Broken Truth

by Beth Ashworth

  She pulled out the small chair from under the vanity and sat down. Resting her elbows on top of the unit, she placed her face in her hands and just stared at her reflection.

  “Charlie, come on. Please let me in,” Amelia asked again about an hour later, knocking on the door a little louder this time. “Callum isn’t here, it’s just me.”

  Her face blanched as she began to panic.

  If Callum wasn’t there, then where had he gone off to?

  She worried herself thinking about whether he had decided to leave and come back later this afternoon. The thought that he had just left her in this state hurt her more than their argument earlier today.

  The small chair scraped across the tiled floor as she stood and made her way over to the bathroom door. Releasing the lock, she slowly cracked open the door to find Amelia sitting on the floor in the same position she had been earlier.

  “Thank God,” Amelia smiled, getting to her feet and opening her arms. “You had me worried for a minute there.”

  Charlie shuffled out of the bathroom and straight into her best friend’s arms. “I told him, Mia,” she said quietly.

  “I know...” Amelia replied, breaking back from their hug to look at her face. “God, you look like shit,” she laughed.

  “Thanks.”

  “Right,” Amelia started. “Callum has filled me on everything that happened earlier. You should know that he feels really shitty about what happened between you two. He told me honestly that he didn’t have any clue you felt that way and he takes full responsibility for everything because he knows he has been a dick. He wants to fix things with you, Charlie.”

  “But how can he do that when he isn’t here? You said he wasn’t here,” she said, sitting on the edge of their bed.

  “I’m right here, Baby,” Callum said, appearing in the doorway of the master suite.

  She saw how red and puffy his eyes were and instantly felt guilty. She had put the man that she loved through hell for the past few hours while she was busy putting herself back together in the confines of a locked bathroom.

  “I’m sorry,” she barely whispered.

  “Shush, Baby,” Callum said, sitting on the bed and pulling her close.

  Amelia coughed discreetly. “I’m gonna take off,” she said, hurrying out of the door to give them some privacy.

  “I am so sorry,” Callum said softly into her hair. “I had no idea what you were holding in all this time. I would have tried to fix it if I’d known.”

  “I just kept thinking that things would change,” she admitted.

  “Well they are going to. We need to sort something out that works for both of us because right now it isn’t working for you. I’m going to speak to Jared when I get in the office tomorrow and see if we can sort something out about the phone calls at the weekend.”

  “What about the whole weekday and weekend thing?” she asked him curiously. “Are we going to try and sort something out? I mean, I understand your job is in London and that there isn’t much we can do, but I don’t want to go all week without you.” Charlie started to finger the soft material of the pyjama top Callum was now wearing. “I just wish it was as simple as me quitting my job and moving to London to be near you, but it isn’t possible. I have worked so hard to get to this level that I can’t just up and leave. I will end up back at the bottom of the chain if I get a job anywhere else,” she explained with a sigh.

  She felt Callum’s chest rise and fall rhythmically as she pressed her head against him. She knew that she needed to come up with some sort of solution to the problem.

  “What if I came to London for one night during the week?” she suggested. “I could make that work with my boss. Plus, I haven’t even seen your apartment in Canary Wharf yet, have I?”

  She felt Callum’s chest contract faster. “Let’s just take one step at a time first, hey? I can always try and phone you from the office before I leave to talk to you before you go to bed?” he said raising a questioning eyebrow. “Besides, you wouldn’t want to see my London penthouse anyway. It is a proper bachelor pad,” he chuckled.

  Charlie heard the not so subtle signs of awkwardness in his laugh. Choosing to ignore it, she smiled happily into his chest. “I’d like that.”

  She was pleased that they were finally making progress towards a resolution.

  Twelve

  “So… Amelia told me you went slightly cray-cray this weekend?” Xavier said, handing her a pile of folded jeans.

  “Well, Amelia has a bloody big mouth,” she replied, taking the jeans from him and putting them on the empty shelf behind.

