Broken Truth

by Beth Ashworth

  “So, who wants to hear a joke?” Jack casually interrupted, attempting to diffuse the awkward atmosphere.

  “I need to get back on the happy train. Those two mood wreckers just put a downer on the party,” Lucy grumbled, throwing back at least half of the champagne in her glass. “C’mon little Jacky, hit us with a joke.”

  Charlie eventually pulled her stare away from Callum whose face looked more annoyed than confused. “I’m all ears,” she smiled in Jack’s direction.

  “Okay,” he replied, clearing his throat. “What did the egg say to the pot of boiling water?”

  “What?”

  “It's going to take me a minute to get hard; I just got laid this morning,” Jack answered before cackling at his own joke.

  Amelia scoffed as she lightly hit Jack on his chest. “Wow, Baby. That joke was the biggest load of shit I’ve ever heard!”

  “I’ve got to agree, Mate. That was pretty bad,” Ollie said, shaking his head.

  “But look,” Jack said, gesturing around the table. “Everyone has a smile on their face.”

  “Whatever,” Amelia dismissed as she drunkenly got to her feet. “Girls, let’s go and dance.”

  Charlie helped both Amelia and Lucy downstairs to where the makeshift dance floor had been setup. On a Saturday night Zachary’s lost its usual charm of a relaxing and sophisticated social hangout. Instead the lounge was now a large open space, packed to the rafters with young, sweaty bodies grinding erotically to the heavy bass pounding through the multiple speakers around the room.

  “Let’s get some shots!” Amelia yelled over the music as she weaved them through the crowds of people. Placing her clutch on the bar she opened it and slapped a ten pound note into the waiting bartender’s hand. “Can we have three shots of Sambuca please?” she asked wiggling three fingers at him.

  The bartender winked at them and placed three empty shot glasses on the bar. Turning around to put the money in the till, he grabbed the bottle of spirit from the side and then started filling the glasses. “Enjoy,” he smiled once finished.

  “Right,” Amelia said, pushing a shot towards both Charlie and Lucy. “Here’s to a very messy night!”

  Charlie nodded and knocked her shot back, enjoying the way the sickly sweet taste of aniseed laced the back of her throat.

  “Another,” Lucy croaked, slamming her empty glass onto the bar.

  Having only had one glass of champagne and a shot of Sambuca, Charlie was more alert than the others in the group. Looking at Lucy and Amelia, she could tell that they had drunk far too much already.

  “Do you not want to pace yourselves and perhaps get some water?” she suggested, watching as Lucy stumbled in her heels.

  “No!” Amelia shouted, gesturing for the previous bartender that had served them. “Three shots of Tequila please,” she asked, wiggling three fingers at him once again.

  Acknowledging her order and accepting the ten pound note, the bartender lined up a further three shot glasses on the bar. After pouring the spirit, he placed a small tray with packets of salt and three wedges of lemon.

  “If you insist,” Charlie shrugged as she licked her hand and sprinkled out the contents of the small salt packet. Picking up the lemon wedge and her shot of Tequila, she quickly licked the salt from her hand and knocked the shot back. Feeling the instant burn of the alcohol, she pushed the wedge of lemon into her mouth and shuddered from its bitter taste.

  “More,” Amelia demanded again as she opened her clutch and placed more money onto the bar.

  After a multitude of shots and mixers, Charlie lifted her final drink for the time being to her lips - A double Jägerbomb.

  Drinking it back as quick as she could, she felt the alcohol’s effect instantly on her already tipsy self. Gripping the side of the bar in support, she squinted through her contacts as the room fuzzed in and out of focus.

  “Nowww... off to the dance floor!” Lucy announced as she drunkenly made her way towards the sea of hyped up bodies.

  Fuelled by a sudden rush of alcohol into her system, Charlie wobbled behind obediently until the three of them had squeezed into the centre of the room.

