A Merry Little Christmas

Chapter 7

Nell

Nell was in the flat above the shop, putting milk and butter in the fridge and arranging mince pies, cinnamon cookies, tea, coffee and a bottle of wine in the wicker welcome hamper for the imminent arrival of their Airbnb guest.

Merry and Bright was usually quiet on Mondays. But while customers might have been few and far between, the online weekend orders had kept Nell working non-stop all day.

The brand had developed quite a following online thanks to Merry’s slot on a popular TV shopping channel for over a year. The show had gone off air now, but demand for Merry’s hand-poured candles continued to burn brightly.

And this morning not only had she had the usual backlog of orders to deal with, but a particularly time-consuming one of twenty gift-wrapped candle bundles for a corporate Christmas order. Now it was two o’clock and she’d only just finished stocking the log basket, stringing twinkly lights along the banister and decorating the Christmas tree Merry had had delivered from the Christmas tree man on the market.

Even Merry couldn’t find fault with the festiveness of the flat, Nell thought, standing on a chair to tie a bunch of mistletoe to the light fitting in the hall.

She raced back downstairs, unlocking the shop door again to let in customers while she prepared her lunch of soup left over from yesterday’s supper with two slices of her mother-in-law’s rye bread.

She was blowing on her soup when Merry called.

‘Nell. I’m really sorry,’ said Merry in a small voice. ‘You and Olek had your appointment at the fertility clinic last week, and I completely forgot to ask you about it. I’m a terrible friend.’

Nell painted on her biggest smile before replying. ‘No! Darling girl, you’re not at all; you’ve had far bigger things to deal with.’

This was her new skill, to sound happy even though her heart was still aching. She’d done as she’d promised; the day after getting the results, she’d tried to be positive. She’d spent Saturday practically gurning at customers in the shop. On Sunday, she and Olek had visited her parents, where she’d given an Oscar-worthy performance, smiling broadly at her father’s in-depth story about missing funds at the golf club and nodding happily while her mother tried on dress after dress in readiness for their Christmas Caribbean cruise.

‘So how did it go?’ Merry asked.

Nell hesitated. Merry knew her inside out; in some ways, better than Olek did. She yearned to tell her best friend the truth, confide how complicated everything had become and ask for her advice. But could she risk it getting back to Olek? All it would take would be one slip of the tongue and her carefully constructed lie would crash around her ears. No, the safest, if not her preferred, thing to do was to tell Merry exactly what she’d told Olek.

‘To misquote Taylor Swift, it’s me, I’m the problem.’ She managed to muster up a half-laugh, even though it wasn’t in the least bit funny. Thank goodness they were having this conversation over the phone; at least Merry only had Nell’s voice to go on and not her body language.

For a moment, Merry was silent and Nell could only imagine the anguish on her best friend’s face.

‘Ah, Nellie,’ Merry said finally, her voice thick with emotion. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘Yeah. Me too.’ Your results show that there’s absolutely nothing wrong … Nell blinked away her dangerous thoughts.

‘And I’m even more sorry that we’re only having this conversation now,’ Merry continued. ‘I want to give you a big hug.’

‘I need one,’ she replied. ‘Although I’m a bit scared of touching you at the moment in case the baby pops out.’

‘Don’t you start,’ Merry grumbled. ‘Cole offered to go and sleep in the kids’ bedroom for that reason.’

‘He’s just looking after you,’ Nell reminded her. ‘You’d like it even less if he didn’t show how much he cared.’

‘Don’t change the subject,’ her friend chided. ‘This is important. I know you’ve always suspected you’d be the one who couldn’t conceive. Did you get any details? What is the actual issue? Is it fixable?’

‘Um …’ Nell hadn’t worked out what she was going to tell people yet. Not that Merry was ‘people’, she was her best friend and would naturally expect all the details. ‘Actually, it’s hard to talk at the moment, do you mind? I’m still cut up about it.’

‘Of course, of course. Gosh.’ Merry tutted as the news sank in. ‘So not fair, is it? I mean, me getting pregnant in the first month of trying and you …’

‘Yes, thanks for pointing that out.’ Nell gritted her teeth before remembering she was supposed to hold on to that smile.

‘Oh God, sorry, I’m saying all the wrong things.’ Merry groaned. ‘It’s just that I’m feeling … Nothing. Forget I said anything.’

Happily, thought Nell. It had been hard enough watching Merry’s bump grow over the last few months without being envious, while she still had hope that she’d be pregnant herself soon. How she was going to cope when she met Merry’s baby for the first time, she had no idea. She was looking forward to it, of course, but there would be a bittersweet twinge there too.

‘If you really don’t want to discuss it, shall we talk about something else?’ Merry suggested.

‘Yes, let’s,’ Nell said gratefully. ‘The first Christmas candle workshop. We’ve had one cancellation but two new bookings. So we’re fully booked.’

