Thanks for all the reviews I've gotten so far, really been appreciated. Sorry this chapter has taken so long to be put up, I just found it hard to write it and express the emotions correctly and so it took really long. I'm not really sure if it's come out quite how I wanted it but I hope you like it. Please review, thanks!
Michelle got out of her car, this was it; things wouldn't carry on like this anymore, this situation was just far too silly and she was bored of the spending hours in front of her desk not uttering a word. She began to walk towards the factory with purpose, striding confidently towards the door.
However, as she got inside the factory her mood began to change. She really was not sure if she was making the right decision about all of this, despite having spent what felt like an age thinking through every detail of it intricately.
Instead of going straight to Carla's office to sort the mess out she backtracked, firstly going to the stock cupboard to put down the pink satin. "Coffee" she then thought to herself "I really feel like some and I'm sure Carla does too", but in reality she didn't really feel like coffee in the slightest and was pretty sure if she did drink it that it would all come back up again, even the smell of it was making her stomach turn. She stirred the mugs over and over before stopping, realising that if she stirred them any longer they would be cold and the factory workers would think that she'd either developed OCD overnight or had just completely lost it. She had completely lost it hadn't she?
She couldn't just stand around any longer, so she headed over to Carla's office, "No going back now" she thought to herself before taking a deep breath and opening the office door. She didn't realise that she'd absentmindedly forgotten the cups of coffee.
As she Michelle began to walk in she realised that Carla was on the phone, so closed the door as quietly as she possibly could behind her and stood with her back to it, waiting apprehensively for Carla to finish her call where they would have no choice but to talk. She fiddled self-consciously with her black locks whilst looking down at the floor, occasionally glancing around the room but still avoiding eye contact with Carla for as long as she could.
Carla put down the phone and turned to look at Michelle. "Michelle" she said "Nice of you to grace us with your presence again, you'd gone off for so long I thought you were so pissed off that you'd run off to never return and with the amount of work we have on at the moment it would have been more than a little annoying."
Michelle laughed feebly while chewing her lip nervously. "Did you get all the pink satin alright?" Carla enquired "'cos last time we ordered from them 'alf the material weren't the right colour and we had to return it."
Michelle nodded "Yeah, it's all alright as far as I know, you can check if you like, it's all in the stock room."
"Nah, I'm sure it'll be alright." Carla said as she looked back down to her desk to carry on with her work.
Michelle stood there, still in the same position she had been since she's entered Carla's office, she couldn't stand there hoping the right words might come for any longer. "Uhmmm Carla..."
"Yes, Michelle ..." Carla responded, vaguely glancing up from her desk, half paying attention.
"Uhmmm can I have a word with you ... about umm something... important" said Michelle edging over to Carla's desk, struggling to form a coherent sentence.
At this point Michelle had successfully grabbed Carla's attention, who now looked at Michelle in a demanding but slightly worried way. "What's this about?" she asked desperately wanting an answer but Michelle didn't have a clue where to begin.
Michelle sat on the chair in front of Carla's desk, facing her. She started talking at a million miles an hour convincing herself that if she said everything really quickly it might seem less horrific or significant. "Basically" she began "you know earlier this week, like a few days ago, Tuesday or something, when you had that meeting this on, the one which you hadn't written in the diary and then you went off to that..."
"Oh, I'm about to hear the explanation as to why you've been acting like a moody cow all week, aren't I?" Carla interrupted, starting to feel confused and a little more worried.
"Yeah emmm I don't know how to say this really..." Michelle said before backtracking "oh shii... sugar I left the coffee I made, it's going to be a little cold now, better go and get it" she continued starting to rise from her chair, any distraction to escape the situation she'd know gotten herself into.
But now Carla wanted to know, why was it that Michelle had been acting odd all week? When Michelle had returned to the office seeming less cold, she'd begun to think less of it and had thought that it had maybe been just a bad case of PMS. But now Michelle seemed to be acting even weirder than before, she seemed nervous and was trying to get out of the situation she'd just got herself into. What had happened earlier this week?
"Oh for God's sake Michelle!" Carla said feeling frustrated "forget the bloody coffee and spit it out."
Michelle had no choice but to reveal as to what had caused her change in behaviour "Okay, so on Tuesday, when you went out, you left your phone in the office and well it started to ring, so I thought I'd better check it in case it was the client trying to get hold of you before the meeting and you obviously wouldn't be able to get their call. So I picked up your phone and I saw it was Peter calling."
At this point Carla's heart dropped as she understood what Michelle had found out, she'd tried to keep it a secret but she was still unsure how Michelle had come to the conclusion they were together just from him calling her, after all Michelle knew Peter had helped her with her drinking problem. But as Michelle continued the story, it was soon clarified for Carla.
"I did wonder what Peter wanted but I put the phone down and let it ring to voicemail. But then you got a message saying you'd got a voicemail, and well, well I guess curiosity got the better of me and I well ummm listened to it I guess." Michelle didn't need to go into it any further; she didn't want to actually say it out loud because it made it real.
