And then she heard her front door open and then quietly close.
‘Bastard,’ Holly breathed.
But then a moment or so later she heard the door open again and lay back on the pillows, recanting her curse as she realised he must have left the door on the latch so he could get back in.
Holly knew she was way out of her comfort zone here, so much so that she had actually thought he might just walk off without so much as a goodbye. Instead, though, he walked in with two mugs of coffee and two Advent calendars that he must have retrieved from the car. He put the drinks on the bedside tables and dropped the calendars on the bed.
‘Holly, why don’t you have any food in your fridge?’
‘There are eggs.’
‘But no bread,’ he pointed out. ‘I heard the neighbours, or rather I could hear breakfast television and her shouting for him to get up...’
‘I told you,’ Holly said. ‘It’s worse during the week. She must call to him about fifteen times before he surfaces. Sometimes I want to go round there and pull the duvet off him myself!’
And he would rather like to pull the duvet from her but instead he just climbed in.
She reached for the floor and handed out cushions so that they could sit up in comfort.
Her bedroom really was rather lovely. Even aside from the Christmas tree! There were books and a pile of DVDs lining shelves and a television on a chest of drawers. There was her computer and phone and, really, apart from the occasional trip to the bathroom or kitchen he could absolutely see why she might not want to leave. ‘You could bring the coffee maker in here,’ Daniel suggested.
‘I did think of that...’ Holly nodded ‘...but then I’d need a little fridge too...’
‘And then you’d get bedsores,’ Daniel said, and was about to make a little joke about having to roll her every couple of hours, but he knew where that would lead.
‘I’d better go soon.’
‘Good,’ Holly said, ‘because I’ve got a lot to do.’
She picked up her Advent calendar and started to peel off the Cellophane as Daniel tackled his.
‘I can’t believe you’ve never had one of these.’
‘I might have when I was really little,’ Daniel said. ‘I honestly can’t remember.’
For all his inexperience he found the number one before Holly did and was soon pulling out a small circle of dark chocolate from behind the little cardboard window.
‘I doubt it’s very good,’ Holly warned as she too found hers. ‘Given that Kay bought a job lot. Still, it’s the thought...’ Her voice trailed off as she popped it in her mouth. It was the darkest, sweetest and most melt-in-the-mouth chocolate she had ever tasted, and Daniel clearly felt the same since he was already opening door number two.
‘Oh, my!’ Holly said.
‘Wait till you taste December the second,’ Daniel warned. ‘It’s some orange liqueur...’
‘I think I’m going to come!’ Holly said as she rolled it around her tongue.
‘Well, lucky for you, it’s December the third now, so you can have another.’
The third was behind a little door with a gingerbread man on it and the chocolate was a coffee and cream.
‘They get better and better,’ Daniel said.
The chocolate was so seriously superb that Holly was very much considering breaking her own rule and just eating all twenty-five in one go.
‘If that’s the beginning of the month,’ Daniel said, ‘then what’s behind those double doors...?’ He turned the calendar over and read the fine print. ‘It’s from Belgium.’
‘So what’s it doing in the discount store?’
‘We should go and buy up all that’s left.’ Daniel suggested.
‘I’ll have to find out which one she went to.’
Hot coffee soon washed down the chocolate but instead of Daniel heading for home and Holly to the shops they were back on their sides and facing each other.
‘I’m starving,’ Daniel said.
‘There’s a baker’s across the street, they do really nice pastries.’
‘Go on, then,’ he said, but she shook her head.
‘You go.’
And for someone who had been about to leave, Daniel was considering not just heading to the bakers on his way home but returning to her bed with a box of pastries.
‘We could just go and get breakfast.’ Daniel suggested the name of a very nice department store and as she licked her lips at the suggestion he waited for that ping of regret for prolonging things to descend in his chest, but it wasn’t there. His only regret was that he might be leading her on, and yet, he reasoned, it was just breakfast.
‘Sounds good,’ Holly said. ‘It has to be a quick breakfast, though...’ She glanced at the time. ‘I want to do some Christmas shopping.’
‘And me.’
Daniel did, as he hadn’t got anything for Maddie. She was already terribly disappointed that he wouldn’t be there for Christmas and he hoped that it might be tempered by a lovely gift.
But what to get a five-year-old who has everything?
And whatever it was he would have to have it delivered. There was no way he was rocking up for Christmas dinner after the disaster of last year.
As he borrowed Holly’s shower, Daniel told himself that the expedition he’d suggested was a terrible idea.
From sex to shopping?
And Holly was thinking the same, though along different lines, because as Daniel showered his phone rang and she looked at the screen and saw the name ‘Maddie’.
Whoever Maddie was she was impatient, because she rang three times in the space of five minutes.
Holly tried not to mind.
Yet she did.
When he came out of the shower it was to the sight of Holly sitting on the bed and pulling on boots.
‘I wish I’d done this before I put on my jeans,’ Holly said and to Daniel it seemed there was nothing more on her mind than breakfast.
