,” Nick said on behalf of everyone in the room; “you’re in company!”

Charlie pulled away first
, and she looked around at everyone sheepishly. Matt didn’t care though, and he pulled Charlie back against him so that her back was pressed up against his front. He wrapped his right arm around her waist, and he kissed the side of her neck.

“It’s my birthday
,” he said smiling.

Everyone, with the exception of Charlie, Adam, and Nick’s new girlfriend Mel, looked at him gooey eyed and smiled endearingly.

“What?” He asked looking puzzled by their expressions.

They all shook their heads at him
, but they were all still smiling.

“Seriously, what
,” he said again feeling self-conscious now.

“Nothing
mate,” Rich said; “come on let’s eat.”

As
everyone filed out of the kitchen towards the dining room, Charlie turned to face Matt. She put her hands on either side of his face and smiled.

“Happy birthday
,” she said kissing him lightly on the lips. “Surprised?” She asked.

“Very
,” he said pulling her more tightly to him.

“Nice surprise
?” She asked whilst searching his face.

“Absolutely
,” he said.

“Good. I’m glad you like surprises
,” she said before kissing him again.

Matt pulled back from her kiss and looked at her curiously, wond
ering what she’d meant by that. Yet before he could ask her, or scrutinise her face properly, she took his hand in hers and said; “come on dinner’s up.”

***

It’d been one of the best nights that he’d had in a really long time. Everyone was on top form and the banter was in full flow, and just as always Charlie was at the very centre of it. She was causing the most trouble, and making the most laughs. Yet everyone was also being careful not to exclude Adam and Mel, and Matt noticed that both Claire and Charlie had gone out of their way to talk to her as much as possible.

After lots of food
, and even more wine, they all moved into Rich and Bex’s living room to carry on drinking, chatting, and laughing, but as they all sat down Matt once again found himself being stared at by his friends.

“Seriously, you lot are creeping me out. What’s with all the staring at me tonight
?” He asked.

No one spoke
, but Matt continued to look at them for an answer.

“It’s got something to do with the way you were stood before, and the way you’re sat now
,” Mel said with a slight shrug of her shoulders to indicate that she didn’t understand it either.

Matt quickly checked that his flies were done up and then
he curiously glanced at Charlie, who was as always sat leaning against his knee with her arm looped loosely around it. She looked back at him, and he could see that she looked just as bemused as he was.

“The way I sit and stand
?” He asked looking from Mel to Rich and then across at Claire.

“It’s both of you
,” Bex said sighing as she said it. “You both always had these little quirks that we’ve all noticed over the years. Like the way you sit and stand with each other for example. But after the accident you were different with each other, and when…”

“B
ex,” Rich said interrupting her and shaking his head to indicate that she’d said enough.

“And when
?” Charlie asked looking from Bex to Claire who she knew would tell them the truth.

“Matt was with Emily
,” Claire said to Charlie; “he apparently wasn’t the same way with her.”

Matt felt his
whole body tense, and the atmosphere in the room became noticeably uncomfortable. He waited for Charlie’s reaction, and he wished that she hadn’t been prompted to think about him and Emily in the company of their friends. Actually, he wished that she hadn’t been prompted to think about him having been with Emily at all.

“So
hold on a minute, let me see if I’ve got this straight? You lot go all go gooey eyed because he wraps his arm around me, and I lean on his knee?” She asked checking that she’d understood correctly. “And what, you’ve all decided that these two actions are the indicators of love or something?” She asked before starting to laugh.

The tension in the room dissipated immediately as everyone started to laugh with her, and Matt kissed her on the cheek and she smiled at him.

“More wine?” Rich asked, and the room as a whole concurred.

As everyone’s glasses were being topped up, Charlie put her
s on the floor by Claire.

“You’re being lame tonight Charlie. You’ve sipped at your wine all night, and now you’re not having anymore. Have you failed to remember how much you can put away
?” Rich asked reaching down for her glass to fill it up anyway.

Matt noticed that Charlie looked embarrassed as everyone laughed, and when she did take the glass back from Rich she looked at Claire.

“Bathroom,” Claire said straightaway.

Charlie nodded and stood up quickly, putting the full untouched glass of wine down on the floor. “Anyone else
,” Charlie said smiling at the other girls, but recognisable to him alone was the fact that it was a false smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

None of the other girls went though and the conversation resumed, but as he took a drink from his own re-filled
wine glass he suddenly realised what was going on with Charlie.

“Back in a sec
,” he said to everyone as he got up to leave the living room.

