Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop

by Jessica Redland

  Behind her group were half a dozen people I’d never seen before, all smiling at me. How exciting.

  ‘You’re my very first customers,’ I said to the small crowd. ‘Thank you. I’m Charlee. Welcome to Charlee’s Chocolates.’

  Sarah had been right about opening day. I hardly paused for breath as we received a steady stream of customers. Some purchased an inexpensive treat, some were browsing, but others spent a small fortune, gushing about how I’d helped them tick several people off their Christmas present lists.

  One of the most popular products was small squares of milk and dark chocolate with a white chocolate letter moulded on the top. I had various sized boxes in which the chocolates could be arranged to spell out a name or message. I’d convinced Pierre to stock them back in La Chocolaterie, but Gabby had vetoed the order, like she’d done with so many of my suggestions. I therefore felt very smug to see them flying out the door.

  Chocolate drops in bags of different flavours like mint crisp, salted caramel, peanut brittle, and orange fizz sold extremely well, helped by an enticing 3 for 2 offer; yet another product idea that Gabby had refused to consider.

  And, of course, my Christmas stocking fillers like moulded snowmen, Santas, reindeer, elves, angels and penguins were really popular. I’d done an opening day discount of 25 per cent off them, which proved very successful.

  Sarah popped back over later that morning to see how it was going but we were so busy, we could barely exchange a few words. She left calling, ‘I told you so!’

  As the morning turned to afternoon, I found myself looking up every time the door opened, eager to see Matt. I was therefore a bit stunned when I looked up at about half two to see Ricky stepping through the door. He paused and looked round, taking it all in, before his eyes rested on me.

  ‘You’ve done well. This place looks good.’

  It was on the tip of my tongue to snap, ‘No thanks to you’, but I smiled instead and said, ‘I had lots of help from some very good friends.’

  ‘Jodie?’

  ‘Among others. What are you doing here? I thought you were working.’

  ‘I was but we weren’t needed all day so I thought I’d come down and see how your opening day was going. Been busy?’

  ‘Very,’ I nodded towards the queue at the till.

  ‘I’d better let you get on. Get earning that money so that—’

  ‘So that what…?’ I interrupted, thinking about the conversation I’d had earlier with Jodie.

  He looked surprised at my sharp tone. ‘So that we can retire and travel the world, of course.’

  ‘Of course.’ But I knew that wasn’t what he meant. He definitely wanted some money out of me. Should I just give him it? We loved each other. We were living together. We hadn’t talked about marriage, but we’d certainly talked about the future. All the arguments we’d had since we moved to Whitsborough Bay about Ricky working so much overtime, us barely seeing each other, me paying the rent and most of the bills, and him not helping get Charlee’s Chocolates ready all led back to one thing: money. Or lack of it on Ricky’s part. I could easily resolve that. I could dip into my house fund, settle his debts, insist he cut up his credit cards and eliminate all our problems. So what was stopping me?

  About forty minutes later, I looked up to see Matt with the cutest pair of little girls all wrapped up in bright red puffer jackets, green scarves, and purple bobble hats. My heart raced at the sight of Matt and it struck me that I hadn’t reacted that way when Ricky had unexpectedly visited earlier. That wasn’t good.

  ‘You came!’ I said, walking over to them.

  ‘I always keep my promises.’ He bent down and said to his nieces, ‘This is Charlee. She’s the lovely chocolate lady I was telling you about. Would you like to tell her your name and age?’

  ‘I’m Lucy and I’m seven-and-a-half,’ said the taller girl.

  ‘I’m Erin and I’m nearly six,’ said her sister. ‘Are you going to show us how to make choc-lat.’

  The way she said chocolate was adorable, as though it was two words.

  ‘I am. I can’t do it today because the shop only opened for the first time ever this morning and we’re really busy, but your Uncle Matt said he’ll bring you to my first special chocolate-making event next week. I have your names on my list. Would you like to see?’

  I produced the already-full list and pointed at their names in the first and second slots. ‘Uncle Matt will bring you after school on Thursday and you’ll make a chocolate lollipop each. Would you like that?’

