Cathy's Christmas Kitchen: A heart-warming feel-good romantic comedy

by Tilly Tennant

  On reflection today, as she opened her eyes and her mind immediately went back to it, she might have thought that it was the alcohol that had made it seem so good, but something told her that when they met up again (they’d arranged a second date for the weekend) it would be just as good, alcohol or no alcohol.

  Still, she knew that Erica was bound to call her first thing wanting gossip. Cathy could hardly blame her for that, though she wasn’t sure how much was appropriate to reveal or how much Matthias would be happy for her to give away.

  As she got out of bed – more through habit than the fact she needed to, as it was her day off – she glanced at the clock and wondered how long Erica would leave it before she phoned. Perhaps it was more a case of how long she was able to leave it, because she’d seemed almost more excited about the date than Cathy or Matthias – and, for Cathy at least, that was very excited indeed.

  To her credit, Erica managed to wait until just gone ten. Cathy was eating a slice of toast, still in her dressing gown at the table, when the phone rang next to her.

  ‘Hi,’ Cathy said, a grin spreading across her face, just knowing that what would issue from Erica next was a squeaky demand for information.

  ‘So what happened?’ Erica asked. ‘How did it go? Do you like him? Matthias won’t tell me anything!’

  ‘He won’t?’ Cathy asked, her grin spreading. ‘Then maybe I shouldn’t either.’

  ‘Don’t you dare!’ Erica cried. ‘You don’t get the same let-off as he does.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because he’s my brother and you’re my friend – it’s different. Friends tell each other everything.’

  ‘Everything?’ Cathy raised an eyebrow that showed in the tone of her voice, even though Erica wouldn’t see it.

  ‘Well, not everything, of course… that would be weird.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Oh my God you didn’t…?’

  ‘NO!’ Cathy said, snorting with laughter. ‘I know I’ve been on my own a while but I’m not quite at that stage yet!’

  She could hear Erica laughing too. ‘But you like him?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You’re going to see him again at the weekend.’

  ‘He told you that much then.’

  ‘He really likes you,’ Erica said.

  ‘He told you that too?’

  ‘He doesn’t have to; I can tell. I’ve got such a good feeling about you two; and I never had a feeling like this about any of his other girlfriends.’

  Cathy wondered if that good feeling was based more on the fact that she and Erica were already friends rather than any hard evidence, but she smiled and didn’t say so.

  ‘I have a good feeling about it too.’

  ‘Didn’t I tell you he’d be right for you? Didn’t I say so?’

  ‘Yes, I should have listened to you in the first place.’

  ‘Although, I have to admit that your way of meeting was far more romantic than me sending you both on a blind date. Actually, that would never have worked because Matt would have flat out refused to go on a blind date. It didn’t go so well when he did it before.’

  Cathy’s smile faded for a moment. ‘You know when you said before that he’d had a lot of bad luck with women… how much, exactly? What kind of bad luck?’

  She wasn’t sure she wanted to know because she was half afraid knowing would provide things to put her off Matthias, but she was beginning to realise now that they were questions she needed to ask. Maybe they were questions that were easier to ask Erica right now than Matthias himself, and maybe she’d get more frank answers from her too.

  ‘Oh, you know, the usual… selfish girlfriends, the odd cheating incident – her, not him – ones that just fizzled out, the ones that ended in friend-zoning…’

  Cathy frowned at Erica’s suddenly careful tone. Was there something else she wasn’t saying? Something bigger than the things she’d mentioned? Perhaps she felt it wasn’t her place to tell that story – if it even existed at all. Right now, maybe it was better that Cathy didn’t push it. And she felt certain that if it had been something that could really threaten her and Matthias’s fledgling relationship, something that could kill it dead if Cathy found out about it in the wrong way, Erica would have found a way to say it, if only to make sure it didn’t jeopardise what she clearly hoped Cathy and Matthias might eventually have.

  ‘None of them was the right woman, though,’ Erica added, her tone upbeat again. ‘You’re different.’

