Page 77 of It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
I fished out the olive stone and started panicking as I realised I didn’t know where to put it. Tom noticed my floundering and casually spun the bowl around to reveal a small pit holder clinging to the side of it.
‘Thanks. Well, you always just seemed to genuinely enjoy the books. I remember when we were studyingPride and Prejudiceat GCSE and you’d finished reading it during a single weekend.’
‘I’ve read it loads of times since, too. Always did have a bit of a soft spot for Elizabeth.’
I melted some more. I’d always identified with Lizzie Bennet. ‘Ooh, a crush on a literary character. Were you a secret nerd all along, Mr Brinton?’
‘I reckon I might have been, Ms Allister. C’mon, are you telling me you didn’t have any of your own literary longings?’
‘Well, there’s one that springs to mind, but it’s a little odd, to say the least.’
‘I’m listening.’
Was I really going to tell him this? Yes. Yes, I was.
‘Aslan.’
Tom snorted and collapsed into a fit of laughter, pounding his fist against the table, causing me to do the same.
At that moment the first flurry of dishes was brought to our table by one of the waiting staff, forcing us to collect ourselves. I was relieved to see there were even numbers of everything, which immediately assuaged my small plates anxiety. That said, if our fingers accidently brushed while reaching for the same croquette, I absolutely would not mind.
‘Thanks so much.’ We spoke the words simultaneously to the server through fading giggles.
‘Wow, this all looks amazing.’ I was already heaping my plate high with a selection of steaming yumminess.
‘Yeah, they’ve won tons of local awards. A table here is usually quite hard to come by, especially at this time of year. Seriously, though, the fucking lion?!’
I attempted to kick him under the table, but he somehow managed to grip my shin between his own legs in a way that stilled me, instantly.
‘I wouldn’t go that far. But, yeah, you’re out with a freak tonight.’
He looked right at me and released my leg. ‘I guess I like freaks then.’
He likes me. But everyone ‘likes’ Mally Allister, right?I wanted to excavate his response more, but my subject-changing instincts got in there first.
‘What a top client to have on your books, though. But I can’t get my head around something – surely if he’syourclient, shouldn’t you be the one wining and diningMateo?’
‘An excellent observation.’ Tom glanced around before continuing in a quieter voice. ‘Let’s just say that we’ve had some tricky moments with this place over the years given that a restaurant in a flood-prone basement with zero accessibility for customers with disabilities isn’t exactly the easiest of buildings to manage, facilities-wise.’
‘Shit, yeah, that explains why your mum can’t come here.’
‘Exactly. We’ve been trying to convince Mateo to move this branch above ground for years, but he won’t hear of it – it was his first one, and he’s very fond of the place. So, yeah, we work hard for him and this is one of his ways of thanking us each year.’
We ate for a couple of minutes, every mouthful being accompanied by a hedonic sound indicating the depth of our mutual enjoyment of the food. Once we’d cleared the first few plates they were discreetly removed. I ordered another jug of crangria.
Tom called after the waitress. ‘Oh, and a jug of water, please. So, how about your family Christmases? Would you be happy to tell me about them?’
Did I want to go there? I wasn’t sure. But there was only one way to find out.
‘Sure. They were, well, they were pretty simple, really. But there was something about them that felt really magical, too. It’s a hard feeling to describe, but they just made me feel… tingly, I guess? Those three or four days from 23 December or so once my dad had finished work for Christmas were always so full of silly little traditions and endless banter. Oh, and we had this longstanding family gag that one of us would give someone else a VHS of the filmThe Princess Brideevery single year.’
‘Great film, but random tradition?’
‘Yeah, it started off when my dad got given it two years running and exclaimed “Inconceivable!”’
‘Ha, classic.’
Another flurry of plates arrived, along with the crangria and water.