‘Oh that’s a shame,’ Merry sighed. ‘I was hoping for a small group, it would make it easier for me to manage.’

‘You?’ Nell squawked. ‘You can’t possibly run it.’

‘The doctor said I could do the essentials,’ Merry said defiantly. ‘This is my business, therefore it’s essential.’

‘It’s our business,’ said Nell gently. ‘We’re partners, remember? And the whole point of you bringing me in to the company last year was so that we could be a team and I could support you, rather than you having to cope with everything alone.’

‘True,’ said Merry. ‘But you do sales, I make the candles.’

‘Usually, yes,’ she pointed out. ‘However, we can both do everything, like when you and Cole went to visit Emily in the summer and we had a run on Home candles and I had to make more.’

‘Teaching other people to make candles is a whole other skill set. I’d say you’re only at beginner’s level yourself.’

That was a bit harsh in Nell’s opinion, but she kept quiet, determined not to rile Merry. The last thing she wanted was for her to insist on coming in to run it; Cole would go bananas.

‘I’m less experienced than you, of course, but I helped you pull this beginners workshop together; I know the schedule and you tested it out on me. I’ll be fine.’ In fact, the more she thought about running the workshop herself, the more anxious she became. There’d be eight loose cannons in a small space, plus herself. She wasn’t completely sure she’d be able to cope.

‘It’s the first workshop and I wanted to be there,’ Merry said.

‘It’s not ideal, but I can manage,’ Nell reassured her.

‘Hmm.’

‘Thanks for your vote of confidence,’ Nell said, feeling her nostrils twitch with annoyance. ‘I’m doing my best here.’

‘I know, it’s just …’ Merry paused. ‘I guess Merry and Bright was my baby.’

‘Of course it was, and obviously still is if you don’t trust me. And rub it in, why don’t you?’ Nell’s temper fizzed over, and she could no longer contain it. ‘They’re all your babies, aren’t they? Whereas I get none. No baby at all.’

‘Nell, that’s not what—’

She had heard enough; the pressure of keeping everything in was too much for her. With a flash of anger, she stabbed at the ‘end call’ button and sent her phone skidding across the counter, then sank down onto the floor on her knees and burst into tears.

She must have been crying louder than she realised because she didn’t hear the shop bell ring and jumped at the sound of a male voice hovering above her.

‘Um. Hello, is this a bad time?’

Nell looked up to see a very attractive man with kind grey eyes, dark hair and a salt-and-pepper beard peering over the counter at her. He was slim and well-dressed and despite the presence of several scented candles in the shop, she was able to pick out the spicy aroma of his aftershave.

She scrubbed her tears away, bounced to her feet and reprised her earlier smile. ‘Not at all! How can I help?’

He gave her a sceptical look before extending his hand.

‘I’m Woody,’ he said. ‘I’m your last-minute Airbnb guest.’

‘Oh!’ Nell’s eyes widened. She raked a hand through her curls and straightened her apron. ‘Oh, how lovely. Welcome to Merry and Bright, I’m Nell.’

The door opened again and in came a tall, muscular man dressed in jogging bottoms and a hoodie, his hair tightly cropped and an earring glinting in one ear. He slid a large suitcase inside the door and Woody dashed over.

‘Thank you, I can manage from here,’ Woody insisted.

‘You don’t need to do this, you know,’ the other man murmured, touching Woody’s shoulder.

Woody sighed. ‘I do. Spencer, I do.’

‘You’ve made your point, love. Let’s go home. We can sort this out.’

‘By which you mean that you’ll persuade me to do things your way.’ Woody shook his head. ‘Sorry, but I’ve made my mind up.’

The two men fell silent and rested their foreheads together. Nell realised she was staring and forced herself to turn away; she’d never seen such a good-looking male couple.

‘I love you,’ said Spencer with a sigh.

‘I love you, and I’m going to miss you a lot.’

There were a few seconds of quiet, during which Nell assumed the couple were kissing. Then they said their goodbyes and the shop door closed with a tinkle of the bell.

‘Oh gawwwd,’ Woody murmured under his breath, watching Spencer out of the window. ‘What have I done?’

He turned as Nell’s phone beeped with an alert. It was Merry trying to call her back. She stuffed her phone in her pocket to deal with later.

‘Sorry about that display,’ he said, pressing his palms to his face. ‘What must you think of me?’

The poor man looked on the verge of tears.

‘I think that you’re a man in desperate need of a glass of wine,’ she replied, striding past him to flip the sign on the door to closed and turning the key.

‘Oh gosh.’ Woody managed a wobbly smile. ‘Nell, darling, you and I are going to be the best of friends, I just know it.’

‘Follow me,’ she said, leading the way upstairs to the flat.

Woody didn’t know just how fortuitous his pronouncement was, because after that last conversation with Merry, she might just be in need of a new best friend.