  ‘Hmm, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,’ Cathy said with a light laugh, though she loved the faith Erica was placing in her.

  ‘So you’re seeing him again at the weekend?’ Erica continued. ‘Where are you going this time?’

  ‘I think we’re going back to the bar we ended up at last night,’ Cathy said. ‘It was lovely but we didn’t have a lot of time to try much of the food.’

  ‘That’s Aguilar’s, isn’t it? I love it in there.’

  ‘I’d never been in before but it was nice. Never had tapas either before last night. So that’s two firsts – Shakespeare and tapas…’

  ‘It’s three if you count Matthias.’

  Cathy laughed. ‘That’s true.’

  ‘I’m so happy it went well,’ Erica said, and Cathy could hear the warm smile in her voice. ‘I really felt it would, and I hoped so, but you can never tell if my stupid brother is going to manage to put his foot in it somehow and ruin what should have been as easy as falling off a log.’

  ‘What’s easy?’

  ‘Getting along with you, silly! If he managed to cock that up I really was going to wash my hands of him.’

  ‘Well you don’t need to because we got on really well.’

  ‘I really am glad. Listen, do you want to meet up today for coffee?’

  ‘So you can grill me about the date properly?’

  ‘Yes,’ Erica said, laughing. ‘But it would be lovely to see you too.’

  Cathy smiled. ‘There isn’t that much more to tell that you don’t already know, honestly. It was lovely, but it was a first date so it was all a bit polite. But if you really want to meet up then I’m free. I could show you the new recipes I’ve got for the book anyway.’

  ‘Ingrid’s at twelve then?’

  ‘Sounds good to me!’

  Twenty-Four

  Cookery club had rolled round again, and while Cathy always loved having her new friends to what had begun to feel like her own kitchen to do her favourite activity, today she had even more to smile about. Even though they’d arranged their second date for the coming weekend, Matthias and Cathy had spoken on the phone every night since their date, sometimes for an hour or more. It was mostly small talk but it came easily and it was fun. A bit of how’s your day been, a bit of flirting and a healthy dollop of cute and harmless innuendo had gone a long way to making those calls almost as enjoyable as seeing him in person.

  This morning Erica came in beaming too. She winked at Cathy. ‘Good morning!’

  Cathy grinned. Tansy was with Erica again today.

  ‘Good morning Tansy,’ Cathy said. ‘Good to see you again.’

  Tansy gave the vaguest nod and headed straight to her usual spot at the worktop to start getting ready to bake. It was hardly friendly but it was definitely an acknowledgement. Cathy wondered whether anyone had told Tansy that she was dating Matthias yet. Was this a Tansy who knew, or would a Tansy who knew react with even more coldness than she had today? Or was this only marginally less frosty version of Tansy the one who knew and was making an effort to be nice to Cathy, or was it just Cathy’s imagination that she was less cold than usual? If she didn’t already know, she was bound to find out soon. How would that work out? Cathy wondered. Tansy was so closed and unreadable all the time that she couldn’t even begin to guess.

  ‘I spoke to Matt last night,’ Erica said as Cathy bid her a more private good morning. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard him sound so happy.’

  ‘Really?’ Cathy replied airily. ‘Why wo
uld that be?’

  Erica grinned. ‘I think you know exactly why that would be.’

  ‘We’ve only spoken on the phone a few times.’

  ‘Well, whatever it is you’ve been saying it’s good…’ She lowered her voice further still as she threw a glance at Tansy, who was unpacking ingredients from a bag. ‘Please keep doing it – it’s nice for me to have only one sibling to worry about for a change instead of two.’

  Cathy could only assume she meant Tansy’s mum, Michelle. Neither Erica nor Matthias had said a lot about Michelle but, knowing how close they were to each other, the fact that they hadn’t spoke volumes about how difficult that relationship obviously was for both of them. Cathy had wanted to ask on more than one occasion, but she always got the impression that opening a discussion on that subject might be unwelcome.

