A Merry Little Christmas

Chapter 11

Nell

The day of the first candle-making workshop had arrived and Nell was a bag of nerves and regrets. She wasn’t sleeping well at the moment, which didn’t help. There was so much whirling around in her head and lying beside Olek listening to his deep, easy breaths only increased her anxiety. The closer the hands of the shop’s clock crept towards the 2 p.m. start time, the more she began to doubt herself.

What had she been thinking? She wasn’t anywhere near experienced enough in the art of making candles to impart knowledge to others. Merry made it look so easy; she could judge when the molten wax was ready to pour into the glass jars just by looking at it and her candles were perfectly flat on top, while Nell’s invariably developed more craters than the dark side of the moon.

She paced up and down the shop, debating whether to call everyone booked onto this afternoon’s session and make up some excuse. She could tell them the wax melter was broken, or she’d come down with a vomiting bug in the last half-hour … They’d have to refund everyone’s money, but the way she was feeling right now, she’d gladly do that from her own pocket.

From the other side of the closed studio door, the sound of a Michael Bublé Christmas song blared out and, a second later, Woody started singing along in falsetto.

She erupted into laughter, and the music went off.

‘I heard that,’ he yelled. ‘Just testing my technology. Two ticks and I’ll be ready for the grand reveal. You are going to die!’

Imminent death notwithstanding, her new friend’s enthusiasm must have been contagious because Nell gave herself some stern words.

Come on, Nell. You can do this. Woody will be there to gee up the participants. And, more importantly, Merry will be on hand via Zoom to pick up on any major errors. What’s the worst that could happen?

Thank goodness for Woody, that was all she could say.

He’d been an absolute diamond since his arrival, he’d already made himself at home both in the flat and at Merry and Bright.

Nell was particularly talented at listening to customers’ requirements and selecting the most appropriate product, regularly managing to unintentionally upsell to them. She was also pretty hot on keeping an eye on stock levels and shelf replenishment, if she did say so herself. Woody talked far too much to every customer and Nell had had to have a word with him about throwing in freebies when he got on particularly well with someone. And then there was that unfortunate incident of setting fire to the sleeve of his own jumper with a lit candle. But, on the plus side, he was the fastest and neatest gift wrapper she’d ever met, while simultaneously getting customers to add their details to the mailing list, following Merry and Bright on social media and, his masterstroke, persuading them to take a selfie with their purchases, post it on Instagram and tag them.

‘Okey-dokey, Nell, close your eyes, I’m opening the door,’ Woody shouted.

‘My eyes are shut!’ she replied.

For the last two hours, she’d been banned from the studio while he worked his magic. He’d told her to trust him, which, even though she hardly knew him, she did.

The door opened and, at once, the scent of Christmas trees hit her. Woody took her hand and led her in.

‘You may open your eyes,’ he said. ‘Ta-dah!’

‘Oh my goodness!’ She turned in a full circle, taking it all in.

‘Careful, the floor might be a little bit slippery,’ he said with a wince. ‘I dropped a bottle of essential oil near the sink.’

‘Noted,’ said Nell, adding ‘scrub floor’ to her job list. ‘But I forgive you, because this room is incredible.’

The studio had been totally transformed from a neat and clinical production area to what could only be described as a wintry scene from Narnia. Snow-sprayed branches, garlands of holly, spruce and ivy, strings of lights … everywhere Nell looked, there were touches of Woody’s genius. The work table had a big bunch of mistletoe suspended above it and had been set with eight workstations, each with a small tote bag on which Woody had written the participants’ names in glitter pens. A festive floral and candle centrepiece gave the finishing touch to the space.

Woody clasped his hands together under his chin. ‘You like?’

‘I love !’ Nell nodded. ‘You’ve worked wonders. It’s obvious you’re an expert at this sort of thing.’

‘Thank you,’ he said with a bow. ‘I’m honoured.’

He gestured towards the wax melter, where Nell had previously set out the essential oils for the attendees to make the lemon, lime and rosemary candle, which Merry had selected because it was her first-ever product. Those oils had been replaced with different ones.

‘I’ve had a little swap around,’ Woody admitted. ‘I know you advertised making one of the original products. But as it’s Christmas, it’s got to be Mistletoe Kiss.’

Nell chewed her lip. ‘Merry isn’t going to like it, but that is a really good point.’

‘I’ve made a romantic Christmas playlist too,’ he said, touching the keypad on the laptop.

‘Christmas Lights’ by Coldplay struck up and Nell was instantly transported to New York, where Olek had taken her on a romantic autumn break, and they’d come across Coldplay rehearsing in Central Park.

‘I love this song.’ Her heart fluttered momentarily for her husband.

Olek had tried repeatedly to get her to open up about the fertility tests and she had found herself getting short-tempered with him purely to get him to change the subject. She conjured up his hurt expression and felt a wave of indecision. Had she done the right thing by deceiving him? They didn’t have any secrets from each other – at least not during their relationship. There was one thing she hadn’t told him which had happened before she’d met him. She’d contemplated talking about it on several occasions but had never found the right words or the right moment. And after a while they had reached a point when it was too late to reveal anything significant from their previous lives. Now she was glad of her omission.

