Emma
Emma looked around the dining table, and allowed the sounds of everyone chatting together as they finished their Christmas lunch, to sink in and fill up her senses.
In her wildest dreams she never would have thought that this winter she’d embark on an adventure that would sweep her up, carry her across an ocean, and set her down in a community that welcomed her wholly. And definitely not an adventure that would place a man directly in her path and have her fall in love with him.
But from the moment she’d opened up Kate’s email with the offer to come and run Cocktails & Chai, that’s effectively what had happened and truthfully? She wasn’t sure life could get better.
‘Top up?’ Jake said, waving a bottle of wine in front of her.
Dragged from her philosophising she shook her head, smiling at him as she put her hand out to cover the top of her glass. ‘No way. We’ve still got the Christmas show to get ready for.’
‘Well, I need one more glass if I’m to get up in front of everyone and sing. I’m no longer sure how you got me to agree to this. Must have been some tricksy magic. There’s still time to back out, right? I mean, sleeping with the director must get me some perks.’
She grinned. ‘Sleeping with this director is perk itself. Besides, you have to do it,’ she leaned closer to him and putting on her most plaintive expression, said, ‘you know, for the children.’
‘Wow. You’re good.’
‘You know it.’
‘What if I forget the words?’
‘I’ll get someone to write them out on giant cue cards for you. You wait; two lines in and the audience will have fallen in love.’
He bent his head and made his voice low. ‘What if it’s only one person I want falling?’
Her breath caught and her heart started hammering. ‘I—I think that would be absolutely fine – as long as you were there to catch her.’
Jake grinned outrageously, curled his arm and bent his head to kiss his bicep. ‘Then I think we’re all good.’
Emma burst out laughing. ‘My hero.’
‘My Emma,’ he said, quietly, simply and lovingly, so that her heart went from hammering against her insides to sort of melting through them.
‘Hey, you two,’ Seth said from across the table. ‘Try and show a little restraint, some of us are still eating.’
‘You’re just jealous,’ Gloria told Seth, poking her tongue out in jest.
Emma looked at Seth looking at Gloria … and noticed Gloria looking right back at Seth.
Interesting.
And then she looked up at the chandelier, realising that technically, Gloria and Seth were the only two sat at the table who were unattached.
‘Just because Jake’s officially back to owning his billowy romantic shirt,’ Gloria announced, stealing a parsnip off Seth’s plate and grinning as she bit into it.
Even more interesting, Emma thought as Seth’s gaze narrowed on Gloria’s mouth.
Hiding her grin Emma wondered if perhaps after Christmas she might flex her matchmaking muscles again.
‘He told you about the shirt?’ Jake asked Gloria, looking incredulously at his brother. ‘Well, that’s you disinvited to poker night.’
‘Oh, let him play,’ Daniel said. ‘I could do with winning. Again.’
‘Are you seriously trying to claim that out of the three of us,’ Oscar piped up from the other end of the table, ‘you win the most hands?’
‘Fighting talk,’ Big Kev stated, ‘but you know very well that if I was invited I’d be walking away with the pot.’
‘You can take my place at the table,’ Seth replied. ‘I’m not exactly flush right now.’
‘Please,’ Cheryl said, ‘As if you boys don’t already know that if I was there I’d wipe the floor with you all.’
‘Don’t pander to their sexist poker night, ladies,’ Sheila said, ‘We have much more fun things to do.’
‘Yes,’ Juliet agreed, announcing to the table, ‘We’re starting a book club.’
‘Where everyone will be invited,’ Kate said, before leaning across to say to Emma, ‘because it was actually a really good idea and it would be lovely to hold something here for the community.’
Emma laughed and impulsively launched to her feet, tapping her knife against the glass to get everyone’s attention. With everyone’s gaze on her she tried not to get flustered and remembered sitting in Jake’s car outside of her Dad’s and him telling her to pretend she was a confident character from a play or a film. ‘I’d like to say a few words and then propose—’ she got no further because suddenly Jake fumbled his wine glass, splashing the contents over the tablecloth.