  Maybe later, when she knew them both better, she might learn more, and it might make her understand Tansy a little better too. She was just as much of an enigma in her own right, and though she seemed to hate everything and everyone, including the cookery club, she kept turning up. When she first arrived she always looked as if she couldn’t have cared less about it, but once settled in, she suddenly began to take every task very seriously. It was such a strange juxtaposition, and Cathy wished she could work it out.

  She was prevented from asking more by Beth and her sister, who came over to ask whether she’d baked the barmbrack they’d given her the recipe for and whether she’d liked it. Cathy didn’t need much encouragement to wax lyrical about something she’d enjoyed making and eating, and it didn’t take her long to get so involved in a conversation about it that she hardly noticed Erica wander off to get set up for today’s bake. When she finally did, she realised that she’d been talking about barmbrack for so long that it was time to start the session. Anything else would have to wait for now.

  They were making two cakes today: some were making Eve’s pudding, and those who didn’t like apple were doing pineapple upside-down cake. Everyone had been getting along well, as they always did, the room full of good-natured but fairly low-level chatter as Cathy busied herself talking people through problems, offering advice on how to do something more easily, or just congratulating them on a job well done. But that was shattered about an hour into the class with a shrill squeal. Cathy was with Colin trying to figure out why his cake batter was so runny, but she looked up sharply, along with everyone else, to see Iris standing in front of one of the ovens with a look of absolute horror on her face.

  ‘Someone’s taken my cake out!’ she cried. ‘It’s nowhere near cooked! Look at it – it’s a horrible mess!’

  Cathy rushed over, as did Myrtle and Dora. Erica exchanged a look of confusion with Lindsey. Only Tansy didn’t look up, calmly getting on with washing her mixing bowl as if nothing had happened.

  ‘It was on that shelf,’ Iris said, pointing to a spot where another cake now sat. ‘Someone has taken it out to put theirs in.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Cathy asked. ‘You couldn’t be mistaken at all? Maybe you thought you’d put it in and you hadn’t?’

  ‘Of course I’m sure!’ Iris snapped. ‘I know I put it in!’

  Cathy looked through the glass door into the oven again. She wasn’t happy about a situation that might have someone pointing a finger of blame at someone else here, and her question had been aimed at heading an awkward eventuality like that off; she hadn’t meant to offend or insult Iris. But she really had been hoping that it was a mistake that Iris might suddenly recall making.

  ‘That’s a red tin,’ Iris said. ‘Who’s using red?’

  They’d bought colour-coded silicone baking tins so that people could recognise their own cakes and take the right one home. Some were white, some pink, some sage green, some powder blue and some red.

  ‘Not me,’ Beth said.

  ‘Not me either.’ Myrtle looked guilty, even though Cathy could see her cake still in front of her, waiting to go into the oven. It might have been funny if the situation wasn’t so excruciating.

  ‘I’ve used red,’ Colin said. ‘But my cake isn’t in yet.’

  ‘Yes, we’re still working out your batter, aren’t we?’ Cathy reassured him.

  Who did that leave?

  Everyone else called out what colour they’d used, and when they’d all but done, there was one person who hadn’t contributed to the investigation at all.

  ‘Tansy…’ Cathy said gently.

  Tansy looked up now, seemingly surprised to find everyone staring at her. ‘What?’ she said, her lips twisting into a challenging sneer. ‘It wasn’t me!’ she growled.

  Erica put a hand up to halt Cathy’s next sentence. ‘Tans… come take a walk with me, eh?’

  She led her niece outside, and Cathy could only assume it meant the cake that was in Iris’s spot was indeed Tansy’s, but that Erica knew better than to have this conversation with her in a crowded room where everyone would be listening in. She obviously knew what Tansy’s reaction might be, and that it was one best handled in private.

  Cathy let out a sigh. She felt sorry for Erica, who seemed to be on edge whenever she had her young charge with her, and yet continued to make the effort. She thought about how hard that might be, what a burden it was for Erica, and saw that this was what love looked like. She must care deeply about her niece to keep persevering with her when she had no real duty to. What was the role of Tansy’s mother in all this? Did she even have a role to play, or did she leave it all to other members of the family? From what Cathy had seen so far, it looked as if the latter was the case and Michelle didn’t bother with her daughter at all.

