The Twelve Dates of Christmas (23 page)

Claudia cranked up the car stereo so Chris Rea sang ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ at full volume, but still Seth remained sleeping. He was the worst road trip partner ever.

She wound down the windows and let in a rush of freezing air. Seth stirred. ‘Are we nearly there yet?’

‘Shut up.’

‘All right.’

Maybe he was better silent; she found everything he said at the moment grated against her already scratchy emotions.

‘Can you pass me a Quality Street?’ she muttered before he could drift back into snoozeville. ‘Are there any strawberry creams left?’ Out of the corner of her eye she saw him shuffle one up his sleeve.

‘No, ’fraid not. How about one of those green triangles? There’s loads of them.’

‘GIVE ME THE GODDAMN STRAWBERRY CREAM. YOU’VE EATEN EVERY OTHER ONE OF THE STRAWBERRY CREAMS.’

‘Fine, take it. Time of the month, is it?’

She narrowed her eyes at the road ahead.

‘Can we put the window back up? It’s chuffing cold,’ Seth asked.

Without another word Claudia whirred the window upwards, cocooning them once again. She drove through the pretty outskirts of Surrey, the red-brick houses getting bigger the further they were from the capital. Icing-sugar snow decorated gardens and rooftops, and Christmas trees twinkled through windows. By now, schools and offices were breaking up and the pavements were filled with children padded to the eyeballs in coats, onesies, scarves, hats and mittens, and adults struggling under the weight of excessive food shopping bags.

Resting on the back seat of the car was a huge, sticky panettone (not made; bought from Harrods Food Hall) wrapped in wide red and gold ribbon. A peace offering to her dad and his sweet tooth, to take away the bitter taste of her bringing Seth home.

The second Claudia pulled her car into the neat driveway of her family home, the living room curtain twitched. Moments later the front door swung wide open and out bounded a Bernese Mountain Dog wearing a tinsel necklace and a dopey smile, his paws throwing snow up into the air behind him.

Claudia stepped out the car and crouched down, embracing the dog and squashing her face into his warm brown fur. ‘Flippers, you big silly thing. You, me, sleeping in front of the fireplace and ignoring the world over Christmas, how does that sound?’

Flippers plonked a heavy paw on her lap and beamed.

Seth came around the side of the car. ‘All right, Flippers?’

Flippers snorted indignantly and turned away from Seth, sticking his nose through the open car door and sniffing at the panettone.

Claudia looked up at her childhood house. Her dad had done a good job with the outdoor lights this year. Even the big oak tree had what appeared to be the fluffy fairy lights from her teenage bedroom draped on it.

‘Welcome home, love.’ He appeared at the door and smiled at his daughter. If there was ever a moment in the past twenty-four hours that she regretted re-inviting Seth to the wedding, and therefore having him spend Christmas with them, it was now.

‘Dad …’ She smiled back sadly and waved her arm towards Seth, who was half buried in the boot of the car, pulling out their luggage.

Joe stepped over and pulled her into a hug.

‘I’m sorry he’s here,’ she whispered to him.

‘Are you?’ he whispered back. ‘Do you want him to leave?’

‘No, but I think I made a mistake. Are you really angry?’

‘Of course not, Claudy, but the minute you decide you want him gone I’d be happy to be the one to tell him.’ He pulled away and squeezed his daughter’s hand. ‘Seth.’

Seth heaved a bag of wine and whisky onto the snowy driveway. ‘Hello Joe, merry Christmas.’ He stepped over and cautiously held out his hand.

Joe shook it with a smile that faintly resembled a sneer. ‘Hello. I’m surprised to see you back here.’

Seth slung an arm around Claudia’s shoulders. The air solidified to ice. ‘Yep,’ he said. ‘We decided to give things another go.’

‘No, we didn’t,’ said Claudia, slipping out from his arm to bend back down to stroke Flippers, who was now holding one of the panettone ribbons in his mouth. ‘Especially after that Quality Street lie. And don’t think the other lie about who really brought the Starbucks over yesterday morning went unnoticed.’

She stood and looked him square in the eye. Seth shuffled under her gaze. He turned to Joe and laughed heartily. ‘In jokes, eh? Shall I pop our stuff straight in our room?’

‘You’re in the spare room,’ said Claudia and Joe at the same time.

After an achingly awkward dinner, Claudia had retired to her bedroom to try on every dress/skirt/blouse combo she owned. Following the cupcake war that morning, and subsequent dress-retraction from Penny, Claudia had raced back to her flat and packed a whole extra suitcase of anything remotely weddingy.

She pulled out the sequined dress-cum-top that Nick had given her on their date to the Christmas party. ‘What do I want to achieve here, Flippers?’ she asked the dog, who was lying across her bed, gazing adoringly at her
Friends
poster.

Despite what Penny had said, she still couldn’t get the words of Nick’s text out of her mind. What could it have been about other than her? She wanted him to hurt as much as she did. She wanted to parade in with Seth, looking a million dollars, without a care in the world for Nick and his
I had to keep my eyes closed
.

But also … she desperately wanted him back. For it to all have been a misunderstanding. For it to be all right.

There was no backing out or sending Seth home now. She was just going to have to see how it played out at the wedding.

‘Thanks Flippers, as usual you’ve been a big help.’ She flapped his big ears and he rewarded her with a big panettone-scented yawn.

The following morning Claudia woke up as early as she had at Christmastime when she was little. Only this Christmas Eve it wasn’t excitement that had her up and at her window in the deep darkness of half-past four, but a tightening knot of apprehension in her stomach at the day ahead. On the window ledge was a dense layer of snow, and she could see a blizzard swirling in front of the orange glow of the street lamps.

