Page 8 of A Winter in Wonderland
Chapter 4
‘So you actually agreed to this?’ my friend Willow said as we sat in the pub that evening, after I’d called an emergency council with her and our other friend, Max.
‘It’ll be fine, it’s one day. I go plenty of days without complaining about Christmas … out loud.’
‘I don’t know, man.’ Max shook his head, staring down into his G&T. ‘Your sister can be savage; I think you need to believe her when she says she’s not going to make it easy.’
‘I think it’ll be fine,’ I repeated.
Willow shrugged. ‘OK. When does the twenty-four-hours start?’
‘Tomorrow. She says I have to spend the day with her so she can make sure I don’t cheat, so I have to be at her house at seven a.m., with an overnight bag.’
‘Will you go into work with her?’
‘I guess so. Or maybe she’s working from home.’
Max started chuckling. ‘I can’t believe you agreed todo this on her turf. I bet she’s going to have you singing Christmas carols out the window for ten hours straight or something.’
‘No, she won’t … ’ Would she? No, surely not. But if I had an all-expenses-paid trip to a tropical island over Christmas I would do it. She’d said all expenses paid, right?
‘You are definitely going to Lapland, mate,’ said Max, cheersing my glass in commiseration.
‘Agreed,’ added Willow. ‘Though I’d happily take your place. I’ve always wanted to go there, it looks beautiful.’
‘It does,’ I agreed. ‘Lapland itself sounds amazing, and Finland has been on my bucket list for years, but this is just not how I want to do it. This is literally working with Santa as my manager. Or something like that.’
I changed the subject and we spent a while talking about their jobs, good TV, gossiping about other friends. When Max mentioned something about them all hanging out recently to meet his new boyfriend, Tim, I stopped him.
‘Everyone met Tim? I’ve been dying to meet him – he was in London?’
‘Yeah,’ Max said, swallowing. ‘We just had a quick catch-up since a few of us were around.’
‘When was this?’ I asked, looking between their faces, neither of which were now looking towards me.
‘Pardon?’ Max leaned forward as if he couldn’t hear me over the roar of the three other people in the pub or the barely-audible Adele album playing.
‘I said, when was this?’
‘It was just … a weekend,’ said Max.
‘Which weekend?’ I asked.
Max swirled his drink, extremely interested in the trails it left inside the glass. ‘This weekend, just gone.’
‘When I called to see if any of you wanted to hang out and you said you couldn’t? You were hanging out without me?’ Wow. I swallowed and tried to laugh it off like I didn’t care and was just making a joke.
‘Myla, it wasn’t like we didn’t want to hang out with you, it’s just that we were going ice skating, and it was going to be really festive, and we just … didn’t want you to come.’
Willow shot him a look and said quickly, ‘No, it’s that we didn’t think you’d like it.’
‘That’s what I meant,’ agreed Max.
‘I like ice skating, just not all the Christmas music and Christmas decorations and all that that goes with it.’ It was true. I like a snowy mountain and a winter-themed hot chocolate as much as the next person. Shove me atop a ski slope and I’ll laugh my way to the bottom (I’ve never actually skied but it looks great fun, laughs aplenty). But add a length of tinsel or a Little Drummer Boy or an ugly Christmas sweater – basically anything that screamsChristmasitself – and it causes an instant stress-headache.
Max and Willow exchanged another look and I wanted to knock their stupid heads together. Max said, ‘Well, exactly. You can be … ’
Willow put her hand on his arm. ‘Don’t.’
