Chapter Thirty-Four

Lisa rested her head on the table and groaned. Even the smell of the gingerbread latte and the sound of Michael Bublé attempting to spread some Christmas cheer to the coffee shop crowd wasn’t doing it for her. Christmas shopping usually meant ordering a hamper from the nearest department store to be delivered to her parents and sending a voucher to her brother. This year she wanted to try harder. She wanted to hand pick them something special. But, when she arranged the day, she hadn’t imagined it following a night of her lying awake overthinking every minute of seeing Nathan in the bar, and then getting up early to feed Kitty-Kat, Sheldon and Mr Mistoffelees before being picked up by Felicity and Melissa.

‘I’m so sorry, Lisa. I really thought Pete would help.’

Lisa lifted her head and peered at Felicity with one eye open. ‘It’s not your fault Flick, or Pete’s, you were trying to …’ she lifted her head fully off the table, revealing dark rings under her eyes ‘… well, to be honest, I don’t know what Pete was doing but you were trying to help.’

‘He said he thought he’d force the situation. See how Nathan would react to you with Dom. He thought then you’d know if he liked you back.’

‘Oh God, did you tell Pete I like Nathan?’

‘Yes, but—’

‘He didn’t tell him, did he?’

‘No, definitely not. I checked and swore him to secrecy.’

Secrecy, the word stung, reminding Lisa that Pete and Nathan were conspiring with secrets of their own.

‘Wait, you like Nathan, as in “like” like?’ Melissa swung her head between Lisa and Felicity. ‘When did that happen? At golf you seemed—’

‘I don’t think I ever stopped liking him.’ Lisa was surprised by the ease with which she spoke the words. It seemed since confessing her buried feelings to Felicity she was willing to share them with anyone except Nathan himself. ‘Pete won’t tell him, will he?’

‘No. I don’t think they even see each other much. Didn’t Nathan say at the bonfire parade he hardly ever goes to Cin Cin? It was just unlucky for you he was there, I guess.’

‘Hmmm.’ With the familiarity of the waitress and seeing Nathan and Pete together Lisa was pretty sure Nathan was a regular.

Melissa stirred her coffee. ‘So how did he react to seeing you with …’

‘Dom,’ Lisa and Felicity finished together.

Picturing the situation again, Lisa cringed. ‘He left.’ She banged her head back against the table.

Melissa wasn’t ready to let it go. ‘But, hold on, how did he leave?’

‘Does it matter? He left.’

‘Well, did he seem casual, did he seem hurt, did he give you a longing look, did he clench his jaw or his fists, did he push past him banging shoulders and giving him a hard stare,’ she took a breath, ‘ooh, did he challenge Dom to a duel?’

Flick burst out a giggle and then realised it was an inappropriate time to laugh and attempted her best this-is-no-laughing-matter face. ‘Sorry, Lisa. If Melissa appeared on Mastermind her specialist subject would be films of the last decade. Since having Bella her cinematic cravings and lack of sleep mean she’s clearly overdosing on Netflix. I didn’t mean to laugh.’ Turning to Melissa she added, still trying to control her desire to laugh, ‘This is real life and that’s not helpful.’ Though it is bloody funny!

‘OK, not the duel thing,’ Melissa conceded, ‘but how he reacted must have told you something.’

Lisa pondered. ‘He seemed … he seemed …’

Flick and Melissa leaned forward tilting their heads in anticipation.

‘He seemed cool about it.’ Lisa sighed.

Both Felicity and Melissa resisted the urge to slink back into their seats.

‘He was polite, he shook Dom’s hand and left like a normal, cool, unfazed person who bumped into someone they knew in a bar. No jaw clenching; no pistols at dawn. No duel.’

‘It is a reaction,’ Melissa offered weakly.

‘Not the one she wanted,’ said Flick.

‘It’s OK, I knew it. We went out for old times’ sake. Maybe for him that put to bed …’ she blushed at the reference ‘… I mean, maybe that gave him closure over the past, over what happened at the prom.’ For me it made me see what I let go. ‘I knew he was cool about us, me,’ she corrected realising there was no ‘us’ as far as she and Nathan were concerned. ‘He told me.’

‘Oh, Lisa.’ Flick went round to Lisa’s side of the table and rubbed her back. ‘I suppose when people break up it’s because something is broken, like the clue is in the title.’

But nothing was broken, it was just … I wasn’t ready … back then.

‘I am sorry I encouraged you,’ Flick continued.

‘Me too,’ Melissa added.

‘Honestly, it’s fine,’ Lisa lied. ‘Let’s just enjoy Christmas shopping, it’s been years since I have done it properly.’

‘Are you sure you’re up to it?’ Flick asked.

Lisa took a swig of her latte. ‘Definitely.’

‘OK.’ Felicity scooted back round to her own side of the table, rummaged in her bag and produced an A4 print out of a spreadsheet listing Christmas presents for each of her children.

About to comment Lisa noticed that Felicity was extricating another neatly folded piece of paper from the depths of her bag. This one had the names of family members down the first column, followed by their gifts and what they would be getting for her children in the next two. ‘Wow. That’s organised.’

‘Believe me four children and Christmas means being organised or going insane.’

‘It’s impressive.’ Melissa smiled, revealing her own handwritten list. ‘I’ve found it harder this year, exciting too, of course – it being Bella’s first, but what do you suggest when everyone wants to know what to get a baby who wants for nothing.’

‘I know and I have four to sort; sometimes it feels more like a military operation than Christmas.’

Lisa picked up the spreadsheets. ‘We’ll need more than a day to do this lot.’

Felicity sat up, a knowing smile on her face. ‘See those in red, they’re coming from Amazon; those in blue, they’re pre-ordered from Argos – and are ready for collection now. That leaves a few stocking bits, biscuits and vouchers for Pete’s side, and chocolates for the teachers to get. I figured if we get that done this morning we could fit in a leisurely lunch and maybe even the cinema. How about it, ladies?’

‘I’m in! Most of what I need to get is on order from ELC, Next and Mothercare.’ Melissa smiled.

‘I thought you were actually Christmas shopping today.’ Lisa wished she had been more organised, Christmas was too close and she had too much work on to fit in another shopping day.

‘We are!’ Melissa and Felicity chimed together.

‘Well, at least as far as Adam and Pete know. This way they get some quality time with the children, and we get to sit down and eat lunch in a fancy restaurant with the only dinner we have to cut up being our own.’

‘Bliss.’ Melissa sighed.

Lisa smiled; oh bugger, is it too late to order a hamper?