Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Ping!

Ping!

Ping!

Charlie glanced down at her mobile and saw that she had a few new messages from Cleo. Cleo Robert—now Jameson—had been her best friend since high school. She'd say nursery, but they hadn't always loved each other as much as they did now. However, she was more annoying now that she had been in primary.

She opened up the texts and couldn't help but smile. Cleo sure knew how to respond to situations. Even as she read, more texts came in.

- What?

- You saw Benedict Williams?

- I'm sure that you mean in your dreams bcoz I mean hello! Who dsnt dream about the man?

- Wait. You're being serious!

- Omg omg omg omg omg omg!

- Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

- When? Where? How? No. This deserves a phone call!

Even as she read the last text, her phoned buzzed before belting out Happy by Pharrell Williams. What could she do? She loved Despicable Me 2.

"Yes?"

"Don't you dare yes me, you little minx. Details. Now!"

Charlie couldn't help but grin at the demanding tone in her friend's voice. Cleo was a force to be reckoned with and she loved her for it.

"Okay so here's what happened," she started. With them it had always been like this. No wasting time and dragging out stories. Time was of the essence and no one had the patience to wait for a good drama. "I was having my coffee, day-dreaming as usual—"

"What's new?"

Ignoring her comment, she carried on, "And the next thing, I see this child running across the road. Before I could give it a thought, I ran after him. God I was so scared that he would get hit!"

"Naturally. You know, your maternal instincts are so saturated into your bones, I'm shocked that some alpha male hasn't scooped you up to mate with him yet."

"That's disgusting, C. Why would I want to be 'mated' with? I'm not some lioness in heat."

"Au contra. You are so in heat, you had to have a cold shower this morning because of your dream about sexy Mr Williams."

She groaned. "I would hang up on you because your brain is so disturbed that it needs a cleansing but I've missed you so much that I will let you go for now."

"Aw babes, I love you too."

"Hey! No loving anyone but me," a deep voice interrupted, the man's chuckle giving away his amusement.

"Hey Ian. How are you?"

"Why if it isn't the lovely Charlie? I'm just brill. I wake up every morning to this beautiful woman over here," she heard a wet kiss, gross, "and I'm gonna be a dad soon. What more could I want? Ah yes, my love's best friend to find another half of her own! When are you going to bring home a lad for me to interrogate?"

Ian was Cleo's man, and what a man he was—they'd met when Cleo had been on one of her worst moods, stomping through the mall, scowl slapped across her face as she growled about the stupid saleswoman and her stupid not small enough, not long enough sizes and the stupid way that she had been criticizing her.

And that's when she had bumped straight into Ian's chest. How she hadn't seen him would forever remain a mystery. He had caught her, strong arms grabbing her shoulders and steadying her.

"Blimey, didn't see you there lass. You okay?"

And Cleo had been lost. Flirty, confident Cleo had lost all sense of herself and had stood gaping her life away. Granted, Ian was good-looking. Soft brown hair that fell into his twinkling grey eyes and a smile that would melt the knickers off of any girl, but it had to have been the way that he was looking at her that had caught her attention.

He was a mess. His hands had been spattered with paint, long, elegant fingers callused from holding paintbrushes, shirt just as bad, jeans that hugged his thighs and were faded in all the right places. He was an artist and he had looked at Cleo like she was the masterpiece he had been waiting for his entire life.

And then, without even giving an answer, Cleo had grabbed his shirt, pulled him right into her and kissed him, bam, right on the lips.

He had been gobsmacked. A year later, Cleo was a glowing bride in a mermaid gown, floating down the aisle like the fairy that she was. And at twenty-two she was three months pregnant and couldn't be happier. Whirlwind romance that had proven everyone wrong. That had been a lovely three years ago.

Because yes, things like that did happen to real people, just not Charlie.

"Ian, please. If you could clone yourself and bring him over, it would be great. But just darken his hair and make his eyes bluer. Then I'll be good."

Ian barked out a laugh into the phone before saying, "Your girl is barmy, Cleo-bear. Sort her out."

She heard his footsteps recede and said, "Seriously, C, find me one!"

"Hey! You've found yourself one already. One Mr Benedict Williams at your service."

"Oh shut up, C. I want a real person. Someone who will give me sickening nicknames like Charlie-bear and knock me up just by looking at me."

Cleo gave a shout of laughter before replying, "Charlie-bear does not suit you and what. He isn't a real person?"

Charlie grunted. "He's not mine for the taking. And I spoke to him once and that was it."

"You spoke to him? All right. Complete your story right now!"

And so she did. Right down to the last "See you around". Cleo gave all the appropriate responses, gasping, groaning and shrieking when required. She was the perfect listener. She only interrupted once and that was to express horror at Charlie's injuries.

"Are you okay? Do you have a concussion? What did the doctor say? Are you taking your meds? And why didn't you call me as soon as you got home? I would have come to look after you. Jesus, Charlie, I'm your best friend. I need to look after you!"

Charlie waited for her to calm down before replying, "C, you need to breathe. I am fine. The doctor feared a concussion but I was fine once I woke up. My neck and back aches a bit but the painkillers are helping and Angie made sure that I woke up every two hours. So I'm good. And being my best friend does not mean that you are failing if you don't baby me the entire time. I swear that I'm fine. Okay?"

