Someone Else's Dream (24 page)

The day seemed to drag for both of them as they plodded on throughout the day, constantly checking the clock to see if it was time to get ready. It was 6.45 when Matt got to the bench where they were due to meet, Carla was only a few minutes behind him. Both sets of eyes widened when they saw each other, not denying the love and affection they felt for each other. They walked hand in hand to the Italian restaurant that Carla had chosen for them to eat. The food was good as the wine flowed along with the conversation. They made their way to a quiet bar just on the edge of town and shared a few more drinks. With her inhibitions now fully down Carla plucked up the courage to ask him back to her place which he duly accepted. They walked along the beach enjoying the warm summer evening. Carla took him to her home and with the lights out Matt Conner made love to her like no man ever had before. For the first time in her life Carla Reid had experienced Charlotte’s dream. It was better than any chapter in her book, at that moment she felt like no words could explain how she felt.

The next morning the same experience was repeated, only for Carla this time it was even better. There were no inhibitions regarding the scars she bore. They had made love in the daylight, naked and openly, with vigour and passion, a barrier had finally been brought down for Carla, something at one time she didn’t think was possible. They shared a hearty breakfast. Matt cooking it and brought it to Carla’s bedside for her to enjoy. They enjoyed the morning on the balcony, lapping the sunshine that the day had chosen to spread upon them. It was only when it was time for Matt Conner to leave did their spirits drop. Matt had to get back to the hotel to pick up his stuff before making his way home, they were sat on the outside decking when it was time to leave, they both stood and embraced.

“Come to Yorkshire, come stay with me,” Matt pleaded to Carla as he looked deep into her eyes, he could see her passion, the gleam that was fixed in her stare as she looked into his own eyes.

“I will soon, I promise,” she told him.

“Come back with me now,” he pleaded to her, she let out a smile and kissed his lips tenderly,

“Go see your daughter, tell her about us, then I can meet her,” she suggested to him, the words didn’t seem to resonate with Matt,

“Tomorrow?” he asked,

“No, I have lots to do,”

“Saturday,” he persisted, she let out a giggle, loving his eagerness to see her again. The truth was Carla didn’t want to let him go, she had fallen head over heels for the charmer from Yorkshire.

“Maybe, ill travel down Saturday for the weekend, providing your daughters okay with it, you check with her and let me know,”

“Yea sure,” was his flippant remark, Carla didn’t think he was taking it seriously, having his daughters blessing was important to her. Matt’s mind was beginning to drift to a place he didn’t want it to be at that time.

“I’m serious Matt, it’s important to me,” he held her close to him, his touch made Carla tingle,

“Of course I will, she will love you, I’ll see you Saturday.” He assured her,

“Maybe,” she answered, they kissed passionately as the taxi came to pick him up, waving to each other until the car got out of sight. Matt sat in the back of the taxi, as the driver drove past a young man stood at the bottom of the lane

“He was stood there when I came,” the driver grunted. Matt stared out of the window and caught Darren’s eye. Through the window, Matt stuck up his middle finger at the stranger, he had no idea why he had done it. He guessed it might be some strange fan trying to get an autograph. He hoped Carla would be safe, soon he would handle all that for her, as he becomes her agent. In fact he thought to himself,
she won’t be able to breathe without my say so.

Darren, who had slept on the sands that night, was totally aware of the guest that Carla had invited in for the evening. Aware and profoundly jealous. He had taken a bottle of Thunderbirds wine with him to the beach to spy on Carla and with the bottle drunk he had fallen into a drunken stupor. He had woken up just before the taxi arrived. Momentarily forgetting where he was. The taxi soon returned his way with its passenger. He saw Matt give him the finger. It was confirmed to him now that Carla had moved on, she had spent a night with another man.
What do I do now man?
He asked himself as he gingerly walked along the sea front.

Meanwhile back in the beach house Carla had got straight on the phone to Donna.

