Tom came over, oblivious to how Nell’s world had just been blown over in the icy chill wind and she suddenly realised that she’d stopped feeling cold the moment Kieran had said those strange unexpected words. Shock normally made you cold but something about Kieran’s secret made her feel the exact opposite. She felt warm and … safe? Unsure how to describe it, she focused on the ground. Tom munched happily on his bag of roasted nuts.
‘Now these taste like Christmas,’ he said, tipping the bag and the dregs of them into his mouth, as normal as he ever had been. ‘What’s the matter with you two?’
‘Nothing,’ Nell said, followed swiftly by Kieran.
‘Nope, nothing at all, mate. Nope. Nothing.’ Nell widened her eyes at him, warning that he was overdoing it.
For her though, everything was wrong, because now, absolutely everything was going to be different, and the mixture of surprise, happiness, joy and fear rolling around her head weren’t helping at all.
‘Shall we look at that stall over there?’ Tom asked, eyeing them both. ‘I like the look of their big wooden stars.’
‘Okay,’ they both agreed hastily and as Kieran walked ahead with Tom, Nell shuffled along behind, trying to understand the strange feeling in her heart and the tightening in her stomach. Everything had changed. Even the back of Tom’s head looked different, but still her imagination didn’t fire like normal. She only saw them sitting together in the hotel lounge, the light from the fire lighting his face as he pushed his hair back as usual. They were laughing yes, but it was normal, as things always had been. It wasn’t crazily romantic like her usual romantic fantasies. If she couldn’t love Tom the way he loved her, how did she let him down gently? And how could they stay friends after something like that?
***
Bryan tore apart the pages of the report, flicking a paperclip up into the air. It landed in his tea with a splash and he sighed deeply. That pretty much summed up his day so far. Find the Sun were really starting to take the piss with their demands. They were supposed to be having a huge Christmas bash – Christmas! – with Christmas trees, snowmen, reindeer, elves, that sort of thing. But no. Find the Sun were making the most extreme and silly demands he’d ever had a customer make. As a travel firm with ‘sun’ in the title they wanted waitresses in bikinis and sombreros – he was yet to have that conversation with his staff and might actually have to hire in models to serve as he couldn’t imagine some of his chubbier employees in swimming costumes and speedos. They also wanted fifteen-foot palm trees instead of Christmas trees (still decorated with tinsel) and they’d already had a blazing row about removing the Christmas tree from reception. He’d left that one to Kevin. To his credit, Kevin had calmly explained that they had a hotel full of guests and dinner bookings for people who wanted to feel Christmassy and so, for the sake of the rest of the hotel guests, the tree in reception was staying put. Given the extortionate amount they were being charged it hadn’t gone down well. Bryan had yet to source the palm trees. Then there was the menu. They wanted buffet food from all over the world. François had sworn first in English, then as fury overtook him, resorted to his native language.
But the thing that really got Bryan’s goat, was that local news and gossip was all about Holly Lodge and Nell Jones and the amazing things she was doing for the town by hosting local events. Even the mayor, rather than cancel her do, had moved it to Holly Lodge and the Langdon Mansion’s reputation locally had taken a battering. Apparently the bad reviews weren’t slowing her down. Every week they checked the number of hits on the spider-soup video and it was still going up. If only they’d been able to get hold of the woman who posted it and edit it first. To make matters worse, there’d been an increase in the number of bad reviews of the Langdon Mansion Hotel, particularly the restaurant. Kevin was firefighting with the top brass and reassuring Find the Sun that they were the ones to stick with, but they both knew that if this big event didn’t go without a hitch, there was every chance he and Kevin would be transferred to some hotel in the back of beyond or simply sacked.
Kevin came into the office and sat on the edge of Bryan’s desk. Bryan hated the way he did it. He also hated the way Kevin pulled up the drainpipe trousers of his suit to reveal his hairy calves. ‘So, I’ve just seen Tallulah.’
‘Oh yes,’ Bryan raised his eyes. He didn’t enjoy the pang of guilt that shot into his brain when the young girl’s name was mentioned but he couldn’t stop it happening.
‘She said the carol concert thing was packed and everyone was impressed with Holly Lodge. It seems Miss Jones has had some more bookings. Some bloke’s staying for a good few weeks while he visits family and she’s doing lots of offers too. Everyone was talking about how we’d let down the town because they mayor’s party had been dropped.’
‘Tallulah got all this from a few mums at a carol concert?’
‘No, you idiot.’ Bryan didn’t like being called an idiot but bit his tongue. If he insulted his boss, he’d be sacked on the spot. Kevin didn’t like to be challenged. ‘She’s heard a lot at the school gates when she’s gone to
