The Mistletoe Pact: A totally perfect Christmas romantic comedy

by Lovett, Jo

  ‘Hello,’ Dan said. And there was that gorgeously infectious smile. Whenever she hadn’t seen him for a while, the smile always hit her with surprising force, right to her stomach. Evie licked her lips, just to check that she definitely didn’t have any more paper stuck there. Which of course she didn’t, because she hadn’t blotted again. And… what had she been thinking? Who licked their lips when someone said hello? Really, who?

  ‘Hello. Hi. Lovely to see you,’ she said. Oh, God, she was over-helloing straight after lip-licking. Why did this suddenly feel awkward? ‘Thank you so much for the lift. I hope it isn’t too much out of your way. Sorry Sasha press-ganged you into it.’

  ‘Hey, no need to say sorry, and it’ll be nice to have the company. Where are your bags?’

  ‘Right here. There are quite a few. Do you think they’ll all fit in?’

  ‘Wow. That is quite a few. But, yes, I think so. I mean, I might not be able to see out of the back window at all and the suspension might break and you might have to cuddle some of those presents – what is that enormous one, by the way? – but I’m sure it’ll be fine.’

  ‘I could leave some behind?’

  ‘Joking, you muppet. We’ll get them in, it’ll be fine. Not joking about the really big one, though – what is it? And the other nearly-as-big one?’

  ‘The biggest one is the biggest teddy you’ve ever seen, for Autumn, and the other big one is a little desk for her. In a box.’

  ‘How old is she now?’

  ‘Five. She’s very keen on writing and colouring in, hence the desk, and she still loves teddies.’

  ‘Cute. How’s she enjoying school?’ Dan picked up two bags in each hand while holding the wrapped teddy.

  ‘She’s loving it. She has so much to tell me every time we speak. Really sweet.’ Evie picked up one bag in each hand. ‘How are you doing that with the bags? Aren’t the handles hurting your hands?’

  ‘Nope. I’m a man of steel. Although I’d be very keen to get these into the boot quickly. I’ve double-parked right outside.’

  * * *

  After only two trips – Dan proved he really was made of steel when it came to carrying bags of presents, and also lucky when it came to parking wardens, because he hadn’t got a ticket – they had everything in the car and were setting off.

  ‘So Sasha told me you moved to London late summer?’ Dan asked as he put the car into gear. ‘That must have been a huge change?’

  ‘Yep. Massive. Although long overdue, really, given that I’m about to be twenty-eight. And it isn’t like I’ve moved to the other end of the country. I’ve already been home several times to see Mum and Autumn. In my car, which has never broken down before.’

  ‘That’s any kind of appliance or electrical item for you. They save their worst performance for when you need them the most. My boiler broke down last Christmas during that week when it was below zero the whole time and British Gas couldn’t get to me for several days, because apparently half of the rest of London also had broken boilers.’

  ‘That sounds chilly.’

  ‘Yes, unbelievable. But luckily I live in a very small flat with basically only three very small rooms and a shower room and I managed to get some very efficient fan heaters, so all was well within a few hours.’

  ‘Lucky. So whereabouts do you live? Sasha said Fulham?’

  ‘Yep. In a tiny flat above a busy restaurant, but it’s mine – other than being mortgaged to the hilt – and it’s a great location. Walking distance to work.’

  ‘So you must feel kind of like a Londoner now,’ Evie said. Dan had been to university in London and had just stayed. ‘I still feel a little bit, like, woah, about the traffic, the Tube, all the people, the noise. I mean, it’s great, because, you know, the restaurants and the shops and the theatres and the cinemas, just everything, and it’s all open all the time, and I’m having a lot of fun, and I’m lucky because I have some university friends living nearby plus the teachers at school are lovely and there’s a lot of social stuff amongst the staff, but it’s a big change. Okay, and that sounded ridiculously country bumpkin and underlined exactly why it was time for me to finally live by myself.’

