Guess Who I Pulled Last Night? (4 page)

“What a thoroughly nice man,” gushed Paul.

“He was okay; the main thing is he gave us a lot of business
and doesn’t seem to have much to do with Grant.”

“Just as I thought, so that little subterfuge wasn’t
necessary was it?” Paul stabbed a finger towards the diamond ring on
Charlotte’s finger.

“Hmm, I’ll be at my desk if you want me.”

That evening, while packing her work away in a now deserted
office, Charlotte felt that she needed a drink and some female company; she
picked up the phone and dialled Kerry’s number.

“Hiya, are you okay to come out to play tonight?” Charlotte
asked, as soon as she heard Kerry’s voice.

“God please.  I am so fed up you wouldn’t believe
it.  I really do need a good laugh.  What time and where?”

“Oh err, eight o’clock at the Gander.  Listen Kerry are
you okay?  Would you prefer to go somewhere quieter, so we can talk?”
 Over the last few weeks, Kerry had become increasingly morose and going
on about how bored or fed up she was.

“Yeah fine,” she replied, “just a little sick of baby talk;
that's all.  I’ll see you later then.”

“Okay, I’ll give Bets a call, bye.”

Charlotte replaced the receiver, still a little unsure if
Kerry was okay.  She called Bets, but there was no reply.  Sighing
heavily Charlotte packed away the last of her things and left to go home. 
As she got into her car, she noticed Paul’s office light burning; he was
probably still working on the proposals for Mr Devine.  The thought of him
reminded her Grant again.   Charlotte shook her head, she couldn’t
think about him now, she would wait and tell Kerry all about it.

After a quick wash and change at home, Charlotte made it to
the pub a little late.  Kerry was already there, sitting at their usual
table, nursing a white wine.  As she approached the table, Charlotte
noticed how glum Kerry looked.  The frown on her face was becoming a
permanent fixture.

“Hi, sorry I’m a little late,” she said.  She pointed
to another wine on the table.  “Is this mine?”

“Yeah, you’re okay; I was early anyway.”  Kerry pushed
the glass across the table, smiling feebly at her friend.

Instantly, Charlotte felt the need to speak to Kerry about
her constant bad mood.  “Kerry, listen, don’t go off on one again, but
don’t you think that you should go and see the doctor?  It’s not right
that you are feeling so depressed all the time.”

“Charlotte, don’t go on.  I had enough the other night
with Bets and Kelvin on at me.  I’m not depressed I’m a little fed up
that’s all.  Maybe I’m over tired, what with Esme teething.”

“Maybe, but I still think you should go. It could be more to
do with the baby than you think.”  Charlotte winced slightly; she and Bets
had discussed the fact that Kerry may have some form of postnatal depression,
but until now hadn’t had the nerve to raise it with her.

“What do you mean?”  Kerry asked, thrusting a hand to
her hip and frowning.

“It’s just that you haven’t seemed yourself since you had
Esme.”  Kerry’s face was stony. “Look, all I’m saying is that we are all
worried about you; you just don’t seem yourself.  I think we should talk
about it another time maybe.”

Kerry nodded, as she took a sip of her drink. “No, I don’t
think this is the time, or the place, thank you.”

“So what have you done today then?” Charlotte asked,
desperate to change the subject.

“Oh the usual, although I did see something funny on daytime
T.V. today.  There was a woman on one of the chat shows that was 26
stones.  Well, it turned out that she was a glamour model; apparently,
there is a big call for fat, naked women.  She makes an absolute fortune,
and her husband knows all about it.  I’m damn sure Kelvin wouldn’t let me
do that, not that I’d want to because I haven’t got the fat, the tattoos or the
long greasy hair.”  They both laughed, the previous dark moment forgotten.

After a few second's silence, Charlotte decided to tell
Kerry about Grant.

“I had a little visit from the past today,” she said.

“Oh, what was that then?” Kerry moved her stool closer to
Charlotte’s.

“Someone called Grant.”

Charlotte had expected Kerry to be shocked, but she hadn’t expected
her to spit her wine all over the table.  She spent the next few minutes
explaining what had happened earlier that day.

“But why did you feel it necessary to pretend that you were
engaged?”  Kerry reached out and rubbed Charlotte’s hand gently.

“I don’t know, it does seem silly now.  I’m not really
sure he has much to do with Grant anyway, but if he does, hopefully Grant will
get the message that I’ve moved on.”

