Page 74 of Prognosis Bad Timing

Charlie rolled his eyes. Bounce. Bounce. ‘Really?’ Jesus — kill him now. He’d rather go without sex forever.

Carrie swallowed. He was interested. A pain gripped her chest. He wanted his ex back?

‘Play your cards right and I’m sure she’d take you back.’

‘Really?’ Charlie said distractedly. Thoughts of sex had reminded him of how he had peeled Carrie’s clothes off with his teeth last weekend. Bounce. Bounce.

Carrie ordered herself to breathe. Which she did. She ordered herself to move. Which she did not. The conversation was horribly fascinating — like a motorway smash, gruesome but compelling.

‘What is that infernal noise, Charles?’

Charlie had had just about enough of the conversation. ‘Someone knocking at my door.’ Bounce. Bounce. ‘My first appointment for the day. I’d better go.’

‘So you’ll apply for that surgical position, then?’

‘No.’ Charlie ended the call, pleased to have it over and done with. He checked his watch as he rose from his desk. Carrie was late. Maybe if he lurked by his doorway he could lure her inside.

He opened his door and jumped as he came face to face with her. Her expression told him she had heard everything.

‘Hi,’ he said.

‘Hi.’

‘You heard that, didn’t you?’

She nodded. Charlie couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Her gaze seemed blank. She looked kind of frozen.

That wasn’t good.

‘It probably didn’t sound too good from your side of the door.’ He reached out to touch her, to tell her it wasn’t what she’d thought, but she drew back.

Carrie’s brain finally powered up. ‘No...it’s fine. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been listening. It’s none of my business.’

It was good that she’d overheard. To know that he hadn’t really got over his ex-wife. It made the conversation they had to have easier. It made their parting easier. And it didn’t matter that her heart was breaking. It was better to know now where she really stood in his life. Before she had too long to get used to loving him.

Better to know before Dana got involved, too.

‘Let me explain,’ he said, taking a step towards her.

‘Charlie, really,’ Carrie said briskly. ‘This is unimportant. There’s something much more pressing we need to discuss.’ She turned on her heel and headed straight for the staffroom, placing her laptop on the table.

She paced while she waited for him, humming a nursery rhyme in her head, determined not to think about the conversation she’d just overheard.

About her fledgling love being flattened.

She had to get through this. Afterwards she could fall apart. She could cry and rail against the fates.

Right now she had work to do.

Charlie entered and she couldn’t decide what she wanted to do more — run to him or slap his face. ‘Shut the door,’ she ordered.

Okay. This was bad. And Charlie didn’t think it was about the phone call. She looked serious. Deadly serious. Her pinstripes had never looked primmer. He shut the door.

‘You’re closing the centre down.’

Carrie swallowed hard. His jaw clenched and unclenched despite the calmness of his statement. ‘The centre is not viable. It will be my recommendation to the board that closure is the most expedient course of action.’

Charlie felt the burn of anger scorch his chest. ‘Expedient.’

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