Splintered Memory - By Natascha Holloway Page 0,80

Charlie had had to introduce them to Emily properly, because he’d been so uncomfortable with the introductions that he’d forgotten to tell Emily his parent’s names. It was a disaster he thought. Yet at least as they reached Rich and Bex, Emily stopped holding his hand so tightly.

Matt exchanged a look with Rich as he positioned himself on Rich’s right hand side, and Emily nestled up against him. He saw Claire in front of him and she looked furious. She stared daggers at him, and then she turned and walked over to where Charlie was now stood alone. Matt wished he could hear what was being said, but then thought that maybe it was better that he couldn’t. This day was turning into a nightmare he knew, and the reception hadn’t even begun.

“I hope your speech is clean Matthew,” Bex’s mum said to him.

He was grateful for the distraction and he reassured her that it was – well, to the most part.

***

Matt was stood by the bar with Nick and Ben. They were talking, but he was also watching Charlie who was on the dance floor with his dad.

“Your dad still has some pretty sweet moves,” Nick commented as they all watched Matt’s dad spin Charlie and then pull her back into hold whilst she laughed.

Matt nodded as he looked away from them and asked Nick; “have you spoken to Claire today?”

Nick shook his head and said; “I was gonna go over and say hi, but then I overheard Rach and her mum talking about the fact that they couldn’t believe that she’d had the nerve to come to the wedding with the guy that she’d cheated on me with. After that, I sought of lost my nerve.”

“Ouch!” Ben said.

“Guessing you definitely haven’t spoke to him then?” Matt asked.

“Nope,” Nick said. “You know what’s weird though? Seeing her wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined it being. She seems happy with him, and I’m not that jealous.”

“That jealous,” Ben said.

“Oh come on. Claire can be a bitch, but she’s hot as hell. Always has been,” Nick said as all three of them looked over at where Claire was sat talking to Adam.

“Speaking of hot,” Rich said coming over to join them. “How hot is Charlie looking today? Oh and nice man,” he said to Matt. “The speech,” he added when he saw Matt’s confused expression. “You know that Bex is going to kill me later when there are no witnesses around.”

Nick, Ben, and Matt, all laughed.

“In fairness Rich,” Ben said; “you were the one shouting about it at the end of your stag night.”

“Shit, was I?” Rich asked Ben whilst eyeing Matt warily.

Nick, Ben, and Matt, all laughed again.

“Let’s just say that we’re all square now,” Matt said.

“I don’t think Bex is going to see it that way,” Rich said before ordering a pint from behind the bar. “Who were you deciding was hot or not by the way when I came over?”

“Claire. But then you said Charlie, and I agree. She’s looking hotter than I’ve ever seen her, and I’ve always thought that she was fine. Although don’t tell Rach,” Ben said lowering his voice.

“I gotta say” Nick said to Matt. “I’d happily trade places with your old man right now.”

“Great! So now we’re all decided that Charlie’s hot, is it possible that we can talk about something else?” He asked knowing that there was a slight edge to his voice.

“Okay, how about the look on Bex’s face when Matt made reference to the school games shed?” Ben asked before laughing yet again.

“I wasn’t sure which one of you Bex looked most annoyed at,” Nick said also laughing once more; “but I’m kind of leaning on Matt.”

“Yeah,” Ben said smiling; “but I reckon Claire looked even more annoyed at Matt than Bex did.”

“True,” Nick said; “but do you know what I thought was really weird though.”

“Charlie’s face,” Matt said answering Nick’s question for him.

“Yeah,” Nick replied. “She looked embarrassed one second, and then amused the next. Then when she noticed that people were looking in her direction, she suddenly looked like she didn’t understand why anyone was looking at her at all.”

“I saw that too,” Matt said; “but I thought it was just me.”

“I’m lost,” Ben said. “What are you saying? It was as if she remembered and that’s why she was embarrassed? Or she was embarrassed because she couldn’t remember? It could’ve been that she was just amused at the thought of ever having been stupid enough to have