Page 63 of Prognosis Bad Timing

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHARLIE woke the nextmorning, sun streaming in through the window, a little finger lifting his eyelid.

‘You had a sleepover, Charlie?’

Oh, fuck!

Charlie opened both eyes. Dana’s smiling face greeted him. Carrie, who was snuggled into his back, stiffened.

Sprung! ‘Morning, Sleeping Beauty.’

‘Darling,’ Carrie said, rising up on her elbow to look over Charlie’s shoulder, amazed at how much she wanted to bite it, even confronted with this truly horrible situation.

‘I’m hungry,’ Dana said. ‘Do you know how to make pancakes, Charlie?’

‘Ah...yes, I do, actually,’ he said, despite Carrie’s finger poking into his ribs.

‘Come on, then. Pancakes are Mummy’s favourite.’ Dana pulled at the edge of the sheet.

‘Darling!’ Carrie said, grabbing the sheet and holding it fast to Charlie’s flat stomach. ‘Why don’t you go and get the bowl and jug and eggs out and Charlie will join you in just a moment?’

‘OK,’ Dana said agreeably. She dropped the sheet and skipped out, dragging blanky behind her.

Carrie collapsed back, groaning, and stared at the ceiling. Charlie pressed his lips together really hard to stop himself from laughing. He knew this was bad.

Very bad.

That Dana could read things into this that he wasn’t sure he was capable of, but after an amazing night he was relaxed enough to see the humour in the situation.

Carrie punched him lightly on the arm. ‘This is not funny, Charlie.’

He chuckled out loud. He couldn’t help it.

‘You were supposed to be gone two hours ago!’

‘I know, I know, but you wanted to snuggle for just a bit longer and, well, frankly, you wore me out. I just closed my eyes for a second.’

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