Cleo sighed. "Okay, I believe you. But next time, please don't hesitate to call. Ian won't mind me coming over and I do worry about you. Call me even if it's just for my peace of mind, okay?"

Charlie replied in the affirmative after which Cleo bombarded her with more questions about her day. When she was done, Cleo remained silent for two seconds before exploding.

"Oh my fudging god. Where in all the heavens and earth do these types of incidents even take place? Who is writing this story?"

"I believe we call him God and it's not a story. It's a blip in my life that will glow over the rest of it and I will remember it when I'm seventy with twenty cats and the dreaded mothball smell permeating my home. It's not like I will ever see him again, you know."

She heard Cleo sigh, knowing that she understood.

"So curly black hair and blue-green eyes huh?"

"Oh C! He was the most beautiful baby I have ever laid eyes on. And his smell. I wanted to inhale him!"

Cleo laughed. "You seem more taken in by the child than his father."

"Both, C, both! God, I need a life."

"You have one! Now stop moaning and tell me what he himself smelled like."

"Cleo Jameson! Behave yourself; your husband might hear you. Also...He smelled like mouth-watering kisses and stomach-clenching orgasms."

"That's my girl," Cleo trilled, her laugh echoing out through her room.

"I cannot believe that I just said that!"

"Oh you are such a virgin. It's all right to say things like that you know. Your mama isn't gonna run in and shove a jalapeno down your throat."

"I feel like I need to brush my teeth again, I've spoken so dirty."

"You call that dirty? My god. Then I am going to need to bleach my mouth every time I leave my house because the amount of dirty that Ian and I—"

"Yes, thank you C, for traumatising me with your lovely words."

Cleo laughed again and teased her for a full ten minutes about Benedict before calming down.

"I'm glad that you met him, Charlie. You need something to smile about."

"Aw, but babe, I have you!"

Cleo sighed. "Yes, but I'm not always there am I? Okay listen, before we get all morbid and sad, let me get this over with." She heard Cleo shuffling a bit before the tip-tap of her phone's keyboard filtered though. "Dad just messaged to say that his P.A is leaving on maternity leave next week and it's got to be the worst possible time because he just acquired the contract in Sydney and he's been bombarded with work. He remembered how you helped out those few times when he had to meet with the Chinese ambassador and that time with the Olympics last year. You think you could go in and help out again? He'll need you from tomorrow though because you'll need to be up-to-date with the meetings."

The relief that swept through was instantaneous. "God does love me."

Cleo gave a snort. "Well that wasn't the answer that I had been expecting."

Charlie smiled. "Yes, of course I'll come in! Seven tomorrow?"

She could actually hear Cleo nodding so she said, "You know, C, I can't see you nodding. You're going to have to answer me."

"Oh belt up. I forget sometimes."

"Tell your dad thanks and that I send my love. I've got to run now. I'll be seeing you this weekend then?"

"Yeah, of course. You know how Ian loves the grill despite the fact that we barely have good enough weather for it. Do make us some of your lemon meringue pie, Charlie. Ian has been driving me crazy for it. You'd swear that he was the pregnant one."

Charlie sniggered. "Will do. It was a pleasure speaking to you, mademoiselle but I really do have to go. Love you!"

"Love you too, monkey."

She hung up and grabbed her laptop, a gift from Cleo's dad when she'd graduated and booted it up. She took a sip of coffee and waited for it to load before going through her emails. She sighed; as usual, there were no new job offers and no replies to the ones that she had applied for. Unemployment was scary.

At least she'd have something to do the next few months. In fact, it would help her loads, this job with Cleo's dad, what with being able to add something to her CV.

Mr Robert, Cleo's father, was a big time lawyer at Robert & Charles. The first time that she had helped him out had been a fluke. Being with Cleo so much, she used to be in and out of his office, much to his secretary's annoyance but she had picked up a few things. During her college years, she had saved his butt a time or two. She was familiar with the work and was efficient under pressure, which Mr Robert seemed to always put his P.A under. Best of all, she enjoyed it. Law wasn't really her passion but she'd always been a fan of Law and Order and Suits and catering to the needs of others was her speciality so wa-lah. She now had a temporary job.

She heard a yawn and looked up to see Angie walk in, her body wrapped in a towel, hair wet and dripping on the floor.

"Oi! You're dripping all over the floor, Angie!"

Angie smirked at her innuendo, totally unintended as it, but just said, "I'll clean it up after breakfast. Was that Cleo on the phone?"

Charlie nodded before gesturing to the toast and coffee on the table. "I made extras if you want. I need to head out now, sort out my life at Coffee etc and see about getting a newspaper. You need anything from town?"

Angie looked up at her while taking a bit from her toast and shook her head.

"Okay then, I'll see you tonight. Enjoy work. Bye."

Angie raised a hand in farewell and continued eating her breakfast despite the fact that she wasn't dressed. Charlie was so used to her behaviour that now she barely bat an eyelid at it anymore. She, herself, was shyer of walking around in such attire but Angie didn't seem to mind anything, let alone the chill in the air. She guessed that everyone was just different.

Grabbing her sling bag, she drew the strap over her head before grabbing her house keys and heading out. Time to face the music.