  “Don’t be like that, Charlie. You know she is really worried about you and only wants me to keep an eye out to see how you get on.”

  “But I don’t need looking out for,” she mumbled, her shoulders sagging on a sigh. “It was a personal matter between the two of us.”

  Charlie and Xavier continued with the mundane task of folding and stacking the many pairs of jeans that had just been delivered. Sitting in their own little bubble in the corner of the shop, they let their other colleagues handle the rush of customers continuously stampeding through the door.

  For a Monday morning they were extremely busy. Their boss, Imogen, had asked some of the weekend staff to rally around and help out, which Charlie and Xavier were now working to their advantage. Only attending to their own appointments, they made sure to leave any off the street clients in the capable hands of their other colleagues, enabling them some free time to gossip for a while.

  “I fancy going out tonight. Are you up for it?” Xavier asked, passing her another stack of jeans. “I just want to have some drinks and chill out a little.”

  “Thanks,” she said, taking the pile of clothes from him. Placing them on an empty shelf behind, she turned back towards Xavier. “And I’m not sure about tonight,” she answered honestly. “I’m expecting a phone call from Callum, so I don’t want to be out and miss it.”

  “You boring cow,” he whined, rolling up a nearby T-Shirt and throwing at her head. “You know you’ll have fun out on Canal Street,” he continued to pester.

  “I know, but like I said... I need to be home for when Callum rings,” she said, throwing the crumpled T-Shirt off to the side.

  “If... Callum rings.”

  “He will.”

  “Well, what’s stopped him from phoning you during the week for the past fifteen months, hey?” Xavier challenged, his eyes flashing wide.

  Charlie’s jaw dropped and her nostrils suddenly flared as she stared at him.

  “Why are you being such an arse?” she spat.

  “Because I love you and I don’t want you to turn into a fucking hermit. I can just see it now, you’re going to rush home every night and sit by the phone waiting for lover boy to call. Newsflash, Charlie, it isn’t going to happen! He won’t call you!” Xavier shouted, drawing attention from various customers and staff members around the shop.

  Not really caring whose attention they had caught, Charlie simply dropped the pair of jeans she was holding onto the large pile of crumpled clothes between them. “Thanks, Avi. Thanks for being such a shitty friend right now,” she muttered.

  “Oh dear... Do we have trouble in paradise?” a voice spoke from behind.

  Sucking in a large breath, Charlie visibly cringed.

  “Not so much trouble in paradise,” Xavier corrected. “It sounds more like a sodding tsunami.”

  “Xavier!” Charlie snapped. “Shut your mouth!”

  He leaned forward until they were both nose to nose and she could feel his breath blowing against her face.

  “Don’t talk to me like that in front of a client,” he hissed.

  “Fucking shut it then,” she whispered.

  “Ahem!”

  Spinning around on the spot, Charlie forced a smile.

  “Annabelle,” she greeted, leaning forward to kiss her on each cheek. “You’re here early aren’t you? I thought I only saw you two weeks ago?”
<
br />   Placing her sunglasses on top of her head, Annabelle tossed her hair a little too dramatically for Charlie’s liking. “An old friend unexpectedly invited me to dinner tonight, so I need something fabulous to wear. I know I haven’t booked an appointment, but I assumed this wouldn’t be a problem,” she said, sweetly fluttering her eyelashes.

  “Well, as I’m sure you can appreci-”

  “After all,” Annabelle continued, cutting her off mid sentence. “I am one of the most prestigious clients on your books. So by default you have to ensure my needs are met. Yes?”

  The more Annabelle talked, the more Charlie hated her. Her day was already going to shit following her conversation with Xavier and it now looked to be getting worse since Annabelle had just walked in.

  “Right, let’s see what I can do,” Charlie said rubbing her hands together. “Are we after short and flirty or long and alluring?”

  “I’m thinking short and flirty for a change,” Annabelle replied.

