Page 63 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘So what are we actually going to do?’ Darcy asked.
Pavel hated to be the voice of reality but someone had to. ‘What can you do?’
‘I’ll tell you what we can do,’ Gemma answered. ‘We can fucking destroy them.’
She looked across the room at the four faces staring back at her. ‘I mean destroy might be quite a strong word. Sorry.’
‘No.’ Bella folded her arms. ‘Destroying them sounds good to me.’
‘Bel, I mean…’ Adam’s tone was more placatory.
His fiancée caught him in her eyeline. ‘I am going to have to push an actual human out of my vagina because of you.’
He nodded. ‘Destroy away, sweetheart.’
‘That’s what I thought.’
‘So what’s the plan?’ Darcy asked.
Jodie and Bella stared at each other for a second. Jodie had a number of initial ideas but they all required tanks and flamethrowers. Gemma would think of something smarter than that.
Finally Bella broke the silence. ‘Council of war,’ she announced.
A council of war turned out to involve Jodie, squashed into the big sofa in the yellow room once again, this time between Anna and Nina, while Flinty and Jill followed Bella out towards the office, fussing over whether she was doing too much ‘in her condition’, and Adam and Darcy went to make tea. Veronica sat, silent and apparently serene, in front of the fireplace.
‘While we’ve got you,’ Nina started.
‘Elton John,’ Anna interjected before Nina could get going. ‘Do you think he’ll be all right with a room at the pub or will he have an entourage?’
‘I don’t know Elton John.’
Anna pursed her lips. ‘Darcy said…’
‘Sorry.’
‘What about Kylie Minogue?’ Anna asked.
Jodie shook her head.
‘Well,’ Anna frowned, ‘any of the Nolan sisters?’
‘Like offLoose Women?’ Jodie could feel herself getting sucked in. ‘Coleen?’
‘Yes.’ Anna’s voice was hopeful.
‘Sorry. No.’
Nina folded her arms. ‘Do you think we’re getting hung up on the celebrity idea?’
‘Maybe a bit,’ Jodie muttered.
‘What if we let Miss Bryant tell us her vision for the switch-on?’
Anna harrumphed slightly. ‘Go on then.’
Across the room, Veronica, who had not been joining in the conversation at all, very slightly tilted her head towards them. Gemma had no plan for a Lowbridge Christmas lights turn-on. Jodie was fully on her own now. Both Nina and Anna were staring at her expectantly. Jodie had never been to a Christmas lights switch-on. In her mind they involved a member of Steps pressing a big red button. She added ‘all of Steps’ to the list of celebrities she did not know.
‘Perhaps you could tell Miss Bryant a little more about the lights themselves?’ Veronica spoke quietly but definitely. ‘I imagine it’s hard for her to come up with a plan when she’s never seen the thing.’
