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

by Tilly Tennant

  Matthias did call around ten minutes later, and although Cathy was happy to hear from him, the news that he was going with Tansy to pick up some belongings from her home so she could move in with him for a while was less welcome. It meant obstacles in the way of their blossoming relationship, and although she felt selfish to think that way, she couldn’t help it. But she put a brave face on the situation, told him she was glad he was doing that if it felt like the right thing, reassured him that the way the previous evening had ended hadn’t put her off and they arranged to go out again the following night. At least that was something to look forward to, as long as Tansy didn’t manage to throw another spanner in the works. She was getting very good at that lately.

  ‘So…’ Fleur handed Cathy her usual early mug of tea. It looked as if she’d been there for hours already because the stall was almost set up, the displays bursting with seasonal arrangements of holly, ivy and mistletoe, some with scarlet roses and berries or pine cones sprayed silver and gold. There were also early daffodils, snow-white lilies and more delicate narcissi along with the usual fare of more traditional, year-round bouquets that included carnations and orchids. ‘Firstly, where’s my cake?’

  Cathy laughed and gave Fleur the Tupperware tub she’d filled with rocky road.

  ‘Oh, you’re a good girl!’ Fleur grinned as she took a square. ‘And second, how did the big date go?’

  ‘Interesting,’ Cathy said, taking a sip of her tea.

  ‘Now that’s not an adjective I’ve come to expect when hearing how a date went. Interesting how?’

  ‘Oh, it was lovely until the end.’

  Fleur wrinkled her nose. ‘Oh God, he didn’t try to push things too far, did he?’

  ‘Oh, no! He was a perfect gentleman. But when we got back to his place for a coffee his niece was on the doorstep.’

  ‘Trouble?’

  ‘That’s her. And she had more trouble. She’d left home and wanted his help. So, of course, that was the end of the evening.’

  ‘Well’ – Fleur bit into her chocolatey square – ‘at least the rest of it went well. Are you going to see him again?’

  ‘Tomorrow,’ Cathy said. ‘As long as nothing happens to get in the way, I suppose.’

  ‘You think it will?’

  ‘Well, she’s moving in with him for a bit as far as I know.’

  ‘So? Surely his niece isn’t that needy? She’s older, isn’t she? Old enough to look after herself for a few hours if he goes out?’

  ‘She’s seventeen so yes, but I think he worries about her. I think Erica does too but she can’t do as much because her husband isn’t very keen.’

  ‘He might worry about her but surely that won’t affect him seeing you?’

  Cathy put her lips to her mug again. Fleur’s appraisal of the situation was as practical as she was, and it was bang on the mark. Tansy staying with Matthias shouldn’t affect his time with Cathy, but somehow she felt it wasn’t going to be that simple. She’d seen already how easily Tansy seemed to wrap her uncle around her little finger and she wondered how far she’d go to make certain she was always his top priority. She craved affection and attention; that much was clear from what she did and what Cathy now knew about her, and to a certain extent Cathy sympathised – the poor girl probably deserved a bit of TLC. But she felt Tansy didn’t always go the right way about getting it, and how far she’d push to get what she wanted was anyone’s guess.

  ‘I don’t suppose it ought to,’ she said finally. ‘I’m probably worrying over nothing. It’s just… I really like him, Fleur. I suppose I’m scared something will come and ruin it for me.’

  ‘It sounds as if he likes you too, so maybe you ought to try to relax and let things happen. You know, I always think that if something is meant to be then it’s meant to be, and nothing in the universe will stop it. And if it’s not meant to be, then the universe will see that it stops, no matter what anyone else does.’

  ‘Hmm,’ Cathy said, smiling now. ‘Sounds a bit fatalistic.’

  ‘But it takes the stress out of things,’ Fleur said, reaching into the tub for more cake. ‘There’s no point in worrying about things that will take their own course whether you worry or not.’

  ‘I don’t like the thought that the universe doesn’t want me to find a good man like Matthias,’ Cathy said.

  ‘Oh, I think it does. That’s why you’re never here right now when your ex comes for his flowers.’

