Thank you all so much for your feedback and I apologise for how much I'm putting our girls through! But have a little faith...!

Chapter Eight

"What do you think you're doing?" Joey shrieked, pushing away from Lauren in horror.

"I thought that's what you wanted," Lauren protested, catching hold of Joey's hand.

"No. What I want is to be with Charlie," Joey insisted, pulling away. "That's all I've ever wanted."

"I'm sorry," Lauren said weakly.

Joey got to her feet, stress threatening to overwhelm her.

"I'm going for a walk," she said.

"I really am sorry, Joey. We just got our wires crossed," Lauren apologised.

"Yeah… just… don't worry about it. I'll be back later."

Joey hurried away.

***

Charlie sat on the beach alone, running through the images of Joey and Lauren in her head. She felt sick. She wasn't a stranger to being treated badly in relationships. She'd been cheated on more than once. Then there was the whole Roman disaster. He'd held her at arms length and never made her feel as cared about as she wanted. But Joey had changed all of that. Charlie had never felt so loved in all her life. Up until all this overtime business, she had believed they were perfect. Their relationship had been passionate, loving and caring. They had always communicated, always been able to make each other laugh, they challenged each other intellectually and they loved each other deeply. Or so she had thought. She couldn't help but wonder what had made Joey betray her like this. Was there something lacking in their relationship that Charlie hadn't noticed? Or was Lauren just more special than she was? Part of her wanted to charge back over to the boat and have it out with both of them but part of her hung onto the hope that perhaps it had been a trick of the light, that she was mistaken somehow. Standing up, she decided to go back to the boat. She was determined not to yell. All she wanted was to speak rationally to Joey. Even if she had kissed her, Charlie wasn't sure that she could walk away from her. The idea of Joey wanting someone else hurt beyond the telling of it but losing her would be worse. Nodding to herself, she swore that they could work through it. She'd do anything to make Joey love her again.

***

Joey was walking across the sand in a world of her own. Lauren's lips had touched hers for less than a second, but did that mean she had cheated? She couldn't bear the thought of being unfaithful to Charlie. The only person in the world she wanted to kiss for the rest of her life was her. And she cursed herself for not seeing it coming. Charlie had been telling her about Lauren's intentions all along but Joey had been determined to remain oblivious. She felt terrible that she hadn't protected Charlie's feelings in all of this. All she could picture was how she would feel if she was in Charlie's position. Guilt kicked in. She reached into her pocket for her phone, intent on apologising, and cursed loudly when she realised she'd left it on the boat.

***

Charlie jumped on board and found Lauren sitting alone. She noted the bottle of wine and thought how cosy the set-up had been.

"Where's Joey?" she demanded.

Lauren didn't look too surprised to see her. She smiled.

"She's gone for a walk. Would you like some wine?"

"No, wouldn't like some wine. I want to see my girlfriend," Charlie snapped.

Lauren stood up.

"I don't think she's your girlfriend anymore, Charlie."

"Until she tells me that, I'll reserve judgement," Charlie replied fiercely.

"Would the knowledge that she and I just kissed confirm it?" Lauren asked, smiling triumphantly.

Charlie clenched her jaw. Images swarmed her mind. She swallowed back the lump aching in her throat. Lauren stepped closer, cocky and confident.

"If you just kissed, why isn't she here?" Charlie challenged.

"She needed some air. Breaking up with you isn't going to be easy for her. But I'll help her get over it."

"Joey isn't going to leave me," Charlie said, hoping that uttering the words aloud would make them come true.

"She has the most amazing lips, doesn't she?" Lauren said. "So soft and gentle and yet so passionate. It was amazing."

Charlie clenched her fists tightly as Lauren wandered away. Joey's boss turned back and grinned.

"She really is incredible. I can't wait to go below deck."

***

Joey felt a wave of panic hit her as she approached the boat in time to witness Charlie launching herself at Lauren. She broke into a run just as Charlie's fist connected with Lauren's face.

"Charlie! What the hell are you doing?" Joey yelled, reaching them.

She pulled the brunette away from the blonde and glared at her. Charlie looked stricken.

"Well?" Joey demanded angrily.

Hurting or not, assaulting her boss was definitely the wrong thing to do. Charlie faltered, not quite sure what to say. Both women glanced at Lauren who was pinching a bloody nose.

"What were you thinking?" Joey yelled.

"You didn't hear what she said to me!" Charlie finally burst out.

"I don't care what she said to you," Joey replied sternly. "You just punched my boss in the face. How could you?"

"Joey…"

"I don't want to hear it," Joey snapped, nudging Charlie towards the side of the boat.

Charlie reluctantly allowed herself to be led. She felt wounded when Joey told her to leave. Numbly, she climbed back onto the wharf and watched Joey hurry over to Lauren to help clean up the mess.