Week 22: Moving on

"You're two batches short," Carla said, her gaze flickering from the clipboard in her hand to Kylie as the packer worked to secure the boxes that had just been checked. "Cartwrights are expecting this lot delivered in…" she checked her watch. "Less than an hour!"

"Yeah, the thing is–"

"I'm not interested in excuses, Kylie. I'm interested in people doing the jobs they're paid to do. It's not a big ask, is it?"

"If you'll just–"

"Right, who was responsible for these batches?" Carla demanded, running her finger down the paperwork, searching for a name.

"It was –"

"Sean and… Sal. Where are they?"

"But Car–"

"Here we go, doll face," Sean said as he sauntered into Packing, pushing a rack full of bras in front of him. "Oh, hi, Mrs C, I didn't see you there."

"What's this?" Carla asked.

"The rest of the Cartwrights order," he said, nonplussed as he glanced from Carla to Kylie. "Did Kylie not tell you?"

"As I was saying," Kylie said, her eyebrows raised. "We were waiting on a last-minute delivery of care tags."

"Which we've just sewn on," Sean concluded.

"So now I'm going to pack them into these boxes," Kylie added. "And then Kirky–"

"That's me," Kirk said as he ambled into Packing from the loading dock. "The van's ready by the way."

"Kirky here," Kylie concluded. "Is going to drive them straight over to Cartwrights."

"Right," Carla said. "Since you've got everything under control, I'll, umm… I'll leave you to get on with it."

Carla jumped a little at the sound of her office door slamming shut. She looked up and saw Kylie standing there, glaring down at her.

"You need to go and talk to Nick right now," Kylie pressed her. "Sort this out once and for all."

"Excuse me?"

"Because if I have to put up with you in this mood one second longer, I'm gonna…"

"What?"

"I'm gonna… give you a good… shake. Both of you."

"Why?" Carla asked. "What's Nick said?"

"Nothing. He's gone all broody and silent. I'm not sure which is worse, Nick at home sulking or you here biting everyone's head off."

"I am not–" Carla cut herself off, knowing her protest would be a lie. "So, he hasn't mentioned me at all?"

"How can ya tell?" Kylie shrugged. "Haven't got much more than a grunt outta him since that night."

"Do you think he wants to–?"

"Go!" Kylie commanded. "Now."

Carla rapped on the bistro office door and gently pushed it open without waiting for a reply.

"Hey," she said, poking her head around the door to see Nick sat at the desk, working on the restaurant's accounts.

"I'm busy, Carla," Nick brushed her off brusquely, barely even looking at her before refocusing his attention on the paperwork in front of him.

"You can't spare me five minutes?" she asked. "I mean, it's not like you've got a full dining room or owt."

"Which is why I need to make the most of this quiet time to get the accounts done, before I'm needed front of house. I thought you'd understand that, what with being a so-called businesswoman."

"Excuse me?"

"Okay," Nick said with a resigned sigh as he turned to face Carla. "What do you want? Is there something wrong with the baby?"

"What? No. Of course not."

"Good. Then we've got nothing else to talk about."

"We could talk about how you proposed to me," Carla suggested hopefully.

"You turned me down, remember?"

"Just because I don't want to marry you–"

"I know, Carla."

"Know what?" Carla shrugged, confused by Nick's cryptic words. "Honestly, Nick, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I know you were only with me because of the baby."

"I never said that."

"You didn't need to," Nick's eyes narrowed with contempt at the memory. "Your best mate told me everything."

"My…" Carla's brow furrowed. "Who?"

"Peter."

"Peter told you I was with you…"

"Because of the baby."

"That's not true."

"Why did he say it then? Hmm?" Nick sneered. "Carla!"

But Carla had gone; she stormed out of the office with a violent slam of the door and hurried down the cobbles on a new mission, not one of reconciliation, but one of confrontation and accusation.

"Love, I'm going for a fag while it's quiet."

"Hmm?" Leanne murmured, glancing up at Peter from where she was sat working in the bookies office.

"Smoke," he said, holding up the packet of cigarettes he was holding in his hand as proof of his intentions. "Can you keep an eye on the shop?"

