by Lynsey James
I waved them off into the night, feeling a little like the closing titles of a children’s TV show. I could hear the wind howling outside and the rain battering down on the roof.
I was about to give myself a pat on the back, when I heard footsteps coming towards me. When I turned round, Lauren was making her way across the room as fast as her high heels would allow.
‘Can I talk to you for a second?’ She phrased it as a question, but grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me into the corner.
‘What is it?’ I asked, feeling uneasy about hearing the answer.
‘You couldn’t put in a good word with Ethan for me, could you? I really want to ask him out for a drink, but I’m dead nervous.’
I winced in pain as her false nails began to dig into my skin. The thought of Lauren getting her claws into Ethan made my heart sink, but I couldn’t see it happening. A few minutes in her company and he’d probably be scared stiff.
‘What are you nervous for?’ I carefully prised my arm out of her vice-like grip and rubbed the sore skin. ‘He’s really easy to talk to.’
‘Um hello, he’s a megastar! I can’t just waltz up to him and say “hiya how are you? Fancy a drink later?” I’ve fancied him for ages, since I saw him in that Pride and Prejudice thing. How come you find it so easy to talk to him anyway?’ She pouted and folded her arms. ‘It’s not fair.’
I shrugged. ‘He’s just a normal person to me. If you don’t make a big deal out of talking to him, you’ll be fine. Listen, do you mind if we talk about this later? I’ve got tons to do before the next rehearsal.’
She nodded, cast one final smouldering look in Ethan’s direction and flounced off, presumably to plan how she’d go in for the kill when she next saw him.
I shook my head and giggled. Lauren really was something else.
‘What was that all about?’ he asked.
‘Oh that? She’s working out how to ask you to marry her!’ I stuck my tongue out to show I was joking.
‘Good grief, I’d better get myself down the shops for a new tux!’ He grinned.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ I said, walking up to him. ‘I know we don’t have long till opening night, but I reckon the panto needs something to jazz it up a bit. At the moment, it’s a bit tired and generic; you could walk into any Christmas production of Cinderella and it’d be like this one. I’m going to play around with a few ideas and see what happens.’
He got up and walked towards me, his eyes never leaving mine. He wrapped his arms round my waist and pulled me into him.
‘How about we head back to Sunflower Cottage and open a bottle of wine? What do you say?’
I looked up at him as my nerves began to jangle. ‘Um, I…I don’t know, Ethan.’
Oh great, Anonymous Alice had made a very unwelcome return. What had happened to New Alice, who wasn’t afraid to take risks? Where was she now – washing her hair?!
‘OK.’ He reached out and brushed some hair away from my face. ‘We could curl up in front of the telly at yours if you like? Or we could just go our separate ways for tonight? It’s totally up to you.’
I chewed my lip for a moment while I considered the options put before me. I didn’t want to just wave him off back to the B&B, not after our kiss. On the other hand, I was so out of practice at the whole romance thing that I’d probably end up farting in his face by accident or something.
‘Why don’t we go for lunch tomorrow?’ I suggested. ‘I’m knackered after that rehearsal and I want to go and work on some ideas for the show.’
‘Sounds perfect to me,’ he replied, stroking my face.
I breathed a silent sigh of relief. Even at her most fearless and ball-busting best, New Alice wasn’t quite ready to navigate the thorny issues of romance just yet.
We walked back to my cottage in a companionable silence. At one point, he took my hand in his and gave it a squeeze. That made the butterflies that had recently taken up residence in my stomach flutter like mad.
‘Thanks for getting me home safely,’ I said, poking fun at the short distance between my house and the theatre. ‘The streets of Luna Bay are dodgy at night.’
‘Oh I’ll bet they are; I can see it being a hive of crime round here when it gets dark. Lucky you have a gentleman like me to protect you, eh?’ His eyes twinkled, but I was sure that was down to the streetlights.
‘Lucky me, eh?’ I smiled and dared myself to meet his gaze.