  The girls giggled as they nodded enthusiastically.

  ‘I’ve got something for you,’ I said to Matt. I dipped behind the counter and produced a large navy gift bag full of chocolate goodies.

  ‘What’s this?’

  ‘Payment for my plumbing emergency. It’s the first bar of chocolate I produced, as agreed. And the first bag of buttons. And the first of a few other things. Share them with your family. I’ll be offended if you don’t take them.’

  Matt hugged me. ‘My mum is going to love you. She’s a serious chocoholic. Thank you.’

  ‘Absolute pleasure.’ We stood there for a moment, grinning inanely at each other, while my stomach did somersaults.

  ‘I’d better let you get back to your customers,’ Matt said, as a customer knocked into him. ‘You’ve created something brilliant here.’ He gently touched my arm and held my gaze for a moment as fireworks exploded in my stomach.

  ‘Uncle Matt?’

  He looked away and I took a deep breath. Wow! There was no denying I had one massive crush on that man. I had to seriously get over it. Quickly.

  ‘Yes, Lucy?’ Matt asked.

  ‘Can I have a chocolate snowman?’

  ‘Tell you what, girls. Let’s have a good look round and I’ll let you pick something each for yourselves, and something for Mummy and Daddy as a little present. Does that sound like a good idea?’

  ‘Can we get something for Grandma and Granddad and Great Granddad too?’ Erin asked. ‘Can we get them a Santa?’

  ‘No!’ Lucy cried. ‘A snowman.’

  ‘But you want a snowman. You can’t have the same.’

  ‘I can!’

  Matt smiled at me and my stomach did a somersault once more. ‘We might be some time. I’ll see you at the till in a couple of hours.’

  ‘You need to dump Ricky and tell Matt that he can fiddle with your plumbing any time he wants,’ Jodie whispered after I’d waved goodbye to Matt and the girls, giggling like a love-struck teenager.

  ‘Jodie! Stop it!’

  ‘You know you want to,’ she said.

  ‘I’ll admit that the thought of Matt, erm… fiddling with my plumbing as you say, isn’t an unappealing thought, but I love Ricky and I’m not about to ditch him because I’ve got a silly crush that will soon blow over.’

  ‘Are you trying to convince yourself, or me?’ she asked, before turning her attention to a customer. ‘Is that everything? Have you seen our 3 for 2 offers on these?’

  I watched Jodie as she talked the customer into spending even more money. Who knew she had a gift for sales? If she decided to stick with the shop instead of returning to her role as a teaching assistant or finding a new career, I’d be very lucky.

  14

  By the time 5.30 p.m. arrived, my feet throbbed and my cheeks ached from smiling. I flipped the door sign round to ‘closed’ and swiftly turned the lock.

  ‘Quick, Ashleigh, hit the lights. I can’t cope with anymore customers today.’

  Ashleigh flicked the switches, leaving only the spotlights over the till.

  ‘So, how was your first day, both of you?’ I asked.

  ‘Exhausting!’ they both chimed.

  ‘I can’t believe how quickly it went,’ Ashleigh said. ‘I really enjoyed it, though. Thanks for the opportunity, Charlee.’

  ‘Absolute pleasure. Thank you for all your hard work and for being so amazing with customers.’ I stretched my arms and rolled my head.
‘I’ll see you next week.’

  I let Ashleigh out and Jodie cleared away the sample trays and disposed of the spare chocolates while I ran off the sales report. I did a double take at the total sales and had to check I’d actually done it right, but I had. Wow! I couldn’t recall a day at Pierre’s anywhere close to that. Granted, it had been opening day, a Saturday, and the start of the Christmas trade, but it was still seriously impressive. I knew it wouldn’t continue but if I could even make a quarter of that level of sales on other days, I’d be thrilled.

  There was a knock on the door and I looked up to see Sarah and her husband, Nick, waving at me.

  ‘Hi,’ I said, opening the door. ‘Thank you again for being my first customers this morning.’

  ‘You’re welcome,’ Sarah said. ‘But I need to thank you. Oh my God, Charlee! Your chocolates are absolutely divine. That bag of salted caramel drops somehow fell open this afternoon—’

  ‘Yeah, right,’ Nick interrupted.

