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The smell of alcohol filled her nostrils as she pushed through the door. Her eyes scanned the room and fell on her girlfriend who was stood leaning on the bar looking like a child who’d been told off. Shaking her head, she walked over, waving at Chas and ignoring her wide eyes and slight nod towards the blonde in front of her. Coming to a stop directly in front of her sulking partner, she waited to be noticed. She didn’t know what was wrong with Charity, but she had been in this foul mood for days now and she was finally going to get to the bottom of it. When it became clear that the landlady was in a world of her own and wasn’t going to notice her anytime soon, Vanessa cleared her throat loudly, pulling her girlfriend’s attention to herself.
Charity’s head whipped around, barb ready on her tongue for whoever had dared interrupt her from her very important brooding. Clapping eyes on her girlfriend, she deflated slightly.
“Oh, it’s you.”
“Bloody charming.”
“No, I just meant that,” Charity started, but gave up halfway, “you know what? Never mind.”
Vanessa had seen her girlfriend in all sorts of moods in their two years together, but she had never seen her like this before. If she didn’t know any better, she would say that Charity looked defeated and it was disconcerting to say the least. Charity had been through a lot in her lifetime and had never let it defeat her before. The woman was virtually indestructible with an ability to rise from the ashes of even the most traumatic experiences almost as if nothing had ever happened, the likes of which Vanessa had never seen before. Of course, she knew that Charity hadn’t escaped the traumas of her past completely unscathed and that the woman bore the scars of her troubled past, both physical and mental. She had never been like this before though. Where she usually hid the feelings she thought would make her look weak she was now openly hurting and it broke Vanessa’s heart to see it.
“What’s going on, babe?” she asked slowly, knowing that Charity hated talking about her feelings and had the tendency to retreat into herself when she felt threatened.
“Nothing,” Charity answered too quickly, suddenly acting very shifty. Vanessa could tell that she was uncomfortable and fighting the urge to flee as fast as she could. She didn’t want to talk about it. Especially not with her girlfriend. Despite this, Vanessa pushed on.
“Oh, come off it, don’t give me that. You’ve been mardy all week,” she scoffed, “no, not even mardy. You’ve been sad, and you rarely do sad. What’s up?”
Leaning in, Charity shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, babe,” her face was a picture of false innocence.
“Fine. Don’t tell me then,” Vanessa snapped. Charity was her own worst enemy sometimes and it drove Vanessa crazy. All she wanted to do was help the other woman, but she was too stubborn and hard-headed to see that.
“Come on, Ness, don’t be like that.”
“Be like what? I’m not being like anything.”
Rolling her eyes Charity sighed, “The passive-aggressive thing doesn’t suit you.”
“Well, being shut out by my girlfriend doesn’t suit me either, but here we are.”
Under her breath Charity whispered, “I’m not the one doing the shutting out here, but whatever.”
Not quite sure she heard the other woman right, Vanessa’s eyes narrowed slightly, “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
Defiantly and suddenly riled up, Charity raised up slightly and with barely contained anger in her voice she repeated herself, “I said, I’m not the one doing the shutting out here.”
“What the hell are you going on about?” Vanessa was genuinely confused. She had no clue what Charity was talking about but the woman in question was too far gone to realise that. She had allowed her anger to bubble to the surface and couldn’t hold her tongue any more.
“You! I’m talking about you!” she raised her voice, people nearby falling silent to listen in on their conversation.
“What about me?”
“Whispering with Tracy and going quiet when I come in the room. Acting all weird whenever we’re alone,” Charity hissed, “if you don’t wanna be with me anymore, Vanessa, just say so, cause heartbreak I can take but pity I cannot.”
Vanessa was floored. She had no clue that her girlfriend had been feeling this way. Sure, she had been whispering with Tracy and acting slightly weird around Charity, but she thought she had covered it up pretty well. Not to mention that she had absolutely no intention of breaking things off with the other woman, in fact quite the opposite.
“So, I act a bit off for a couple of days and all of a sudden you think I want to break up with you, yeah?”
“That’s always how it goes. Look, I’m a big girl okay? I can take it so just do what you’ve gotta do.”
“You are something else,” Vanessa ground out before, in a move that had Charity’s eyes popping out of her head, she pulled herself up so that she was standing on the bar.
“Excuse me, can I have everyone’s attention please?” the vet shouted, as though all eyes in the pub weren’t already glued to her.
Chas, who had been keeping one eye on them since Vanessa had walked into The Woolpack, rushed forward, “Vanessa, get down from there,” her voice a few octaves higher than usual, “Charity, will you get her down from there!”
Ahead of Chas, Charity had reached up to try and encourage Vanessa down from the bar, but her hands were batted away by her girlfriend. She had no clue what the vet was playing at and she was afraid to find out. She had hoped that if the other woman was going to break up with her that she would at least have had the decency to do it in private. If there was one thing Charity Dingle hated more than anything else, it was being humiliated in public.
“Sorry, Chas, but this won’t take two minutes,” Vanessa smiled sweetly before turning to address the pub, “sorry to disturb you all but my girlfriend is an idiot who likes to ruin my plans, so I’ve got a question to ask her.”
Charity’s brow furrowed. This wasn’t what she had expected, and she was beyond confused. Her confusion only grew when Vanessa bent down and held her hands out. Taking them hesitantly, Charity let out a small squeak when Vanessa pulled her upwards and scrambling to keep up, Charity quickly helped the vet pull her up onto the bar alongside her.
