Chapter 50
When she got up the next morning Christian had
completely vanished, there was no sign of life at all in any of the rooms and
so she could only presume that he had stepped out to clear his head.
Thinking that it sounded like a good idea Mel
quickly threw on her comfiest joggers and set out for a run. Slipping out of the front door she began to
do her warm up stretches on the doorstep.
Since living with Christian she had become so conscious of the way she
looked, he was obviously really into pretty slim girls and she had to live up
to his criteria if she was to keep her man.
Bending right down to the floor she touched her
toes and held the position for a moment or so, closing her eyes she breathed in
deeply and brought herself back up again.
Just as she opened her eyes to begin another stretch a sudden flash went
off in front of her.
Looking all around in confusion, she was just
beginning to think she was imagining things when another one went off in
exactly the same direction.
Curiosity getting the better of her she walked
towards the flashing bush and came across a man with a large camera grinning at
her sheepishly.
“What are you doing?” she asked in confusion.
“My job,” he replied with a cheeky confidence that
shocked her.
“Well can you go and do it somewhere else please?”
she asked.
He laughed and took another snap. He was cocky, arrogant and confident, dressed
in a sharp suit with a huge cheesy grin.
It didn’t seem to matter what she said to him he just continued to carry
on snapping.
“So you’re the new girlfriend then are you?” he
asked, suddenly whipping a notebook out from his oversize pocket.
“No,” she said firmly, trying to walk past him and
start her exercising.
“So you were the girl that stole Christian off his fiancé?”
She ignored him and began to jog off at a slow
pace, she was annoyed to see that he had decided to jog beside her.
“Want to tell your side of the story?”
“Not really!” she retorted, turning on her walkman
to try and drown him out.
“Are you in love with him?”
She ran faster, hoping that sooner or later he
would lose interest – he did, but it was a good 10 minutes later, when she was
just about sick of trying to fob him off with one word answers. By the time she got back to the flat she was
fuming, banging open the door she stomped into the kitchen to find Christian
sat at the table, his head in his hands.
“Where have you been?” he asked.
“Being stalked by paparazzi,” she snapped.
“What were you doing out there by yourself?”
“Aren’t I allowed to step outside my own house?”
she asked.
“You have to be more careful,” he replied, “you can’t
just come and go as you please anymore.”
“Great!” she said sarcastically, taking the towel
from the chair and wiping her face.
“Where have you been anyway?”
“Jogging”
“Jogging?” he asked in shock, standing up and
coming towards her.
“Yeah jogging”
“Mel, you’re pregnant, you can’t just go around
jogging,” he said in exasperation.
“I’m fine.”
He sank back down into the chair, “the world’s gone
nuts,” he declared.
“Eh?”
“You,” he explained, “you’re not treating yourself
properly, you’re not putting on weight and every time I try and ask you if you
are OK, you try and make me feel like an idiot.”
“I don’t,” she replied, “I just know my own body
that’s all.”
“I’m only worried.”
“I know, but you have no need to be,” she replied,
“everything is fine, I’m fine, the baby’s fine and there is nothing to worry
about.”
He sighed and rested his head back in his arms,
“everything is such a mess.”
“Is this about last night?” she asked gently,
stepping towards him.
“Partly,” he explained, “I feel awful about what
happened.”
“You don’t need to, I like having sex with you.”
He smiled at her and she blushed slightly.
“I wish I could actually remember it,” he admitted
it.
“Things are that awful?”
“Yeah, I told you, I just go into autopilot, I
don’t really have much clue of what I’m doing.”
“It’s going to get better,” she said, slipping her
arms around his neck, “everything is going to be fine and you will be happy
again, I promise.”
“I’m not sure it can be,” he said sadly, “I’m not
sure who I am anymore.”
”We will find you again, I promise.”
He gave her a weak smile and her heart bled for
him, she was so overcome with emotion that she knew what she needed to say,
taking a deep breath she leant down towards him and whispered directly into his
ear.
“Christian I love you”
He looked at her with surprise for a moment.
“Pardon?”
“I love you,” she said, still only a little louder
than a whisper.
He paused for a moment.
“Thanks”
She hugged him, she wasn’t concerned that he hadn’t
said it back, she knew that in time he would, at least he now knew how she
felt.
“Let’s tell everyone,” he said suddenly pulling
away from her.
“Tell everyone what?”
“About the baby,” he smiled, “I want everyone to
know.”
“You mean tell our families?” she asked
“Yes, and the press.”
The colour drained from her face immediately and
she grabbed on to the chair, suddenly feeling very faint.
“Mel!” Christian snapped to attention, “you OK?”
