CHASING TROUBLE

Caroline Anderson scrunched a face at her appearance. Should she leave her hair down or pin it up? Yes, to the former and yes to some under-eye concealer. Her skin had become so pale and the rings under her eyes so dark she resembled a corpse. The black dress she’d chosen to wear only enhanced the effect, a point reinforced when her sister, Elsa, who’d come to visit for the week, walked into her dressing room and burst into laughter.

“I suppose funeral chic beats aubergine chic.”

“Don’t,” Caroline muttered. Only vanity had made her return the aubergine-coloured dress. It had clashed horribly with her hair. This black dress, though horrendously unstylish, was marginally more flattering colour-wise.

Elsa stood behind her, wrapped her arms around Caroline’s waist, groped for her hands and rested her chin on her shoulder. Their eyes met in the mirror. The contrast between them had never been so stark. Elsa shone with good health and happiness. Her eyes, though, brimmed with concern.

“Are you okay, sis? You don’t look well.”

Caroline opened her mouth to assure her sister all was well but the lie refused to form. “I can’t do this.” The words expelled in a puff.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

A line cleaved Elsa’s brow.

“I can’t marry attend this party with Glen,” she whispered, and squeezed her sister’s hand tightly for support as the truth of her feelings, which had swirled inside her like steadily thickening soup for so long, suddenly solidified into truth. In a stronger voice, she said, “I can’t keep going out with Glen,” There. She’d said it. Finally admitted it. “You were right.” Her spine straightened and her lungs inflated as she spoke. “I keep thinking about what you said the other day about us not not being compatible and you’re right. He is not the man for me, and I don’t think he wants to be a father to Charlie. They don’t have any connection,”

Her relationship with Glen was very much one of convenience and she was tired of trying to connect emotionally with him. They had gone on dates and although she liked him, she had tried so hard to make herself attracted to him, but it still wasn’t happening. Glen had asked her out so many times and she’d finally agreed to go out on dates with him, but now she could see that he wanted them to make a real commitment to each other in their relationship, and she wasn’t ready for it. In fact she found out that she didn’t want to keep trying. She couldn’t.

She felt like she was leading him on in a relationship that was going nowhere. Even Elsa had noticed that it wasn’t working since she met Glen and now Caroline thought it’d be best to end it before anyone got hurt.

Slipping her hand from Elsa’s, she rubbed her forehead. “What am I going to do?”

“End it.”

“I know that. I mean how am I going to end it?” She stepped closer to the mirror and stared at her reflection, stared at the ugly dress her subconscious had chosen for her. Her gut had known before she did that she couldn’t continue her relationship with Glen.

“Call him. Do it now,” Elsa urged.

She found a smile. “I can’t break up with him an hour before the office party. That would be like poking a hornets’ nest. What if he acts crazy in front of everyone. I don’t want any personal drama unfolding in the presence of everyone including my boss,”

“Well, don’t wait too long,” Elsa warned.

“I won’t,” she promised. Now her mind was made up, she’d do it as soon as possible. She managed another small smile. “Although, with luck, this dress might make him decide to end it.”

Leaving the dressing room, Caroline walked through her bedroom then tiptoed into the dark adjoining nursery.

Her heart swelled as she peered into the cot. Her son, her heart, her life, was fast asleep, his little chest and podgy belly rising and falling. She kissed her fingers then gently placed them to his silky-soft cheek. How could anyone look at this child and not feel the compulsion to love and protect him?

The swelling of her heart sharpened as she thought of her son’s father. Nicholas.

Hot tears stung the back of her eyes and she hurriedly blinked them back before kissing Charlie’s face. The thought of him lived as an ache in every beat of her heart. She’d never told him about the pregnancy or his baby… Not even his father, Frank Connelly knew about it. She never saw the point of telling him… Didn’t want him to think that she was trying to trap him or stop him from leaving. Besides, she’d decided to keep the pregnancy when she found out, so everything was all on her. After taking a moment to compose herself, she left the nursery through the main door and knocked on the door opposite.

Elsa opened it and she was grateful that her sister had come to visit. Elsa loved Charlie dearly and was always happy to babysit whenever she could.

“I’m leaving now,” Caroline said, wringing her fingers together. “Can you check if the baby monitor’s working for you?”

The room Elsa was staying in was so close to the nursery she’d hear him sneeze before the moni-tor picked it up.

Although Caroline trusted her sister, she hated being parted from her son. Since his birth, she only left him when she was going to work, some evenings, and a few hours here and there when it had been absolutely necessary for her to be present in person. Her mother had been around for the first six months and now that she’d gone, Caroline was still adjusting.

“It’s working fine.” Elsa held the baby monitor to her ear. “I can hear his breathing.”

Caroline resisted the impulse to yank the monitor from her hand and listen for herself. She knew she was a paranoid mother but she defied anyone to walk in her shoes and not be the same. “You promise to call if there’s any problems?”

“There won’t be any problems but I promise.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,”

“There’s no rush, so take your time.” Elsa gave a wide, sympathetic smile. “Enjoy the party,”