  Dan laughed. ‘Yeah, I can imagine. And, yeah, it’s been a long time now that I’ve been here. I can’t totally imagine living in the countryside as an adult. Shit, maybe it’s time for me to make a change.’

  ‘Where would you go if you were going to leave London?’

  ‘Literally no idea. I’m too busy to ever think.’ The car in front of them turned out. ‘Finally,’ Dan said, edging forwards, right up to the junction.

  ‘Yeah, I can imagine. It took me years to decide where I was going before I finally moved out of Mum’s.’

  Dan put his foot down for a very cheeky right turn onto a main road.

  ‘Woah,’ Evie said, holding onto the side of her seat.

  ‘Woah?’ Dan said, eyes focused on the traffic as they waited at a roundabout. ‘That was nothing. You never get anywhere in London if you wait for big gaps in the traffic.’

  He screeched out onto the roundabout between a bus and a Range Rover and Evie said, ‘Woah,’ again.

  ‘Really?’ Dan said.

  ‘Yes, really.’ Not really really. The strange thing was that he was definitely quite an aggressive driver but at the same time you felt like he was a very safe one. He had his shirt sleeve rolled up and his forearm and hand looked great on the gear stick. So great that if you thought about it, it definitely gave you stomach flutters. And, really, what? This was embarrassing, even just as a thought that he definitely wasn’t going to know about. ‘So do you have a Christmas playlist for the journey?’

  Dan shook his head, his eyes still focused on the road ahead. ‘Nope.’

  ‘Well then,’ Evie said, ‘you’re going to be so grateful to Sasha for suggesting that you give me a lift. And to me for having only the best playlist ever.’ Maybe she was being a teensy bit over-excitable just in case he’d noticed her lusting after his arm, for God’s sake.

  ‘Okay. Are you going to talk me through it or are you going to surprise me?’

  ‘I mean, I’d like to say I’m going to surprise you, but it’s a Christmas playlist. How surprising could it be?’

  ‘I’m pretty sure there are some weird Christmas songs around.’

  ‘Yeah, I don’t love the weird ones.’

  ‘Do you like bad ones, though?’

  ‘No, I don’t. All my choices are very, very good.’

  ‘Okay, hit me with your list.’

  ‘Actually, first I want to know what you think I have on it. What do you think my top three Christmas songs are? And what are your top three Christmas songs?’

  ‘Hmm.’ Dan whizzed through some lights very much on the turning-to-red part of amber and Evie yelped. ‘Seriously. You have to drive like this if you’re going to get anywhere. Right. Yours. “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, “Last Christmas” and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you have some actual carols in there. And for mine, tricky. Hmm. Maybe “Merry Xmas Everybody”, because that always gets a party going. I do like “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”. I’m struggling to think of three that I like. Maybe that old Kirsty MacColl one. Or “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday”. I don’t know really.’

  ‘Interesting,’ Evie said, wishing that she had something unusual and cool in there. She pressed play and ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ started.

  ‘Nice,’ said Dan, nodding in an appreciative way, and tapping the steering wheel in time to the music. ‘I like a song that describes exactly what you’re doing. Good choice.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Evie. ‘I am indeed a song-choosing genius.’

  The second song was ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’.

  ‘Get in,’ said Dan, grinning.

  Within a few bars they were both belting the words out, going for some serious a cappella extras at the end.

  The third song to come up was ‘Hark! The Herald Ang
els Sing’.

  Dan shook his head. ‘So predictable. But also so good.’

  And then they both really went for it, Evie with some extreme soprano notes and Dan some very deep ones.

  ‘We’re amazing singers,’ Dan said a couple of songs later.

  Evie nodded. ‘We really are.’

  If she was honest, she’d have to admit that right now she was really glad that her car had broken down. This was a lot more fun than driving home by herself.

  Nineteen

  Then – Christmas 2019

  Dan

  Evie’s playlist moved on to ‘Last Christmas’ and Dan laughed out loud.

