Page 40 of The Island in Bramble Bay
‘Charlie. Are you planning to stay?’
‘Um, I don’t know, maybe we could go back to the city for a couple days if you want? Or somewhere else, you can choose, honey. Whatever you want to do.’ He was sat there, looking slightly squiffy but still loving her, whereas Maggie had a dozen questions that might be better answered by a sober person.
‘No, I mean are you coming back here to work? Staying here instead of coming home.’
Charlie’s face told her the answer. He sobered up almost immediately, his eyes wide with surprise. He was surprised she knew. And it was true.
36
‘WHEN I TALKED to Ed the other day, he made me an offer. They want me to work for High 5 again. There’s a new project and they want me to be their tech guy for it.’
‘Okay… you’re staying here… now?’
‘To get things off the ground, consolidate things after the takeover, you know.’
Maggie looked devastated but said brightly, ‘Well, that’s great, isn’t it? I mean, you got on well with Ed and going back there wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be.’
‘I’d need to work out of the Valley for a while.’ He paused and felt wretched as he said it, ‘I would love you to stay with me.’
‘Really? I heard you were happy to stay alone.’
The beer and champagne mix had been a bad idea, he was so confused. Why did Maggie think that? How did she even know? Then it dawned on him that Jessica had been standing right next to him and Jared just after they’d spoken about it and she had told Maggie what she’d overheard to cause trouble.
‘You talked to Jessica? Maggie, honey, all she wants to do is cause trouble.’
‘Was she lying?’ Maggie had tears in her eyes now and Charlie reached out to take her hand but she snatched it away. ‘Was she lying to me, Charlie?’
‘Look, I was going to talk to you about staying but I thought you would want to go back to Bramble Island to work. It’s just temporary. I can work from the UK too, this is just an intensive period to kick things off.’ He reached for her hands and this time she let him take them in his. ‘Would you think about staying with me?’ He was looking deep into her eyes, desperately imploring her to stay.
‘I can’t, Charlie. I have a contract for another six months at least, longer if the holiday lodge project comes to anything. I can’t leave Bramble Island. It was a new start… I need to see it through.’
Of course she did. ‘It’s bad timing, I know that. But know that I want to be with you, Maggie, more than anything. I wouldn’t have come this far, literally or… any other way, without you. Just, this is a chance for me to leave the company the right way, finish up the way that I wanted to all along. I need that but I didn’t realise it until I talked to Ed. I’m sorry.’ His eyes had filled with tears and he hoped she could see that he meant what he said, more than that, he hoped she understood why he was saying it, but that didn’t stop him from knowing her heart was breaking because his was too.
‘I understand that Charlie, I really do. That’s why I wanted to come with you, to support you, to help you while you got closure on it.’ She stopped and looked at him, then lowered her eyes and shook her head very slightly. It suddenly felt like the end of the world. Whatever Maggie said to him next, he knew it was going to bring everything crashing down around him.
Still not looking at him, she squeezed his hands and said softly, ‘I don’t know who you are when you’re here. You’re not my Charlie anymore. Here you’re someone who thinks it’s okay to ask his ex-girlfriend’s stylist to help out.’
Charlie paled. He’d been so busy worrying about Jessica that he hadn’t even noticed that she’d turned up wearing the same outfit as Maggie. And now it made sense that Maggie was wearing something entirely different.
‘Here, you’re someone who lets his ex-girlfriend who cheated on him, and has a track record of being a bitch, stay at his party, which I really hope she wasn’t invited to by the way, without making sure that his actual girlfriend has all the facts so that when the ex goes in for the kill, she has nothing.’
Charlie felt sick. He’d got caught up in all of this crap, all of this meaningless shit again without even noticing. And worse, he had let Maggie down by not noticing it was happening.
‘Maggie, I am so sorry. You’re right and, god, I just fucking hate that I did that to you.’ He put his head in his hands. ‘I should have known it would be like this, it’s so fucked up and I never should have dragged you into it.’
‘It’s just turned out to be more than you thought. It was probably naïve to think that you could come back and sign the papers without getting involved. And now that you know you’re okay being back, I get that there’s a temptation to stay.’
‘I never wanted it to be like this. Look, after tonight no more work until…’ He didn’t know what would happen now because he hadn’t thought beyond talking to Maggie. If he did take the job what would he do about going back to Bramble Island? He couldn’t let Maggie go back alone. But they could talk about that tomorrow. ‘The vacation starts tomorrow.’
She leant her head onto his chest and he hugged her tight, stroking her hair and hoping to God that he wasn’t going to lose her over this.
37
LATE THAT NIGHT, after all the guests and all of the staff had left, they lay on a nest of beanbags and blankets on the deck, underneath the stars, so many more stars than Maggie had ever seen before and made love. It was more tender than it had been before, as if they were each trying to remember every moment of it to see them through the time they would be spending apart.
There was another week before they were due to fly back to the UK but Maggie knew she couldn’t bear spending those days together in the state of melancholy which had come over her since Charlie had decided to stay. It was hard to believe that not long ago they were telling each other ‘I love you,’ for the first time and now they were about to be half a world apart.
Once she was sure Charlie was asleep, she crept into the house, called the airline and arranged to change her flight to the next available one back to London. There seemed little point in staying now and there was definitely no point in Charlie coming back with her to England. Better that she took the decision out of his hands, knowing that he would feel obliged to go back with her. At least she could go back to Bramble Island and get on with work. It was probably better to be going back a week earlier than planned because she still felt guilty at taking time off. However much she wanted to believe otherwise, it was sure to be hectic the minute she got back.
