old university friends, and from her friends from where she’d worked since uni.
Charlie’s social life in London revolved around Claire and her friends, and Claire had realised that she ought to have known that Charlie would never have been comfortable with this. She’d lived her entire life, up until the accident at least, at the centre of one group of friends.
Claire had finally seen that it was time to put their friendship on the line for the sake of Charlie’s happiness. The risk had become worth it, she’d already started to lose Charlie and their friendship. She had to tell Matt about Charlie’s memory, and damn the potential consequences of her doing so.
***
Adam had tried to talk Claire out of going to Birmingham since the moment she’d told him that’s what she was planning to do, but Claire had known in her bones that it was the right thing to do. That said, as she drove Adam’s car up to Birmingham she felt an increasing sense of doubt and nervousness rising within her.
She knew that she didn’t have a good relationship with Matt, and telling him something that was likely to have a detrimental effect on his life wasn’t going to be easy. She also knew that she had to avoid being callous or cold, but that said she knew that she couldn’t plan a conversation with Matt. He had a tendency of rubbing her up the wrong way, and she had a tendency of reacting to that by trying to deliberately score cheap points with hurtful comments. Their friendship had always been this way.
Claire called at the house first, but there was no one home. She was only grateful that Emily hadn’t been in, and she wasn’t sure what she’d have said to her if she had been. As she walked to the hospital, she really wasn’t sure if her coming to see Matt was such a good idea after all.
“Can I help you?” The young woman behind the reception desk asked Claire as she leant on the desk to ask for some assistance.
“Yes. Can you tell me where I might find Matthew Grayson?” Claire asked politely.
“Do you mean Dr Grayson?” The receptionist asked, looking almost reproachfully at Claire for not having asked for him in an appropriate manner.
“Yes, Dr Grayson. Is he working today?” Claire asked.
“Yes,” the receptionist said simply.
“Can I speak with him?” Claire asked already starting to feel a little irritated with this woman.
“What’s it in regards to?” The receptionist asked.
“It’s a personal matter,” Claire said.
“I’ll page him for you,” the receptionist said; “but you might just have to wait a few minutes.”
“Okay. Well I’ll just wait over there then,” Claire said pointing at the nearest set of blue plastic chairs. The receptionist nodded, indicating that this was an acceptable place for her to wait.
Claire sat down on the uncomfortable blue chairs to wait for Matt, and as she waited she felt anxious and she began fiddling with her fingertips and nails.
She saw Matt walk over to the reception desk and speak to the receptionist, before turning to look at her. Claire found it strange to see him in his doctor’s coat. A doctor was just such a grownup job she thought almost smiling, and even though she was well aware that they were all grownups she still found it much easier to picture them all as teenagers.
Matt didn’t exactly look pleased to see her as he walked over to where she was sat, and she told herself to be polite.
“Claire,” he said sounding a little cold.
“Matt, or is it Dr Grayson here?” She asked trying to lighten the atmosphere between them.
“Matt’s fine,” he said; “but why are you here?”
“It’s about Charlie,” Claire said. Yet she knew as soon as she’d said that that she shouldn’t have opened with that statement. She saw Matt’s face go ghostly white.
“She’s okay,” Claire said quickly and feeling pleased when some of the colour returned to his face. “I just need to talk to you about her that’s all. Is there somewhere we can go?” She asked.
Matt looked a little confused, but he nodded. He then led her down a corridor away from the reception area. At the bottom of the corridor they turned right, and then they went down another long corridor. Claire hated hospitals. She hated the way that they were a maze of long white corridors with plastic floors and fluorescent lighting.
As they neared the bottom of yet another long corridor, Matt walked into an office and