“He saw me naked,” she screamed with excitement into the phone,

“Good on you babes.” Came the encouraging reply.

On the journey home the mind of Matt Conner was engulfed with confusion. His heart was full of love but his mind was full of lies, the lies that he had shared and bestowed upon Carla. He tried to rack his brains why he thought he had a need to lie, and as he reflected he couldn’t remember the first time his daughter had come up in conversation. He had got mixed up and told her that his wife was dead and his daughter alive. He had got it the wrong way round and that was confusing him. How could he have got it so wrong he asked himself? This was one he thought he couldn’t get out of easily, but there was always a way he told himself.
She will have to be persuaded.

Marcia woke up early on that Friday morning, she nervously spring cleaned her apartment, despite it always being kept meticulously clean, she wanted it to be spotless when her new man arrived, she wanted the weekend to be special. She had work that Friday morning from 10.30 am until 5pm, as hard as she tried she could not get the Friday off; the landlady, Helen, only agreeing to Saturday and Sunday and that was only because of the recent trauma she had received. The weekends were her busiest times and Marcia was her best barmaid by far. Smithy’s train was due in at 2.30 and she so wanted to be there to meet him off the train, but she had given him instruction to catch a taxi to the bluebell pub in Hatfield, if everything went to plan he would be there by 3pm. Her morning ritual at work involved cleaning the tables and bar from the previous night and making sure the bar was in pristine condition for the customers; she opened the doors at 11am, not a solitary customer was waiting to walk in. The day was again sunny and warm, she pottered in the bar for 45 minutes, the landlady who lived above the pub had popped down on one occasion to make sure everything was okay and she had everything she wanted; she stayed chatting to Marcia for five minutes before returning upstairs to her home. Marcia poured herself an orange juice and was listening to the busses and the heavy Lorries passing on route to the town of Doncaster; when the first customer of the day came in carrying a large bunch of flowers. Momentarily Marcia mind back to when she was attacked and several customers had taken it upon themselves to send her flowers; she involuntary shivered at her reflection. The smiling face behind the flowers reassured her it was not a time of reflection, but to look forward. Hayleigh’s smile was as broad as it was long.

Hayleigh had spent the last couple of days in solitude, with just a bottle of red as her companion. She needed the time to shed her tears and to experience her own reflections and emotions before trying to rebuild her life. She had cut off contact to the whole world whilst she sat at home, ignoring any texts that she had received; she had looked at the senders and not even opened the message, she knew the rumours would be going around and she had no desire to fuel them; she felt she needed a new circle of friends now. She did open one message, it was from Cavan, he had simply asked if she was okay, she had replied with a smiley face, which was probably the only thing that made her snigger over those couple of days and nights. She had stayed off social network, surprisingly finding out how easily it was to live without it, she watched the soaps on TV but refused to watch anything else. It was her life and her life changer she was thinking about.

The solitude had done her some good that Friday morning she had awoken with a new found spirit. She needed to find herself a new home and a new life, she need to put the house up for sale on behalf of Dale, it was agreed she stayed in it until it was sold, she sniggered to herself when she thought he wouldn’t be needing it at the moment, he has a single suite at the local infirmary, it was his home and not hers, her compensation will be a sound one. She wanted to stay in the village of Hatfield. She arranged for valuer’s to call around on the Monday. She browsed property websites for houses for sale in her area, writing down a couple that she would like to review. That morning was the first time in days she had gone out of the house; she showered and dressed, turning herself into the respectable sexy lady that she was. One person who had been strong for her and was there when she needed her, needed a proper thank you, she made her way to the local flower shop buying an enormous bunch of flowers, laying a smaller bunch on her daughters grave before making her way to the bluebell pub.