  Cathy looked sharply up from her mug. ‘What?’

  Fleur shrugged. ‘He came in again as I was packing up last Friday. Did I not mention it?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Oh, I must have forgotten. Jade served him this time – she’s doing extra hours to save for Christmas,’ Fleur added in answer to Cathy’s slight frown, guessing that she was wondering what their Saturday girl was doing in a day early, ‘but I could tell he was looking for you.’

  Cathy searched her memory. This must have been after he’d seen her out at the theatre with Matthias. There had been nothing strange in his demeanour that she could recall, though. He’d been cheery, friendly, as interested as an old acquaintance would be, even if Cathy had found it excruciatingly awkward. Cathy also had to question whether he really had been looking for her or whether Fleur was just choosing to see it that way because she was rather enjoying the drama.

  ‘He probably just thought he’d say hello if I was here,’ Cathy said. ‘I saw him out at the theatre with his wife after the play had ended,’ she added. ‘And he came over to introduce her, so he probably just thought we’re sort of friends now and he ought to be polite.’

  ‘Yes,’ Fleur said, ‘I’m sure that’s it.’ But her expression told Cathy that she didn’t believe that for a minute.

  Cathy looked up to see someone at the counter holding a wreath they’d picked up from the display.

  ‘How much is this one?’ the woman asked.

  Cathy, glad of the distraction, put down her tea and went over to help. With a bit of luck they’d start getting busy around now and Fleur would forget all about the fact that Jonas had been to the stall again.

  Matthias and Cathy had agreed on somewhere more low-key for their next date and gone to a cosy local pub. He had seemed distracted at times, but she’d tried to dismiss it, realising that he had a lot to think about right now and she hoped that it was nothing to do with her. He seemed to rally, however, when Cathy took over the conversation to talk about the progress of her recipe collection and the book she was writing to safeguard it. She’d wondered if it was a subject that would bore him, but he’d seemed genuinely interested when he’d asked, telling her what he knew from Erica, and listening intently as she explained her thoughts on how it was a way of maintaining connections with the past and with family members no longer with them.

  ‘So what will you do with it when it’s finished?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t know. Lots of people have said they would like photocopies so I suppose I’ll make some to give out.’

  ‘Seems a bit of an anti-climax for something you’ve put so much work into.’

  ‘Not really; it’s more of a labour of love than anything else. Maybe I’ll ask for donations or something to give to the cancer charity, but it’s really not worth that much to anyone but me.’

  ‘I think you underestimate its worth.’

  Cathy shrugged and reached for the white wine spritzer he’d just brought back to their table. The pub was quiet, only two other tables occupied, but then, it was a weeknight. Besides, she liked it this way – it meant they could talk properly without having to shout over the noise of a jukebox or quiz machines or rowdy drinkers, and it meant they could each listen properly too.

  ‘Fleur said that— My boss at the flower stall,’ she clarified at the look of vague confusion on Matthias’s face. ‘She says I ought to get one set properly by a printer – glossy pages and photos and all that. She offered to sell them on the stall in the run-up to Christmas if I got copies.’ Cathy sipped h
er wine. ‘It’s probably a bit late for that now though, Christmas is only a couple of weeks away and I’d never get them printed on time.’

  ‘I think she was right – it’s a shame you never got it done before now. The shops are full of recipe books right now.’

  ‘Yes,’ Cathy said with a light laugh. ‘From celebrity chefs people actually care about. I don’t think I fall into that category.’

  ‘People care about you,’ he said.

  Cathy raised her eyebrows. ‘I’m hardly a celebrity.’ And then she smiled. ‘People care about me, do they?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Erica… your boss… me.’

  He reached for her hand, lifting it to his mouth to kiss her fingers, the tiny action sending shockwaves through her.

  ‘I think I could get to like that,’ she replied. ‘The caring bit, I mean, although the kissing’s not too bad…’

  He leaned in further, this time to kiss her on the lips. Cathy had always been slightly embarrassed to kiss in public, but Matthias did something to her that made her stop caring what anyone else thought.