  ‘It’s very satisfying to be right,’ he told her. ‘So predictable. But you can’t beat cheesiness at Christmas.’ She’d already started singing along to this one. She was good. She’d been like this at Lucie’s wedding too, now he thought about it. Excellent on lyrics. ‘Do you know the words to all songs ever or have you just listened to these ones a lot?’

  ‘I’ve got to say, I am good with lyrics. I was really bad at remembering a lot of stuff at school, like languages and sciences, things like that, but I’ve always been able to remember songs. I always used to wonder whether the reason that my French vocab and chemistry facts wouldn’t stay in my head was that it was already full of lyrics. And I wish there’d been a song-lyrics GCSE.’

  ‘They actually should have a popular music GCSE.’ Dan indicated right, moved into the outside lane and speeded up. ‘Finally we can go at a normal speed. The traffic’s insane today.’

  ‘Everyone’s going home for Christmas,’ Evie said. ‘And so are we. I’m actually so excited. I can’t wait.’

  Dan smiled and shook his head slightly. Still so ridiculously uncynical.

  A few minutes later, ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ came on, as they were slowing down for another traffic jam.

  Dan felt himself go slightly rigid. And he was staring straight ahead. Was that normal? Yes, it was normal. You always looked straight ahead when you were driving. God, he was behaving like a child. Surely he could act naturally around Evie when the words mistletoe and wine were mentioned. It was years since that time they’d made their pact under the mistletoe and kissed. It had been a fantastic kiss, but, again, it was years ago, and a one-off, and he’d seen her a fair few times since then without thinking about it. Why had it come into his head now?

  They were stationary now. He took a sideways look at her. She was staring straight ahead too.

  It wasn’t often that you could get to just look at someone’s face in repose but at close quarters. He loved the curve of her cheek.

  After a few seconds, she turned to look at him, perhaps sensing his eyes on her.

  And said nothing. And nor did he. They were looking at each other and Cliff Richard was singing the cheesy song to end all cheesy songs and they were just… looking. And, certainly in Dan’s case, remembering.

  Evie swallowed visibly. And Dan swallowed too.

  God, she was beautiful. And sweet and funny and lovely and kind. And still gazing at him. As he was at her.

  Just the two of them. With all the opportunity in the world right now to say whatever they liked to each other.

  It felt like this could be a big moment. One of those moments where you chose which course your life might take. Was that fanciful? Probably. But… She was take-your-breath-away gorgeous and she was fantastic company. It was easy to imagine being around Evie a lot. Being with her. And it was easy to hope that if he made the first move she might be interested.

  Except he couldn’t do this. It would be a killer if things went wrong in a relationship with someone like Evie. It would hurt too much. And, realistically, they would go wrong. So many relationships did. Especially his.

  Evie was biting her lip now. God.

  No. Better never to go there again.

  ‘Such a cheesy song,’ he said, putting the car back into gear and crawling forward a few metres.

  An hour and a half later, the village church’s spire came into view as they rounded a bend in the road.

  ‘Seeing the church always makes me feel like I’m home,’ Evie said between verses of ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’. ‘Mum always said that, when I was little, if we’d been on a long journey and she’d wanted me to sleep and I just wouldn’t, I’d always nod off just as we saw the spire. And then she’d have a nightmare when we got home and I was sound asleep and she wanted to get me out of the car. Autumn’s exactly the same.’

  ‘Interesting. A family habit of falling asleep in the car at the wrong time. Question is, are you going to nod off now?’ Dan said.

  ‘What?’ said Evie. ‘Sorry, missed what you said, think I was asleep.’

  ‘Ha.’ Dan smiled at her and changed down to third gear to round a sharp corner. Despite some serious Christmas traffic and several lengthy hold-ups, this journey had gone very quickly. He couldn’t remember a drive he’d enjoyed so much. ‘How long are you staying? I’m going back to London on the twenty-seventh. You’re very welcome to a lift back if you’re going back then?’

  ‘Thank you so much. I’d have loved to have done – think how many more songs we could have got through – but I’m staying until the second, and then I’m going to go back and power through a big pile of marking and lesson prep before term starts. Are you working over New Year?’