  She barely had time to process that thought – Tansy and Erica had only just closed the kitchen door when Iris launched into another verbal attack.

  ‘She did that on purpose! She’s had it in for me since she arrived!’

  ‘I’m sure that’s not the case,’ Cathy said, trying to keep a calm tone even though she felt the class unravelling. All the friendship and camaraderie they’d built up over the last few weeks was in danger of evaporating with this one careless act. Because it was obvious to Cathy, whether Tansy had done it deliberately or not, that she had taken Iris’s cake from the oven to put her own in, and to deny it when an apology might have defused the situation had only made things worse.

  ‘It was probably a misunderstanding,’ Colin agreed. ‘I can’t imagine anyone would have done that deliberately.’

  ‘She would – little snake!’ Dora chimed in. ‘The way she looks at everyone... I don’t know why she comes – she clearly hates us all.’

  ‘Perhaps she only meant to make room and took yours out so she could jiggle things about?’ Cathy suggested helplessly. ‘She might just have got distracted and then forgotten to put it back in?’

  ‘If there was no room on the shelf then she should have gone to one of the other ovens,’ Iris snapped back. ‘She had no right taking my cake out at all – it would have sunk and been ruined anyway, even if she had put it back in, and I would have thought that was my fault.’

  Cathy couldn’t argue with that logic, but still she had to try to keep the peace. ‘She wouldn’t have known your cake would sink – she’s very new to baking.’

  ‘She’d know,’ Dora said.

  The door opened and Erica came back in alone. She took Cathy to a quiet corner, away from the others, but everyone watched anyway. So Cathy turned her back to them and leaned in close to hide Erica from view.

  ‘I’m going to take Tansy home,’ Erica said quietly. ‘She’s a bit upset… I think it was a genuine mistake but… well, she’s not very good at taking criticism and I can see it blowing up if we stay. Best if I remove the touchpaper from the firework stack… so to speak.’

  ‘What about your cakes?’ Cathy asked, her heart sinking. Of all the people she didn’t want to have trouble with today, it was Matthias’s sister and niece.

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe the church can have them for a coffee morning or something. Not that
they’d be any good for that.’

  ‘They were looking good to me,’ Cathy said with a smile she hoped was encouraging and non-judgemental. ‘How about I take them with me today and drop them off for you?’

  ‘You could give them to Matt,’ Erica said. ‘You’re seeing him tomorrow anyway so he could get them to us – save you a job.’

  ‘I don’t mind coming tonight with them,’ Cathy said. ‘It’s only twenty minutes on the bus.’

  Erica shook her head. ‘Don’t make a special bus journey on our account. Listen… I’ve got to go; I’ve left her in the car. I’ll phone you later.’

  Cathy nodded, and Erica went to hastily gather up her belongings. Cathy helped her, and while everyone else went back to their cakes, a defiant Iris opened up the oven, took Tansy’s half-baked sponge out and put hers back in its place. As Erica hurried out, Cathy rushed over to try to save it. A cake was a cake, and it had looked like a good batter – to waste it would be a crime. She found a vacant spot in one of the other ovens and slammed it in, hoping it wouldn’t suffer too much from the time cooling on the side. Then she let out a sigh. If this was how cookery club was going to be from now on, maybe she wasn’t so keen on it after all.

  The atmosphere was tetchy as Iris, Dora and Cathy cleared up at the end of the morning. Iris still hadn’t forgiven Cathy for sticking up for Tansy (as she saw it), and Dora was firmly on Iris’s side this time. Cathy hated confrontation in any form, so she’d really been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. She hadn’t wanted it with Tansy and Erica and she didn’t want it now with Iris and Dora.

  They’d worked in silence for ten minutes when Cathy took a breath and broke it. ‘I think I might make next week the last cookery club.’