Chapter Three

Charlie was up early the following morning. She paced her hotel room and contemplated waking Ruby up in the next bed but decided against it, realising it was probably too early to bother her. She headed towards the shower, stripped off and climbed inside, enjoying the refreshing, hot water. By the time she'd got out, dried herself, dressed and wandered back into the main room, Ruby was awake and perky.

"So, are you excited?" she asked.

"Try terrified," Charlie corrected her.

She could hardly believe that Joey was actually giving her the time of day, let alone lunch. Everything was resting on the time they would spend together today.

"Let's get some breakfast," Ruby suggested. "I'll knock on doors and get the others and we can make sure you fill your time between now and your date with Joey."

Charlie smiled and nodded gratefully. She really did have the best sister in the world.

Charlie was a bag of nerves by the time she was meant to meet Joey. She was early by fifteen minutes and was hovering outside the restaurant, not able to prevent herself from looking around, desperate for her first sight of Joey. She only had to wait a couple of minutes before Joey, dressed in combats and black vest top, began to approach. Their eyes met across the street and both women tried to smile through their nerves. Charlie took a breath as Joey got closer. She had no idea what to say.

"Hey," Joey started meekly. "How are you?"

Charlie just nodded, feeling completely incapable of talking, which really wouldn't help the situation, she knew.

"Should we um, maybe get take away?" Joey suggested. "Then we could talk in private."

Charlie nodded again.

"Okay, Charlie, if we're going to talk this through, you need to open your mouth."

"Sorry," Charlie managed, swallowing hard.

Joey smiled gently. She led her ex-girlfriend inside the restaurant.

"We could go to my place," Joey said when they were outside again.

"That'd be great," Charlie agreed readily.

Talking at Joey's home would be more personal and intimate. With nobody around to interrupt them, they could talk freely and hopefully actually get somewhere.

"I'm just five minutes away," Joey told her. "Work's put us up in little bed and breakfast."

She began walking along the beach front. Charlie fell into step beside her, clutching their food, uncertain of what to say.

"So, how was the trawler when you were on it?" she asked, attempting to make conversation.

"Yeah, it was fine. Much better than... you know, before," Joey told her. "Although, anywhere would be better than that. But, I've made a few friends and the work's been challenging and interesting. My boss is pretty cool."

Charlie smiled, pleased for her.

"How about you?" Joey asked. "Has the shark thing been big in the Bay?"

"You have no idea!" Charlie groaned. "VJ found a hand in the sand and then Hu..."

She trailed off.

"What happened to Hugo?" Joey asked stiffly.

"He um, he got attacked when he was out diving," Charlie said, cursing herself.

They had finally been beginning to relax with each other and she'd had to bring up the guy she'd cheated on Joey with. Nice move.

"Was he severely maimed? Maybe the shark bit something off?" Joey asked hopefully.

She smiled to let Charlie know she was joking. Sort of. Charlie didn't know what to say so she just shook her head.

"Did you give him TLC?" Joey asked, stopping walking and staring into Charlie's eyes. "Because if you did, we're not having this conversation."

"No!" Charlie protested. "I worked his case. I haven't been spending any time with him, I swear. To be honest, I haven't been spending time with anyone."

Joey continued walking. Charlie hesitated, unsure of whether Joey still wanted her around. Joey gestured for her to carry on walking too.

"So, what have you been doing aside from being a hermit?" Joey asked, sounding friendlier.

"Just working," Charlie said. "Trying to keep the town from murdering Angelo."

"Angelo?" Joey asked, surprised. "Isn't he guy that killed Martha's husband?"

"Yep. He's back."

Joey shuddered.

"So, you have to protect him?"

"I'm the only person who'll give him the time of day," Charlie said. "And it's not that I want to; it's just that he's here to work the shark attack case and needs space to do his job."

"Sounds heavy."

Charlie nodded.

"Other than that I've mostly just been working out, reading, watching mindless television and walking around in a day dream," Charlie admitted.

Joey nodded. She had been using most of her down time for pretty much the same things. Those and staring for hours at Charlie's photograph, listening to the songs on her iPod that reminded her of her lost love and crying herself to sleep.

"This is it," Joey said, stopping outside a small bed and breakfast.

She led the way to the door and let herself in, guiding Charlie up two flights of stairs. Inside, the room was small and immaculately tidy. It considered of nothing more than a bed, a shower that was so en-suite that it was still in the room, a sink and a little chest of drawers.

"Sorry I don't really have anywhere to sit," Joey apologised, setting the food down on the chest of drawers. On top of it was a kettle, some cutlery, mugs and glasses.

"That's fine," Charlie said.

Joey took their food and began to serve up, taking some plates from a shelf above her. When she'd finished she saw Charlie hovering awkwardly by the bed.

"You can sit down, you know," she told her, offering her the lunch they'd bought.

Charlie flushed and perched on the bed. She watched Joey climb over to relax against the pillows, leaving space for Charlie. After some hesitation of whether she was overstepping the line and reading too much into Joey's actions, Charlie crawled over to sit beside her. Tension wracked her body. Joey gazed at her, not wanting to ask the question that was on her lips. Finally she took a breath.

"Why did you destroy us?" she asked.