  ‘I’m actually not. First year for a long time that I’m not working either Christmas or New Year. I’m in on the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth and then I’m flying out to New York on the thirtieth for a long weekend with some friends from med school.’

  ‘Wow, that’s exciting.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. We’re going to do the whole tourist thing. The Statue of Liberty. Skating at the Rockefeller Center. Times Square for New Year’s Eve. The works.’

  ‘Perfect. I say that like I know New York; I’ve never actually been. I’d love to go. I’d love to go to America full stop, in fact. Sasha and I have been talking about organising a US trip with our old gang from school for all our thirtieths. Two years to plan it, so hopefully it will actually happen.’

  ‘You should definitely do that. And what are you doing for New Year this year? The usual?’

  ‘Yup.’ Evie and Sasha and various other friends nearly always spent New Year’s Eve in the Duck and Grapes pub in the village.

  A wave of nostalgia so strong that it felt almost physical washed over Dan. Youth. The pub. The landlord had let them drink in there from when they were fifteen as long as they only had a pint of shandy. Lots of friends. No worries, just a lot of chat and laughter. Until Max’s accident.

  And they’d arrived in the centre of the village.

  ‘I love the green,’ Evie said. ‘It gives me a thrill seeing it every time. We’re so lucky to have grown up in such a chocolate-box perfect village.’

  Dan glanced over at Evie and thought about the time they’d sat on the bench on the green late at night and then kissed on her doorstep. He looked away and manoeuvred the car into her lane, stopped outside her mum’s cottage and turned back to her. She was gazing at him, biting her lower lip slightly again. Beautiful. God, he was remembering that kiss again. He was supposed to have parked that memory. Her eyelashes fluttered a little as they looked at each other.

  Eventually, Dan realised that the car was still running and pulled his key out of the ignition.

  ‘Thank you so much for the lift,’ Evie said, sounding a little husky.

  ‘Not a problem.’ There was something about being inside the car, just the two of them. So intimate.

  Dan cleared his throat and Evie’s mum tapped on the window and he and Evie both jumped.

  Evie’s mum pulled the passenger door open and enveloped her daughter in a huge hug. Then Autumn ran out of the house and joined in with the hugging.

  ‘We should unpack the car,’ said Evie. ‘We’re holding Dan up.’

  ‘Really, not a problem,’ Dan said.

  ‘No, we should let yo
u go. I think this drizzle’s going to turn into heavy rain and that won’t be fun for either of us with the unpacking.’

  Evie and her mum and Autumn took armfuls of presents and Dan hefted all the remaining bags out and deposited them just inside Evie’s mum’s front door.

  ‘I think that’s everything,’ he said.

  ‘Thank you again, so much.’ Evie’s smile really was beautiful. ‘Total knight in shining armour.’

  ‘No, thank you,’ he said, meaning it. ‘I enjoyed the singing. Happy birthday for tomorrow.’ He hoped he’d see her again soon. Hard to imagine not enjoying her company.

  Twenty

  Now – May 2022

  Evie

  Evie’s hands were bordering on sore from clapping and her face was bordering on sore from smiling. Thank goodness her school had an inset day today so that she’d been able to make it to Autumn’s Year Two Robin Hood play.

  The applause eventually started to die down and her mum said, ‘Did you definitely get it all on video?’

  Evie nodded. ‘Yes, every minute. She was perfect.’

  ‘I know. I can barely speak.’ Her mum dabbed a tissue to her eyes. Autumn had had a starring role and had played a short violin solo – genuinely not that screechily – at the beginning.

  ‘And now you can all go and say a quick hello to your family and friends before you get changed,’ Autumn’s class teacher told the children. ‘Slowly and quietly,’ she yelled, as they all stampeded towards the audience and two of Robin Hood’s merry men tripped over their bows and went flying.

  Autumn sprinted towards Evie and her mum and they swung her up together for a big three-way hug.