A Proper Charlie Read Online Free PDF

barefoot into the small kitchen. The flat had no dining room, just a sitting room with miss-matched furniture, a bedroom and a tiny bathroom. She placed the groceries on the kitchen table, flicked on the kettle and opened her fridge. She stood back to observe the contents: an open tin of spaghetti hoops, peach yoghurt (always the last to go), some green looking ham and a half carton of milk.
    She grabbed the ham and sniffed it.
    ‘ You’re definitely heading for the bin.’ While the kettle boiled, Charlie put her shopping away. Shopping for one never consisted of much.
    Charlie took out the opened tin of spaghetti hoops and forked the contents into a dish, which she placed into the microwave. She put two pieces of bread in the toaster, and headed into her little sitting room. She switched on the TV and channel hopped until she found a station covering the news. She wanted the latest on the prostitute abductor.
    The microwave pinged and she went back to prepare herself tea and hoops on toast. Settling on the settee with her dinner, she listened intently for any information on the missing women but the newsreader switched to pictures of the night sky. A comet was apparently going to be visible by the naked eye tonight, side-tracked by a subject that fascinated her Charlie watched.
    Her intercom buzzed. She stared at it in annoyance but it only buzzed again. She put aside her food, turned the TV down and answered it. ‘Hello?’
    ‘ Lottie!’
    It was Andy. She buzzed him up, happy for the surprise visit, and when he entered a couple of minutes later she threw her arms around him and kissed him soundly.
    ‘ Missed you,’ she said, and he struggled in her embrace.
    ‘ Careful Lots,’ he said, smoothing his clothes. ‘You’ll crease the shirt.’
    She pulled away and looked him over. ‘Hmm, you look nice. Oh, crikey, should we be going out tonight?’
    ‘ Not “we”, darlin’,’ he said in his cockney drawl which had attracted her to him from the beginning. He had exaggerated the accent to impress her, trying to hide his Birmingham intonation, but she had never noticed until Melvin mentioned he ‘spoke funny’.
    ‘ I’ve got a deal on. I’m going to make us lots of dough, darlin’. Paul’s coming over to discuss it, like. Could you make yourself scarce, hun?’
    ‘ Scarce? I’ve a lot to do tonight. I’m writing an article on prostitutes,’ she said. She had to tell someone! ‘It’s going to be brilliant.’
    ‘ That’s nice, hunbun. But can’t you do that some other time?’
    ‘ But –’
    Andy pouted like a little boy. He put his hands on her hips and brought her forward. Forehead to forehead, he said, ‘This deal is the difference to us buying our own place, know what I mean?’
    ‘ Our own place?’ she breathed, her heart flip-flopping in her chest. ‘Oh, Andy! I thought… I thought you… oh, never mind!’ She moved forward to kiss him, but he broke contact.
    ‘ And that’s why, hun, I need this place to myself. The deal’s worth a bit, know what I mean?’ He winked. Andy was in-between jobs – and had been for several years. Instead he ducked and dived (his words), thinking up scams for easy money. Nothing illegal, he was always quick to assure Charlie, although he could never meet her eyes and she was too much in love to question him.
    ‘ Why can’t I stay in? I’ll not say a word, just sit in the bedroom working on my laptop.’ But he was shaking his head and stepping away as she spoke. He bent and picked up a slice of her toast and hoops, and Charlie watched as it disappeared down his throat.
    ‘ Can’t be done, Lots,’ he said between swallows.
    ‘ OK,’ she said, and he broke into a smile. ‘How long will you be?’
    ‘ Shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. Three at the most.’
    She must’ve looked hesitant, because Andy pouted and wheedled, ‘You’ve promised now.’
    ‘ OK,’ she said as the last of her dinner ended in his stomach, ‘but you owe