Matt had noticed that Charlie hadn’t been drinking much, but he’d assumed that she was tired. He’d also been enjoying the night so much that he hadn’t really given it much thought, until
that was he’d seen her pass off a full glass of wine to Adam when they’d been coming into the living room. Yet before he’d had a chance to query this with her, he’d gotten side tracked by all the staring at him and Charlie.

As he went upstairs to Rich and Bex’s bathroom he felt a twinge of jealousy that Adam had known before he did, but
then he supposed that he was grateful to him for helping Charlie not to drink tonight.

He tapped on the bathroom door, and when Charlie opened it he saw that she looked upset.

“Aren’t we supposed to be happy about this?” He asked her before smiling at her.

“You know
?” Claire asked him from inside the bathroom.

“Yeah
I managed to put a couple of clues together,” he said rolling his eyes at her.

“Are you angry with me for not telling you
?” Charlie asked.

“No, but I’ll assume this is what the surprise comment was about earlier
?” He asked before smiling at her again.

She nodded. “I wanted to tell you at home. So I asked Claire and Adam to help me with the wine situation tonight
,” she said sounding like she was unveiling a major conspiracy plot to him.

“I guessed as much when I saw you pass off a full glass of wine to Adam
,” he said.

“I’ll see you back downstairs
,” Claire said. But neither Matt nor Charlie looked or said anything to her as she passed by them.

“How far along are you
?” Matt asked.

“Ten weeks
,” Charlie said.

“Ten
,” he said sounding shocked.

“I think it dates back to when I was off work with gastroenteritis
,” she said smiling wickedly.

“Come on
,” he said taking her hand and leading her downstairs. “Wait here,” he said to her at the bottom of the stairs as he walked over to the living room and popped his head round door and said to the others; “Charlie and I have gotta pop out. We’ll be back in about twenty minutes.”

“You’re optimistic. We all saw the kiss earlier. I reckon five minutes is far more realistic
,” Rich said. To which everyone laughed.

“Come on
,” Matt said to Charlie still smiling at Rich’s quip as he led her from the house.

They walked hand in hand,
but as they past their house Charlie asked; “aren’t we going home?”

“Why does everyone assume I’ve taken you off for sex
?” He asked shaking his head and smiling.

Charlie didn’t reply, but he felt her grip on his hand tighten as she recognised where they were heading and he looked across at her.

“Do you think there’s something wrong?” Charlie asked anxiously.

He stopped walking, feeling guilty that he’d obviously scared her, and he pulled her into a hug and said; “no, I just want to see our baby.”

A
s they got closer to the hospital he could feel the excitement bubbling up inside of him, and he knew that he was all but dragging Charlie along in his stead.

When t
hey arrived he found an empty exam room, and he told her to lie down on the bed. He went off to get a monitor so that he could do an ultrasound, and when he returned he saw that Charlie was lying down just like he’d told her to. Yet he could see that she looked nervous. He walked over to her and kissed her on the lips, and said; “you’re going to need to lift up your shirt, and undo your jeans.”

Matt
watched Charlie lift up her shirt to reveal her beautiful flat stomach, but he could also see her hands fumbling with the button and zip on her jeans because her hands were shaking.

“Here
,” he said undoing her jeans for her before asking; “what?” He could feel her eyes on him.

“I’m just curious. Do you
help all your patients undress?” She asked him cheekily.

“Only the hot ones
,” he said winking at her. He was also relieved to see her smile and relax a little. “This is going to be cold,” he said squeezing gel onto her abdomen.

He
focused on the ultrasound and said; “okay, let’s see how good your doctor is shall we?”

“
You or my other doctor,” Charlie said clearly confused.

“Both
,” Matt said smiling but also concentrating at the same time. “Okay it looks like your other doctor was right. You are, by the looks of things, ten weeks along. Your foetus looks fine,” he said sounding relieved and turning back to Charlie who he saw looked close to tears. “What’s wrong?” He asked and then saying reassuringly; “its fine, I promise.”

“
Its
fine?
Your
foetus looks fine? Not the baby or better yet
our
baby?” She asked, and he watched helplessly as she started to cry.

“
I’m sorry,” he said smiling at her reaction and knowing that it was just her hormones. “I was concentrating on what I was doing, and not on what I was saying. Ultrasounds aren’t that clear this early on. Of course I meant
our
baby. I can’t wait for us to be able to hold
our
baby.”

He kissed her
on the lips, wiped her abdomen, and then kissed her there too. Yet the door of the exam room suddenly opened, and they saw Emily. She looked from Matt and Charlie to the image that was still on the screen, and she turned on her heel and walked away.