I edged towards him and put my hands on his broad, strong chest. He put his around them and looked at me with a gorgeous smile on his face.
‘I can’t wait to see you tomorrow,’ he whispered.
‘I don’t blame you,’ I joked.
He put one hand on the back of my head and gently pulled me towards him. Within seconds, our lips had melted into each other and our tongues danced. Every fibre of me longed to pull him inside and say to hell with the consequences, but I didn’t want to break away from him either. His hand travelled to the small of my back and he pulled me in until our bodies were touching. I could feel the heat from his body travel to mine and his scent surrounded me when I breathed him in. Everything around me was a blur; I didn’t care about the odd car passing or that people walking their dogs up the hill could probably see us. All I cared about was the man in front of me, the one I couldn’t quite manage to stop kissing.
Chapter Seventeen
Mum coming over for a catch-up was usually cause for panic. She often came armed with useful hints or tips for getting over my grief, none of which ever worked.
Today, however, was different.
The day after my two (not one, two!) kisses with Ethan, I couldn’t wait to see her. Although nothing about me had particularly changed on the outside, on the inside I felt like a completely different person. I’d finally let someone in, after three years of vowing never to do it again. Last night, I hadn’t been afraid to just reach up on my tiptoes and kiss Ethan for the hell of it, or to make plans to see him later on today. Anonymous Alice was gone for good.
And about bloody time too.
Not only that, I’d also spent most of the night working on an idea to jazz up the panto. I was completely exhausted but it was worth it because I could finally see it taking shape. If it worked, it would catapult the pantomime to a whole new level of fun.
Just then, the door opened and Mum’s voice floated through to the kitchen from the hall, announcing her presence.
‘Only me!’ she said, manoeuvring herself into the kitchen along with her shopping bags. As usual, she’d brought enough food with her to feed the whole of Luna Bay from now until next Christmas.
‘Do you think you’ve brought enough food?’ I joked. ‘I mean, you’ve got enough there to feed the five thousand, but maybe that won’t cover it!’
Mum ruffled my hair, something she knew I hated, and headed over to the cooker.
‘Cheeky madam,’ she said as she switched the grill on. ‘Now what do you fancy? I’ve got bacon, sausages and eggs in here, plus some pains au chocolats if you’re in the mood for something sweet.’
I had a sudden flashback to Ethan making me Nutella-stuffed pancakes and smiled. What was it he’d said, I’m a sucker for anything sweet?
‘I’ll have a couple pains au chocolats, please,’ I replied, letting my chin rest on my balled-up fists.
My dreamy sigh attracted Mum’s attention and she whirled round to look at me.
‘There’s something different about you.’ She pointed the fish slice she was using at me and tapped her foot for a moment. ‘I’ve been noticing little changes with you recently, but this one’s a biggie. Did you meet someone, by any chance?’
I decided to play it coy and just responded with a simple smile.
‘My lips are zipped.’ I did the same mime of zipping them and throwing a key away that I’d done when Emily had asked me about Ethan.
‘Oh come on, you can tell your old mum, can’t you?’ She sat down at the kitchen table with me, turning her back on the bacon and
sausages she was cooking for herself.
‘You’d better watch or you’ll burn your breakfast,’ I said, gesturing to the sizzling pan on the hob.
‘That’ll wait, now spill! Who is he? Oh is it Ethan Fox?! Imagine that, two actors in the family. Do I have to buy a hat yet?’
I flapped my hands to stop her reverie before she had us growing old together in a cottage by the sea.
‘You’re getting a bit carried away, aren’t you?’ I chuckled. ‘If you must know, I’m seeing him for lunch today. That’s all you’re getting though!’
Her face sagged and she looked at me like a child who’d been denied that all-important cookie after tea.
‘All right, but I want a full debrief after you get back. Oh and I’d like you to introduce me to him too. I want to give him my seal of approval, after all.’