  But when he pulled away, he looked somehow grave.

  ‘Cathy… I feel as if we’re getting so close so fast…’

  She frowned. ‘Is that a bad thing?’

  ‘No, of course not. It’s just that… if we’re going there, I should probably tell you some things about my past that you don’t yet know.’

  Her insides suddenly turned cold. Why so serious? What could he possibly say that might affect where their relationship was going? And if it was that heavy, capable of damaging what they had, did she really want to know? Maybe, sometimes, ignorance was bliss, because if it was anything that would jeopardise what they’d got going here she’d choose ignorance every time. But she also realised that whatever it was troubled him and he wanted to come clean. This was Matthias – it couldn’t be that bad, could it?

  ‘OK,’ she said. ‘I’m ready.’

  He paused. ‘I’ve—’

  His phone began to ring. He waited for it to stop and after a minute or so it did. Then he opened his mouth to begin again, only for the phone to start ringing once more.

  ‘Sorry… I’m going to have to get this,’ he said, groaning as he looked at the display. Cathy could see Tansy’s name flash up. Talk about bad timing. Or perhaps it was good timing – at least, as far as Tansy was concerned. She’d take great delight in interrupting their date; Cathy was under no illusions about that. Tansy had made her displeasure about the fact that Cathy and Matthias were dating known, mostly stemming from the fact, Cathy suspected, that nobody had told her straight away, a fact that would have been perfectly reasonable to anyone else. At first there had really been nothing to tell and might not have been for some weeks, so why would they go to her and explain anything?

  ‘Is everything alright?’ Matthias asked as he took the call.

  His expression darkened as he listened. Cathy couldn’t tell what Tansy was saying but judging by how long it was taking it wasn’t straightforward.

  ‘OK,’ he said finally. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can. Don’t touch anything until I get back.’

  He looked up at Cathy as he locked his phone and put it back in his pocket. ‘Something’s happened. I can’t tell what but Tansy says there was a tiny explosion and all the power’s gone off in the house. She sounds terrified to be honest. I’m going to have to sort it out.’

  Cathy nodded. What else could she do?

  ‘Sorry,’ he added. ‘It feels like every time we’re out at the moment the universe seems to have other plans for us.’

  ‘It does, doesn’t it?’ Cathy replied, thinking about what Fleur had said and wondering what this meant for her and Matthias. Did this mean they shouldn’t be together?

  They arrived at Matthias’s place twenty minutes later. The house was in darkness, Tansy waiting at the open front door wrapped in a huge woollen jumper. Guin was at her side like a sentry, stock-still, eyes trained on the street. But at the sight of Matthias, he leapt up, his tail whirring like a windmill.

  ‘Alright, Guin,’ Matthias said, ruffling the dog’s fur. He looked up at Tansy. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘I was just scared,’ she said. ‘I thought the house was going to blow up or something.’

  ‘I doubt it,’ he said, following her into the darkened building. The gloom was pierced by a beam of white light from his phone torch. ‘What on earth did you do?’

  ‘Oh, I knew it would be my fault,’ Tansy said, and Cathy could just make out the teenager glaring back at her as she followed them in, gingerly putting one foot in front of the other in the blackness, Guin’s cold nose nuzzling her hand for a fuss.

  ‘I’ll be going home as soon as your uncle has sorted the electricity for you,’ Cathy said, feeling the need for an explanation even though she owed none. ‘We just thought it was better to come straight here first.’

  ‘Nobody is saying it’s your fault, Tans,’ Matthias said patiently. ‘I was just asking what had caused it. What were you doing when it went off?’

  ‘Putting the oven on,’ Tansy said sulkily. ‘I was going to make a cake for you.’

  ‘Oh, what were you going to make?’ Cathy asked, seeing the chink of light from some common ground. ‘Something we’ve done at cookery club?’

  ‘No,’ Tansy sneered. ‘I got the recipe out of a proper book.’

  It stung, even though Cathy knew she’d walked right into a trap that Tansy had meant to spring and even if she knew better than to take any notice. Without another word she searched the gloom of the hallway to see the shadow of a door open. It looked as if it housed some kind of understairs cupboard.