"Yeah, sure," she muttered, immediately focusing her attention back on her work.

Peter watched her for a moment before turning and hurrying around the counter and out through the empty bookies shop.

Ting a ling a ling

The front bell rang as he opened the door and stepped out into the fresh air, where he was immediately grabbed by the arm.

"Hey!" he shouted. "What's–?"

"Shhh!" Carla hissed as she dragged Peter out of sight of the bookies, before shoving him up against the wall.

"Carla, what the hell? What is wrong with you?"

"You!" she rounded on him. "You're what's wrong with me."

"What have I done?"

"What have you done?" Carla laughed bitterly. "He has the nerve to ask what he's done."

"You are so infuriating! Just tell me what I'm meant to have done."

"You told Nick the only reason I was with him was because of the baby."

"Oh…" Peter faltered. "Well… he was asking for it."

"He was–?"

"He was taunting me," was Peter's childlike excuse.

"So you decided to drop me in it?"

"If you think about it," Peter flippantly, and unwisely many would say, tried to reason with her. "I actually did you a huge favour."

"How do you figure that?"

"I was honest with him when you couldn't be. You'll thank me in the long run."

"You are so arrogant," Carla sneered. "Thinking you know what's best for me."

"In this case, yes."

"For future reference, keep your nose outta my business."

With a final shove, pushing Peter back hard against the wall so that he winced from the force of the impact, Carla turned on her heel and stormed away from him.

Leanne sat silently at the desk, listening to Peter's retreating footsteps, to the ting a ling a ling of the bell as the door opened and closed, until she was certain she was alone.

Picking up her phone, she quickly placed a call.

"I'm busy, Lea," Nick said as he answered the call. "What do you want?"

"I want to know if you've made a decision."

"You can't expect me to make a decision like that without knowing for sure that I'm the father."

"Forget about the baby for a minute," Leanne urged him. "You know you've got no future with Carla."

"That's not true," Nick interjected. "You've got the impression that I don't care about her. But I do. I really do. I love her."

"Do you love me?"

"You know, sometimes I think you and me, we romanticise the past. Believing that first love is something magical, an irrefutable sign written in the stars that two people are destined to be together."

"Are you saying it's not?" Leanne asked. "That falling in love with someone at such a young age won't stay with you forever?"

"I'm saying people change."

"You mean, you've changed."

"Last year, I believed with all my heart that we were going to be together, that it was our destiny. I had no doubt about that, not one ounce. And then you went back to him."

"That's not fair, Nick. You know what I went through, what Peter went through. I couldn't…"

"You could have, if you'd really wanted to."

"What do you want me to do?" she asked. "I'm not going to apologise for loving Peter and Simon. Not then and not now."

"You admit you still love him?"

"Of course I love him. It's just… He's been so distant lately. I feel…"

"Sounds like it's your husband you need to be talking to, not me."

"Nick, please."

"Goodbye, Leanne."

"When's mum gonna be home?" Simon called out to his dad from his comfy spot on the sofa.

"Soon, mate," Peter replied as he stirred the contents of the saucepan that was bubbling away on the stove.

"Where is she?"

"At work."

"Why?"

"Because there was a late meeting at Taunton."

"What's for tea?" Simon readily changed the subject.

"Sausages, mash and beans," Peter said. "Is that okay with you?"

"Hmm…" Simon made a great show of considering his dad's offerings before responding. "Depends. What's for pudding?"

"Umm… I think there's a bit of ice cream left in the freezer."

"No there's not," Simon disagreed. "Mum scoffed that last night. You'll have to go to Dev's."

"Is that right?"

"Yep!"

"I'll make you a deal," Peter suggested. "If you clean up your mess from the dinner table I'll think about it."

"Aww, but dad."

"Now."

"Hmmpf!" Simon snorted as he dragged himself off the sofa and grudgingly began to clear the assortment of toys, books, and random odds and ends that were scattered across the dining table.

"Hellooo!" Leanne called out her greeting as she stepped over the threshold only to be immediately accosted by Simon who ran up and threw his arms around her affectionately. "Well, this is a nice welcome."

