Chapter 6

SIX

FREDDIE

The second time Freddie met Charlotte, he was stone cold sober.

The pub her band were playing in was slightly more upmarket than the last one and he'd managed to get a stool by the bar with an uninterrupted view of the stage.

There was something about the way she played that made it clear how much she loved the music. How must it feel to be doing something that you loved that much? He'd lost interest in his Physics degree by the end of the first year and actively hated it by the time he'd graduated. Now he was about to start a Business MA at UCL followed by a future working for the family business, neither of which filled him with excitement.

When they finished their set, the three of them headed straight to the bar and Charlotte ended up standing right beside him. He took a deep breath. ‘That was great.'

She turned to him with a smile and then narrowed her eyes. ‘Have I met you before?'

For a split second, he'd wanted to lie. But if this was going the way he wanted it to, that wouldn't be a great place to start. ‘I offered you a drink a couple of weeks ago. In the Dog and Partridge. I was drunk.'

Recognition widened her eyes. ‘Oh, yes. The rich boys. No awful mate with you tonight?'

He shook his head. ‘No. Flying solo. I'm Freddie.'

She raised an eyebrow at the hand he held out but took it anyway. Hers was cool and soft, but her shake was firm. ‘I'm Charlotte.'

The red-haired drummer slid her wallet across the bar. ‘It's my round, but I need to go to the toilet.'

‘I'll come with you, Lucy.' The singer nudged Charlotte as she stood. ‘Give him a chance, Mother Teresa. Lift the ban for one night.'

They passed a knowing look between them, so Freddie had to ask. ‘What does that mean? What's the ban?'

Charlotte sighed. ‘Ignore Rachael, there's not a ban. I'm just focused on getting my degree finished this coming year and then saving up some money to go travelling with my so-called friends.'

She directed the last three words towards Rachael who stuck out her tongue and laughed, before following Lucy to the toilet.

Freddie twisted his pint glass in his hands. ‘I get it. I'm about to start an MBA this year, too. I've just graduated from Bristol. Where are you going travelling?'

‘South America. We think. Lucy is doing a lot of research.' She rolled her eyes. ‘What will you do after the MBA?'

He frowned into his pint. ‘We have a family firm. Business consultancy. I'll start an apprenticeship there next summer.'

She dipped her head to look up at him. She was so beautiful. ‘That doesn't sound like it fills you with joy?'

He didn't want to think about it, much less waste his precious minutes with Charlotte talking about it. He turned his smile into a brief grimace. ‘No, it doesn't. But it is what it is.'

Charlotte tilted her head to the side; it was taking every gram of self-restraint he had not to lean in to kiss her. ‘It's your life though. If you don't want to do it, you should do what you want.'

He could see her bandmates coming towards them from the toilet. It was now or never. ‘Speaking of doing what I want. It wasn't actually an accident that I was in here tonight. I'm not a stalker, I promise. But I did want to see you again. I made a complete fool of myself last time. And I wanted to ask you out for a drink.'

The two girls were back in time to hear the last sentence and they froze in place, staring at Charlotte. Without turning, she threw a beer mat at them. ‘I'm sorry for my friends doing some kind of tableau thing behind us. That would be great. Yes. I'll give you my number.'

The girls cheered and Charlotte laughed, her humour lighting up her eyes. He'd never felt like this about a girl before. He smiled at the chorus behind her. ‘You're a really great band. That was a pretty professional performance.'

The drummer with the short red hair pulled out a chair next to Charlotte. ‘Well, I hope you enjoyed it, because I think it'll be our last for a while.'

He looked to Charlotte for confirmation and she nodded. ‘Lucy's right. Rachael here has decided to break up with the guy who drives our van. Well, his van technically. Hence the problem.'

Rachael stirred the ice cubes at the bottom of her glass. ‘I'm sorry that I don't want to carry on dating a cheating loser just because he has his own transport.'

Charlotte raised an eyebrow and twisted the side of her mouth into a smile. ‘Lack of commitment, I call it.'

It can only have been the desire to please that made the words circumvent his brain and come straight out of his mouth. ‘I can get hold of a van. I could take you to gigs.'

Rachael raised an eyebrow. ‘Really? That would be brilliant. We have one booked for next week at the Red Lion.'

Charlotte frowned in suspicion. ‘Hang on a minute. Why would someone like you be driving a van? Don't you have the keys to Daddy's Porsche or something?'

He wasn't about to make her feel bad by telling her that his father had passed away a decade before so he didn't have a daddy, much less a Porsche. He held out his hands. ‘Well, I'm a man of surprises. What can I say?'

A couple of days later, there was definitely a look of surprise on Dominic's face when he told him he was buying a second-hand Ford Transit he'd seen advertised on Facebook Marketplace. ‘What are you doing? Buying a van? I'm assuming you're hoping to get her in the back of it.'

Freddie didn't want him speaking about Charlotte in that way. ‘It's not like that. I'm just doing her a favour.'

‘Yeah, right.' Dominic laughed, then his jaw dropped. ‘You've got it bad, mate. I can't wait to see the look on your mother's face when you take that van home.'

He had a good point. ‘Maybe I can leave it at yours? Your dad won't even notice it behind the barn.'

Dominic's father owned acres of farmland beyond the A12. They'd spent a lot of time there as younger lads, camping out and getting drunk. Dominic laughed at him and raised his hands. ‘Whatever you want, mate.'

He was a good friend. But Freddie would live to regret accepting a FaceTime call from Dominic as he walked up the path to collect Charlotte the first time.

‘So, did you pick up the passion wagon? What's it like?'

He turned his back on Charlotte's house and reversed the camera on his phone to show Dom the van across the street. ‘There she is.'

Dominic gave some kind of cowboy yahoo. ‘Looks good, mate. How long before you're going to have her in the back of it?'

‘Excuse me?'

He almost dropped his phone as he turned to see a woman who must be Charlotte's mother in the open doorway. ‘Sorry, I'm…er…I'm Freddie. I'm here to collect Charlotte for her gig.'

She folded her arms. ‘Are you, indeed?'