‘If you insist,’ I replied with a smile. ‘Oh before I forget, I’ve been working on an idea for the pantomime. I thought it needed jazzing up a bit, so I spent last night jotting down some possibilities. Fancy seeing the one I like best?’
‘Go on then!’
I ran through to the living room and picked up my notepad. My nerves stood on edge as Mum flicked through it. Her grin widened as she scanned the pages, which I took to be a good sign.
‘I love it, Alice! Please tell me this is going to happen.’
‘If the cast likes it, which hopefully they will, then yeah! I’m going to pitch it to them at the rehearsal tomorrow. We don’t have a lot of time to learn it, but I’m hoping that won’t be a problem. They hadn’t really learned the panto Christabel gave them because she was too busy wasting their time.’
Mum realised her breakfast was close to burning and shot up to catch it before it was ruined.
‘Well I really hope it comes together for you,’ she said as she dished the food up onto plates. ‘I can’t get over the difference in you, Alice. See a few weeks ago, you’d never have dreamed of doing something like this. Now look at you, you’ve got plans and dreams and you’re finally excited about something. I can’t wait for our girly holiday now; time to dig out the suntan lotion I think. Sun, sea and cocktails, here we come!’
I risked a little air punch and gave myself a pat on the back. I’d done it; I’d risen to Mum’s challenge and absolutely smashed it.
‘Who knows,’ she added, passing me my pastries. ‘You might even come round to celebrating Christmas this year.’
My first instinct was to put the kibosh on it, but I didn’t. She was right; I’d done things I’d never have dreamt of doing recently. Maybe it was time to give Christmas another chance?
*
‘Cinderella the Musical?’
Ethan put down his hot chocolate and stared at me like I’d just spoken fluent Klingon.
‘Yup, it’ll still be the same basic story but set to eighties’ music and I’ll change the dialogue a bit too. I was thinking we could even have eighties’ costumes and the really big hair and bright eye make-up. I’ve picked songs people will recognise, so they could have a good old sing-song as well. What do you think?’
I slid my song choices across the table to him and waited in anticipation as he perused it.
‘This is a bloody good idea! I’m impressed. What do you think the cast will make of having to learn a whole new show though?’
I bit my lip. ‘I’m not sure. It’s a big ask, especially because there’s so little time before our opening night. Then again, they didn’t really have a chance to learn the one we’re doing just now, thanks to Christabel.’
As if by magic, the woman herself appeared right in front of us. In reality, she’d probably come from a nearby table, but she moved so quickly it was hard to keep track of her.
‘What’s this I hear about you changing my show? You do realise you open on the thirteenth of December? That’s just over two weeks away! How do you expect the cast to learn a whole new show by then when they couldn’t even learn the one they’re doing?’
‘They’ll manage, Christabel. They’re capable of a lot more than you think,’ I answered. I badly wanted to let rip at her about the way she’d treated everyone, but the cast had more than had their say by throwing her out.
‘I see. Well, clearly you were able to get the best out of them in ways I couldn’t. What’s the new show, may I ask?’
I pursed my lips and wondered if I should show it to her. Showing Ethan was one thing, but Christabel would probably tear it up in disgust.
Be brave. What would New Alice do?
‘I haven’t shown it to the cast yet,’ I said cagily, ‘but I’m planning on adding in some eighties’ music to make it a bit more fun, and I’m changing some of the dialogue so it flows better.’
To my surprise, she didn’t fly into a rage or tell me I was the worst human being on the planet. She simply nodded over and over again. It looked to me like she was trying to hold back tears.
‘That sounds… That sounds good, Alice. I wish you the very best of luck with it. Maybe I’ll even come and see it.’
‘I’d like that,’ I replied with an uncertain smile. ‘I’ll keep a ticket at the box office for you.’
Without saying another word, she turned her back and headed back to her table. I stared after her, unsure what to make of her sudden shift in attitude.
‘Well that was weird!’ I hissed to Ethan, who was busy finishing off his hot chocolate. ‘One minute she was going on about me changing her show, the next she’s coming to bloody see it!’