‘Wakey-wakey.’ Woody waved a hand in front of her face. ‘Our guinea pigs – I mean, attendees – will be here any minute. You look like you need a double espresso to pep you up.’

She blinked at him, dragging her thoughts back to the moment. ‘I do. I really do.’

‘Coming right up.’

He was a live wire and just what she needed, but every so often, she caught a glimpse of pain in his eyes. He was hiding something, but as she was equally as secretive, she couldn’t very well challenge him about it, could she?

The next hour flew by and before Nell knew it, her guests had arrived and were all set up in the studio and Merry had joined them on Zoom.

‘I’m Merry, founder of Merry and Bright. Thanks so much for coming to our first Christmas Candle Workshop. And, as you can see, I’m sitting with my feet up, doing precisely nothing, other than sipping hot chocolate.’ Merry raised her mug before resting it back on her bump. ‘But I do have a built-in shelf these days, which is very handy.’

Merry being present only via a screen had been accepted without complaint by the workshop participants, who were all women. As was the fact that Nell was their substitute tutor. They consisted of a group of three friends celebrating a fortieth birthday, a mum and her two daughters and two elderly sisters who declared themselves Christmas addicts who couldn’t resist a festive craft session. All of them had gathered around the laptop in a semicircle, while Nell stood to the side. Woody had cleared away coffee cups and gingerbread biscuits with which the ladies had been welcomed and was now manning the shop.

‘Make the most of it,’ said one of the women. ‘My little girl is six months old. I don’t think I’ve had chance to sit with my feet up since the day she arrived; not alone, at least.’

‘I’ll be coming back to work soon after this one makes an appearance,’ said Merry, ‘so I probably won’t have much time to put my feet up anyway.’

Nell frowned. Merry would be popping in of course, but coming back to work, surely not too soon? She was on the verge of challenging her friend about it but then remembered they had a studio full of visitors to entertain.

‘Thanks, Merry,’ said Nell, deciding to take ownership of the session. ‘OK, let’s get cracking. Before we start melting the wax, we need to prepare our glass containers.’

‘Hold on a minute, Nell.’ Merry leaned forward and gave an awkward laugh. ‘I’ve just spotted the essential oils you’ve got out; they’re not the right ones.’

‘Change of plan,’ she intervened quickly. ‘Woody and I have gone for a wintry theme and realised the best candles to make today are Mistletoe Kisses. You’re all happy with that, ladies?’

There was a round of nodding and assent.

‘I was going to buy some of those anyway,’ someone said, ‘so even better.’

Merry picked up her phone and typed something. Nell’s phone pinged. She read Merry’s message and bit her lip. She’d anticipated this.

Nell, what are you doing? I picked the lemon candle for a reason.

I know, but Woody has done such an amazing job decorating the studio. It was his idea to make Christmas candles. It makes sense, I think, and it’s no biggie.

Hopefully Merry would be fine with that, she thought, dropping her phone in her apron pocket. Anyway, it was too late, they couldn’t change things now. She glanced at her notes; the first job was to preheat the glue gun.

She flicked the switch and moved to the second.

‘Ladies, help yourself to cotton wicks from the box on the table. We’re going to glue the wicks to the base of the jars to keep them secure when we pour the wax.’

In her pocket, her phone vibrated again. Nell ignored it.

‘Nell?’ Merry called from the laptop. ‘Sorry to interrupt but I’ve messaged you.’

Nell didn’t look at the laptop because someone asked a question.

‘Can you use different sorts of wick?’ asked one of the elderly sisters. ‘They were dipped in wax in my youth.’

‘Absolutely,’ Nell nodded. ‘We like to be as sustainable as possible, hence the cotton, but you can—’

Merry cleared her throat. ‘Sorry, Nell. Can you just look at your phone?’

‘Excuse me, one second,’ she smiled an apology at the old lady.

It has NOTHING to do with Woody!! I wanted you to make the Lemon candles.

I’m a partner in this business. Treat me like one. I repeat this is NO BIGGIE!

Nell turned her phone onto flight mode. Merry could reply all she wanted now, but Nell wasn’t going to read the messages.

‘Actually, ladies,’ Merry piped up from the laptop, her voice an octave higher than usual, ‘I’m going to pop in and say hi myself. See you in twenty minutes. My sister can drive me.’

Nell positioned herself in front of the screen, blocking everyone else’s view. ‘Oh no you don’t, Merry Robinson. That baby is counting on you to relax and take care of yourself. That’s your priority right now.’

Merry’s face was like thunder. ‘I am sick and tired of being told—’

Nell gently closed the laptop and turned back to the group. ‘Oh dear, it looks like we’ve lost her. Never mind, where was I? Oh yes, wicks …’