Page 90 of Kiss Me at Christmas
Word of Grace’s fall had quickly spread around the theater. Anousheh and Sana—from the women’sgroup—had dropped in stuffed flatbreads and enough biryani to last a week, while Mallory had brought fondant fancies, mini Scotch eggs, and other such picnic foods from the Great Foss Players. Even the maintenance teams had sent over flowers and chocolates.
Tess and Arthur had dropped round with Sid so that he could give Grace a tin of Christmas biscuits and then taken him home for some dinner. Arthur had lost weight, Harriet thought, since she’d last seen him, but she tucked that niggle away for this evening. Somewhat surprisingly, given he’d already spent the whole day with Grace, Billy didn’t go home with them; Harriet wondered if it had anything to do with the giant pan of biryani in the kitchen.
“I had no idea I was so popular.” Grace’s tone was cynical. She made a big show of being suspicious of the plentiful kindnesses and pooh-poohed the notion that today’s events had left her shaken. But in a moment that she was now blaming on the effects of painkillers, she had confessed to Billy that she’d thought she was going to die alone on the kitchen floor and that no one would find her body until it began to smell.
“Well, it turns out that despite your best efforts at cantankerousness, people still like you, so deal with it,” Harriet retorted, drying her hands on a tea towel printed with a faded recipe for Cornish pasties as she came back into the sitting room. “Now, the doctor has said that you need someone to stay with you tonight just in case you have a concussion. It’s simply a precaution…”
“Bunkum!” Grace blustered. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
“You do tonight,” said James smoothly.
“I don’t mind staying over, you’ve got a bed made up in the spare room,” said Harriet. “I can sleep in there.”
“Been snooping, have you?”
“I had to go upstairs to find the things you needed for the hospital, remember?”
Grace made a grumbling noise not unlike the dissenting sounds made by MPs during Prime Minister’s Question Time.
“I’ll stay,” said Billy.
“Certainly not!” Grace protested.
“Afraid I might steal all your worldly belongings?” he asked, smiling sardonically.
“I’m more concerned you’ll scoff my biryani,” she snapped.
“Now that is a possibility,” he replied.
I knew it!Harriet smiled to herself.
“I don’t need looking after,” Grace insisted.
“Which is why I’m perfect for the job,” argued Billy. “ ’Cause I have no intention of looking after you. I’m only offering to stay because you’ve got Sky Movies.”
“Well.” Grace gave the impression of mulling it over. “All right, then. But I choose the movie and I want all the pink fondant fancies.”
“Fair enough,” said Billy, shrugging. “I’ll go and dish myself up some grub, I’m starving.”
He turned abruptly and walked into the kitchen.
“Little shit,” Grace muttered under her breath, but the smile in her eyes was undeniable.
With Grace and Billy settled in front of the TV and a smorgasbord of delights laid out on the coffee table, Harriet and James made their exit.
“Do you think she’ll be all right?” James asked as he parked outside Harriet’s building.
“Grace? Yeah. She’s made of tough stuff. She might murder Billy, though.”
“They’re a funny pair, aren’t they? A week ago, they couldn’t stand each other.”
“I think maybe they see themselves reflected in each other.”
“You always see the good in people, don’t you?” said James.
“It’s not about the good or bad, sometimes it’s just about the seeing.”
He looked out of the window, which was beginning to steam up, nodding slowly.