Leaning over, conscious of all the eyes on her, she hissed “Ness, what are you playing at?”
“You’ll see,” Vanessa replied quietly, before raising her voice again, “Charity seems to think that I want to break up with her. Now, I know a few of you don’t know what I see in her, but I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I don’t give a toss what anyone thinks about us together, haven’t I?”
A murmur of agreement echoed around the pub. Vanessa had indeed made it abundantly clear to anyone who had questioned her relationship with Charity where they could stick their opinion; even her own father and sister. Despite that, at first people had remained sceptical, worried that Charity was going to break Vanessa’s heart, but as time had gone on people had begun to see how good the two of them were for each other. They complimented each other perfectly and their relationship had gone from strength to strength over the course of the last two years.
“Exactly. So, it seems like Charity’s the only one this side of Leeds who isn’t clear on how I feel about her,” she rolled her eyes at her girlfriend as she turned to face her directly, “now, I was gonna do this in private, had a whole thing planned, but never mind.”
“Babe, what are you going on about?” the landlady asked as she watched the vet reach into her pocket and pull something out. She was completely blindsided when she realised that the other woman had just pulled a ring box.
“What are you doing?”
Charity went still as Vanessa dropped down onto one knee and opened up the ring box to show the most beautiful ring she had ever seen, the diamond glittering in the light of The Woolpack. It was clearly vintage, but that only added to its character.
“If anyone had told me a few years ago that I would end up head over heels in love with you I probably would have laughed them out of the village. You were the most infuriating person I had ever met, and I guess I believed what everyone said about you. And you know what? You are a pain in the arse, and you’re a bloody messy bugger and you still don’t know how to take no for an answer, and I love every single thing about you. You make me laugh, you love Johnny like he was one of your own, and you let me see parts of you that no one else gets to see. I’m so thankful for every moment we’ve spent together over the last two years and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“Ness,” Charity whispered, the word almost getting stuck in her throat. Her teary eyes locked onto her beaming girlfriend’s and everything and everyone else melted away. She forgot that she was stood on the bar in The Woolpack, surrounded by people. As far as she was concerned she and Vanessa were the only two people in the world at that moment.
“Charity Dingle, will you marry me?”
“Yes,” there wasn’t a second of hesitation before Charity’s answer. She wanted to marry Vanessa. She had never been more sure of anything in her life.
“Yeah?”
“Yes! Now get up here will ya? I want that ring on my finger before you can change your mind,” Charity laughed out as she reached down and helped Vanessa to stand.
The vet took her left hand and slipped the diamond ring onto her fiancée’s finger. She then took Charity’s face in her hands and kissed her hard, pouring all the love she felt for the other woman into it. Still lost in each other, they broke apart when the sound of cheering filtered through into their bubble. Pulling apart sheepishly, they realised that all eyes were still on them and the entire pub was cheering them on.
Suddenly, almost as if returning to her body, Vanessa realised that she was stood on the bar. Careful not to kick any of the beer taps, she climbed down back to ground level, then she turned and held her hands out to help Charity down as well. As soon as the latter’s feet hit the floor, both women were rushed by Chas who held them in a tight hug.
“I’m made up for you both but if either of you ever stand on my bar again, I’ll kill ya,” the brunette smiled, taking the sting out of her words.
She was beyond happy for the two women in her arms. Their relationship had been questioned by so many at the beginning, herself included, but she had seen first-hand how good they were for each other and she was thrilled that her cousin was finally getting the chance a happiness that she deserved.
Ushering them into a booth in the corner of the pub, Chas promised to return with champagne. They both sat on the same side of the table, both slightly in shock. Vanessa couldn’t believe she had proposed and that the plans that she had for popping the question had gone out of the window. Charity, on the other hand, couldn’t believe that Vanessa had proposed altogether. She had assumed that the other woman had been planning on breaking up with her, so a proposal was completely out of a left field for her. Not to mention the fact that she had always thought that she would be the one to propose.
“It’s funny,” she voiced her thoughts out loud, “I had always thought that I would be the one proposing.”
“Why’s that?”
“Don’t know,” she shrugged, “I guess I’ve been married so many times before and you never have been, so I just assumed that you would like to be proposed to.”
“Honestly? That’s what I thought when we got together, but then I just realised that I wanted to be married to you and I wanted you to know that I was in this 100%, especially considering your track record with marriages,” the vet winked, knowing that Charity would see the humour in her words where others would deem them harsh.
“Oi you cheeky cow!”, Charity pretended to be offended, “I’ll have you know that I was innocent of wrongdoing in at least one of those marriages! More if you include weddings that I never made it to the end of, thank you very much.”
“Whatever you say, babe,” the vet laughed, as their conversation was interrupted by Chas and two glasses of bubbly.
“Ey Chas, tell her that I wasn’t to blame for all of my past marriages falling apart!”
“Of course you weren’t, love,” Chas winked, “good as gold in all of them you were.” The brunette left quickly before she could be pulled further into the conversation.
“Cow,” Charity mumbled.
Vanessa took pity on the landlady “Don’t worry, babe, I believe you.”
“Better had,” Charity growled playfully, reaching over and picking up the two glasses and handing one to Vanessa.
“A toast?” she asked.
“Go on then,” Vanessa prompted her.
“To you, for bagging the hottest woman in the village. Let’s face it babe, you hit the jackpot.”
“You’re something else you are you know?”
“Yeah,” Charity had to give her that, “you love me anyway though.”
“Yeah,” Vanessa replied, a small smile playing at the corners of her lips, “I do.”