One Day in December

by Josie Silver

  Jack

  Every caller so far has been someone asking about Rhona or giving me some kind of tip about how to win her back, and I’ve tried to fend them off as vaguely as I can. I’m almost done for the night and I’m just about to treat the listeners to “Fairytale of New York” when Lorne shakes his head at me from his booth and tells me there’s one last caller on line one. I flick the red flashing light and wait.

  “Hey, Jack. It’s me again. Rhona.”

  At last.

  “Hey, you,” I say, and I think I hear the whole country sigh with relief.

  “It’s so good to talk to you again. I wasn’t sure you’d call back.”

  “I missed you,” she says. There’s a soft, husky note to her voice that makes me wish I was the only one who could hear her.

  “I’ve missed you for the last nine years.” My voice cracks; the truth is the only thing I have to give Laurie now, and I don’t care who else is listening.

  I hear her intake of breath, and outside in the office, Haley, my assistant, stands up at her desk and smiles at me through the glass with tears running down her cheeks.

  “I love you, Jack,” Laurie says, and I can hear she’s crying too.

  “Don’t be sad,” I say, gentle. “I’ve spent nearly a decade wishing I’d got on that damn bus.” Suddenly I realize: I need to be wherever she is, right now. “I need to see you,” I murmur, and Haley clasps her hands and kind of punches the air.

  “I’m here, Jack,” Laurie says, half laughing. Confused, I swing toward Lorne in his booth, and she’s there. Laurie. Laurie’s really there, smiling at me like that first time we ever saw each other. She’s here, she’s smiling, and she has tinsel in her hair. Lorne grins behind her and throws his hands up in the air, then thank God he cuts to the next track.

  “I’ll take over now,” he says, smooth in my ear. “Get in here. This girl’s come a long way to see you.”

  Laurie

  If I needed any reassurance that coming to Scotland was the right thing to do, the look on Jack’s face when he sees me is it. My guardian angel/taxi driver and the radio station security guard cooked up a plan between them to sneak me in through the back door, ably assisted by Haley, Jack’s assistant. She met me downstairs, thoroughly overexcited, and when we stepped out of the lift she gave me a quick hug.

  “I’m really glad you came,” she said, shiny-eyed. I thought for a second she was going to cry. “I’ve always thought there was someone…he’s never seemed properly settled,” she added. As we passed the office Christmas tree, she stopped and grabbed my hand.

  “Wait,” she said. “Let me just…”

  And then she tugged a strand of silver tinsel from the branches and wound it in my hair.

  “There. Perfect.”

  * * *

  And now, finally, it’s just me and Jack. He laughingly closed the blinds on his cheering colleagues, giving us some privacy in the tiny glass booth.

  “How did you…?”

  He reaches out and holds my face in his hands, looking at me as if he can’t believe I’m really here.

  “I had help,” I laugh, giddy. “The taxi driver and—”

  He stops my words with his kiss, making me gasp, his hands in my hair, his mouth full of longing and sweetness and relief.

  After a long, breathless minute he stops kissing me, and his eyes lock with mine. “Why did we wait this long?”

  “I’d wait a lifetime for you,” I say. “I love you, Jack O’Mara.”

  “And I love you, Laurie James,” he breathes. “Stay with me?”

  “Always.”

  He kisses me again and I melt, because his kisses have been forbidden for so long. Finally I pull back in his arms and look up.

  “Do you ever wonder what might have happened if you’d just got on the bus?”

  He half shrugs, laughing as he unwinds the tinsel from my hair. “Boy sees girl. Girl sees boy. Boy gets on the bus, kisses girl’s face off, and they live happily ever after.”

  I laugh softly. “It’s a pretty dull story when you put it like that.”

  “We got there in the end,” he says, pressing a kiss against my forehead.

  I hold him, and he holds me, and for the first time in years, there’s nothing missing at all.

  Acknowledgments

  Huge thanks to Katy Loftus, my clever, kind, and wise editor. Your instinct and insight have been my unerring guide throughout this book, from conception to The End. I honestly couldn’t have written it without you, you’re properly brilliant.

  Wider thanks to Karen Whitlock, Emma Brown, and everyone at Viking—it’s been a pleasure and a thrill to work with you all.

  Much appreciation to Sarah Scarlett and all on the brilliant and terrifyingly glamorous rights team.

  To Jess Hart—I cannot tell you how much I love and adore the cover! Thank you, it’s forever on my office wall.

  Thank you to Hilary Teeman, Jillian Buckley, and all of the wonderful people at Crown—I couldn’t wish for a better US home for the book. It’s an absolute joy to work with you. Your support and enthusiasm are so appreciated.

  Many thanks as always to my agent, Jemima Forrester, and all at David Higham.

  On a personal note, love and thanks to the Bob ladies and the minxes—there seems to be nothing I could ask that one of you doesn’t know the answer to! You’re my secret weapons.

