Louis had tried calling Charlotte all week but either the phone went unanswered or her brother told him she wasn't available. He couldn't believe that his mom had made a formal complaint, he could well imagine her chuntering under her breath, but to put pen to paper? No, after they'd recently had words, he'd realised her animosity towards Charlotte was exaggerated, it was her doubts about his ability to be in a relationship with a single mother that was her biggest concern. 

"Just when I was getting somewhere," he grumbled to John over a drink after work.

"Maybe it's for the best," John said. "It gets you off the hook." 

Louis looked at him blankly. "How so?"

"Do you really wanna take her on?" He stubbed his cigarette out. "I'm not gonna speak badly about her but if you guys get together properly it won't be all moonlight and roses."

"I don't see the problem."

John gave him a long look. "She dumped you cos of some poison pen letter. What happens when you have a real problem?"

He shook his head wearily. "But this is Lottie all over. She gets an idea in her head and that's it, she won't listen. Bottom line, I think she's scared."

"You could be right," John said taking a sip of his drink. "But maybe she doesn't want to be with you and you're not taking the hint."

Louis looked at him through narrowed eyes. "Are you talking about me or yourself?"

John paused, studying his drink. "Both of us I guess. I always had a soft spot for Ros, even after we split up. I've always sorta thought that if things had worked out differently with Darlene we'd have got back together." He took a swig of his drink. "Which is plain dumb. Ros doesn't want me and she never has."

"Well if that's the case with Lottie, she can tell me straight," Louis said. He drained his drink and seeing it was still early decided to go see Charlotte and have it out with her.

                                                            ~~~

Charlotte was at a loose end, her brother was working the night shift and Jamie was with his dad. Idly she looked through the property pages; her divorce would be concluded shortly and she wanted a place of her own as soon as it was. She had to focus on the future and stop thinking about Louis, she'd known all along it was a mistake to get involved with him. And to think she'd seriously contemplated that they could be together, talk about stupid, it was impossible. At least the complaint to the principal had brought her to her senses. She heard a familiar knock at the door and steeled herself to be firm.

"I'd guess you'd better come on in," she said to Louis, stepping to one side.

"We need to talk," he said urgently. "I'm not going to let you end things over something so stupid."

"You don't get to tell me what to do." She gave him a hard look. "I don't want to be with you period." He visibly flinched and she turned away so she wouldn't waver.

"You're lying," he said. "Only a week ago things were going great. I'm not going to let my mom, Nick or whoever wrote that letter, ruin it.'"

She rolled her eyes "No one is ruining anything, this isn't going to work out." A lump rose in her throat and she reminded herself how much worse she'd feel if a year down the line, he was saying this to her.

"Oh come on," he said and she could hear the frustration in his voice. "We split up once before because we didn't talk things through, if you want nothing to do with me then you'd better tell me exactly why this time."

She laughed without humour. "Seriously? I've told you a million times. You'd best leave now." She turned away and he grabbed her arm.

"You want to dump me cos of a stupid letter? You're being irrational."

"Irrational?" She spluttered with indignation. "Wow, first Nick, now you. You think I'm crazy too."

"No, I never said that." He reached for her hand, and she saw his eyes flit to her wrist before he quickly looked away.

She snatched her hand back as if she'd been scolded, her cheeks flaming. "You knew?" she asked her voice shaking.

"Yeah, but I only heard recently. I kinda suspected anyway since you're either scratching your wrist or hiding it." He let out a deep breath. "Why didn't you tell me? Why won't you let me in?" 

"God will you just let up," she snapped folding her arms across her chest. "You don't have any right to know. Why do you think my life should be laid out bare for you to dissect?"

"I don't," he said after a pause. "But it's a pretty big thing to keep to yourself."

"Is it? Is it bigger than why you were discharged from the army? That's kinda unusual, I mean there's nothing much wrong with you or is there?" She glared at him and he remained silent. "See I'm not the only one with secrets."

Louis met her eyes, his face expressionless. "I got injured, and I was in rehab for a while. They didn't think I'd make a full recovery but I did."

She rolled her eyes, where was the emotion, the anguish?  "So that's it, is it? Well, maybe I want to know exactly what happened." He broke eye contact but she pressed on regardless. "How did it make you feel? Wasn't it kinda humiliating that your comrades were still fighting and you'd wriggled out of it? Is that why you laid low for so long? Is that why you turn the news off when anything about Vietnam comes on?"

"Why are you saying this?" he asked dejectedly.

"Cos that's pretty much how you've treated me these past few months, constantly digging, prying, wanting to know more." She tried to hold onto her anger but she was already regretting her words. "However, unlike you, I've had enough respect to wait for you to tell me about your past in your own time."

"Yeah I guess you're right," he admitted with a heavy sigh. "But I only wanted to know cos I care about you." 

She scoffed. "You've never cared about me, not deep down. You wouldn't have let me dump you all those years ago if you had." Even now it hurt that he'd let her end their relationship so easily.

"I told you I was stupid. I tried calling and I never got through. I thought we'd sort it out when you came home in the summer." He shrugged. "Sorry, I know that's pathetic."

"But you could have written," she said and then fake laughed. "No stupid me, you barely wrote when we were together." She let herself remember how upset she'd be when she checked her mailbox and there was only a letter from her mom. "You know, you made me think we'd be together forever and then as soon as I was gone you couldn't wait to see other girls. God, if it wasn't for you I'd never have got together with Nick."

"You wouldn't have got together with Nick if you'd loved me in the first place," he snapped startling her. "Don't put this all on me. If you were as broken-hearted as you say, you wouldn't have rushed into his arms."

"I was on the rebound!" Her cheeks heated up, as she remembered how foolish she'd been. "I thought you loved me."

"I did."

"But I saw you with another girl. You'd never have gone out with anyone else if you had loved me."

"It was your idea," he said falteringly. "I didn't do it to hurt you."

She made a huffing sound. "All I know is, I saw you with another girl and I knew we were over. So I got together with the one guy who appeared to like me. All because of you."

"That's not fair." He glared at her angrily. "Why don't you take some responsibility for your own life instead of blaming everyone else for your mistakes." Outraged she went to slap him and he intercepted her hand easily. "If you're gonna hit someone at least do it properly," he said lowering her hand.

"Please go," she said, unable to look at him. "I don't need this."

"I guess I don't either," he said subdued. "I'll see you around, Lottie."

He left and she sat down feeling wretched. She knew she'd said some terrible things, she didn't mean half of it, but it had to be done. The principal was right, she had to be careful with the choices she made. It wasn't fair but she'd learnt to accept that a long time ago. Even when her divorce was finalised she'd have to tread carefully, as a divorcee she'd still be the subject of gossip, maybe even more so.

                                                                      ~~~

Thank you for reading, please consider voting.