The Best Little Christmas Shop. Maxine Morrey

wonder half the mums wanted a play date with him. I didn’t even have a child and I was a handful of squashed grapes away from setting one up myself.

      ‘Oi, Muppet. What do you think then?’

      ‘Are you really calling her Muppet?’ Cal asked, his eyes shining with laughter.

      Xander looked slightly confused. ‘It’s her name.’

      ‘I thought it was Lexi.’

      ‘Well, yeah. Officially.’

      ‘Actually, officially it’s Alexandra.’ I did a sweeping sort of motion with my hand, like I was bowing but I couldn’t be arsed to stand up so you had to use your imagination a bit.

      ‘And you’re really Alexander.’ Cal said, nodding across the table.

      ‘Yep. Born on the same day. Mums were in the beds next to each other, and they’d both decided on Alexander. Because Muppet here was supposed to be a boy.’

      ‘I wasn’t supposed to be a boy!’

      ‘All right. You were expected to be a boy. But that sort of happened anyway.’

      ‘Do you mind?’

      ‘What? You’re not exactly girly, are you?’

      ‘Giselle does girly enough for the both of us.’

      ‘She’s plenty girly,’ Cal interjected. ‘Carry on.’

      I wiggled my head at Xander in triumph and he ignored me.

      ‘So, anyway, out pops this one and her poor parents hadn’t even begun to consider girls’ names because, although they didn’t have any scanning equipment down at the little cottage hospital we were born in, everyone was convinced in that mystical way people are, that it was another boy. Her parents had resigned themselves to it. And they’d spent so long choosing a name they just made it into a feminine version. Unlike the human being they produced.’

      ‘You’re such an arse,’ I mumbled.

      ‘But once we started recognising our names and especially at playgroup, it all got a bit confusing so they got adapted: hers into Lexi. Mine into Xander.’

      ‘OK,’ Cal said, breaking the leg of the gingerbread man that had now appeared in front of him and popping it in his mouth. ‘That makes sense. But why Muppet?’

      ‘Because she is one.’ Xander looked at his boss as if this explanation was obvious.

      Cal glanced at me and tilted his head. ‘Ask a silly question …’

      ‘It’s fine. I don’t mind it. It’s all meant with love.’

      ‘That’s true. But you are a Muppet. You have to admit that. Last year was the perfect example.’

      ‘Xander,’ Giselle said. Her voice was quiet but there was a definite hint of warning.

      ‘What person, other than a total muppet, would travel halfway across the world, knowing that by doing so they were not only going to lose their job but their entire career as well, just to visit a friend.’

      I let out a sigh. ‘You know it was more than that.’

      ‘I should never have called you.’ Xander swirled the last of his wine around the glass.

      ‘Oi.’ I nudged him. ‘If you hadn’t I’d have never forgiven you.’

      ‘You’d never have known! And you’d still have a job.’

      ‘Oh my God, Xander!’ I sat back in the chair. ‘This was not your fault. Or Giselle’s or anyone else’s but mine. You were in a state and Giselle was in emergency surgery for life-threatening peritonitis! You two mean more to me than any job, or any career! Don’t you get that? If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t change a thing. It was the right thing to do.’

      ‘But she’s fine!’

      ‘Yes. Thank God. But we didn’t know that and I felt much better being here at the time and for Giselle’s recovery than I would have done in a pit garage in some far-flung country. So can we just accept that and move on? I will sort out my life but you did the right thing in calling me that day and I did the right thing in coming home, whatever the fallout.’

      Xander looked at me for a moment, half stood, and grabbed me in a gentle headlock before planting a kiss on my temple.

      ‘See? Told you. Total muppet.’

      I knew Xander felt guilty about having called me that day, but it was true what I’d said. If he hadn’t called me, whatever the outcome, I wouldn’t have been able to forgive him, because in the back of my mind, there would always have been the “what if” …

      ‘He’s been calling her that since I’ve known them both and we met when we were seven so …’ Giselle said, turning to Cal as she did a little shrug and a very Gallic thing with her face and hands.

      ‘It’s all right. I call him much worse when he’s not here.’

      ‘That, I believe,’ Xander shot back.

      I smirked, downed the last of my wine, and pushed my chair out. ‘I’d better start heading home.’

      ‘Do you want me to give you a lift?’ Giselle asked, already up and looking for her keys.

      ‘No! You stay here in the warm. It’s not like it’s far.’

      ‘It’s sleeting out there now,’ Cal volunteered and I shot him a look. ‘Then I definitely don’t want Giselle out in a car.’

      ‘I’m pregnant, not an invalid!’

      ‘Yes. You have precious cargo on board, which means you should avoid all and any possibly dangerous situations.’

      Giselle rolled her eyes. ‘Honestly, you and Xander are like mother hens on steroids.’

      ‘Whatever works.’

      ‘You’ll freeze,’ Giselle said, giving me a stern look.

      ‘I can drop you off,’ Cal offered.

      ‘No really, it’s fine. The walk will do me good. Sober me up.’

      ‘It really is cold out there.’

      ‘I have gloves and a coat and hat and most importantly, plenty of alcohol in my veins. Did you know there was a cook on the Titanic who downed a whole bottle of sherry, thinking if he was going to be plunged into an icy, watery grave he may as well be pissed too – but then he survived because his blood was thinned so much by the alcohol it didn’t suffer the same effects as everyone else?’

      ‘You’re not planning to plunge yourself into the village pond, are you?’ Xander squinted at me.

      ‘No. Not intentionally anyway. Argh!’ I threw my arms up. ‘You’re missing the whole point of the story!’

      ‘I’ll just take you.’ Cal grinned. ‘It’s fine. It’s on my way anyway and George would never forgive me if he found out I hadn’t helped his top Teddy Surgeon home with a lift.’

      I glanced over at Giselle who was nodding at me vigorously, the reasons for which were a little blurry. Kind of like my vision.

      We exchanged goodbyes and hugs and Cal led me to his Land Rover, catching my arm as I missed the footplate in the dark and nearly face-planted into the seat.

      ‘Whoops.’

      ‘Ups-a-daisy,’ Cal said, as he boosted me in.

      I turned my head and looked back at him, his face now in slightly soft focus. ‘Ups-a-daisy?’

      ‘I have a five-year-old. Sorry. Words tend to slip out in inappropriate moments.’

      That delicious smile began to spread on his face and suddenly accepting a lift from him didn’t seem like the best idea.