‘Maybe she just really liked what you’ve got planned for it,’ he offered. ‘I know it can’t have been easy for her to have been turfed out by the cast, but from what you told me about her she wasn’t much of a director.’
I craned my neck round to see where she was sitting and I noticed she was on her own. Where had her posse of terrified friends got to, I wondered?
‘I remember her saying once that the panto was her life. It must be a big miss for her, especially because she’s used to doing it every year. I know it didn’t turn out that great, but you can’t say she wasn’t dedicated.’
From where I was sitting, I could see Christabel’s head was bent low over her large cup of coffee. She looked so alone and I felt a pang of sadness for her.
‘I’m going over to see her,’ I announced. ‘Back in a sec.’
Ethan shook his head and smiled. ‘You’re too soft-hearted for your own good, you know that?’
I shrugged and chuckled. ‘Just one of my many, many flaws!’
I approached Christabel’s table with caution. I’d read once that you should never tickle a sleeping dragon and that definitely applied here.
‘Mind if I sit down?’ I asked, gesturing to the empty chair opposite her. ‘I wanted to talk to you.’
‘It’s a free country,’ she replied with a curt raise of her eyebrows. I noticed her defences were back in place; there was no trace of the vulnerable Christabel who’d been on the verge of tears a couple of minutes ago.
‘Look I’ve not come here to have a go at you or to patronise you. I know losing the pantomime was a huge deal for you—’
‘I’ve directed every Luna Bay pantomime for the last ten years; they might not have been great, but I damn well did my best!’
‘I know you did, nobody’s saying you didn’t,’ I soothed. ‘Believe it or not, I didn’t volunteer to help out so I could take over. I did it because…’
I paused as I chose my words carefully. I wanted to explain that although earning my trip with Mum had given me the extra push I needed to sign up, doing the panto had been all about trying to move forward with my life. Somehow I knew that Christabel would twist whatever I said and hear the worst in it. She narrowed her eyes and looked at me with suspicion.
‘You did it because what?’
‘Because… Because I thought it was about time I started living again. I shut myself away for a long time after my boyfriend died, and I didn’t want to do it any more.’ I felt bad that I was only telling half
the truth but the way I saw it, my time with the panto wasn’t about going on holiday any more. It was simply an added bonus to an experience that had opened my world up again.
‘Listen there’s still a place for you in the panto if you want it. I’d really like you to be a part of it; I know it meant a lot to you.’
‘You know nothing about me!’ she snapped. ‘So don’t pretend you do! I wouldn’t be part of that rotten pantomime now if you paid me.’
She shot up from her seat, knocking it to the ground, and stormed out of the café before I had a chance to respond. I sighed and let my head fall to the table. So much for building bridges with Christabel: I’d managed to alienate her more than ever.
*
I didn’t have time to dwell on Christabel’s refusal to come back to the panto. I had lots to do before I was ready to pitch Cinderella the Musical to the cast, including giving the script a going-over and checking that the musical numbers were suitable.
I couldn’t do this all on my own, of course. I invited Emily, Lucy and Ethan round to my cottage so we could have a good old sing-song and dance around my living room to eighties’ music.
‘OK, be honest, guys,’ I said, passing out my song list to them.
Ethan had already seen it of course, but he was happy to give it another once-over. I couldn’t help smiling as he pored over it like he’d never seen it before.
‘I love all these!’ said Lucy. ‘I can just imagine the audience getting their hairbrushes out and singing along!’
‘Same here,’ Emily agreed. ‘These’ll make the panto really good fun for everyone!’
Ethan gave me a thumbs-up and winked at me. ‘They’re perfect.’
I noticed Emily and Lucy exchange glances and shoot sideways glances in his direction. While they were trying their best to be cool, like hanging out with a Hollywood star was something they did every day, I could tell they were a little bit star-struck.
‘Well…’ I paused for a second while I fiddled around with the music. ‘Why don’t we have a go ourselves?’