“These are for you,” said the smiling face from behind the flowers, Marcia was taken aback and the look on her face showed it as she took hold of the flowers that were passed to her, she lay them down on the bar and noticed the warming smile on Hayleigh’s face,

“There lovely, but, why?” Hayleigh took a stool opposite Marcia,

“For not only being there when I needed someone, but for making me realise I did need someone, flowers are just a small token of my gratitude,” her voice sounded sincere and heartfelt, Marcia felt herself blushing,

“I didn’t do anything that anyone else wouldn’t have done,” she told Hayleigh,

“Oh but you did, and that makes you special, and I’ll always remember that,” Hayleigh sincerely replied, Marcia felt her eyes filling up, for reasons she wasn’t quite sure of, it had been an emotional couple of weeks for her and a simple act of kindness somehow made a life a lot better, Hayleigh took her hand across the bar, noticing her eyes welling up.

“Are you okay?” she asked her, Marcia’s face glowed as she wiped her eyes with her hand, she beamed a smile at Hayleigh,

“Everything’s fine, in fact it’s never been better, my new man is visiting me today and I’m feeling like a little girl,” she noticed Hayleigh’s eyes squint, “Oh it’s not Matt,” she added meekly, the smile and glow suddenly gone from her face,

“That’s good, because trust me, he’s bad news, I loved him once but trust me, that man is a whole lot of trouble, I found that out even more so this past week.”

Marcia poured her a glass of wine without Hayleigh asking, no money went into the till, Hayleigh took it and took a sip, her new resolution of cutting back on the wine, momentarily lost.

“Are you okay?” asked Marcia, her face now showing concern, Hayleigh toyed her usual habit of turning the glass in her hands, it was her way of suggesting she was in control,

“He put Dale in that hospital, don’t ask why as he deserved it, but the level of violence frightened me,” she involuntary shook at the thought of it,

“I think it was him who attacked me in the alley, I recall the distinct smell of aftershave, I refused to believe it, I didn’t want to accept it was him.” Hayleigh’s face looked shocked for a moment, then for reasons unknown to her, she found herself not surprised by this revelation. She took a small sip of her wine.

“And you went back for more?” she asked,

“It wasn’t like that, he was so nice, I didn’t believe it was him, but now he frightens me, I’ve told him to leave me alone, but I’m not sure if he will,” Marcia’s mouth remained open after finishing those words, temporary forgetting it was Matt’s ex-wife that she was talking to. Hayleigh recognised the look, the look of someone who thought they had just said a little too much; as if she had just pleaded guilty to some heinous crime,

“Relax,” she assured her, “If he gives you any hassle, tell me,”

“But what can you do?” she probed Hayleigh,

Hayleigh’s face grew quizzical, “I don’t know, but two heads are better than one,” she drank the rest of her wine and stood up to leave, holding Marcia’s hand in hers before she left,

“You enjoy that new fella of yours and see you soon,” she supposed, she left the pub at the same time as Marcia’s first real customers came in and ordered two pints of lager, she poured them with her usual smile, wondering what it was that was making her feel so fearful. Her thoughts rescinded during the next hour as she shared the usual banter with the customers, that tingling feeling of being with her knew found lover growing stronger and stronger as the minutes passed.

Her heart missed several beats when the television lookalike star walked into the bar of the bluebell pub at precisely 3pm. Marcia was serving along with the landlady, Helen the pub had become quite busy during the lunch hour and had thinned out now to about a dozen. Carrying his holdall and not sure what to do, Smithy just stood there looking at his love behind the bar. Marcia immediately stopped what she was doing and lifted the latch to greet Smithy. Helen finished serving the customer Marcia was attending to, her face breaking out into a broad smile as the two lovers hugged in the centre of the pub; amid the cheers of some customers who just loved to tease their favourite barmaid.

“Take a fifteen minute break,” Helen told Marcia, she asked smithy what he liked to drink, he replied “bitter.” And Helen brought both a bitter and fruit juice over to them as they took a seat against the back window. They both sat, nervous as to what to expect whilst embarking on this new relationship. There was a determination and a mutual attraction between the both of them to want to see it through. Marcia got Smithy another pint and left him to sit there as Helen went back up the stairs to her home. In between serving customers Marcia would sit down next to Smithy, where they would chat, falling in love more and more with each word that was spoken. It was whilst serving a customer, her heart went into her mouth as she saw who walked through the door.