“Charlotte, you don’t have to be engaged to someone else to
have moved on.  Think about what you have achieved since you off loaded
the dick head.”

“I know; I know; I'm an idiot.  I’ll get us some more
drinks.”

While was at the bar, Charlotte pondered what Kerry had said
about her achievements.

“I think,” she said as she came back with the drinks. 
“I pretended that I was engaged because so many people measure achievements by
relationships.  You know what it’s like, people think that you are
successful if you are settled with a good partner, not whether you have got a
big car on the drive.”

Kerry put an arm around Charlotte’s shoulder and hugged her
closer. “That’s silly, you know it isn’t true.  Everyone is proud of
you.  Look at me, what have I ever achieved in life?”

Charlotte pulled away, and stared at Kerry in
amazement.  “You, you’ve got a good husband, a beautiful baby, a fantastic
house. You are a bilingual legal secretary for a goodness sake. I can’t always
speak proper English, never mind another language.  You have achieved
loads of things.”

“I notice that my job was last on the list; anyway German
isn’t that difficult.  You’ve judged my success on the suitability of my
husband, and the attractiveness of my daughter isn’t that what you’ve just been
complaining that other people do?” Kerry laughed, but Charlotte sensed that she
didn’t really find it funny.

“I’m sorry,” Charlotte said. “It’s just that despite what I
say I do think that being in a happy, loving relationship is important. 
Look at my mum and dad, they weren’t rich or anything when we were all growing
up, but look how happy they were, because they had each other.  You think
about all the people that we know with plenty of money, big houses, fancy cars,
and everything. They are all single and as miserable as anything.  Bets
and I included.”

Kerry laughed quietly and shook her head. “Charlotte you are
an old romantic.  Perhaps the money and the career have just been your
substitutes for what you really want, do you think?” Kerry asked.

“Yes, I do.  I think that they just helped to mend my
broken heart, but after hearing Grant’s name today I realised something; I hate
him.  Do you know I’ve felt sick all day? I never thought that after all
these years that it would affect me like this.”

Kerry started to giggle.  “Charlotte, he used to make
me want to puke all the time, so I wouldn’t worry about it.  Do you want
another one?” 

Charlotte nodded.

A couple of rounds later Kerry came running back from the
bar, spilling the drinks as she did so.

“Quick, look over there.  Bets is in here with a
fella.”

Charlotte stood up quickly, almost toppling over the glasses
that Kerry had placed on the table.  “Who is it?” she asked, standing on
tiptoe to see above the crowd.

“I don’t know. I just turned around, and there they
were.  She simply smiled and turned her back to me, you know, like she
usually does.”  Kerry, too small to see above everyone’s heads, sat back
down.

“Oh God, I can see them.  Bloody hell I think it must
be that new lifeguard at the swimming pool.  She told me last week that he
was quite fit.”  Charlotte flopped into her seat.

“So he should be, if he’s a lifeguard,” muttered Kerry -
Charlotte groaned.

“Not that sort of fit!  You know,
phwoar
fit.”

“Oh.” Light dawned on Kerry, who nodded, open mouthed. 
“What does he look like anyway? She blocked my view pretty quickly when I was
at the bar.”

“Err, tall, blond, good body, from what I could see under
the t-shirt.  I couldn’t really see his face, but Bets told me last week
that he looked a little like a blond Robbie Williams.”

“Not our type then, if he’s muscle bound, I mean.”

Charlotte laughed.  “Are you trying to say we go for
weedy types?”

“No, Kelvin’s got good biceps, but he’s no Charles Atlas is
he?”

“Who?” Charlotte asked, puzzled.

“Charles Atlas…oh forget it,” Kerry could see from
Charlotte’s gormless expression that she didn’t have a clue what she was
talking about.  “Let’s just say he’s not Arnie is he?”

“Oh, I see; no he isn’t is he.”

They continued talking for a while, until Bets approached
them.

“Hiya, are you two okay then?”  Bets sat next to Kerry,
squeezing onto the edge of her stool.

“Yes we are what about you?” Charlotte winked at Bets.