  Sticking together, they started to dance along to the fast paced dance track that poured from the speakers. Plastering a smile to her face, Charlie laughed as a dance battle broke out between the three of them. She watched and cheered as both Amelia and Lucy competitively gave it their best shot.

  After cracking her knuckles and rolling her neck in mock preparation, Charlie held up one finger as she heard the current song coming to an end. As the tracks changed, Charlie’s face immediately lit up at the familiar sound of an alarm.

  “I love this song!” she screeched as the start of Nicki Minaj’s Pound the Alarm boomed through her ears.

  Letting the music flow through her body, Charlie attempted her best Nicki Minaj booty shake much to the squeals of delight from her friends.

  “Damn, girl!” Lucy complimented, trying to copy her move. “That shit was hot!”

  “Too hot,” Callum grumbled from behind as he snaked a protective arm around her stomach and nuzzled the side of her neck.

  Charlie sniffed in disgust at the strong smell of whiskey on his breath and tried to pull out of his grasp. Clearly pissed at her less than keen response, Callum held her tighter against him.

  “Every male within a one metre radius of you currently has a hard-on the size of my fucking building after you shook your arse in this little black dress.” He growled harshly into her ear as his other hand tried to pull down the hem of her dress in an attempt at covering her legs.

  “You’re drunk!” Charlie snapped as she squirmed against his hold. She pushed back forcefully into his chest, making him release her with a winded grunt. Placing her hands on her hips, she looked at him furiously. “You’ve had way too much to drink. I thought you knew your limits better than this,” she spat.

  “And what about you, Princess?” Callum shot back, watching Charlie wobble precariously in her shoes. “You can’t even stand still without wobbling all over the place. I watched you knocking back shot after shot earlier on, so I figured I’d get in the mood as well. I bought the lads and me a couple of whiskeys and we had a laugh. I look out onto the dance floor and see my girlfriend and her friends dancing like a group of hookers in a sea of men. Of course I’m naturally going to want to protect what’s mine.”

  Charlie recoiled at Callum’s final words.

  Mine.

  This pissed her off – immensely. Considering the source of her earlier anger had initiated from his lack of consideration for her feelings, for him to now say that he was protecting his property, infuriated her.

  Turning towards her best friends, she saw the nervous looks on both of their faces. Even with the copious amounts of alcohol coursing through their systems they could tell when something was amiss.

  “Go on,” Amelia waved. “But call us if you need anything.”

  Giving them both a quick hug, she turned towards Callum and pointed towards the exit. They needed to talk, but not in the middle of a public bar. She needed to get home while the confidence of the alcohol was still with her. It was about time she let Callum know exactly how she was feeling.

  Eight

  “Not having a good day then?” Amelia asked picking up her cup of coffee from the table.

  “I’m having the day from hell,” she sighed.

  When Charlie had called Amelia earlier this morning during a meltdown, she immediately asked to meet her for lunch so that she could get her away from the boutique.

  So far Charlie’s Monday had been traumatic to say the least. Xavier had called in sick to work after supposedly suffering from a sickness bug. She knew this was all lies though as one quick look at his Facebook profile had told her that he was a lying shit and more than likely suffering from a hangover after spending last night crawling around Canal Street in Manchester’s infamous gay village.

  Now instead of hearing his witty banter this morn
ing to cheer her up after the train wreck of a weekend she had endured, she was now tasked with attending to her own clients as well as somehow squeezing in all of his appointments.

  Her boss, Imogen, had been less than sympathetic with the situation. Regardless of how impossibly busy Charlie already was, her boss would not let them reschedule appointments, claiming it was unprofessional and too short notice to do so.

  Picking up her toasted sandwich, Charlie took a bite and sighed blissfully. In her opinion, the little coffee shop around the corner from work served the best sandwiches in the world. If she wasn’t so conscious of her waistline she would eat the calorie laden carbs all day.

  “I had a really shitty weekend,” Charlie said, wiping some crumbs from her lip.

