BUTTERFLIES FLY AWAY Read Free Page A

they had on occasion squeezed in a lot
more than that.  Folding french doors opened up to give the room more
space onto decking and the outdoor area of the back garden.  Lastly again
the kitchen was decorated in glossy white with the cabinets concealing the
dishwasher and fridge.  A small utility room to the side containing all
the washing essentials.  An island station with the hob but room enough to
sit around on the bar stools as they did many a morning to have their coffee or
read the weekend newspapers.  It was a sociable kitchen.  A space
where they could entertain but not lose the flow of the conversation with their
guests.   Carrie had her own TV room downstairs to retreat to when
Rob was watching sports or just when she wanted to catch up on a book or a
little me time.  This room reflected more of her personality decorated in
a French provincial style of creams, greys and white.  The sofa you could
sink into with a small foot stool that ran the length of the sofa.  A
large window gave views of the back garden, lending light into the room in the
spring and summer.  When Rob travelled she would sit in this room rather
than the large living area.  On the bureau she had an assortment of
photographs displayed.  A visual timeline of their life, well so
far.  
    Rob was a sales director at AGM and one of the
founding members of the company she had now left or was that fired from? 
She hadn’t figured that bit out yet.  They met at a training day of all
things and she thought him, sporty, a bit arrogant and just a little bit too
old for her.  At 5ft 6’ she was average height neither petite nor tall,
long brown hair that she wore poker straight with a blunt fringe and clear grey
eyes.  But he told her later that she had curves in all the right
places.  They were quite opposites.  Not her usual type at all.
    He was stocky built from playing rugby towered above
her at 6ft 4’ tall.  Her head would rest on his broad chest and he would
wrap his arms around her.  He had muscular arms that made her feel so safe
and secure.  She missed that feeling so much.
    She had only been working with the company for a few
months and didn’t know who everyone was.  People looked different from the
company profile pictures dressed in their casual clothes.  At break time
she grabbed a coffee and sat at one of the tables unaware that she was sitting
in the ‘management zone’ and chatted away with the directors.  Completely
oblivious to the looks being given in her direction by the rest of her
team. 
    She didn’t know but back then Tina had marked her
card “Watch that one … thinks she’s better than us … sitting over there with
the big bosses.  Not a look in our way.  Does she think she’s too
good to sit with us?”
    Team Building events were hellish and after trying
to build egg box towers and debate who you would rescue first in the event of a
moon crash landing she was ready to go home and soak in the bath.  Somehow
she ended up agreeing to a date with Rob.  They had made a connection over
egg box towers whilst she had tried to glue drinking straws together to make a
raft and avoid gluing their fingers together.  How this contributed to
team building she never knew.  She looked into his blue eyes, eyes that
were always smiling and said yes to a date.   There was no going back
from then.
    She liked going out with her friends, getting
glammed for the evening attired with fake bake, nails and even lashes. 
She only wore one layer of lashes as she didn’t want to look like two spiders
had landed on her face despite the attempts of her friends to add more.
 But she was only 23 years old almost 24 and he was ancient to her in her
reasoning; well 35 when they met.  But there was something about him that
made her feel giddy even more so than normal if that was possible.  Somehow
they clicked and very soon Carrie and Rob were an official grown up
couple.  The real deal was the general consensus