Splintered Memory - By Natascha Holloway Page 0,15

drain as he too watched Charlie, and she followed him with her eyes as he walked across the room to sit down next to her.

“I’m sorry,” Charlie said looking up into Matt’s face. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. I’d only seen things from Claire’s perspective. I’ll speak to her, and I won’t put you in the middle again I promise. But please, for now, for me, promise not to say anything to Nick,” she asked him softly as she put her hand delicately to his face and turned her body to face him.

“Charlie,” Matt said. Unfortunately his tone had already let him down by sounding defeated.

“Please,” Charlie said sweetly. To which Emily watched Charlie smile and flash her big brown eyes at Matt. She then kissed his chin, his cheeks, and finally his lips. A knot formed in Emily’s stomach, and she seemed paralysed to the spot but she was unable to look away.

“Pretty please,” Charlie said even more sweetly and continuing to give Matt little kisses.

Emily watched Matt succumb to Charlie, and she watched them kiss. She heard their whispered apologies to each other between their increasingly ragged breaths, but just as she was forcing herself to turn away Charlie suddenly stood up and stripped off her top. Emily saw that she was braless underneath, and she felt her face flush. She turned to leave, but in the same instant Charlie saw her stood in the doorway. She tried to look away feeling incredibly embarrassed, and Charlie tried to cover herself up with the top that was still in her hands as she said; “hi!”

“I thought we were having drinks? Sorry,” Emily said as she turned to leave.

“No, wait,” Charlie said. “Shit. Sorry we are supposed to be having drinks, don’t go.”

Matt, who had only looked over at Emily once his attention had been drawn to her by Charlie, stood up and looked at his wife with indignation. He had obviously been hoping that Charlie would let her go.

“No, honestly, it’s okay. You obviously have other engagements,” Emily said nodding in Matt’s direction and feeling incredibly embarrassed as she felt her face burn brightly.

“She does,” Matt said grinning at his wife and making Charlie also flush with embarrassment.

Emily felt the knot in her stomach tighten, and a stab of jealousy cut through her chest.

“Can you give us ten minutes? I’ll come and meet you in the pub,” Charlie said to Emily.

“Oi,” Matt said poking Charlie in her side; “couldn’t you have said twenty?”

Charlie laughed, as did Emily.

“I’ll wait in the pub,” Emily said to Charlie before dashing from the room still feeling massively embarrassed.

It was not the situation that had caused her embarrassment, but her jealousy. The jealousy that was still consuming her as she shut Matt and Charlie’s backdoor behind her and made her way to the pub.

Matt

“What have we got?” Matt asked the paramedics as the doors of the ambulance were opened, and he took the chart that the male paramedic handed to him. He then looked down at it and began reading it out loud; “female, unconscious, had to be intubated in the field...”

“Dr Grayson,” Emily said interrupting him.

He looked across at her. She was stood on the opposite side of the stretcher to him, and he could see that her face was full of concern. Yet it seemed to be full of concern for him and not the patient. He followed her eyes down to the female patient in front of them, and he saw that the unconscious female that had had to intubated in the field was Charlie.

Matt dropped the chart that he’d been holding to the floor, and he stared almost unseeingly at Charlie. He didn’t hear any more of what was being said around him, because suddenly the whole world had been silenced. Lying there right in front of him was his wife. She had a tube in her throat, and there was blood on her face.

“Charlie,” he said to her not letting the paramedics move the stretcher inside the hospital. He stroked her face lightly as though she was merely asleep, and like he did at home to wake her.

“Dr Grayson,” Emily said to him urgently and taking his arm and pulling him out of the way; “we need to get her inside.”

Everything in Matt’s had world stopped, and he didn’t understand. He’d been running late. He’d expected Charlie to be in town, either still at work or killing time before meeting him at the restaurant. Why had she