  Nodding, Charlie led Annabelle towards the newest selection of cocktail dresses that they had put out earlier this morning. She hoped that she could pull another miracle out of the bag like last week.

  “What about this?” Charlie asked, holding up a short red mini dress with a cut out back.

  Annabelle grimaced and dismissed the dress with a simple shake of her head.

  Hanging the dress back in place, Charlie continued to peruse the choices. After a few disappointing pulls, her eyes landed on a short, floaty ensemble in a deep purple colour. The fitted bustier top was adorned with small purple sequins that caught the light from each angle, before flowing stylishly into a short chiffon skirt of a lighter shade.

  “Annabelle?” Charlie called as she pulled the dress from the rack and held it up.

  “That’s it!” Clapping her hands together excitedly, Annabelle gestured towards the fitting rooms. “I love it,” she squealed as she tried on the dress.

  “That’s great,” Charlie replied, looking at her nails. She really couldn’t care less if the dress looked good on her or not. Either way, she was going to lie through her teeth, so that she could get Annabelle out of the door.

  “So... I couldn’t help but overhear that you have got man trouble at the moment?”

  Charlie rolled her eyes knowing that she was totally going to kill Xavier. Out of all the clients possible, he had to drop the biggest information bomb in front of Annabelle. The woman lived for hearing gossip and the sordid details from other people’s relationships.

  “No, no, no,” Charlie brushed off quickly. “Xavier just had the wrong end of the stick earlier.”

  “If you say so,” Annabelle replied, not entirely convinced she was telling the truth. “I’d hate to hear of you having trouble with that man of yours. I heard through the grapevine that he is quite a catch.”

  “I’m sorry?” Charlie asked, pretending to sound confused. She was interested to see if Annabelle would put her money where her mouth was and actually confess what she knew. Clearly she had been doing some digging behind the scenes and found out some information about her.

  Annabelle opened the door to the fitting room and looked Charlie straight in the eyes. There was something about the way she looked at her that had Charlie feeling immediately uncomfortable.

  “Mr Callum Ellis,” she replied smugly. “The multi-millionaire property developer who happens to be devilishly handsome and courting a certain Miss Charlotte Harris.”

  “You’ve done your homework,” Charlie said with a nod.

  Annabelle’s gaze intensified. “Indeed, I have,” she replied.

  Slipping on a pair of cotton sleep shorts and a vest top, Charlie pulled back the covers and hopped into bed. Reaching over to the bedside table, she picked up her glasses and put them on. Having taken out her contact lenses earlier, she wanted to make sure she could actually see her phone when Callum called.

  She flicked through the applications on her phone looking for something to pass the time. Finally landing on her e-reader, Charlie settled herself under the covers, ready to lose herself in the world of erotic fiction.

  Picking up where she last left off, Charlie came straight into the book at the start of a sex scene. She was reading about a young adult girl who had fallen in love with her best friend’s brother. It was pure, scandalous filth which she always loved.

  Squeezing her eyes tightly closed, a small gasp left Gemma’s lips as Wayne ran his tongue across her damp and sensitive flesh. She whimpered loudly and let her head fall back as a feeling of complete ecstasy wracked and tortured her body almost to the point of agony.

  Charlie slowly slid her hand under the covers towards the waistband of her shorts as she continued to keep reading.

  Latching his mouth to her clit, Wayne skilfully worked Gemma up to the crest of her orgasm. Between soft licks and forceful sucks, she could feel the pressure building steadily between her legs.

  Pushing her hand inside of her shorts, Charlie lightly brushed her fingertips over her hot, quivering opening. A rush of heat flooded her cheeks as her fingers glided effortlessly inside of her body. She felt her inner walls spasm deliciously around her fingers as she gently massaged herself internally.

  Picturing Callum’s taut and toned body hovering above her, Charlie withdrew her hand and slowly traced a pattern over her labia up to her clit. Applying a little pressure with her fingertips, she whimpered softly as she gradually started working on the engorged bud of nerves.

