Page 54 of Kiss Me at Christmas
“It is too. The only excuse I’ll accept is if you’ve come up with a cunning plan to seduce James that night.”
Harriet snorted. “I have not. He wants to take things slowly. He is determined to get to know me better first. He used the word ‘meaningful.’ ”
“What a bastard.”
“Right!”
“So come with me. It’s just one night. I’ll drive, you can drink free wine, and we’ll look at some art and get cultured.”
“Like kombucha.”
“Yes, and kefir.”
“All right, I could do with a change of scenery.”
“Yay! That was way easier than I thought it would be. I had a whole layered strategy of guilt and emotional blackmail ready.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, do you want to use it anyway? I promise to react receptively.”
“No, it’s fine,” she said in a voice laden with mock weary. “I’ll bank it and keep it for next time. Waste not, want not.”
“And that is why you are the queen of sustainability.”
Eight hours later, Harriet banged the snow off her boots and pushed through the theater doors to be greeted by smells of fresh paint and sawn wood. The lobby renovations were almost complete. The plaster moldings on the ceiling had been painted back to their original white, and now a woman in a blue boilersuit stood on top of a scaffold tower painstakingly applying gold leaf to the ivy and the edges of the rose petals.
“Good afternoon to you, Harriet!” Ken called as he trotted down the staircase. “Or should I say good evening, it never feels right to me that night falls before teatime in the winter. Still, this too shall pass and before you know it there’ll be Easter eggs in the shops.”
She smiled. “Hi, Ken, how’s your day been?”
“Not too bad. I’m doing the late shift today, so I spent the morning with my grandkids. Ooh!” He held up hishand. “I’ve got something for you, wait a mo.” He disappeared through one of the doors behind the box office and came back wearing a big grin and carrying a large canvas tool bag, which he handed over to her.
It was heavy, and when she looked inside her heart grew two sizes. It was full of paintbrushes and fat tubes of black and brown acrylic paint.
“You are an angel!” she squealed, dropping the bag and reaching her arms around the burly man to hug him.
“Get away with ya.” He laughed good-naturedly as she released him.
“Leo’s going to be delighted,” she gushed. “They all are. Thank you!”
“Aye, well, those that work hard deserve a helping hand in my book. Speak to Caz, she’s working in the cocktail lounge this evening; she’s got a load of paint for you. We had a bit of a scout around the warehouse last night, there’s always paint left over from jobs. It’s mostly half tins, odds and sods, and I can’t vouch for the colors, but they’re yours if you want them.”
“This is…” She couldn’t find her words; they seemed to be circling her heart in a dance of gratitude. “Thank you, Ken. This means such a lot. It’s a huge help, I really appreciate it.”
“Well, you know what they say,” he said as he began to stride away. “It takes a village!”
It certainly does!
The snow had triggered high spirits in the group. Everyone was feeling particularly festive, even more so after Harriet had given them the gift from Ken. Leo was wearing a Rudolph jumper with a glittery red pompom nose under a pair of paint-splattered tartan dungarees andhad dyed his hair holly green. He was kneeling on a length of backcloth, drawing a giant replica of his sketch of Mr. Fezziwig’s Christmas party.
“We have also been gifted some tins of paint. It should be enough for us to get started, at least,” said Harriet as Billy and the others inspected the bag of brushes.
“Can I paint too?” asked Sid, who was spending the evening with them because Arthur had a hospital appointment. Harriet tried not to be worried; it was normal for older people to have niggling health problems, it didn’t mean anything.
“Course you can, Sidney!” Leo ruffled the boy’s hair, and Sid grinned like a chimpanzee.
“It’s still a lot to do, though,” said Billy, eyeing the other eleven rolls of fabric stacked up nearby.
“Well, we may have some help with backdrops and other things if we’re lucky. Remember Hesther, the woman who popped in yesterday? She runs a group for refugee women and they’re going to be sharing the theater with us. They are keen to be involved with the behind-scenes stuff.”