  Amelia took a sip of her coffee. “Come on, what happened on Saturday night? Lucy and I were really worried about you. I’m not sure what happened, but you kind of just flipped out at Callum in front of like everyone and then you both disappeared.” Amelia tapped her fingers against the side of her takeaway coffee cup. “Oh and I was expecting some kind of text or communication from you after you got back so that we knew you were ok. But no, I heard jack shit and neither did Lucy. Don’t do that to us again. You were both really drunk and majorly pissed at each other. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going to happen to you,” she scolded.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You’d better be! Now tell me what happened and why you were so angry?”

  Charlie placed her empty plate on the small side table and got herself comfortable. “Well, it started off on Saturday morning. He woke me up to tell me that he had to go on a conference call with Jared at nine. It was something about a new development with one of their investors on a project.”

  “And that pissed you off?” Amelia asked with amazement.

  “Well, yeah,” she replied. “It did, because I hardly see him as it is and then for him to arrange a conference call on one of the two days a week I get with him? It just annoyed me. But anyway, he went off to this conference call that was only supposed to last an hour or two at most, but it ended up taking like all day! I didn’t go out or anything because I kept thinking he would be finished. I just sat in bed watching TV and feeling sorry for myself,” Charlie said quietly as she fidgeted uncomfortably with her hands. “I’m getting used to it now I guess. What was the occasional phone call every now and then is turning to a weekend of nonstop working every week. But I guess I knew what I signed up for when we started, didn’t I?” She felt her eyes slowly beginning to swell with tears.

  “Oh, Charlie,” Amelia sighed. “Why didn’t you call one of us?”

  “And say what? I’m in love with a man that doesn’t spend barely any time with me?” she scoffed, wiping away at the single tear that rolled down her cheek. She felt silly for crying because she knew that she had the perfect opportunity to confront him on Saturday night and she had blown it.

  “How long has this been going on, Charlie?”

  “He has always had one or two phone calls over the course of the weekend. That is and isn’t the problem though. I don’t mind those so much because they are only usually about twenty minutes. However, in the past few months the phone calls have been increasing and now the lengths are getting longer.” Charlie looked at her best friend with tear streaked cheeks. “I was angry with him on Saturday because he didn’t care. Mia, he didn’t care that he left me alone all day after I hadn’t seen him since Sunday. He didn’t care that I would feel hurt and upset.” She shakily swallowed the pooling saliva in her throat. “I had the perfect opportunity to call him out on Saturday night. I had it all planned out in my head. Once we got home I was going to confess exactly how I was feeling and what we needed to work on.”

  “But...” Amelia prompted. “Why didn’t you get the chance to talk on Saturday?”

  “Because...” Charlie paused, trying to think how best to word her answer. “Well we walked into the apartment after we left Zachary’s and we headed straight upstairs. I was going to get ready for bed and then say my piece, so after I took my contacts out and got changed and stuff, I walked back into the bedroom and Callum was sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. To say I wasn’t suddenly nervous was an understatement. My stomach felt like it was going to drop out of my lower half any second.”

  “What did he say?” Amelia took Charlie’s hand reassuringly.

  “He looked up when he heard me coming into the room. His face... Oh God, Mia,” Charlie stuttered. “He looked so helpless and broken. We have never spoken to each other like that. Ever. I could see how much it had hurt him. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t put that on him as well.”

  Fresh tears erupted and streamed helplessly down Charlie’s face. Picking up a napkin from the table, she slowly dabbed at the moisture under each eye. “He didn’t say anything at first,” she admitted. “He just held me tightly like he was afraid I was going to go somewhere. It was almost as if he thought that by keeping close contact with me, he knew that I would still be there in the morning. I could tell that was what he was doing and it upset me that I had made him feel that way.”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong, Charlie. Couples fight, it is a natural and healthy part of all relationships. The fact that you went so long was amazing really. And to be honest, I wouldn’t call what you guys had as a fight.”

