she’d known that her relationship with Nick would never work. They were the benchmark for great love, and the way that they were around each other made everyone in their vicinity want what they had together.
It had taken her years not to be jealous of Charlie, but she’d known that it had always been a weird type of jealousy. She’d never been jealous of Charlie per se, and she’d never wanted Matt. Yet she had wanted what they had together. She’d wanted that type of relationship with someone. They were just so in tune and so in love, and at times watching them together really was like watching an old black and white romantic movie.
Their relationship had also always been hard on Claire because she and Matt had never gotten along. They hadn’t gelled initially at school, and Claire had often thought that if it hadn’t been for Charlie and Rich the two of them would never have spoken or become friends at all.
In the early days, Claire had resented Matt for taking Charlie away from her and for putting her on the side lines. Matt had, and still disliked her for lots of reasons. He blamed her for Charlie dating Rich and not him. He blamed her for Charlie breaking her leg in the tree outside her house, which she now knew was one hundred percent not her fault, and he blamed her for the few times that they had drunkenly gotten together at parties when Charlie and Rich had abandoned them.
As she lay there awake thinking about Matt and Charlie’s relationship, she knew that she needed to get some answers. She picked up her phone and dialled a number that she knew off by heart.
“Hello?” A woman’s sleepy voice said on the other end of the line.
“Emily I take it?” Claire asked irritably.
“Yes,” she said. She then heard Matt’s voice in the background ask; “is it the hospital?”
“Say it is,” Claire said to her. To which she heard Emily say it was to Matt.
“It’s Claire,” she said shortly; “Charlie’s best friend.”
“Okay,” Emily’s voice said warily.
“We need to talk. Can you make some time to see me this week?” Claire asked.
“Yes,” Emily said timidly.
“Call me when Matt’s not around to arrange when and where we can meet. My number will be in his phone, which I’m sure that you can get access to. Okay?” Claire asked almost aggressively.
“Okay,” Emily said.
Claire hung up and lay in bed seething. She wasn’t sure whether that call had been a good idea or not, but that little bitch couldn’t be allowed to think that she could ride off into the sunset with her best friend’s husband. If Claire had to be the villain in Emily’s story then so be it. She had nothing to lose, and she’d see to it that Charlie would never find out about her meddling.
Emily
She hung up the phone and lay back down in bed.
“Everything okay,” Matt said rolling towards her and propping his head up on his hand.
Emily looked into his handsome face, and she smiled at him feeling momentarily guilty and said; “fine. It was just the hospital, but there’s no need for me to go in.”
“I don’t know why they ring if they don’t need us to go in. Don’t they realise that we do actually need some sleep,” he said rolling off his hand and back onto his back.
Emily rolled onto her side, and she gently put her left hand onto his cheek and kissed him. She ran her hand lightly down his face and over his chest, and then she traced his stomach muscles with her finger tips before slipping her hand beneath the elastic waist of his boxers.
“Do you need some sleep now?” She asked sweetly before kissing him lightly on the lips again.
He smiled as he pulled her on top of him and said; “not right now, no.”
When Matt had fallen back to sleep, Emily lay there in his arms wide awake and wondered what Claire’s call had really been about? Emily knew that Claire hadn’t been in Matt or Charlie’s life since the accident, and she knew that Claire and Matt hadn’t gotten along well before the accident. Why was she calling here now and wanting to meet up with her she thought?
The more she wondered about what Claire could possibly want to talk about, the more she couldn’t make sense of it. Yet she would meet her, if only to tell her not to call her and Matt in the