  “Oh fuck,” she panted, a shiver sliding down the length of her spine. She was so close to coming she almost couldn’t breathe.

  As she continued to drive herself higher and higher past the point of no return, she vaguely registered a muffled buzzing noise coming from somewhere on the bed beside her. It stopped after a minute before suddenly starting up again.

  Charlie froze, unsure of what to do.

  The intense feeling of her building orgasm dropped a little, forcing Charlie to continue lightly tracing her swollen clit while she weighed up her options. Having spent so much time building herself up, she really didn’t want to lose all of the hard work she had done.

  Fumbling for her mobile as it started to buzz for the third time, she pressed it to her ear. “Hi, Baby,” she purred seductively into the receiver.

  “Hey, where have you been my beautiful girl? I tried your phone like three times?” She heard the sliver of curiosity evident in Callum’s tone.

  Charlie tried to swallow a gasp as her fingers found her opening again.

  “Baby?”

  She murmured an incoherent response after inserting a third finger inside her body, taking pleasure in the way her vagina pulsed wonderfully around her hand.

  “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Callum replied huskily. “Are we skipping straight to the phone sex already, Baby?”

  Still continuing to masturbate, Charlie exhaled a long breath in response.

  “Are you touching yourself?” he asked, dropping the tone of his voice to a low and sensual growl.

  “Yes,” she replied breathlessly.

  Charlie heard a shuffling sound on the other end of the line followed by the unmistakeable sound of a zipper.

  “Are you wet?” he asked on a seductive groan, sending a flush of new heat between her already soaked thighs.

  “Oh... Fuck...” she shuddered. “I-I-I am so fucking close.”

  Callum’s beastly grunt had her almost to the point of orgasm within seconds. She could hear the sound of his hand pumping furiously in time to her breathy moans and whimpers. She wanted to hold on for as long as possible for him.

  “Shit,” he groaned. “Baby, are you ready?”

  Charlie didn’t need to be told twice. She immediately stopped resisting her orgasm and allowed the surge of fire to explode gloriously throughout her body for a number of toe curling minutes.

  Coming down from the height of her orgasm, she smiled happily as her body continued to twinge with satisfying aftershocks.

  “Shit,” Callum
groaned. “Were you masturbating before I even called you? What were you doing to prompt that?”

  “Reading,” she said simply.

  “I might ask for a bedtime story every night,” he laughed.

  Charlie looked over at the alarm clock and saw that it was almost approaching midnight. “How long have you been home?” she asked as a yawn escaped her lips.

  “Only about an hour - I think. Jared and I had to get a presentation finished for the conference tomorrow,” he said.

  Charlie yawned again.

  “Go to sleep, Baby,” he suggested.

  “No, I want to stay awake and talk to you.”

  “I want to talk to you too, but you’re tired. Just go to sleep and I will try and steal sometime away to call you before I come home on Friday.”

  Home.

  Just the simple word had butterflies erupting in her tummy. He thought of Manchester with her as home.

  “Goodnight. I love you, Callum.”

  “Night, Baby. I love you too,” he said disconnecting the call.

  Thirteen

  “Bitch, when are we ordering pizza?” Lucy hollered from her seat in the living room. “I’m so hungry I could eat a cow.”

  Picking up her glass of wine, Charlie walked over to where the takeout menus were stuck to the front of the fridge with a magnet. “You sure you want pizza and not anything else?” she shouted across the open space of the apartment.

  Although Charlie could only see the back of their heads from where she stood in the kitchen, she could clearly hear the topic of takeout being discussed.

  “We still want pizza!” She heard both Lucy and Amelia shout in unison a few moments later.

  Unclipping the stack of menus from the fridge, Charlie flicked through the pile until she found the one she was looking for. Heading back towards the living room, she was armed with her wine, takeout menu and phone.

  “I’m so hungry,” Amelia groaned, snatching the menu out of her hand before she sat down. “Are we getting one each or sharing two?”