One Hundred Christmas Proposals. Holly Martin

They first met when they signed up to do some charity carol singing for their university, with the money raised going to the local kids’ hospice. Molly sung loud and proud and every note wildly out of tune. Finn fell in love with her there and then.

       Five years later he wanted to celebrate their love by proposing to her in the exact spot where his heart had been irrevocably changed forever.

       Finn stood with his arm round Molly’s shoulders as they watched a small group of carol singers singing Away in a Manger but as they finished the second verse, the music changed, the carol singers ripped off their Santa hats and our little proposal began. The carol singers donned ’80s mullets and soon were singing along to Prince’s ‘The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.’

       I could see Molly laughing at the way the carol singing had suddenly turned but it was clear that she had no idea this was all for her.

       More dancers ran to join in, falling in seamlessly with the dance routine and she realised she was witnessing a flash mob, although at this stage I still don’t think she had any idea where it was going.

       The music changed again, this time it was Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ with the dancers pulling on legwarmers and fingerless gloves, as more dancers ran in to join with the flash mob and the flawless dance routine.

       As the song came to an end, Finn pulled off his jacket and passed it to Molly to hold, which was obviously an odd thing to do considering how cold it was – but as the music changed again to Bruno Mars’ ‘Marry You’, he ran in and joined in with the dance himself, leading his backing singers and dancers to a full scale, hundred person strong crescendo with them all on one knee in front of Molly at the end.

       Molly was crying so much by this point we all had to wait almost two minutes to get any kind of answer from her. You could have heard a pin drop. Even the traffic seemed to come to a stop as we all waited with bated breath for the answer which could ruin us all.

       Fortunately, when she stopped sobbing her answer was a resounding yes.

       The crowd cheered and Suzie and I and probably Finn breathed a huge sigh of relief.

       I don’t know what I’ll do if any of our proposals ever end in a no.

       Suzie was in tears as Finn and Molly hugged and cried, so I think the proposal was a big success as far as she was concerned. Though to be fair, she’s been in tears for the last three proposals too.

      *

      ‘I’m going out,’ Harry called. ‘I’m meeting Badger for some man time.’

      ‘That’s fine, give him a big hug from me.’

      ‘I will do.’ Harry walked into the front room fastening his coat. ‘What you doing?’

      ‘I’m probably just going to have a bath and read my book.’

      ‘Well I probably won’t be too long, if you hold off on the bath for an hour we could have one together.’

      ‘That sounds good.’ I reached up to kiss him as he leaned over the back of the sofa. He lingered over the kiss much longer than was necessary for a goodbye kiss and I couldn’t help smiling as he kissed me as if he wasn’t going to see me for months. Eventually he pulled away.

      ‘Just stay right there and I’ll be back soon to finish that kiss.’

      He pulled his woolly hat on and left. No sooner had the front door closed, the phone rang. I ran to answer it, thinking it would be Harry telling me how much he missed me already but it was Jules.

      ‘Hey lovely.’

      ‘Hey.’

      ‘Want to come round for dinner tonight?’

      ‘I’ve already eaten but I could come round for dessert?’

      ‘Perfect, just come when you’re ready.’

      I pulled on my coat, snow boots and hat and stepped outside into the cold.

      *

      I was surprised when Badger opened the door and pulled me into a giant bear hug. He was just in his shorts and clearly had no intention of going out anywhere soon.

      ‘Aren’t you meeting Harry?’ I asked with my face squashed hard against Badger’s chest.

      He released me from his death grip. ‘No, I thought he might be with you.’

      ‘He said he was going out to meet you for some man time.’

      Badger stared at me as if I’d grown a spare head. ‘Erm that was tonight? I thought that was tomorrow.’

      ‘No, tomorrow me and Harry were going to catch a show.’

      ‘I…’ Badger ran his hand through his hair nervously.

      ‘Don’t just stand in the hall, come into the kitchen where it’s warm,’ called Jules.

      ‘You go ahead,’ Badger said. ‘I’ll give Harry a quick call to see if he wants to come round here instead.’

      Confused, I walked into the kitchen to see my beautiful niece chasing the cat around the dining table. I swung her up into my arms, giving the poor cat a temporary reprieve.

      Bella giggled and planted a wet kiss on my cheek. She was the spitting image of my brother, Jack – every time I saw her she had grown more and more like him. I buried my face into her hair, stifling the grief I felt every time I saw her. How painful it must be for Jules to be reminded of Jack every day. Although she did have the distraction of Badger to take away that pain. I closed my eyes against that sudden uncharitable thought. I hated that I was still angry at their relationship – especially when it clearly made Jules so happy.

      ‘What’s going on?’ Jules said, greeting me with a kiss as she gestured towards Badger speaking quietly to Harry in the hallway.

      ‘Harry’s gone out to meet Badger, Badger doesn’t seem to know about it.’

      ‘That’s odd. Harry spoke to Badger earlier, he certainly didn’t mention anything about meeting up then.’

      ‘Maybe Harry assumed Badger knew.’

      Jules scrolled through her phone. ‘There’s nothing in our diary. Badger is normally really good at putting things like that in the diary as he always forgets things otherwise.’

      ‘Maybe Badger forgot to put it in this time.’

      Jules pulled a face. ‘Unlikely.’

      Badger walked into the kitchen. ‘I forgot I was meeting him, I’m such an idiot.’ He passed Jules a meaningful look as if to say play along.

      Jules stared at him for a moment. ‘Ohhhh yes I remember now, you were meeting at The Rhubarb and Pickle – darts night wasn’t it, with Marv and Leon?’

      It was true that Marv held darts night at his pub once a month, but I was pretty sure that had happened at the beginning of December. What was going on?

      ‘So is Harry coming here?’

      ‘I erm…’ Badger looked back at Jules, clearly panicking. ‘He’s too far away.’

      ‘But the Rhubarb is only down the road. It’s one stop on the tube?’

      ‘He’s not there, we were supposed to meet somewhere else. I think he’s just going to head home once he’s finished.’

      ‘Finished what?’

      ‘Want some chocolate cake? I made it fresh this morning,’ Jules said, loudly.

      Bella tugged gently on my hair and wriggled to escape, distracting me momentarily from the look of pure fear on Badger’s face. I put her down and she ran straight to Badger. He scooped