Matt Conner had arrived home from Porthcawl only 24 hours earlier after having experienced an amazing couple of days at the holiday resort, with his future wife and co-author. The evening before he had got home and immediately settled down to read the second book in the charlotte series. He sat on his sofa as he read the last page on his kindle, throwing the piece of apparatus against the wall after he did so.

“That slut has killed her off.” He had said out loud, he had grown angry as he was reading the pages and the probable demise of Charlotte in the novel, he felt there was no way she would have survived the ferocity of the car crash. She had killed her off, Carla Reid had killed off his and hers future. It was never meant to end like this.

That evening he went to bed, where the nightmares resurfaced. First he was chasing someone in an alley, it wasn’t a long alley but it seemed to go on forever as his feet were taking him nowhere, the person he was chasing was also feeling the same motions, her feet taking her nowhere. There was never a catch in that dream, never an ending, just screams. Then he dreamt that he was in a beach house, it was dark and the moonlight shone through the windows, he was looking down at a beautiful woman lying there naked, she seemed to be experiencing her own nightmare as she tossed and turned before sitting bolt upright and screaming. That dream had ended there and awoken him. There were no further dreams, but he did dream of a little girl called Aimee, she was telling him something, she was saying to him.

“Let it go Daddy.”

He awoke in the morning and immediately showered, he stripped the dampened sheets from perspiration from the bed and replaced them with clean ones. He put the dirty sheets in the washer and cooked himself a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs with lashings of black coffee. He exchanged texts with Carla throughout the day, saying how much they enjoyed each other’s company, Matt always trying to persuade her to visit on the Saturday, Carla was indeed warming to the idea. His mind was in no real place at all as he sat down and wrote a further chapter of his novel ‘The Stalker.’ It was only when he finished his chapter and satisfied with his work did he decide on popping over the road to the pub for a well-deserved beer. His thought were not of Marcia, or Carla, neither were they of his ex-wife or daughter. The only thing he could think of was Charlotte’s demise.

Matt Conner smiled wickedly when he saw the shocked look on Marcia’s face,

“Can I have some dinner please?” he mocked as he walked up to the bar. Marcia could feel her whole body shaking, she glanced over at Smithy hoping to catch his eyes, but his eyes were fixed on the tele, he wasn’t really watching it, his heads were in the clouds and the throes of passion

“Please don’t,” she pleaded, “Just take a drink and sit down.”

“Wrong answer,” he mocked, “The correct answer should be ‘dessert’,” he leant forward, his face inches from hers. She let out an involuntary yelp. Smithy heard this and immediately woke from his trance to see a man leaning over the bar and the look of terror on Marcia’s face. He went straight over to where they were.

“Everything okay?” he asked, Matt turned straight around to see the chubby man next to him, he recognised his face immediately and for a moment was quite taken aback, “You okay love?” he added referring to Marcia. It was then Matt suddenly realised what was happening and put two and two together, he recalled Marcia saying she had met someone when they were together in Porthcawl. His shocked face changed into a wicked grin.

“You and her, ah I see now,” Matt proclaimed with a chuckle. Smithy recognised the man now as the man who was with Carla in his store. “It’s the manager boy.” Added Matt, Smithy’s eyes went from Matt’s to Marcia, he could see the scared look on her face and the fear in her eyes, and he looked again at Matt.

“There a problem here?” asked Smithy to both people, Matt gave out a laugh, and looked at Marcia who was stone cold with fear,

“There’s no problem here is there Marcia?” he said staring her straight in her face, amid her fear she replied,

“No, not at all,” Smithy could see how nervous Marcia had become and wanted to protect her.