  “Thanks, Mia,” Charlie smiled as she squeezed her hand.

  “So was that it for Saturday night?”

  “Not entirely.”

  “Spill,” Amelia demanded.

  “Well after he held me for what felt like hours, he kissed the side of my neck and began whispering how sorry he was and how much he loved me. I’m assuming he thought I was asleep at this point, but Mia, he whispered over and over about how he never wants to lose me and how I make his world.”

  “You say that like it is a bad thing?” Amelia replied.

  “It isn’t,” she shook her head. “I mean, what girl doesn’t want to be told by the man she loves that she is his absolute world? His words mean everything to me, but I am just so confused. If I mean everything to him then why do we barely have any contact at all? Surely he would want to spend as much time with me as possible if that were the case.”

  “So you don’t talk during the week?”

  “A little bit, but it’s not enough,” she said. “He usually leaves on Sunday night and then drives back up on Friday evening. We do have the occasional midweek phone call and the odd few texts here and there, but it’s not enough if you know what I mean? I feel like a part-time girlfriend that just fills the void.” Actually hearing the words out loud rather than as thoughts in her head, she realised how crazy her situation actually was. “Oh my God,” she croaked painfully. “That sounds really bad doesn’t it?”

  Amelia swallowed and patted Charlie’s hand lightly. “I can’t believe you haven’t said anything to us. I know there probably isn’t much that we could have done, but we could have at least supported you over the past few months.” She paused and looked at Charlie’s face. “I’m sorry to ask you this, but I need to know for peace of mind. Do you see a future with Callum? I know you love him and he clearly loves you, but is this going to work out in the long run?”

  Taking in Amelia’s words, Charlie remained quiet and allowed the thoughts of a world without Callum to overfill her mind. Suddenly her heart felt heavy and painful in her chest at the thought of a life without him. She knew she was far too deep into this relationship to even think about walking away. Just the thought alone was like a knife to her heart.

  “Charlie?”

  “I love him,” was all she could say. “I love him, Mia. I love him so much that my heart breaks every time he is away from me. If only he knew how much I hurt during those five nights a week when I sleep alone from him. The empty, lonely feeling doesn’t go away until that moment when he is with me again. He means everything to me and without him I don’t feel complete. I just feel so broken right now.”<
br />
  Charlie started to cry softly into her napkin as Amelia looked on with growing concern for her best friend’s emotional state. “Have either of you talked about the future?”

  “No,” she sniffed, wiping her nose with the napkin. “But every time we visit my Mother she always asks him about how long it will be until I’ve got a ring on my finger.”

  “And how does he answer that?”

  “Cleverly,” Charlie said with a half-hearted smile. “He always manages to laugh it off and tell her that we aren’t ready for that kind of commitment. She’s buying it for now, but I know that answer won’t pacify her forever.”

  “Don’t worry,” Amelia said with confidence. “Let’s see what she says to him this weekend at Ben’s birthday party? Hey?”

  “That should be interesting,” Charlie replied.

  “Between the three of us we will work this out. Lucy and I will be here for you always,” Amelia smiled warmly across the table.

  Nine

  “Are you seriously still not talking to me?” Xavier whined for at least the hundredth time that day.

  Charlie tried to hide her smile as she busied herself with the new window display. They had just received a new collection from an up and coming designer that they were showcasing and she had been tasked with making the window look bright and appealing. Luckily for her, they were just approaching July so the style was short and playful.

  “Charlieeeeeeee,” Xavier moaned from behind. “How many times can I say I’m sorry? It’s like Friday for fucks sake and you haven’t spoken to me once all week. I am feeling so unloved and this is not okay!”

  She coughed discreetly in an attempt to disguise her laugh. If only he knew the entertainment he had provided her with over the past few days. This run of the silent treatment had worked out better than she could have ever imagined.