‘You all right there, Jakey?’ Seth asked, and Emma couldn’t even begin to guess at the grin playing across Jake’s brother’s face.
Several hands reached for their napkins to help mop up the stain and after a moment, Jake was waving his hand, having composed himself to look up at her and say casually, ‘Carry on.’
‘—propose a toast.’ She shot a quick look at Jake but his expression was inscrutable and then she realised everyone was waiting to hear what she had to say. On a deep breath, she said, ‘I guess I really wanted to thank everyone for welcoming me so fully into the community here. When I arrived, the only person I knew was Kate, and well, she’s great and everything.’
Kate bowed and said, ‘I really am.’
‘And so humble,’ Emma teased. ‘Anyway, you’re all the absolute best and well,’ feeling tears of gratitude fill her eyes, she charged her glass, and said, ‘To Christmas at The Clock House.’
‘Christmas at The Clock House,’ came the cheer back as everyone raised their glasses in toast.
Everyone was settling back down with their drinks when Gloria said, ‘Okay, whose ring-tune is The Big Bang Theory?’
‘What?’ Emma looked up and realised she recognised the sound. ‘Oh. That’s me. I mean, that’s my phone.’ Getting up from the table she dived behind the bar to retrieve her phone from her bag and answer it. ‘Penny?’ she said excitedly. ‘Penny, is that you? Oh my God, I can’t believe it’s you. Happy, Happy Holidays. How’s it going over there? You’re never going to believe this but it’s snowed here. Snowed! It’s like something out of a movie! Wait—I’m going to take a photo and send it right to you. You will not believe how beautiful everything looks.’
She looked around the room grinning at everyone and saw Jake mouth the words, ‘Who’s Penny?’ and she laughed and said to the room, ‘My agent. Penny is my agent. Penny say hello to everyone … what? Hang on a moment, I can’t hear you,’ and popping her finger into her ear to deafen out the sound of chatter resuming around the table, she said, ‘Say that again.’
‘I said,’ said Penny, ‘How fast can you pack your bags because I got you the best Christmas present ever.’
‘I don’t understand, what do you mean best present ever?’
‘The part is yours, Soy Bean.’
‘What part is mine?’
‘The part. The one you wanted. The Jane Austen-esque rom-com. They phoned me yesterday and told me they made a mistake. The other person isn’t going to work out.’
‘The part is mine?’ At some level she realised her voice had risen a few decibels but it wasn’t until she was actually lapping the room, screaming over and over, ‘The part is mine, the part is mine,’ that she realised she might have deafened not only Penny but also everyone in the room.
The Cocktails & Chai room.
Of The Clock House.
Where she worked.
She stopped her crazy happy dancing and froze, except for her eyes, which tracked to each individual in the room but Jake’s.
‘I don’t understand,’ she said now, her voice barely a whisper. ‘They were so sure.’
‘They want you. You. They released her from her contract before they phoned me – that’s how much they want you. I’ve been trying to call you since yesterday.’
Yesterday, Emma thought.
When she’d spent the day preparing Jake’s Christmas present.
‘Is it my fault you don’t answer your phone?’ Penny was saying. ‘Anyway the part is yours, now get your skinny finest actor’s ass back here so we can start work. They want to start shooting straight after Christmas. Read-through in the studio and then they’ll send the travel schedule. So great that you’re already acclimatised to English winter because you’ll be back there filming within the month. Phone me back with your flight details, okay?’
‘Okay.’
‘Happy Christmas my little Adzucki Bean.’
‘Happy Christmas,’ she said into the phone. She hadn’t failed? She’d got the part? She stared at her phone for several seconds before she remembered where she was.
‘What was that all about?’
And now she did look at Jake.
And he stared back at her.
Waiting quietly with about a thousand questions in his eyes.
‘Um, so, that was my agent Penny. She’s been trying to call me since yesterday to let me know that the lead part in a movie I thought I’d lost, is actually mine again. If I want it,’ she tacked on.
Suddenly her sightline to Jake was blocked by Kate throwing her hands up in the air and with an excited ‘Waaah,’ rushing in to hug her fiercely. ‘Oh my God, Emma. Well done. That’s amazing news. Right?’
