Page 54 of Twilight at Croftwood Library
The next time Oliver called her over, it was the absolute perfect tree. It was beautiful and when she leaned towards it and inhaled, she smelt Christmas.
Oliver reached into his pocket, pulled out a piece of red string and tied it onto the top branch of the tree. ‘So they know which one we want.’
Which one we want. Lois was momentarily sad that it wasn’t their tree, it was hers. Hers alone. But it certainly felt like their tree as they stood there.
‘Haven’t you got an axe with you?’ The thought of him manfully chopping the tree down was all she could think about.
‘I left it in the car,’ he grinned. ‘I think we’ll have to walk back and find someone. They won’t see us through the fog,’ said Oliver. ‘Come on.’ He took her hand.
In the same instant, she pulled it out of his grasp.
‘What’s the matter? Do you want to pick a different one?’ he asked, oblivious to what had just happened.
‘No, this tree’s fine,’ she said and walked past him towards the farmhouse.
‘Are you alright, Lois?’ He caught up with her. She could see his look of concern from the corner of her eye as she willed him to realise what he’d done.
They paid for the tree and waited while the farmer went to cut it down. Oliver was looking at her like a wounded puppy.
‘We’re friends, Oliver.’
He nodded, looking puzzled.
‘Friends wouldn’t hold hands.’ Especially friends who had almost become more than friends.
He shrugged. ‘I didn’t mean anything by it. I would have done the same with Patsy if it helps.’
If he didn’t see the flush of embarrassment that washed over her, she would be amazed. ‘Okay, so I may have overreacted. Being friends is harder than it sounds, that’s all.’
‘I’m sorry, it was spontaneous. I didn’t think about how it would make you feel,’ he said gently. ‘That it might mean something,’
It meant everything. ‘Sorry.’ She felt like an idiot for making something of it. She should have embraced the moment and taken his hand, enjoyed the closeness without overthinking it.
‘It’s fine.’ He smiled at her.
The farmer appeared like a vision out of the fog with the tree trailing behind him.
‘Lovely tree, that one. Think you’ve got the best of the season there! You going to get that in your car?’
‘Sure will,’ said Oliver, although they could all see that the tree was much taller than the size of the boot.
‘Righto then. Merry Christmas!’
The tree was too tall to fit in the car unless it went through the back doors and into the front passenger seat, so Lois ended up sitting behind Oliver on the way home, silently berating herself for ruining the outing.
At her house, she stood aside while Oliver began to pull the tree out of the car then once it was almost there, she grabbed the other end of it to help carry it inside.
‘Where do you want it?’
‘In the living room, please.’
Oliver walked backwards into the room and put the tree down in front of the window, helping Lois to push it upright.
‘Steady, you almost touched my hand then,’ he said.
‘Oh, sod off.’ But she grinned at him, glad that he thought it was funny. She wanted to tell him that it wasn’t even about the handholding. It was about the fact that when they were together, they fell into this comfortableness that made it so easy to forget that they could only be friends. And Lois was just trying to protect herself, to have it not be any harder than it already was by Oliver doing something that she longed for. Like holding her hand.
He stood with his hands in his pockets, watching as she cut the string which was holding the branches closed.