Carla laughed sombrely "And then you found out I was having a sordid affair with Peter."
"Yeah" Michelle admitted weakly. There was silence as neither of them knew what to say, there had clearly been betrayal on both sides and they were well aware of this. While Michelle had intruded on Carla's privacy by listening to her voicemail messages, Carla had kept Michelle in the dark about her and Peter's relationship which didn't seem right considering how close they were, best friends even.
Carla broke the silence. "Well, that explains a lot then..." she said "look Michelle, I could hardly tell you considering the trial and all that, the less people that know the better."
Michelle stared blankly at Carla, not revealing any sort of emotion or saying anything.
Carla continued "And I mean look at the way you've reacted, you can hardly blame me for keepin' it quiet, can ya?"
"I know that but ..." Michelle began but was interrupted by Carla.
"I know what you're going to say, that it's wrong what we're doing. What about Leanne? Why do I always go for the men who are taken? Married even. I don't go out to be a homewrecker, I didn't plan for it to happen, it just did. We tried to fight it but we couldn't. I love him!"
She loved him, of course she did, and unfortunately it was obvious. Michelle really didn't know how to how to respond to it. "I see" she replied to show she had heard what Carla had said but nothing more.
"What do you want me to say Michelle?"
Michelle continued to stare blankly into space, "I dunno."
"Why were you looking at my phone anyway?"
"I guess something clicked when Peter called, I realised something wasn't quite right. I understood what had brought a smile back to your face these past few weeks, who it was that had brought a smile to your face for that matter. It wasn't me that's for sure." Michelle sighed.
"Oh 'Chelle, your efforts haven't gone unappreciated. You've been great company and cheered me up you know, sorted out the factory and helped me get up on track, I'm eternally grateful. But yanow, Peter's just made things that extra bit brighter. I don't really know what else I can say ... I mean we're planning on telling people after the trial, can we just carry on as normal until then? I don't really want another week like this one."
Michelle couldn't just let things carry on without doing what she'd promised herself she'd do whilst she'd been in the car contemplating. "No Carla, I don't think we can 'just carry on' and pretend I don't know or that it's just all okay. I really need to tell you something." She said looking down at the desk in front of her.
"There's something else?" asked Carla, not really knowing what to expect.
"Yes" replied Michelle crazily gnawing at her own lip, pausing for a while.
"Just say it then" Carla said pleadingly, wanting to get this all over and done with.
"I really don't know how to say this" Michelle began, she had been restraining herself from crying for the most part of their conversation but she was now at breaking point. She inhaled deeply and swallowed trying to fight the inevitable but tears just began to roll down her cheeks.
As Carla saw this she became even more confused, "Michelle?" she asked forcing eye contact with her, while getting up in attempt to comfort her.
Carla leaned forward to brush away Michelle tears but Michelle just pushed her away "Get off me" she said forcefully.
With that Carla backed off "Look Michelle, just fucking tell me what this is all about."
"It's about me and you and the fact that well living together has just made me feel as if maybe..." Michelle said while staring into space, stopping as she choked on her tears. She attempted to start again "that I've started to develop these feeling for..." she stopped again not being able to bring herself to finish that sentence. She began to sob again before finally exclaiming "Just thinking about you and Peter together makes me feel sick."
There was silence as Carla tried to make sense of it all, was Michelle really trying to say what she thought Michelle was. "What the hell Michelle?" she said, "Are you saying that you well ... fancy me?"
Michelle sat uncomfortably on her chair not able to say anymore, but nodded her head admitting it.
Carla was shocked to no end, "Oh my god..." she really had no other words.
Michelle felt so humiliated, she knew she'd told herself that it was what she had to do, that she couldn't keep it a secret any longer but the reality of it all seemed far too much. She had hardly expected Carla to reciprocate her feelings but the look that Carla was now giving her made her want to crawl into a hole and die. She picked up her handbag off the desk and her coat of the hanger and stormed out the door and out the factory.
Carla hadn't meant to make Michelle feel so stupid, after all she was flattered, Michelle was fucking gorgeous and one of the loveliest people she knew, but she shocked to no end. She'd never seen this coming, as Michelle wasn't like that was she? As Michelle ran out the office she tried to call after her. "'Chelle, please come back, we need to talk about this."
But it was too late, Michelle had run off. There was an eerie silence in the factory as all the workers had witnessed Michelle storming off, make-up running down her face. However, this was quickly replaced by the noise of the workers gossiping, coming up with various theories as to what might have been the cause of what had just happened, none of them true, obviously.
"And I thought that things couldn't be any more messed up than they already were" Carla thought to herself "quite clearly not." How had things become this messed up? She comforted herself with the fact that she was due to meet Peter in an hour and that always made her day but not two second later did she receive a text from him saying "Really sorry Carla love, can't meet up this afternoon, I tried my best to but it's just not going to be possible darling, ttyl. Love you Peter".
"Great" Carla said to herself as she got back to work on her computer, trying to figure out how she'd ever sort her life out.