  Thank you as always to all of my lovely family and friends for your unstinting support and encouragement.

  Lastly and most of all, thank you to my beloved James, Ed, and Alex. You’re my forever favorites.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Josie Silver is an unashamed romantic who met her husband when she stepped on his foot on his twenty-first birthday. She lives with him, her two young children, and their cat in a little town in the Midlands.

  ONE DAY IN DECEMBER

  A Reader’s Guide

  A Conversation with Josie Silver

  Recommended Snacks and Spirits

  A Reader’s Guide

  In order to provide reading groups with the most informed and thought-provoking questions possible, it is necessary to reveal certain aspects of the plot of this novel. If you have not finished reading One Day in December, we respectfully suggest that you do so before reviewing this guide.

  How would you describe the connection Laurie felt upon first seeing Jack? How do you think he perceived her when he saw her from the bus stop? Have you ever felt a similar connection with someone?

  Why didn’t Laurie tell Sarah that Jack was the person she’d been looking for?

  How similar are Laurie and Sarah? In what ways do their personalities differ? Which character do you identify with?

  Why do you think Jack doesn’t admit to Laurie that he remembers her from the bus stop?

  Should Sarah have noticed the tension between Laurie and Jack?

  Is it realistic for Laurie and Jack to try to be friends considering their feelings for one another? Why do you think they try so hard to remain friendly?

  How does Laurie’s relationship with Oscar compare to her relationship with Jack? Is it possible for her to love them both simultaneously?

  On this page Laurie notes that she’s been conflicted about “how much information constitutes the truth, how much omission constitutes lying.” Do you think she’s lying to Oscar and/or Sarah considering what she hasn’t revealed to each of them?

  Laurie describes the flowers Jack sends her as “lush and extravagant…but then in the shortest time they’re not very lovely at all. They wilt and they turn the water brown, and soon you can’t hold on to them any longer.” Do any of her relationships also fit this description?

  How does Laurie cope with loss, in terms of family members, r
omantic interests, and friends?

  By the end of the story both Laurie and Jack have grown and changed significantly. How do these changes affect their relationship?

  How do Laurie’s New Year’s resolutions evolve through the years?

  A Conversation with Josie Silver

  Q. What was your inspiration for writing One Day in December?

  A. I adore all of the romantic Christmas movies; Love Actually, The Holiday, and I’d throw Bridget Jones’s Diary in there too, because who could forget the wonderful “nice boys don’t kiss like that” snowstorm scene at the end? My hope was to try to write a book that made readers feel the way watching those movies makes me feel—warm, swept away, and completely charmed. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of love at first sight, so this became an opportunity to explore that and also to think about what might happen if you miss the chance to act on that moment.

  Q. Love at first sight and fate are major themes, yet the characters make a lot of their own decisions regarding love. Could you talk about this balance between fate and choice?

  A. The book certainly opens at a fateful moment; that shared look, barely a minute or two, but significant enough to impact both Jack and Laurie’s lives. I think they both battle against the feelings created in those few moments, particularly when they finally meet again under much different circumstances. By then, they don’t have the luxury of allowing fate to dictate their actions; in fact they both choose to do the exact opposite. This creates huge emotional drama and misunderstandings between them; they both want to do the right thing, even though the more they get to know each other, the fonder they become.

  Can their choices redirect their romantic fate? Well yes, I think so. The book covers a ten-year span and people naturally change as they mature, so what seemed inevitable to begin with actually might not be the right thing after all. They both fall in love with other people, and those romances all have the potential to become more defining than that one startling moment of connection Laurie and Jack shared. I felt it was important to see how Laurie battled to love Jack in a platonic way and how she actively chose to put physical distance between them by going to Thailand and creating new opportunities for herself. She wants to find a love of her own, and despite her experience with Jack, she doesn’t close her heart to the possibility of finding someone new.

  Q. The novel follows three characters over the course of a decade, opening with twenty-two-year-old Laurie at a bus stop. Can you tell us about what it was like to write about characters as they grow over the formative period that is early adulthood? Did any challenges arise related to the novel’s sweeping timeline?

  A. I loved writing these characters so much! It was a joy to write their formative romantic years, but just as joyful to write about Sarah and Laurie’s deepening friendship. I really wanted the book to be as much about that as about their romances, about how friendship grows and changes shape over your twenties and thirties. They are defining years for most people and it’s no exception for Sarah and Laurie.

  It was important to show them growing up and learning from their mistakes—Laurie slowly realizes she’s much stronger than she thought and Sarah comes to understand what she really needs to be happy. Jack struggles the most to find his way; it’s fair to say that he wanders a long way from the path he expected to take. But then that’s often what happens in reality, isn’t it? It’s great to make plans and have ambitions, but sometimes unexpected things happen which make you reevaluate and change course.

