Chapter 6

Matthew had spent most of the weekend beating himself up about his dalliance with Katherine, but he had received neither a phone call or a text from anyone, except Victoria, asking about some boxes Matthew still had. Matthew had replied with "come get ur shit. Also pay me what u owe" which had not elicited any sort of a response.

He wondered how much Katherine could remember, or even her parents, but regardless of how much she was aware of he still felt awful. He wasn't sure if he had committed rape or not, Katherine had certainly consented to the sex but was she really able to? He might not have tied her down and forced her into intercourse, she came onto him, but did she know what she was doing?

Matthew concluded he had not committed rape, Katherine was old enough to consent to sex, and aware enough of her surroundings to come onto him, but this did not alter how he felt about what he did. He had taken advantage of a vulnerable teenager and they had had unprotected sex. He, Matthew Styles, was a complete and utter bastard.

After a sleepless night, he walked tentatively across the park to the Wilson's house on Monday, certain he was going to get screamed at, or even arrested, but Katherine happily let him in when he knocked on their front door. He waited as she flashed her smile and beckoned him into the house, her nightie covered by a woollen dressing gown and a coy grin on her face.

"How was your hangover?" Katherine asked as Matthew closed the front door. "I was in agony all morning."

"Errr ... well, OK. I had some water and went for a walk," Matthew summarised, he had had a lot to think about as he sobered up that night.

Katherine smiled and pushed open the door to the kitchen. Joseph and Charlotte were having breakfast and welcomed him in warmly. "You OK?" Charlotte asked and Matthew nodded as Katherine sat down in seat.

"Yeah, yeah fine."

Katherine looked up at him with a smile. "Oh, and thank you for looking after me on Friday."

Joseph looked up from his newspaper. "I take it was you that bought her all that alcohol?"

Matthew tensed up, butterflies doing somersaults in his stomach. "Umm, well, we umm ... we had those tokens to use up."

Joseph laughed as he turned back to the newspaper. "Oh well, only happens once a year."

"And thank you for walking me home," Katherine said and passed Matthew his jacket back. "Did I stagger much?"

Matthew shivered. "Don't you remember?"

Katherine blushed. "No. I remember you buying me loads of drinks," she said looking up at the ceiling. "There was a nice guy who I danced with and I, um, kissed him outside, but then it went black until I ended up here. Oh, and Callum flashed himself at me on the patio."

Charlotte hummed at her daughter who looked unashamedly unworried about her confession. "Next time, don't get my daughter as pissed," Joseph asked, looking up from the newspaper as Matthew shifted his weight from side to side. "I think she isn't able to be responsible yet. Know where her limits are."

"Oh leave him alone, Joe," Charlotte told him as Katherine went to respond. "They had a good time."

"Well, next time someone could end up hurting her, I don't want anyone taking advantage of her when she is in that state."

Charlotte puffed at her husband, passing Matthew a banana from the fruit bowl. "You will be late for work. Piss off and have a shower."

Joseph grumbled, got up and disappeared to get dressed. "Don't worry about him," Charlotte told him the moment her husband left the room. "He is just being a grump. You have a good time?"

Matthew smiled, feeling relaxed for the first time since he entered the house. "Yeah I did."

"Good. We all did." Charlotte took the banana skin, the dirty bowls and put them in the sink before walking into the lounge – the American website she had recently found had a special jackpot on and fifty thousand dollars would buy her a lot of luxury.

"Can you seriously not remember anything about Friday night?" Matthew whispered the moment Charlotte left the room. Katherine, reading her magazine, shook her head.

"You got me way too pissed," the young lady replied with a smile. "But I think it was on champagne, so thank you. It is the style I could definitely become accustomed to." Matthew grunted and Katherine got up from the table. "I think you could have seduced me that night."

Matthew froze and Katherine cackled with laughter. "As if," Matthew nervously uttered.

"Yeah, as if," Katherine replied.

"We need to talk," Joseph said as he sat down at his desk at his secretary. Paul had texted Joseph to say he was working from home in the morning and Sarah looked up at him with a smile.

"What is it?"

"Us. We can't."

"I'm not wearing any knickers," she said with a grin and Joseph rolled his eyes.

"Charlotte and the kids are too important to me. I'm sorry, but what we did was silly."

Sarah sighed and bit her lip, she had predicted this as well and rubbed her forearms. "It wasn't silly Joey, it was amazing."

Joseph sighed, if Sarah was going to be dogmatic about this then she would have to go, but he had spent all weekend worried about this two liaisons with the beautiful girl and was determined to end it. "It was silly," Joseph said firmly and Sarah shrugged.

"I don't love you," Sarah said looking up from her keyboard. "It was just sex. Just fun. Amazing, magical fun, but nothing more. You do know that."

Joseph breathed a sigh of relief and looked at her. He was scared she would run off and tell Charlotte when he told her but she wasn't obsessed with him, which was a good sign. "I'm glad you think that, but it can't continue."

Sarah rubbed her nose and wiped her chin. "It's up to you," she said with a deliberately disappointed voice. "But I thought it was good. I enjoyed myself, didn't you enjoy yourself?"

Joseph twisted in his seat. "Well yes."

"And you like sex, don't you?"

"Well, of course."

"Then what's the harm? I'm not going to tell your wife, and a bit of stress relief, it will do you high flying executives good. And I needed it, I've not had much sex since Darren dumped me." Joseph shifted and Sarah looked over at him. "Why not go for lunch," she suggested. "Have a proper chat."