He picked up the phone and gave a small eye roll when he saw that there were a few missed calls from Maddie.
There often were!
He had a listen to check there wasn’t a problem.
There wasn’t.
‘Hello, I’ve got your ticket for the nativity play.’
Next message. ‘I’m an angel.’
And so on.
What on earth should he get her for Christmas?
‘Let’s go,’ Holly said, trying to keep the edge from her voice as he blatantly listened to his messages. ‘I think the café opens at ten.’
They arrived at a quarter past, which, as it turned out, was perfect timing because everyone who had been queuing for the café to open were pretty much served.
‘I’ll have the full English breakfast...’ Daniel didn’t even need to look at the menu.
‘Well, I’m going to have mince pies and cream and a strong coffee.’
The fruit mix in the pie was warm and spicy and the cream sweet and it was the perfect breakfast really, although it had little to do with the food.
Despite their brief misgivings about their breakfast date, conversation was surprisingly easy.
Usually for Daniel the conversation ran out at first kiss, or certainly by the time his head had hit the pillow, but Holly’s company was just as pleasant this morning as it had been last night.
‘Who do you have to buy for?’ Holly asked as Daniel slathered brown sauce on his mushrooms.
‘My sister.’
‘Who else?’
‘No one else. You?’
‘Everyone!’ Holly sighed and then took out her phone. ‘But first I’m going to call work.’
‘About Paul or the Christmas roster?’
‘Stop!�
� Holly blushed. ‘Don’t you dare repeat that to anyone.’
‘I never repeat pillow talk.’
‘It was said in your car.’
‘Yes, but by then you’d already made up your mind that you’d be hauling me into your lair.’
‘No,’ Holly said as she made the call, and having asked the switchboard operator to put her through to Kay she smiled at him. ‘That was a last-minute decision.’
‘I’m glad you made it.’
So too was she, Holly thought as she returned to her phone call.
‘Kay, it’s Holly.’
‘He’s stable, no real change, but that’s good.’ Kay got straight to it. ‘No arrhythmias overnight but they’ll keep him intubated for a couple of days.’
‘How’s Nora?’
‘Exhausted. She’s just gone home for a sleep. How was the party?’
‘It was good,’ Holly said. ‘Everyone was concerned about Paul, of course, but I think it went well.’
‘I heard that you left early.’
‘Well, I wasn’t exactly in the mood...you know that.’
‘I also heard Daniel didn’t just drop you girls off but came in for a drink.’
‘He did.’
‘Hold on a moment.’ Holly sat there and she heard Kay closing her office door and Holly sat holding her breath, wondering if their leaving together had been noted.
She didn’t have to worry, Holly soon realised as Kay spoke on. ‘Anna was all over him, apparently?’
‘I didn’t notice.’
‘Get out of here,’ Kay scoffed. She knew Holly was always up to date with goings-on, although Kay prided herself on being The One Who Knew. ‘So, who did he leave with?’
Holly sat there, watching as Daniel mopped up the egg with a thick bit of buttery toast, and she should be relieved, really, that Kay didn’t for a second think it might be with her.
‘I don’t think he was with anyone,’ Holly said, and her voice came out a little too high.
Daniel looked up when he heard her strained voice and saw her very red cheeks and he could guess what was being asked so he mouthed a suggestion.
‘Do you want me to speak to her?’
Holly laughed at the thought of Kay’s shocked expression if she handed Daniel the phone but shook her head and looked away, hunching her shoulders so she could talk without seeing the object of her sins.
‘Oh.’ Kay sounded deflated at the lack of gossip but when Kay spoke on so too did Holly. ‘I’m going to have to take a long hard look at the roster, Holly.’
‘I know.’
‘And you know that I’ll try to accommodate everyone but I do have to be fair. There are mums with little ones who need their mum to be there at Christmas, but you know that I’ll try to do my best for all my staff.’
‘I do appreciate it.’
Holly hung up and as she did so Daniel gave her a thin smile. ‘Off duty?’
She nodded.
‘See, I told you it wouldn’t take long. The real world always surfaces.’
And it was surfacing now because as she glanced at the time Holly knew if she had wanted to do her shopping and get to her parents’ by dinnertime, then she needed to get going.
They finished up their food and wandered out, but instead of parting ways they looked at the floor plan.
‘What does your sister like?’ Holly asked.
‘Elephants.’
‘Oh.’
He didn’t explain that Maddie was five.
In truth, Daniel was very touchy about the fact his sister could very well be his daughter. In fact, when they were out together they were always mistaken as such.
They joined the swarms of people all looking for the perfect gift that would make another happy.
There was no such thing, Daniel knew.
Holly swallowed when he held up a necklace with an ugly-looking elephant hanging on the chain, Of course she assumed Daniel’s sister was close to his age, and she found that she was wearing her nervous smile, which she quickly righted and then made a suggestion.
‘Why don’t you adopt an elephant for her?’
Daniel rolled his eyes.
