On a Falling Tide by Georgia Hill

Author:Georgia Hill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BLKDOG Publishing
Published: 2020-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 34

T

hey woke late the following morning and only came to after the teapot had been emptied twice.

‘Remind me never to drink again,’ Charity moaned as she gathered enough strength to drag the kitchen curtains apart.

‘Jesus, why does the sun have to be so bright.’ Louisa shielded her eyes from the glare of the morning.

Charity laughed. ‘Do you think we’re getting old?’

‘Out of practise more like. Any more tea in that pot?’

‘I’ll make a new one.’

Louisa yawned, showing her perfect, white teeth. ‘It was good to see you enjoying yourself, Chas. Been too long.’

Charity concentrated on refilling the kettle and putting it back on its stand before replying. ‘It’s done me good seeing you. ‘Think it was all getting a bit claustrophobic down here.’

Louisa nodded. ‘Lot to deal with, girlfriend. Surprised we didn’t bump into your Matt last night. Lyme doesn’t seem a very big place. Maybe he doesn’t go out drinking on a Thursday night?’

‘Maybe. He lives in Beaumouth though, so it’s not that surprising.’ Charity had been half disappointed, half relieved not to bump into Matt and Saskia and their friends last night. She’d made sure they avoided The Anchor and had drunk in the trendier cocktail bar on the seafront. It had been fun, she realised. And she hadn’t had any for a long time. Louisa was right.

‘What you going to do now, babes?’

‘What about?’

‘Well, this Matt bloke and finding out about your - great-great granddad - is it? And all the rest of it. Ah hon, why don’t you leave it? Past is where the past belongs, if you ask me.’

Charity leaned against the kitchen unit, contemplated making toast but decided she couldn’t face eating. She couldn’t face Matt either. It had all been so humiliating. She winced at how she’d set up the house; soft music, candles, clean sheets. All in the hope of seducing him. What a disaster. She was a disaster. She’d been fooling herself. What would a man like Matt see in her?

‘And if you’re going down that, “I hate myself, no one could love me spiral,” you can just about forget it. Did you think I hadn’t guessed?’

Louisa’s voice cut into her thoughts. Charity hadn’t realised her friend was so perceptive. ‘Well, I’m not, am I?’

‘You’re not what?’

‘Lovable.’ Charity scuffed her slippers on the cold kitchen tiles and was aware of sounding childish. She heard an enormous creak from the bench Louisa was sitting on and looked up to see her friend leaning back and staring, astonished.

‘Is that what you think? Is that what you really think?’

Charity had talked this over with the therapist, had mulled it over endlessly in her thoughts but had never admitted as much to her best friend. ‘Well yes.’ The words dragged themselves out from the bottom of her soul.

‘Why the fuck would you think that?’

Charity filled the teapot and brought it over to the tiny kitchen table. She slumped onto a chair and put her head in her hands. ‘Men have never stayed around long. Any relationship got to the point of being serious and then just, oh I don’t know, fizzled out.

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