Free Strictly Love by Julia Williams Page B

Jeez, he stank like a brewery.
    ‘Sorry about that,’ said Emily, shamefaced.
    ‘No problem,’ said John, ‘but you're hot to trot, and he's a wanker. What on earth is a babe like you doing with a twat like that?’
    What indeed
, thought Emily, as she made her way back upstairs.
What indeed … ?

Chapter Six
     
    ‘You're going away
again
?’ Katie sat and faced her husband across the table, laid with her white damask cloth, their Royal Doulton blue and white wedding china, their poshest Sheffield steel cutlery, a vase full of freesias and daffodils and two scented candles.
    ‘Needs must,’ said Charlie, tucking into the steak Diane that Katie had lovingly prepared. ‘This is jolly good, by the way. I have to go. The takeover is turning out to be trickier than we thought. In fact,’ he paused, as if uncertain as to what to say next, ‘you may not like this, but there's a distinct possibility that I might have to be permanently in Amsterdam for a while.’
    ‘No!’ Katie put down the glass of Chablis she was sipping and stared at her husband in dismay.
    ‘I'm afraid so,’ said Charlie. ‘So we'd better start looking for schools and things.’
    ‘Woah!’ Katie stood up and looked at him. ‘Charlie, one thing at a time. When you say you have to be there for a while, how long is a while?’
    ‘Six months – a year tops,’ said Charlie.
    ‘Don't you think,’ Katie tried to choose her words carefully, knowing how capable Charlie was of twisting them, ‘you might be jumping the gun a bit? We can't just pull the kids out of school. It will be so disruptive for them. When are you going?’
    Besides,
a little voice was hammering insistently in her brain,
we tried living abroad as a family before, and it was a disaster. And you promised …
    Charlie had relocated once before, in his previous job, and Katie had had to leave the job where she had met and made friends with Emily. She probably would have done so eventually anyway as she had found it increasingly difficult to manage a career and two young children, but having the decision forced on her hadn't helped. Katie had gone on to spend a miserable year in Frankfurt with a five-year-old and a toddler. She didn't speak the language, had no social network and found the other English wives dreary beyond belief. When he'd seen how unhappy it had made her, Charlie had switched jobs and sworn he'd never put her through that again.
    ‘Oh, I didn't think of that,’ admitted Charlie.
    ‘No, you never do.’ Shock and disappointment – that her romantic evening was being tainted by the prospect of changes that could only make her home life worse – made Katie's response more acidic than she'd intended.
    ‘What's that supposed to mean?’ Charlie looked belligerent.
    ‘That you only think of what you need and want, and forget about the rest of us.’
    ‘Don't be ridiculous,’ he said. ‘Why do you think I work the hours I do, if not for the family?’
    Great. He'd done it again. He could always get her there. Charlie had always worked incredibly hard for them. Now Katie felt guilty. But she was still angry. How dare he just waltz in and assume they would all up sticks without a by-your-leave?
    ‘I know,’ said Katie, ‘but I don't want to live abroad again. It was bad enough last time, and now we‘ve got
three
kids. It's okay for Molly, she won't know the difference. But the boys have all their friends here. You can't expect them to uproot themselves.’
    Charlie seemed to take a step back.
    ‘So what do you suggest?’
    ‘I don't know,’ said Katie. ‘Why not try commuting? you'vebeen away more than you've been home recently anyway. And if it's not for long, I'm sure I can manage here.’
    ‘I'll think about it,’ shrugged Charlie. ‘It's not definite yet anyway.’
    ‘Oh good,’ said Katie. ‘That's settled then.’ But later, as she followed Charlie into the lounge and cuddled up with him to watch TV, she couldn't help dwelling on it. Neither