Broken Truth (25 page)

With her starting early and staying late most nights of the week, Charlie was able to push forward and smash all of the expectations and targets placed before her.

In the past, her life decisions and future plans were made with Callum in mind, however now that she was back out in the world by herself, Charlie decided to throw her ambitions and dreams towards a new goal in life.

“You said that he hasn’t tried to approach you since that night at the club over a month ago. I don’t get why he keeps sending you flowers?” Xavier asked as he stared at the fresh vase of yellow and pink roses that were being carried through the door.

The delivery boy, Isaac, had grown so accustomed to his daily deliveries that he placed the vase in the same spot as he did each day next to the checkout till. He nodded his head as he handed Charlie the portable computer for her signature. As was the usual ritual, Charlie signed her name onto the screen and returned the computer to Isaac with a nod of her own.

“He said he wouldn’t give up,” Charlie sighed as she stared at the sickly sweet coloured flowers. “I guess regardless of what could have happened that night at Vision, he still wants me to know that he isn’t planning on going anywhere. I think he is putting some distance between us to give us both some time to breathe,” she shrugged.

Carrying on with the rest of her daily ritual, she picked the card out of the top of the flowers and read Callum’s words carefully before scrunching it up and throwing it into the waste paper bin by her feet.

“Still the same?” Xavier enquired with raised eyebrows.

She shook her head. “It has been a month since he first started sending them, so we have entered into month seventeen now.”

“Ahhhh... I’m with you. I take it you’ve got seventeen roses now?”

“Correct,” she replied sadly. “I’ll get seventeen roses now for the next month until the time comes for eighteen roses to take their place.”

“That boy knows he messed up,” Xavier said, sticking his face into the fresh flowers. “But I can’t deny that I don’t love getting fresh flowers to sniff every day.”

“Well they certainly brighten the place up and make the customers happy,” she said, looking on the brighter side of things. She really didn’t want to think about how she almost messed up when she nearly slept with Jay that night.

Charlie glanced at her watch and realised it was almost lunchtime. She had spent so much time on her appointments this morning that she hadn’t even noticed the day slipping away.

“Come on. It’s Friday and it’s lunchtime,” Charlie declared, turning towards Xavier with her hands on her hips. “I’m feeling something naughty for lunch today.”

“You’ve piqued my interest,” Xavier smirked. “What do you fancy?”

She licked her lips. “I want something greasy, so how about the chippy?”

“I haven’t had anything from the chip shop in so long. I’ll wait for you to go and grab your bag and we’ll head out,” he said, bobbing up and down on his feet with excitement.

Leaving Xavier at the checkout desk, Charlie headed into the office to go and get her handbag.

Taking out her mobile phone, she slung the bag over her shoulder. She checked the screen for messages and wasn’t surprised to see the usual daily harassment from Callum. After deleting the multiple missed calls from her call log, she opened the numerous texts he had sent since she started work this morning. After reading through his usual heartfelt words, she deleted them before she allowed her mind to give them too much thought.

Over the past month she had grown stronger with her decision to not speak with Callum. After she ran away from him on that unforgettable night outside of Vision, she came to the decision that silence was the best way forward in handling the situation.

Knowing that Callum could talk the back legs off of a donkey, she was more than cautious about giving him the opportunity to talk her around. She knew that with his pushy yet charming ways, it wouldn’t take him long to have her eating out of the palm of his hand once again.

Pushing her phone into her pocket, Charlie forced a smile and headed out to meet Xavier.

 “God, I haven’t had a sausage in batter for so long,” Xavier moaned, taking a bite of the meat and savouring the taste.

Charlie laughed, stabbing another chip with her fork. “You always get sausage, you lying bastard!”

“Fuck off...” Xavier joked. “You always have to lower the tone don’t you?”

“What can I say?” Charlie shrugged. “You’re talking to the girl that hasn’t gotten laid in over a month. The most I’ve had is some sneaky hand action following an erotica novel.”

“You poor cow,” he said, rubbing his hand over Charlie’s back. “I suppose it isn’t like you can just bring some random guy back to Amelia’s house, can you?”

Charlie shook her head in response and put a chip into her mouth.

She knew that regardless of where she was staying, she wouldn’t sleep with another man. She was still trying to overcome Callum’s lies and deceit on top of the added guilt that now plagued her mind following the complete fuck up of the century she made with Jay.

“You still love him don’t you?” Xavier asked, his voice sounding hard and serious all of a sudden.

Charlie thought for a moment before she responded. She wasn’t sure whether Xavier would understand the reasoning behind the answer she was about to give.

“You want the truth, yeah?” She chased a chip around the tray with her fork.

“Spill!”

Charlie turned towards Xavier.

“I still love him and I probably always will,” she stated simply.

“You still love him even after everything that has happened between the two of you?”

She didn’t hesitate in replying.

“He was supposed to be my fairytale, my happily ever after, my knight in shining armour. He meant everything to me, Avi. As much as I have tried, I just can’t switch those feelings off.”

She closed her eyes as the familiar feeling of sorrow and grief worked its way back into her thoughts. She had done so well over the past few weeks to shift it from her mind, but it was slowly creeping back. She realised that no matter what she did, Callum would always be at the forefront of her thoughts.