  In some ways it felt luxurious to have a decade to tell their story, but obviously it made choosing what to show more important, too. We dip in and out of their lives across the years; one of the big challenges was to make sure it never felt pencil sketched in order to accommodate the time span.

  Q. The friendship between Laurie and Sarah is one of the richest, most complex relationships in the novel. Can you talk about how their friendship serves as a backbone to the story, despite the fact that they both fall for the same man?

  A. Laurie and Sarah’s bond was lovely to write and very much drawn from the female friendships I’m fortunate enough to have in my own life. They’re as close as sisters, which is especially poignant for Laurie as she lost her younger sister, Ginnie, when she was just eight years old. Laurie and Sarah met when they were thrown together as roommates in their university years, and their friendship is already very much established by the time the book opens. This means that when they accidentally fall for the same man, their friendship already has too much value to allow it to be derailed by romance.

  Laurie finds herself in an impossible position; by deciding not to tell Sarah that Jack is her by then fabled boy from the bus stop, she places a lie at the center of the most precious friendship she has ever had, and we see her battle with this secret throughout the rest of the story. She has to find a way to live with the deceit without allowing it to make her feel like she’s a bad person. It’s terribly difficult for her; she never wants to have to choose between the two people she loves.

  Their friendship is tested to the limits at times, but then when the chips are really down for Laurie, Sarah is there for her in a heartbeat. That’s the way they are; they are the gin to each other’s tonic.

  Q. The holiday season plays an important role in the plot, and Laurie tells us her New Year’s resolutions at the start of each year. What about this particular time of year lends itself to an exploration of love and relationships?

  A. They say that more couples separate over the holiday season than at any other time of the year, and I can well see why! New Year in particular is so full of portent and promise, weighted with expectation and hopes and idealism, but then on the flip side it can also be the time when people look for change, or say enough is enough and call time on a relationship that’s run its course.

  Most people have seen that heart-wrenching moment in Love Actually when Emma Thompson realizes that the Christmas gift in her husband’s coat wasn’t for her after all; the season lends itself to high stakes emotion, both in the form of romantic proposals and stress-induced arguments. Couple that with the fact that people often have a couple more drinks than usual and you have the recipe for fireworks!

  Framing the story around Laurie’s New Year’s resolutions allows the reader to see how her feelings for Jack change across the years, we watch her grow up. As the final year of the book chimes in, we see her make just one resolution; to finally swim rather than tread water.

  Q. Laurie’s voice is so authentic and charming on the page. What was it like to write her character, and how did it differ from writing from Jack’s perspective?

  A. Laurie was so interesting to write. She’s quite contained and tends to keep her own counsel, and as the years pass she discovers her own strength. I think she’s quietly brave and stoic, and witty inside her own head even if her inherent shyness sometimes makes her seem a little reserved around strangers.

  Jack, on the other hand, appears to ooze confidence. It’s always more of a challenge to write from a male perspective, but I often think that men written by women are the best kind! He has a lovely vulnerability that he doesn’t show to the world, in fact at times he masks it to the point of seeming obnoxious, but writing him in first person allowed me to share that internal/external contrast with the reader.

  They have similarities too though. They’ve grown up with similar backgrounds, they’re both incredibly loyal, and they share a base desire to be good people.

  Q. Jack and Oscar are such different men, and Laurie falls in love with each of them in different ways. Can you talk about the contrast between these two relationships and how they affect Laurie’s perspective on love?

  A. Jack and Oscar are indeed very opposite characters. I think Laurie was subconsciously drawn to someone just about as different as could be from Jack to prove a point to herself—she is
n’t looking for a replica of the man she can’t have. I think she knows that could never work; she’d always be comparing them, and Jack would have an unfair advantage.

  In Oscar, she finds someone who genuinely adores her, and because they meet in Thailand, she doesn’t realize at first how very different his life is from her own. It’s only when they return to London that reality sets in, but by that stage they’ve formed enough of a union to make a go of things. Laurie has spent so much of her time in recent years trying to hide and ignore her romantic feelings for Jack, it’s a huge relief to be openly in love with such a kind, affectionate man. Oscar wears his heart on his cuff-linked sleeve when it comes to Laurie, and she is totally swept away by the romance of it all. As the years go on their differing outlooks become more apparent, and they have to decide if they’re able to bend enough to meet in the middle.

  Laurie’s love for Jack is unrealistic in many ways. Having fallen in love with him on sight and then spending a year hoping to find him again, by the time they do come face-to-face she feels completely in love with him—despite the fact that for all intents and purposes, he’s a stranger, and even worse, he’s her best friend’s boyfriend. The spark between them is undeniable, although they are both very careful to never acknowledge they’d ever seen each other before—not even privately to each other. As the years pass and their friendship matures, Laurie has to work out whether her initial infatuation with Jack was ever real love at all.

  Q. Without giving anything away, was the ending the one you envisioned when you began writing the novel or did the plot unfold along the way?