  ‘You think I opened it deliberately? How could you? It was a complete and utter accident. Anyway, it barely lasted ten minutes. Cathy and I were actually salivating. One of my regulars came in and I felt I had to offer her one. You should have seen the three of us sucking on the drops, in absolute raptures. She came straight over and bought some herself.’

  ‘Fortunately I took my bag home,’ Nick said. ‘And I’m going to have them all to myself tonight.’

  Sarah gave him a look that suggested there was no way he was getting away with that. ‘Anyway, Charlee, that’s not why we came over,’ she said. ‘With you being new to Whitsborough Bay, it struck me that you probably don’t know about the Christmas lights switch-on.’

  ‘Half six by the tree outside the shopping centre? Jodie and I are wandering up in a bit.’

  Sarah shook her head. ‘That’s the official one and that’s where most people go, but that triggers all the other lights in town and… no, I don’t want to spoil it for you. You’ve got to see it for yourself. All the traders from Castle Street gather round the tree in Castle Park at the end of the street to watch it. Tara from The Chocolate Pot supplies hot drinks and Carly from Carly’s Cupcakes brings cakes. It’s a lovely atmosphere. Much cosier than the big switch-on. Nick and I are heading there now to help Tara with the drinks. Do you fancy joining us later?’

  ‘It sounds perfect. Thank you.’

  ‘Would you mind if I rang Ricky to see if he wants to join us?’ I asked Jodie when I’d told her about Sarah’s invitation. ‘He might be interested in a smaller gathering.’

  I’d invited him to the main switch-on but hadn’t held out much hope of him saying yes. He can’t stand being in a huge crowd, saying it makes him feel claustrophobic. We’d never been to a gig because of it. Sure enough, he’d said no to the big lights switch-on tonight but he might be up for the smaller traders’ event instead.

  ‘Go for it,’ Jodie said.

  His phone rang for ages before it was answered.

  ‘Hello?’ I said, when he didn’t speak. ‘Ricky?’ I looked at my screen to check I hadn’t called someone else by mistake. ‘Hello? Can you hear me?’

  I’m sure I heard a woman giggling before the phone went dead. I rang it again but it went straight to voicemail so I left a brief message telling him where we’d be if he wanted to join us.

  A text came through as we neared the end of Castle Street:

  ✉︎ From Ricky

  Got your message. I’m at Smurf & BJ’s and we’ve just ordered pizza so I’ll give it a miss. Have fun. See you later xx

  That explained the woman giggling. I wouldn’t put it past BJ to have done that deliberately when Ricky was out of the room, just to wind me up.

  ‘Looks like you’ve got my company for dinner, too,’ I said to Jodie. ‘I’ve been blown out.’

  She linked my arm. ‘Here was me thinking he’d have had a lovely celebratory meal planned for you. His loss is my gain. Over dinner, we can hatch a plan for Exit Ricky, Enter Matt.’

  ‘How many times do I have to tell you that I’m happy with Ricky?’

  ‘Until you realise you’re lying to yourself,’ she said gently. ‘Come on, or we’ll miss it.’

  She tugged me towards the park, her eyes sparkling with excitement. I didn’t feel excited anymore, though. Her words kept spinning around my mind. Was I lying to myself? Yes, I’d admit that our relationship was far from perfect at the moment, but was it bad enough to call it a day? A scary thought struck me. Had I turned him into my safety blanket: someone to cling onto as I embarked on a new business venture, in a new town, while still grieving for the loss of my grandparents? No! I loved him. Didn’t I?

  Sarah was right. Obviously, I hadn’t been to the big Christmas lights switch-on before with being new to Whitsborough Bay, but I couldn’t imagine the atmosphere outside the shopping centre being as friendly and cosy as the traders’ event. They couldn’t have done more to make Jodie and me feel welcome. They were all eager to hear how the first day had gone and several of them said they’d sent friends and family in to support my fledgling business. At Jodie’s suggestion, I’d distributed some sample bags to all the traders over the past few days, which had clearly been a good tactic for garnering support.

