Splintered Memory - By Natascha Holloway Page 0,11

Charlie had even seemed to treat her like a little sister, and Emily had felt privileged to be treated as such. She had after all seen that Charlie was clearly the most popular person in their group of friends. The attention always gravitated to her in a way that made her the centre of attention, even though she never did anything to make this happen.

The only thing that had made Emily feel a little uncomfortable whilst she’d stayed with Matt and Charlie, had been the fact that she’d felt sure that Charlie and all of her friends had known that she’d a crush on Matt. The issue hadn’t been about them knowing or even about the possibility of them telling Matt, who she’d been fairly certain had had more than a sneaking suspicion by then anyway. It had just been that she’d found it strange that none of them had seemed to mind.

Emily had always been led to believe that women were supposed to be catty, and that they’d do anything and everything to mark the territory around their men and see off other women who showed an interest. Yet Charlie was different, and so were her group of friends.

One night when Bex and Charlie had invited Emily to share a couple of bottles of wine with them, which seemed to be the favoured activity between the two of them. Bex had gotten really drunk and had said to Emily; “for as long as I can remember people have always fancied Matt. He doesn’t help by flirting terribly with everyone, but then for that matter she’s no better,” she’d added whilst inclining her head in Charlie’s direction.

“We’ve been together for so long now that a little bit of flirting isn’t going to bother either of us. We’ve been married for just under ten years and together for five or so before that. God,” Charlie had said laughing as she’d poured more wine; “if we were ever going to have cheated on each other, it would’ve been at university.” Bex had hiccupped and laughed at the same time.

“Look Emily,” Bex had slurred. “You can’t help who you fancy, and I’m sure you’ll meet someone who you’ll like a whole lot more than Matt. Although don’t go getting any ideas on my Rich okay?” She’d added quite seriously before she’d burst out laughing again.

Charlie had laughed as well, and had also leant over at the same time to catch Bex’s wine glass before it had fallen to the floor where it would have gone all over the carpet.

“My advice would be to fall for someone tidy,” Charlie had said as she’d looked around the room shaking her head at the mess. To which Emily on looking had noticed belonged mostly to Matt.

“Who’s also not married to you?” Emily had asked smiling.

“That too,” Charlie had said with a little wink and a kind smile.

By living at Matt and Charlie’s everything had become easier for Emily. The commute had obviously been a bonus. The mere eight minute journey had allowed plenty of time for sleep, and having a social life had also seemed to help.

Emily felt like her general demeanour had been calmed, and she’d started to worry far less about her social incompetencies at work. In addition, she’d liked being able to come home after a gruelling day at the hospital and moan or chat to Charlie. She’d enjoyed sharing a bottle of wine, for no particular reason other than the fact that Charlie had just grabbed one on her way home from work. She’d also realised that she’d liked having a surrogate older sister in her life, someone that listened to her and occasionally consoled when necessary.

With her tiredness abated, and her insecurities over her personality lessened, all thoughts of quitting life as a doctor had become a distant memory. Yet on the day that she’d moved out of Matt and Charlie’s home, she’d been sad and genuinely worried that her life would return to what it had been like when she’d first moved to Birmingham. She’d been worried that she’d be lonely again.

True to form though, all of Emily’s fears had been made redundant by Charlie. She’d not only helped Emily decorate her new place, but she’d remained on call for a chat or a girlie night in whenever. She had also continued to invite Emily round for dinner with her and Matt and their friends, and Matt had even commented to her that he ought to be jealous. He’d said