A Sense of Guilt ✔

Chapter 39

Shannon unlocked the front door of her apartment, kicking her heels off as soon as soon as she stepped inside. Her twelve-hour shift had overrun and she was seriously flagging. She crept towards the kitchen being careful not to wake Joe up since it was still early. As she'd been working most nights she'd barely noticed he was there, she could very easily drift into making it a permanent arrangement.

In the kitchen, she threw a ready meal into the microwave before sitting down and taking her cell phone out of her purse. There were yet more messages from Kelly apologising about Saturday night and demanding to know what was happening with Joe. She sent back a brief reply hoping to head off more questions. On the one hand, she was still annoyed at Kelly for setting her up, on the other it had worked out in her favour so it seemed churlish to hold a grudge. And Kelly had meant well in her own cack-handed way.

Yawning she then scrolled through a number of messages from Joe, shaking her head at his inability to remember she couldn't normally check her phone at work. Much like her mother refused to remember as well. With a weary smile, she opened a text from her mom but the gossipy message about Joe's cancelled engagement made her shiver. Before long, people would figure things out.

'Hey, why didn't you wake me when you came in?' Joe asked startling her as he entered the kitchen.

'It's still early, I didn't want to disturb you,' she said putting her phone down.

Joe yawned, sitting down beside her. 'I'm making an early start today, best to try and keep Adam off my back.'

'I'd ask what his problem is but he's always been a pain.' As a child, she'd sensed Adam didn't particularly like her, but then he hadn't seemed too fond of his own kids either.

The microwave pinged and she got up to stir her meal, ignoring Joe's disapproving face as she put it in for a few more minutes.

'You shouldn't eat that stuff,' he said. 'It's full of additives and shit.'

'When I get home in the middle of the night or early morning I'm not going to start making a three-course meal,' she said testily. 'Don't start telling me what to do, I'm not Katherine.'

Joe frowned. 'I know that, and I never told Kat what to do anyway.'

'No, but I bet she made wholesome, organic, vegan delights.'

Joe laughed. 'Not really, I just don't think you should eat that stuff. I could have made you something last night to heat up.'

She nearly asked him why he hadn't but she bit her tongue turning her attention back to her phone. She scrolled through her missed calls noticing she'd received quite a few from a withheld number.

'What's wrong?' Joe asked as she frowned at her phone.

'I've just had quite a few anonymous calls.'

'Probably sales calls.'

'I guess but I don't usually get so many.' She put her phone back down feeling strangely unnerved. 'I suppose they'll ring back if it's anything important.'

'Speaking of calls,' Joe said rubbing his forehead. 'Guess who called me yesterday?'

Shannon's heart sank. 'Katherine?'

'No although I was expecting more of a fallout.' He gave Shannon a half smile. 'I know you thought I dragged things out but it was better to wait until Kat was ready to split up.'

Better for you, Shannon thought irritably. Never mind that he'd kept her in limbo while he was slowly letting Katherine down. 'So who called you?' she asked not wanting to dwell on how he'd handled the break-up.