‘Right,’ she said trying to find Jake in the crowd of hugs as everyone now got up from the table to offer their congratulations.
‘Best Christmas ever,’ Kate told her, hugging her fiercely.
‘Ever,’ she replied, her voice dull, her body feeling numb.
‘So what are you going to do?’ Gloria’s voice cut through the cheers.
‘Do?’ Emma blinked, trying to get her brain to work.
‘Yes. Do you want to accept?’
‘If I accept I need to go home and pack like right now because I’d need to be on a plane ASAP.’ Taking her courage in her hands she lifted her head to seek out Jake.
‘Wow. They don’t hang about, do they?’ Juliet said quietly.
‘At least it’s stopped snowing,’ Jake said.
All heads turned to look at Jake who had now stood up from the table and moved to stand opposite Emma.
‘Stopped snowing?’ she asked with a frown.
Clearing his throat, Jake nodded. ‘They’ll be clearing all the roads. You’ll be able to get a lift to the airport. Planes will be taking off.’
Ask me to stay.
But he didn’t.
She waited some more.
But he said nothing. Merely shoved his hands into his pockets.
Whipping her head around to find Kate, she said, ‘I can’t possibly go.’
‘Why not?’ Kate asked.
‘Well what about my job here? I’ve made a commitment.’ She could feel her breath getting shaky. ‘I can’t possibly leave you in the lurch.’
‘Sweetheart if it’s something you want we’ll manage. I could even get Gloria to take over, seeing as she’s not, like, you know, totally useless.’
‘I bask in your praise,’ Gloria said, looking at Kate like she was mental for encouraging Emma to go.
‘But what about the play?’ she said stupidly.
‘Oh yes, because in comparison, the Whispers Wood Christmas show is not only equal to, but seen as better than a Hollywood movie,’ Kate said. ‘You’ve worked towards this all your life, haven’t you? If you want it, take it.’
No.
This was silly.
She lived here.
She worked here.
She was in love here.
She couldn’t make that work elsewhere.
Her gaze swung back to Jake and she licked her lips. ‘Jake?’
‘What they said,’ he answered, looking back at her like she was the only person in the room. ‘You can’t let this slip through your fingers if it’s what you want.’
‘What if it’s not what I want?’ she said bravely. Hopefully.
‘What if you’re just too afraid to say that it is?’ he asked, walking slowly towards her. ‘What if I say it for you?’
‘What if you tell me to stay?’ she countered, tears clogging her throat because he was really telling her to go? Rejecting a future together? Rejecting her?
‘I can’t do that, Hollywood.’ He reached for her hands.
‘I’m not Alice,’ she whispered. She knew he’d been hurt. Knew he didn’t trust easily. But did he really believe she’d be happier in Hollywood, than here with him?
‘I know that.’
Ask me to stay. Why won’t you ask me to stay?
‘The chandelier,’ she suddenly said and that was when everyone else must have sensed her desperation and that this was a conversation they shouldn’t overhear because they began leaving.
‘Is just a chandelier, Hollywood,’ Jake said gently, reaching up to tuck her hair back behind her ears.
‘But what about Sir Wolfie?’ she whispered, seeing her dream of next Christmas disappear.
‘Hollywood, I have no clue who Sir Wolfie is, but I do know that if you don’t go, you’ll never know for certain—’
‘Stop calling me Hollywood, I know you only do it when you’re—’
‘Ho Ho Ho,’ Trudie interrupted in her cheerful, booming voice, as she made a grand entrance, oblivious to the undertones as she sprang into action, rolling up her sleeves and heading over to the table to start clearing it. ‘Had a good lunch, did we? Fandabbydozy. Right then, let’s start moving the tables out of the way.’
‘We’ll talk later,’ Jake said, stroking his fingers over her cheekbone, and then he was stepping back and turning around and reaching for a stack of chairs.
‘Yes,’ she whispered, taking a step backwards too. ‘Later.’
‘Give me a hug then, Jakey,’ Trudie said.
While Trudie reached forward to give Jake a Christmas hug, Emma slipped quietly out of The Clock House doors.