"Mum, dad said we can get ice cream from Dev's if I cleaned up and look, I cleaned up, so can we get ice cream from Dev's? Please, mum. Please."

"Ahh…" Leanne looked across at Peter and shrugged.

"It's alright," Peter said, switching off the stovetop and grabbing his wallet. "This'll keep for a coupla minutes. Why don't you relax and I'll pop over to Dev's."

"Sure," Leanne agreed, turning to Simon as Peter hurried out of the door, the sound of his footsteps soon fading as he tripped down the stairs. "So, Si, what did you learn today at school?"

"Dunno," the lad shrugged, lugging the last of his belongings from the table and into his bedroom. "Finished!"

"Nice work."

"Can you read me a story after tea?"

"Yeah, of course," Leanne promised.

"Yes!" Simon celebrated, wrapping his arms around Leanne and giving her a big hug. "You're so much better than dad at reading stories."

"Aww, your dad's a good reader."

"No one like you," Simon declared, tilting back his head and staring up at his mum with a broad smile on his face. "You're the best."

"Oh, Si," Leanne murmured, rumpling his curls affectionately with her hand. "I love you, you know that, don't you?"

"Yeah," Simon nodded in the security of his simple belief system. "I love you, too."

Nick tapped on the office door and gently pushed it open. "You work too hard," he observed.

"Yeah, well," Carla glanced briefly up at him. "Keeps my mind off things."

"Like what?"

"Like the fact I hurt someone I care about very deeply."

"Anyone I know?"

"You, you muppet," she said with a smirk. "I've been thinking about why I turned you down."

"And?" Nick shrugged. "What pearls of wisdom did you come up with?"

"Only that my reaction was more about me than it was about you."

"Don't tell me," Nick laughed ruefully. "It's not you, it's me."

"It's true though," Carla protested. "It was about Paul, and it was about Tony, and yeah, it was about me. Me not giving you a chance. But I realised I can't judge you based on my past experiences. And, as for being with you only because of the baby…"

"Yes?"

"Look, I'm not gonna lie and say that wasn't a big part of why we got together in the first place. But that was months ago and, as this little one…" Carla rubbed her belly tenderly, "…has grown inside me, all I've wanted was to love him, and protect him. And being in a relationship that's not right, that's just gonna hurt him, innit? The best thing for him is for me to be in a relationship with someone I…"

"Someone you…?" Nick coaxed her.

"Someone I love."

"Do you though? Love me?"

"Yes," she replied in earnest.

"Carla," Nick's tone was pleading; he needed to hear the words from her lips.

"I love you, Tilsley."

"I love you too."

"And…" Carla added with a grin. "If you wanted to ask me a certain question again, my answer would definitely be different."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Alright then," Nick laughed nervously. "Do you, I dunno, do you want me to get down on one knee again?"

"No," Carla shook her head. "I don't need gestures, Nick. I just need to know what's in your heart."

"What's in my heart is the desire, no, it's a need, the need to spend the rest of my life with you and our boy. Marry me?"

"Good night, sweetheart," Leanne whispered, gently closing the book she had been reading to Simon and placing it on the bedside table before kissing him softly on the forehead. "Sleep tight."

She padded softly to the bedroom entrance and turned to gaze at Simon for a moment, reflecting on the pure and innocent love this little lad had for her, before switching off the light, leaving his sleeping figure bathed in the luminous glow of the night light.

"Two books," she said to Peter as she re-entered the living room. "Two whole books before he dropped off."

"Smart kid," Peter said. "Knows how to keep your attention."

"Listen, can we have a talk?"

"Oh, Lea, I'm really shattered. Can we do this another time?"

"No," Leanne shook her head determinedly. "It has to be now. Please, Peter, it's important."

"Okay," Peter sighed, resigned to his fate. "What's up? There's nothing wrong, is there?"

"Quite the opposite actually."

"Well, go on," Peter urged her to speak. "Don't keep me in suspense."

Leanne took a deep breath and, taking Peter's hand in hers, smiled at him.

"I'm pregnant," she revealed. "We're having a baby."