“Thank you for confiding in me,” Xavier said, sensing the trouble his question had aroused.

Truthfully, Charlie was still surprised by how much she had just revealed to Xavier. Aside from Amelia and Lucy, she hadn’t really confided in anybody else.

“I trust you,” she said, patting his upper thigh. “You’re a great friend, Avi.”

He beamed at her compliment before picking up his sausage again.

Watching him with amusement, Charlie felt no regrets in disclosing her thoughts and feelings. She knew Xavier well enough to know that his little heart of gold just wanted to help and ease the burden she continued to fight on a daily basis.

It wasn’t Charlie’s intention to involve others into the drama of her life. She knew that she was lucky to have so many caring individuals around to help her through this shitty period in life and she didn’t want to take any of them for granted.

“Do you think we should start heading back?” Xavier asked, casting a quick glance to his watch. “Our hour is almost up and we need to get a head start on preparing for Monday’s appointments.”

“Ugh!” Charlie grimaced. “It’s Friday afternoon. We shouldn’t be worrying about Monday’s work already should we?”

Xavier’s deep chuckle caught her attention.

“I’ll be alright, but I think
you
may want to get a head start on Monday,” he winked.

“Why?” Charlie pressed as she cocked her head to the side.

“It’s the first Monday of the month next week,” he grinned knowingly. “And you know who comes in on the first Monday of each month?”

Charlie groaned as she threw her rubbish into the nearby wheelie bin. Of course it was already that time of the month when Annabelle made her return to the shop.

“Great,” she muttered as her eyes rolled up towards the sky.

Twenty Four

After a surprisingly quiet and relaxing weekend doing nothing of importance, Charlie awoke on Monday morning feeling refreshed and raring to go.

Despite still receiving Callum’s usual bouquets of roses, missed calls and text messages, Charlie tried hard to just relax and focus on some down time for a change. The past month had been hard enough without the constant reminders from Callum that arrived periodically throughout each and every day. Although it did frustrate her, she knew that it was just his way of letting her know that he still hadn’t given up hope on them. A small part of her actually admired him for his persistence.

Armed with her takeaway cup of steaming tea, Charlie felt ready to take on the world as she opened up the front of the boutique. With all of her early mornings and late nights, Imogen had decided to give Charlie a key so that she could come and go as early and late as she pleased.

Putting the door on the latch, Charlie flicked on all of the lights before she deposited her bag in Imogen’s office. Checking her mobile phone, she deleted Callum’s morning text message without reading it. She was in too good of a mood to allow his pleading words to consume her brain so early in the day.

“Good morning, Charlie!”

She spun around at the sound of Imogen’s voice and watched as she chirpily bounced into the office. Carrying her usual morning latte and a stack of paperwork, she appeared a lot happier than normal.

“Morning,” Charlie warily acknowledged. “Did you have a good weekend?”

Placing the stack of paperwork on top of the filing cabinet, Imogen moved in front of Charlie and perched herself precariously on the edge of her desk. Taking a sip of her latte, she smiled. “My weekend was fabulous thank you and yours?”

Charlie shrugged. “Eh... Average, I guess.”

Imogen raised her eyebrows and took another sip of her latte.

“So...” Charlie clapped her hands together. “You’re here early?”

She had no idea why her boss was in work for eight. Even on a busy day, Imogen rarely arrived before eight thirty to let the staff in. Her presence had caught Charlie off guard which she didn’t like.

A million questions and answers rushed to the forefront of her mind. She ran through a couple in her head before deciding that she had crossed the line into paranoia. There was no doubt a very plausible reason for her to have arrived early before anyone else.

“I’m here to see you,” Imogen replied, lightly tapping her fingers on the side of her cardboard cup.

“Oh?” Charlie raised her eyebrows with surprise. “What did you want to see me about?”

Imogen cleared her throat and put her cup on the desk beside her. “I’ve always known that you were an excellent stylist, Charlie. I’ve watched you since the day you started here on your apprenticeship. Although we took a gamble in taking you on, I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were going to be fantastic for this company.”

“Thank you,” Charlie gushed, feeling her cheeks start to redden with growing embarrassment.

She recalled her initial interview for the apprentice role a few years ago. At the age of twenty four it had been a difficult decision for the company to take on a trainee at such an older age. Most applicants for the apprentice position were younger people who were fresh from college ready to start their careers. Whereas Charlie was the girl who in her mid twenties finally decided to pursue her dream into the fashion industry, following her previous failed attempts at employment.

Imogen stood from her perched position and moved over to the filing cabinet. Opening the old and rustic metal drawers, she flicked through the various documents until she finally pulled out a single manila folder.

Returning to her perched position on the edge of her desk, Imogen opened the folder and removed a sheet of paper. Her eyes sparkled warmly over the contents before she handed the document to Charlie for her to look at. “Even as an apprentice you were smashing targets left right and centre.”

Charlie looked over the figures and numbers, not really making much sense of what she was being told. “You’ll have to forgive me, but I don’t understand?” She tried to hide her embarrassment by covering her face with the paper.