Shattered Hearts

Chapter 10

Charlotte stepped into Louis's apartment suddenly feeling apprehensive. She should have insisted he drive her home but where had her good intentions got her in life so far? She watched as he switched a lamp on by the bedside, and a glance upwards showed her there was no bulb in the main light. The room was sparse, with the bare minimum of furniture and no sign of any personal touches.

"I'm sure I've got something we can drink," Louis said heading into what passed for the kitchen. "Make yourself at home."

She looked around, sitting down awkwardly on the edge of the bed. The place was tiny, with only a kitchen, bathroom and living area. She chastised herself for being critical, she was making do with a bedroom for her and Jamie at her brother Sam's house, and half of her belongings were still in suitcases under the bed.

"How come you've not moved back in with your mom?" she asked wanting to take her mind off her own living situation.

"I could ask you the same," Louis said handing her a drink. "Your mom's got a big house, your brother's place is kinda..."

"It's a shit hole, there's no need to try and sugar coat it," she said with a laugh. "The issue is my mom doesn't agree with me getting divorced, she thinks it's immoral."

"Seriously?" He shook his head. "My mom's just a pain in the ass, that's why I'm here. I can't stand listening to her yakking all the time."

She smiled taking a sip of god knows what from her glass. "I remember your mother was rather opinionated, much like mine is. To be fair, I didn't confide in her so she doesn't know how bad things were." Inwardly she groaned, thinking her misplaced sense of pride had made her life more difficult than it needed to be. "She thinks I'm having little more than tantrum and I should give Nick a second chance...I've given him loads of chances though. He'll always blame me for ruining his career and there's no getting around that."

"How so?"

"Marrying a student, it's frowned upon. It's one of the reasons we came back here. His promotion prospects were dead with that on his record or so he said" She sighed wondering if that was even true. "Anyway, eventually he agreed to transfer to somewhere where he'd have a clean slate but he still blamed me for his career stalling."

Amongst other things.

Louis sat down next to her. "That sounds like an excuse to me. Maybe he should have thought about that before he got involved with you in the first place."

She didn't miss the bitterness in his voice. "He should have but I suppose he wasn't that old himself." Louis looked at her incredulously and she fell back on the bed laughing. "Okay, I'm being stupid, he was older than I am now."

"Well, there you go," he said leaning over her. "It was his mistake, I'm surprised you'd put up with that bullshit for so long."

She bit her lip frowning. "Sometimes things happen and they wear you down until you're not the same person anymore." She sat up to take a sip of her drink, carefully putting some space between them.

"That sounds much like the army," Louis said with a small frown. "They break you down and then they mould you into the person they want you to be."

"So you do understand then." He'd understand more if she told him the whole story but she wasn't sure she wanted to. For now, she didn't want him to see her as a victim. "Why'd you even sign up anyhow?" she asked closing the space between them again.

"Honestly, I heard you got married." He shrugged taking a large swig of his drink. "I know that sounds absurd but I was just waiting around for you to come back, and once I knew that wasn't gonna happen..."