“Just a bit dizzy,” she replied, in somewhat of a
daze, “you sure telling the press would be a good thing?”
“Yes,” he replied firmly, “it’ll help to get them
off your back.”
She felt too weak to protest and before she knew it
he was on the phone to Hello magazine.
“So life is good then?” Mark asked as he walked
beside Mel.
“Yeah great,” she replied enthusiastically,
“everything is fantastic.”
“And you’re proving me wrong,” he smiled at her.
“Yep, that’s my ultimate aim, to make you eat every
negative word you said.”
“I only did it cos I cared,” Mark insisted.
She laughed at the serious tone to his voice, “I
know.”
They were walking down
“Right, bag check,” he said suddenly, completely
changing the subject. Picking up Mel’s
arms he examined the various bags hanging off her hands, “only three, you need
much more than that.”
“I know,” she groaned in response.
“A girl complaining about shopping?” he exclaimed.
“I wouldn’t normally,” she protested, “it’s just
that this isn’t as fun as I thought it would be.”
“You not looking forward to doing this Hello
magazine shoot?”
“Not at all, don’t really want to be the next Posh
and Becks.”
He chuckled at her comment, and pulled her along
the pavement faster, singing a little cheery tune as they went.
“You can’t complain really,” he said as they
reached Selfridges, “he’s given you a ton of money.”
It was true, that morning in the kitchen Christian
had pulled a huge wadge of cash from out of his wallet and given it to her.
“Yeah to buy outfits for this stupid shoot,” she
grumbled, “it’s all so fake.”
“I’d love to do Hello,” Mark continued to chatter,
trying to make light of the situation.
“You wouldn’t, it’s so cheesy and it dooms your
relationship.”
“Says who?”
“This article I read, it said that 90% of married
couples split after doing a Hello magazine shoot.”
“But you’re not married.”
“Is beside the point,” she grumbled back, refusing
to let him win.
“I’m surprise he’s even doing it really, it’s not
his kind of thing,” Mark continued as they weaved their way in and out of the
designer trousers.
“ Think he just wants to get the baby announcement
sorted,” Mel said absent mindidily as she ran her fingers over the material on
the racks.
“How is baby?”
“Fine, thanks.”
She quickly moved to the next rail of clothes and
absorbed herself in picking out various items and looking at them carefully,
she could feel his eyes boring in to her.
“You’re still a size 10?” he screeched loudly as he
watched her picking up a top.
She hastily put it back and shrugged her shoulders.
“You sure everything is fine?” he asked, “it’s just
that me and the lads were saying the other day that you don’t seem to be
getting much bigger and …”
“Great!” Mel snapped in response, “more of you on
my back – Im fine.”
His face fell.
“Sorry, pregnancy mood swings,” she explained,
putting the top down and grabbing hold of his arm, “think I’m in need of a
sugar fix.”
He didn’t object as she pulled him the whole way up
to the tea room and they sat down for a hot chocolate.
“Why do I feel like such an idiot?” she asked,
glancing around at her surroundings.
Everyone else in the tea room was at least 50 and
dressed in checked shirts, cardigans thrown over their shoulders with pearls
adorning their necks.
“I belong in Top Shop, not in here.”
He chuckled to himself, “you are sweetness and light
today.”
She smiled at him, “sorry Mark, I’m not very
company today.”
“It’s OK,” he said sincerely, “I’m enjoying
myself.”
“That makes you a very odd man.”
He laughed and took a sip of his drink, while she
sat looking at him, thinking to herself.
“Mark?”
“Yep?”
“Would you mind if I did a bit of shopping by
myself?”
“Course not,” he said, and got up immediately,
bundling up the few bags that he had.
“Just need a bit of Mel time that’s all,” she
explained.
He was so sweet, he didn’t need to be asked twice,
he gave her a peck on the cheek and left obediently. She watched him leave, gave him a few minutes
and then quickly left Selfridges, she knew exactly what she wanted to do with
the rest of the money. Running out into
the street she found the nearest Anne Summers store, and checking that no one
was looking snuck in through the door.
She had never been in a shop like this before, and
blushed red the second she entered it, the walls were adorned with types of
underwear she never knew existed. Quickly
darting past the very daring section she headed straight for a rack of pretty
looking underwear. It was all so cute,
pink, lacy and gorgeous – she loved it all, the only problem was what would
Christian like? She knew she needed
something, the kind of girls he slept with wore pretty underwear like this and
if she didn’t have any how was she ever going to keep him?
Settling on several different pretty items she paid
for them and darted out of the shop.
Christian was just going to die when he saw here in these.