I do not own any of the Coronation Street or Any of the Music mentioned.
It was almost half past eight at night and Carla Barlow (or Connor as she insisted on being called these days) was still working in the office of her factory; If you call drinking half a bottle of wine on an empty stomach working that is. She stared at the computer screen in front of her wondering why the wine had not had an effect on her yet. She almost felt nothing as she downed the rest of her glass and sighed a heavy sigh.
Her world had come crashing down around her when she found out that her husband had an affair with the babysitter, She was then murdered that same night and Peter was arrested for the murder. Everybody thought it was Peter and even she had to admit at first she was convinced it was him. It was just as she began to start feeling normal again that another revelation came and blew everything apart, Her own brother was caught with the murder weapon, He was arrested and it had all ended up with Peter being released from prison… Yesterday
Carla had been up since six am that morning, she had told herself, her flat was too hot to sleep in but deep down she knew it was because of Peter and the thought of seeing him again.
She didn't want to see him and she was sure he wouldn't be up that early anyway, yet she still found herself going through her wardrobe carefully and in the end she had selected a pale pink vest, which she'd tucked into a black high waisted skirt. She decided to skip tights all together because if she was honest she quite liked her legs and she didn't show them off as much as she should do. Carla looked at her self in the mirror satisfied that if she were to see Peter at least she'd look her best and she could show him just what he had thrown away by cheating on her.
As she made her way to work Carla spotted her best friend Michelle coming out of the corner shop carrying 2 pints of milk. Michelle wolf whistled, as her friend got closer
"Oi oi" She said kissing Carla on the cheek "Where you off to looking like that" Carla smiled
"I'm just going to work Chelle" She said Michelle looked at her friend her brown eyes squinting slightly in a dis believing fashion
"You sure?" She joked, "You not trying to impress anyone who might happen be around today?" her eyebrows were slightly raised as well now, she knew her friend very well
"Nope" Carla said beginning to walk away from her friend in the direction of her workplace not wanting to get on the subject of her husband
"Mmmmmhmmm" Michelle nodded "Right well have a good day babe, text ya later" She said calling after Carla and walking towards the pub that she lived in.
Carla crossed the road and got an approving nod from Luke who worked at the garage next to the factory as she made her way towards him
"Looking good Miss C" he said smirking, as she walked up the steps to the door. She enjoyed the attention from Luke, even though he'd ended turning her down a while back, it made her feel good about her self, he treated her like a woman unlike everyone else who had seemed to be treating her like some sort of victim.
As Carla walked into the building her main priority was to act like the fact that her husband was now back on the street and only a few yards away didn't affect her in the slightest. So she ignored all the obvious looks and whispers that came from her employees as they sewed away on their machines but by the end of the day she was sick of the sight of them and sent them all home half an hour early. Her personal assistant Sally was less enthusiastic about leaving and hung about for a while, much to Carla's disgust but even she eventually got the hint and left leaving her boss alone in her office.
Carla tried to ignore the bottle of wine that a potential client had given her during the week but she felt it calling her name and even though she knew it wasn't a good idea, given her history with alcohol, she found the bottle had been opened within the hour.
No sooner than her third glass of wine, Carla had also found it was way too quiet in her office, she rifled through her desk draws sure there were some cds somewhere in there as Peter had always insisted on buying them because he could never get to grip with iTunes and downloading music.
Eventually she pulled out a few cds that were not even in cases She took the one off of the top, tutting as she did so because that was another bad habit her husbands not putting anything back where it belonged.
Without looking at it she put it into her computer, it soon began to play and as Emeli Sande's voiced filled the air of her office Carla felt the tears prick her eyes. This album had been one that Peter had bought for her she listened to it non stop and had all sorts of memory attached to every song. For a moment she contemplated turning it straight off but she shook her head and decided that she was going to keep it on, Sure the words that came out of the speakers wouldn't have any affect on her what so ever.
"I wanna sing, I wanna shout, I wanna scream tillthe words dry out, so put it in all of the papers, I'm not afraidthey can read all about it"
Carla thought for a moment and laughed silently to herself. She had always prided herself on the fact that couldn't care less what people thought about her but she knew that wasn't so true anymore. She truly didn't care if people thought she was maybe cold hearted or that she was a bitch. In fact she loved that she had that effect on people but it was if people thought she was stupid for not seeing Peter for the lying cheater that he was or even worse than that if they felt sorry for her, That was what she couldn't stand. She didn't want their pity or their sympathetic looks from across the pub. It was bad enough that her marriage had come to an end in such a public way, There was no way she was going to let them see her defeated which was the reason why she made sure she was on top form today.
The album continued to play and Carla did try her very best to keep her mind on her work but the more it did the more she could relate to the words being sung
"But don't ever question if my heart beats only for you, it beats only for you"
There was no point even trying to deny that she still loved Peter, Of course she did. Carla thought she would get some closure and that she would be able to slowly get over him because he was in prison, out of sight out of mind, But he was now just across the street from her and it she knew she had been so naive to think she would be able to get over him easily if ever for that matter.
She should have turned of the music there and then but she was determined to remain in control and had somehow convinced her self making it through this album was a test and if she could do it without falling apart everything would be okay.
The next song started to play as she began typing an email to a client and at first she was able to remain focused and calm it was only when a song called Mountains began to play that Carla had stopped typing. She gulped as she remembered how this was her favourite song off of the album and she'd often play it for Peter, saying she felt it was written about them and how together they'd be able to achieve anything.
The tears made their way furiously down her cheek and by the second verse Carla had given up trying not to cry and put her head in her hands on the table sobbing as the song continued to echo through the factory.
She was still crying when there was a loud bang on the door of the factory. She looked up sniffing as the music played, She chose to ignore it and rested her head on the table.
Whoever it was would go away eventually she was sure it was probably just Sally being irritating as per usual or it would be Michelle probably checking in to see if she was working late again. Another knock interrupted the music, only this time Carla sat up properly and began to wipe the tears away.
The next bang on the door made her get up and walk to the door of her office, she swayed slightly the wine was obviously taking some sort of effect on her at last. As she peered out of her office at the front door she squinted trying to see if she could make out who it was.
She couldn't so she sat down on one of the machine chairs hoping the person at the door had gone home and given up. Only they hadn't and there came another few knocks and then some more. She rolled her eyes and stood up
"For god sake" she muttered taking a quick glance in her reflection to make sure her waterproof mascara had done the job because who ever it was, was going to get a mouthful for sure, who did they think they were knocking on the door of her business like that.
"Uh I bet it's that Sally Webster" Carla thought as she pulled the door open
It wasn't her personal assistant, it was husband.