  At 6.30 p.m., a hush descended on the group and all eyes turned towards Castle Street. A cheer in the distance indicated the switch-on of the main tree.

  ‘Look down to the end of Castle Street,’ Sarah whispered.

  I looked towards the end where our shops were. Earlier in the week, I’d watched the council string lights in a tight zigzag from one side of the street to the other, but I hadn’t imagined the effect to be quite so spectacular. Gradually, sections of white lights illuminated, like a Mexican wave rippling along the street. The traders made appreciative ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ noises as each section lit up. When it reached the end of Castle Street, an arch with the words ‘Welcome to Castle Street’ and a series of stars illuminated followed by a little explosion of firework-effect lights.

  As one, the crowd turned and watched as the star on the top of the tree glowed, then lit up white, red, and green lights, one colour at a time. Spontaneous applause broke out followed by a chorus of, ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas.’

  ‘What did you think?’ asked Sarah when the singing stopped.

  I couldn’t speak. Tears welled in my eyes and a lump blocked my throat. It had to be the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I loved fairy lights all year round and how magical they made everything feel, but this was something else. Perhaps it was all the more emotional because of how welcome and part of the community I felt, and how much my grandparents would have loved it.

  Sarah squeezed my hand. ‘I know. Pretty special, eh?’

  She turned to Nick who hugged and kissed her. What a romantic moment to be caught in a kiss, and what a stunning setting for it too, with the tree behind them and the inky sea beyond that in South Bay below. Lucky Sarah. If only Matt was here… Oh, my God! What had I just thought? Ricky! If only Ricky was here!

  ‘You look like someone who needs a drink,’ Jodie said, obviously clocking my stricken expression.

  ‘Yes. A very large one!’

  15

  Over the next couple of weeks, life settled into a routine. Three mornings a week, I arrived at Charlee’s Chocolates an hour before opening to temper chocolate and make different ranges of products, alternating between drops, lettered squares, moulded figures and luxury chocolates. On a Wednesday and Thursday, I trained Ashleigh in a variety of products and techniques and was thrilled to see that she was a quick learner with a natural aptitude for the craft.

  My favourite part of the day was about 4.00 p.m. when dusk settled and the Christmas lights came on. Standing under Castle Street’s white lights was like standing under a blanket of stars. If I wasn’t serving anyone, I’d nip out of the shop for a moment and drink in the atmosphere, saying a silent thank you to my wonderful grandparents who’d given me the means to open my business in thi
s beautiful place.

  At home, things had thankfully picked up again. It turned out that Ricky was like an excitable little kid when it came to Christmas. He was desperate to put a tree up at the end of the first week in December. He picked out a real tree that was way too big for the flat – paid for by me, of course – but we’d had such a lovely time decorating it while sharing a bottle of red, that I couldn’t be mad with him for his over-the-top choice and the dent in my bank balance.

  From Nanna’s crates of decorations, I’d chosen the red, cream, and gold colour scheme. Even though Ricky took the mickey out of me, demanding to know what was Christmassy about a gingham elephant, he did admit that the finished effect looked pretty spectacular.

  As we made love on the sofa again with red and white fairy lights softly illuminating the room, I felt truly content. The only worrying thing was how much my heart had raced the whole time that Matt had been at my first chocolate-making event with his nieces. I told myself it was nerves at my first workshop for my new business but chocolate-making didn’t make me nervous. Matt’s presence did. It didn’t mean anything, though. As I’d repeatedly told Jodie, it was a silly crush and I would get over it soon. It was Ricky who I loved – not Matt – and our relationship was finally back on track.

  On Tuesday evening, five days before Christmas, I joined Jodie in her flat after work so I could wrap Ricky’s Christmas gifts. He’d admitted that he and his brother had been terrible for searching for gifts when they were little and, as their parents weren’t very good at hiding them, they usually knew everything they were getting a couple of weeks before Christmas Day. With nowhere to hide anything in the flat and with online deliveries directed to the shop anyway, I’d kept everything in Jodie’s spare bedroom.