What if it’s too snowy and the wedding’s called off?
she thought with hope. No, she wouldn’t go that far. She wanted to be there for Emma and Ellie’s big day more than anything; she’d just rather not have to face her demons. Her demons being her two best friends.

As the sky lightened the clouds wandered off, taking the blizzard with them, and before she knew it the sun was waking and the gritting lorries were grinding past the house.

She supposed she should play nice with Seth and try to have a good day, so when they passed in the corridor, him fresh from the shower, warm steam rising from his skin in the cool air of the house, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, she said begrudgingly, ‘Morning.’

‘Morning, chick,’ he grinned.

‘I’m just popping to the shops if you want to come?’
Please don’t come.

Seth snorted. ‘Trailing round the shops and going to a wedding all in one day? No thanks. Thought I’d have an early morning festive tipple and start the Christmas TV watching, since we have to be out for most of today.’

Good, that was him occupied then.

‘Dad?’ she called, jogging down the stairs.

‘Good morning angel. Happy Christmas Eve,’ he said, coming out of the kitchen holding a box of cornflakes.

‘And to you. I’m just going for a quick shop, do you want to come?’

Joe looked at his cereal box.

‘You don’t have to …’

‘Would you mind me coming? Would I be any help?’

‘I’d love you to come!’

‘Still not bought all your presents, missy?’

‘Presents done, but no idea what I’m going to wear to the wedding in three hours’ time. So I feel it’s time to get out the emergency credit card.’

‘Why not, eh? You deserve a treat. You know, I’m looking forward to this; it’s been years since I’ve been shopping with my little girl. Maybe we could use my emergency credit card instead.’

Sometimes, dads were the best things in the world.

Claudia and Joe walked along the barely visible pavement.

‘What kind of dress are you looking for?’

Claudia shrugged. ‘Whatever, really. Who cares? There’s no time to go to more than a couple of shops anyway.’

‘Why did you invite him down again, love? You don’t seem happy about it at all.’

‘It was a knee-jerk reaction to something that had made me sad. I really don’t want to get back with him, Dad. But it’s Christmas Eve. I can’t just send him home now; it’s me who’s been fickle.’

‘Of course you can. I’ll drive him back into London if it’ll make you feel better.’

‘Thanks Dad, but his family are so far north he wouldn’t have time to get up there and even Seth shouldn’t spend Christmas alone on the floor of his mate’s empty flat.’

Joe humphed.

‘Evryonehtsme.’

‘What’s that, love?’

Claudia glanced up at her dad. ‘Everyone hates me.’

‘Not true. I don’t go dress shopping with people I hate.’

‘Penny hates me … and Nick.’

‘Do you want to tell me what happened?’

‘No.’ They trudged on for a couple of minutes. ‘Penny and I had an argument and she squashed a cake in my face, and I kind of deserved it.’

‘It’s not like Penny to waste cake; it must have been a hell of a barney.’

‘I thought Nick had done something really horrible to me – and he still may have – but Penny said I might be wrong, and by that time I’d already done something horrible back to him.’

‘So you’re still not sure if Nick was horrid to you or not?’

‘Not as sure as I was.’

Joe nodded, digesting. ‘So where does Penny and her cake fit into this?’

‘She was standing up for Nick.’

‘Not for you?’

‘
Exactly
, and that’s what was making me angry. But she thinks I just misread the whole situation and was being a bit silly.’

‘Do you think you were being silly?’

Claudia did feel quite silly. She’d let Seth’s bad behaviour make her assume the worst, when Nick’s whole appeal was that he was not the same person as Seth. Why oh why hadn’t she asked Nick straight out what that message meant? She might still have ended up hurt and heartbroken, but at least she’d
know
. ‘It’s possible,’ she mumbled.

‘Will you try to talk to Nick today? As soon as possible? Sort this whole thing out.’

‘I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. I don’t think he’ll want to hear my side.’

Joe chuckled. ‘Nick’s hardly the sulky type. You two have been close as cucumbers for a million years; of course he’ll listen to you. As will Penny. Just don’t have that talk anywhere near the wedding cake.’

Claudia kicked at the snow, throwing powder into the air and filling her shoe. The thought of talking to Nick gave her goose bumps. Nervous goose bumps, but also the kind of goose bumps when you suddenly become anxious to do something, knowing there’s a tiny sparkle of possibility that it might fix everything. ‘Okay.’

‘You’ll talk to them?’

‘As soon as I can. Sorry we’re going to be out for most of today. Do you have any plans?’

‘I think I’ll prep some veggies for tomorrow, and Christine was going to come over and watch a Christmas movie.’

‘Christine? Like a date?’

‘No, not like a date,’ Joe spluttered. ‘I’m too bloomin’ old for dates. But she’s nice company, quite a talker as you know, and her little boy’s also spending Christmas Eve at the Wedding of the Year.’

‘What are you going to watch?’

‘She’s bringing over
Elf
. I’ve never seen it.’

‘It’s good, you’ll like it – it’s set in New York.’

‘Ah, I love New York. Maybe you and I should take a trip there again some time next year.’

Claudia nodded, smiling at her dad. ‘That would be nice.’

They stepped into one of Claudia’s favourite boutiques in Frostwood, and there was the dress. Knee-length, forest green, sprinkled with tiny clear and silvery beads. Claudia tried it on and it fitted like a glove, the colour matching her eyes and the style instantly lifting her spirits. She felt elegant and ready to rise above anything. Even a day with two sort-of-exes and a best friend who hated her.