Free With or Without You by Helen Warner

.’ He sighed, knowing he was in trouble.
    When she had finished coughing, Louisa came back on the line. ‘What did I say to you yesterday? Don’t
sleep
with her! And then I open the paper to see you both leaving the
hotel with her wearing your clothes. For Christ’s sake, Charlie! How the hell did that happen?
    Charlie took the opportunity of another coughing fit to buy himself some time. ‘It’s not at all what it looks like,’ he said when she eventually stopped spluttering.
    ‘You know she’s married?’ continued Louisa, as if he hadn’t spoken at all. ‘And she’s got kids?’
    ‘Yes.’ Charlie tried to sound more patient than he felt. He would have quite liked to have spent the day in bed with Martha, so it was annoying that he was getting blamed for
something that he hadn’t done. ‘I know she’s married. Which is fine because nothing happened. If you must know, her husband had ironed her dress and put a bloody great hole in it,
so I offered her my clothes to change into to save her the embarrassment of travelling home again showing her knickers.’
    Louisa burbled with laughter. ‘Seriously? Oh my God! Poor Martha. She must have been
mortified
!’
    Charlie grinned to himself at the memory. ‘You could say that. She locked herself in the loo and wouldn’t come out until I came up with the idea of offering her my t-shirt and
sweatpants.’
    ‘Oh Charlie!’ Louisa cried. ‘What a sweetheart you are! I’m sorry for doubting you. Of course you didn’t sleep with her. As if!’
    ‘Yeah, as if!’ Charlie replied, feeling uncharacteristically annoyed with Louisa, who he loved and trusted.
    ‘Well, that’s a relief, I must say,’ she continued, unaware of the effect her words were having on him. ‘It could have got really messy if something had happened between
you—’
    ‘Well, it didn’t,’ Charlie cut her off sharply.
    ‘OK, OK! So did you arrange your next meeting?’
    ‘No, I thought you would have done that.’
    ‘I would, but I’ve been laid up in bed feeling like crap, thanks for noticing. Why don’t you give her a call? You can apologise for letting her get papped wearing your
clothes.’
    ‘It wasn’t my fault!’ Charlie protested.
    ‘No, but you should have known they’d be there. Not that I’m complaining. As long as there’s nothing going on between you, and we don’t have some irate husband
going to the papers, it’s not bad publicity to have you linked with someone mysterious . . .’
    ‘Makes me sound like less of a loser, you mean?’ But Charlie’s tone was amused rather than cross. He knew Louisa was only doing her job, which was to make him look as good as
possible.
    ‘Oh, Charlie. No-one would ever think of you as a loser.’
    ‘Hmm,’ Charlie replied, before bidding Louisa goodbye and hanging up. Louisa was probably right. No-one would think of him as a loser. Except himself. And that was probably the worst
person of all.
    He searched through his contacts list until he came to her name. Butterflies began to dance in his stomach as he tried to summon up the nerve to call her. His thumb hovered over the name. It was
just a call to someone who was very much taken; he had no need to be nervous. But he was.
    He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins and his mouth suddenly felt dry. He just needed to press on the name but his hands were trembling and he wasn’t sure he could. He
thought back to yesterday, remembering her throaty laugh and the sexy huskiness of her voice as she talked. Finally, the urge to hear that voice again overtook him and he pressed
‘Call’
.

Chapter 9
    The first thing Jamie heard was the sound of retching from upstairs. Mimi looked up in alarm from her bowl of cereal. ‘It sounds like Mum’s being sick,’ she
said.
    Jamie cocked his head and listened. ‘Oh, poor Mum.’ He turned on the tap so that the water would run ice cold. He took a glass from the cupboard and filled it, before taking it up
the