Fragile Cord Read Free Page A

she did every morning, making sure she was in early
and one of the last to leave, just to show she was committed. His
days were relaxed and flexible, so he got to spend more time with
Ben too - another sore point. Her job paid the bills though and
Christ knows they needed the money, and she did enjoy her work –
most of the time anyway.
    ‘Mmmm…’ bleary eyed and hair tousled
Carl looked up at her, laughing at her serious frown, a whiff of
sour morning breath rose up to greet her and she tried not to
wrinkle her nose.
    ‘Come back to bed…..’ he said sleepily,
‘we could do that thing we keep talking about but never have time
for anymore….can you still remember what to do?’
    A smile played on his lips as he lifted
a hand to her breast, his thumb circling her nipple through the
fabric of her dressing gown. Tempting though it was to climb back
into bed his timing was way off beam. Right now she had something
more important on her mind than a roll under the duvet. After
recently sitting her sergeant’s exams she was waiting on
tenterhooks for the result.
    She’d been studying for the exams when
she and Carl had got back together, hell-bent on proving herself in
the force. Everything had seemed so simple at the time: promotion
would mean respect; the extra money would come in handy too. The
direction her career was heading had been clear-cut. Her job, even
the cases she dealt with had a commonality that comforted her – she
caught bad guys and put them away - end of. Or at least that’s how
she explained it to Ben when he asked her what she did every day.
He loved that she was a police lady, as he called her, and he loved
to listen to her stories from work, none of which remotely
resembled the truth, but lying to protect loved ones was a skill
every cop had to learn early on in their career – it went with the
territory.
    Stepping into the bathroom she checked
her appearance in the mirror. Foundation would conceal the circles
under her eyes but nothing would hide the hardness that had settled
around her mouth, the cynicism that looked back, shaking its head
at her. There was no escaping it, the job had aged her. Not so much
in a physical sense, she still worked out at the gym three times a
week: lifting weights to keep her muscles toned and pounding the
treadmill to improve her stamina. It was more her state of mind
that had changed. The skewed way she now looked at the world. It
had taken its toll, staring into the darkest corners of the human
soul every day, detesting what stared back.
    Showered and dressed in a sharp
new suit she’d bought during the mid-season sale she kept her
make-up to a minimum, her one concession to extravagance was a red
designer lipstick she’d bought in Kendals last Christmas which she
wore every day to justify the price. With a final glance in the
mirror she walked through to the kitchen where Carl was overseeing
Ben, making sure he didn’t put too much sugar on his Weetabix, Coco
puffs resigned to the back of the cereal cupboard as babyish. ‘Can
we watch cartoons?’ Ben asked hopefully, looking up at his father
first, then turning to his mother.
    ‘Ye-’
    ‘No!’ Were the opposing
replies, until Carl, capitulating, backed Alex up.
    ‘No way, Tiger! Let’s
concentrate on your breakfast and getting ready for school, eh?’
Ben’s shoulders drooped as he chewed his cereal deliberately slow.
Alex looked at him sternly before squeezing round the table to
plant a kiss on the top of his head.
    ‘Don’t sulk just because you
didn’t get your own way.’ She scolded him.
    ‘But I thought that was the
whole point of sulking.’ Carl quipped, dropping his eyes when Alex
levelled her gaze at him. She hated it when he tried to be funny in
front of their son. What he saw as a bit of fun she viewed as a
lack of respect, challenging her authority. Carl scowled as he
poured them both a coffee, banging mugs onto the counter top and
deliberately slopping milk onto the table. Ben