“Oh, you want to know about Gary do you?” They both nodded
in unison.  “Well he’s 24…"  She paused due to the look of
astonishment on their faces.  “Don’t be so narrow minded, why shouldn’t I
enjoy a younger man?  As I said, he's twenty-four, and has been working at
the pool for two weeks. He's single, living with his mum and dad, and I’m going
to take him home now for what I hope will be wild, exciting sex. 
Afterwards, I’ll give him a peck on the cheek, thank him for the multiple
orgasms that I’ve just had and tell him that I’ll see him around.  Now
does that answer all your questions?”

Kerry and Charlotte nodded again.   “Yes, I think
so,” said Charlotte, “but how did you manage to snare him in a pool full of old
women with flabby arms, doing aqua aerobics?”

“I think that you’ve answered your own question, don’t you?”
Bets replied, smiling.  “I pretended that I was having trouble with my
star jumps, and it just went from there.”

At that moment Gary approached their table.  Both
Charlotte and Kerry knew that Bets would not introduce them to him, so they
quickly gave him the once over.  Over the years they had both developed
the knack of eying up Bets’ conquests, taking everything in as none of them,
were ever introduced.  Bets didn’t see the point as it was very rare that
they were around the next day.

“Well we’ll be off, see you soon.”  Bets had stuffed
her arms into her jacket Gary held out for her, and then they were gone.

“Hmm, he’s quite nice.”  Kerry nodded thoughtfully.

“Young though, didn’t you think?” Charlotte commented.

“Yeah, but that scar above his eyebrow did add a sense of
danger.”

Charlotte nodded in agreement.  “Yes, you’re right, but
I did think that his eyes were a little close together.  More like a good
looking Wayne Rooney than Robbie I would have said.”

“You know Charlotte; you are spot on.”

Charlotte was lying in her bed, thinking about the day’s
events, but more to the point about Grant.  It was only now, when she was
alone with nothing or no one to keep her occupied, that the full force of her
feelings hit her.  Picturing his sneering smile, she began to sob
uncontrollably into her pillow, not really knowing why.  She knew that it
wasn’t for what might have been.  The longer she had got to think about
Grant over the past years the more she had realised that he didn’t deserve
her.  As her pillow got wetter, Charlotte’s cries got quieter, until
eventually they subsided.  She sat up and reached across to her dressing
table for a tissue.  Sitting in the darkness of the night blowing her
nose, Charlotte began to think more clearly about her feelings.  She'd
loved Grant; deeply.  However, over the year that they were together, he
had taken every bit of that love, screwed it up and stamped on it.  Now
all that she felt for him was contempt.  Charlotte realised that she had
lied when she had told Kerry that she hated Grant - hate was a very strong word
- but she did hate how he had treated her.  At least breaking up with him
had pushed her to concentrate on her work, her career, and now she would soon
be reaping the benefits.  Charlotte supposed that it was only natural at
first to feel how she had today: shaking legs, beating heart. It was just
adrenalin working, but she wasn’t sure that it was natural to feel
tearful.  She really thought that she had shed all the tears that she was
ever going to shed over Grant, but obviously not.  Snuggling back down
under the duvet Charlotte felt much calmer now.  She knew that if, she
ever did meet Grant again she would be able to handle it.  Just hearing
the name, meeting someone who knew him, had helped to exorcise the ghost. 
Now all she had to worry about was Kerry and how to cheer her up.

Across the park in Bets’ flat, she and Gary were having a
much better time, although she was a little disappointed.  Gary was a nice
lad, but that was all he was – a lad.  His lovemaking had been pleasant -
if not a little clumsy - and Bets had had to point him in the right direction
on a couple of occasions.  However, he did have a good body, so she felt
that she couldn’t complain too much.  Thankfully, he wasn’t interested in
any conversation, the little bit that they’d had in the pub had been sufficient
for Bets.  There were only so many footballers that she knew the names of,
and she really wasn’t curious about the offside rule.  After an hour or so
of thrashing about, Bets had announced that she was going to take a bath and
Gary had asked to join her.

“I don’t think so,” she said smiling kindly at him.  “I
really need to get some sleep, and I’m sure that you want to get home.”

“Oh, you don’t want me to stay then?” he asked.

Bets shook her head, then leaned across and pecked him on
the cheek, her bare breast touching his arm.

“Gary, you are a really nice fella, but I’m not looking for
anything more than sex.”  She paused noticing that his smile had
faded.  “You didn’t expect anything else did you?”  Gary shrugged his
shoulders.  “Gary, I’m six years older than you, where did you think it
would go?”

“God, are you really?  You’ve not got a bad body for an
old bird you know?”