  ‘The trip switch is in here if it happens again, Tans,’ he said. ‘Just in case I’m not here.’ He shone a torch up to a box on the wall. ‘See…? All you’ve got to do is pull this…’

  Suddenly the hallway was flooded with light. Cathy stepped back towards the front door, suddenly feeling desperately unwelcome as Tansy’s gaze was turned to her properly now and she looked her up and down with some distaste. ‘So you’re going to take her home now?’ she said to Matthias.

  ‘I’d better go and check the kitchen first,’ he said, striding down the hallway. ‘If something has burned out in the oven’s circuits we ought to make it safe before I go anywhere else.’

  Tansy followed him, but Cathy stayed by the front door, absently running a hand down Guin’s back. A moment later Matthias’s face appeared at the door again. ‘You can come in, you know,’ he said with a smile.

  ‘But I thought…’ she began.

  ‘If you like, as we had our night cut short, I could make you some supper and then take you home.’

  ‘But the oven…?’

  ‘I don’t know what happened but it seems alright now. I just turned it on and it’s working.’

  Cathy could take a wild guess at what had happened, but it was a theory she could never air – at least, not here and now.

  ‘I don’t think…’

  Tansy’s head appeared now too, and her face wore the strangest expression. She was smiling.

  ‘Yes, stay,’ she said.

  Cathy stared at her. Was she hallucinating? What had been in that spritzer at the pub? She’d never seen Tansy smile in all the weeks she’d known her, and certainly had never been able to envisage a day when she might actually be invited to spend time with her. There had to be more to this than how it looked. Cathy hated to be suspicious but she couldn’t help but feel Tansy was up to something. If she was, what on earth could it be? But she could hardly refuse the offer now because of how it would look to Matthias, and if Tansy really was suddenly in the mood to hold out an olive branch then Cathy wouldn’t want to jeopardise that either.

  ‘I suppose I could stay for a short while,’ she said, feeling a bit dazed. ‘I wouldn’t want to keep anyone up late, though.’

  ‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ Tansy said. ‘You do want tea, don
’t you? You always drink tea at cookery club.’

  Without waiting for Cathy to reply, Tansy went back into the kitchen again.

  ‘What happened?’ Cathy asked Matthias.

  ‘I have no idea. Something must have shorted, overloaded the circuit somehow, but I can’t see what it was. I’ll have to get an electrician to have a look at it, just to be certain it isn’t a dangerous loose connection or something.’

  Cathy nodded, although she hadn’t actually been asking about the power cut, more about his niece’s strange transformation into someone who actually might like her.

  ‘I could have perhaps talked Tansy through flicking the trip switch back on over the phone but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t something more serious… I’m really sorry we had to come back so early.’

  ‘Of course,’ Cathy said. ‘If it was my house I’d want to check too – you can’t be too careful, especially with Tansy and Guin in here.’

  ‘I knew you’d understand,’ he said.

  Cathy wished she could say she did, but right now she didn’t understand any of it. One thing was fairly obvious to her – Tansy had tripped the electric deliberately. Cathy didn’t know how but she was sure of it. Why was a different matter, and why she was suddenly being pleasant to Cathy was even more of a puzzle.

  ‘Come on through,’ he said. ‘What do you want to drink? I’ve got gin and brandy in.’

  ‘I don’t mind,’ Cathy said, following him into the kitchen. ‘Surprise me.’

  ‘One day you’re going to regret telling me to surprise you,’ he said with a chuckle.

  Matthias’s kitchen was small but cosy, an old wooden table taking up most of it, with heavy oak units and Spanish wall tiles. It was a bit dated, and suggested to Cathy that he’d either lived here alone for a long time, or moved in and not cared too much about how long it had been since it was last decorated. But it was clean and neat and he obviously took pride in keeping it that way. Tansy was back at the table, staring into a laptop, but she looked up as Cathy took a seat.

  ‘Where did you go?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh, nowhere special,’ Matthias said.