‘If I loved elephants,’ Holly said, ‘it would be the perfect gift.’
And then she found her perfect gift!
It was beach glass, all wired and knotted together into the most fantastic necklace and earrings.
‘I should get this for Adam,’ Holly said, ‘though it’s a bit pricey.’
‘Adam?’
‘My brother.’
‘Right,’ Daniel said, to show he had no problem with all of that. ‘Right! It’s very nice.’
‘The necklace would be for me, Daniel.’ Holly smiled at his attempt to be PC. ‘After too many disasters we now buy what we really want for ourselves and wrap it, though it’s from the other.’
‘I see.’
He didn’t.
Daniel knew very little of family traditions and the little things that others seemed to do so seamlessly to make Christmas Day special.
But then, in the middle of a department store and completely out of the blue, he remembered something. He had woken up and there was this lumpy sock at the end of his bed and there was some fruit in it but also a tiny miniature of a castle. A castle he knew because they had been on holiday there that summer.
The holiday wasn’t really a memory, more that the castle he had held in his palm that morning was, for he had looked at it in the gift shop.
His mum must have done that, Daniel realised. She must have bought it then and saved it for Christmas. Certainly it wouldn’t have been his father.
He just stood in the busy department store, remembering something from a long time ago.
Something precious.
‘Why are they queuing?’ Holly nudged him and pulled him from introspection.
She had put down the necklace and looked up to see a long line forming towards the back of the store.
‘Because they’ve got nothing better to do.’ Daniel shrugged. ‘Maybe it’s to see Santa.’
‘But they’re mainly adults,’ Holly pointed out.
‘Maybe it’s an adult-rated Santa,’ he suggested, but Holly didn’t smile at his joke. ‘You don’t approve?’
‘I refuse to buy into your constant downgrading of the magic of Christmas. I want to know what they’re queuing for,’ Holly said, and they made their way over to see what was going on.
No, it wasn’t Santa and neither was it an adult Santa. It was really rather amazing. They clearly weren’t the only ones who thought so because and if the queue was big, so too was the crowd gathered at the end of the line, watching what was being made.
A little elf, okay, a person dressed up as a little elf, was typing on a miniature keyboard. Further down the line a tiny stamp-sized letter was printed. There another elf was placing the tiny letters in equally small envelopes.
It took a moment to work out that the letters were being placed within hand-blown Christmas-tree decorations.
They both stood and watched the glassblower and time really did run away that morning because it was simply fascinating to watch.
Once made and cooled another group of elves then decorated the glass bauble and added a silver chain to hang it from the tree and then it was placed in a gorgeous box that was tied with a heavy silver bow.
‘What a beautiful gift,’ Holly said, although Daniel, though interested, was too practical to be convinced.
‘I don’t get it,’ Daniel admitted. ‘You’d have to break the glass to read the letter.’
‘That’s the whole point,’ Holly said. ‘You don’t break the glass. Or maybe you do...’
They were debating this when someone called his name.
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‘Daniel!’
They both turned and walking towards them was a rather beautiful woman around Holly’s age but light years ahead in style. She had long straight honey-brown hair that fell immaculately and she looked as if she had just stepped out of a make-up salon, though it was subtly done, of course. She wore neat grey trousers and boots and had on a thin coat and she was one of those people who couldn’t spill something on themselves if they tried.
Her cheeks were pink, though, and starting to fire up like a sunset as Daniel said her name.
‘Hi, Amelia.’ He responded to her greeting with a rather terse nod. ‘How are you?’
‘Busy,’ she admitted, and held up a couple of shopping bags. ‘I’m just trying to get a few things...’
‘I see.’
It was all rather tense and uncomfortable and when Amelia looked over at Holly, clearly expecting to be introduced, Daniel said nothing.
How did you? Daniel wondered. Did he turn to Holly and say, Oh, Holly this is my stepmother.
He hadn’t seen her in almost a year.
Not since last Christmas Day, when Amelia had had rather too much drink and had told Daniel that, though the money was nice, the marriage wasn’t great. He had woken from a doze on the sofa to be told by Amelia that she was tired of sleeping with an older man and wanted the younger version—his son, namely Daniel.
And no one would ever have to know.
Daniel had got up, got his jacket and gone home, and hadn’t seen Mommy Dearest since.
‘So what are you up to?’ Amelia asked.
‘Not much.’
Those two words crushed Holly.
He could have said Christmas shopping, Holly thought, or that they had just been and had breakfast. No, she didn’t want him to go into detail but to stand beside her and tell this woman ‘Not much’ had Holly’s confidence shrink as if salt had been poured over it.
She stood there, wearing that stupid, nervous smile as they carried on talking while she was, at best, ignored.
‘So what are you doing over Christmas?’ Amelia asked him.
Avoiding you and my father, Daniel was tempted to answer, but his voice was its usual mixture of boredom and disinterest.
‘I’m not sure,’ Daniel said. ‘Working or skiing.’
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