Page 11 of Christmas Ever After
Seeing him play with one of my nutcrackers reminds me of the usual hostility between us and makes suspicion prickle again. ‘Probably scared I’m going to sue you.’
‘For what? It was an accident.’
‘I don’t know. Stepping off a stool with undue care and attention!’
‘Not a crime.’ He shrugs and puts the nutcracker back down.
‘Well, it should be,’ I huff. ‘Dangerous walking. Drunk in charge of a vehicle.’
‘It was 10a.m.! I wasn’t drunkorin charge of a vehicle.’ He comes back over to the counter and leans on his elbows, his eyes twinkling at me. ‘Could you be clutching at straws again?’
So hedidrealise I had been earlier too. I screw my nose up at him, desperately trying to come up with some witty retort or clever idea thatcouldbe a crime, but his aftershave, his bravery with the mouse, and his sense of humour have short-circuited my brain.
‘It seems like hours ago now, but I did actually come in for a reason. I made you something.’ He pushes himself upright again and pulls over the box he brought with him. ‘It’s stupid, I know. I just felt so awful last night and wanted to dosomethingto say sorry. I don’t know anything about you or what you like apart from nutcrackers, so…’
‘Why would you make me anything?’
‘Because I’ve caused you a serious injury, Franca, and it’s upset me. Not as much as it’s upset you, obviously,’ he adds before I can jump in, ‘but I’ve never hurt anyone like that before, and honestly, I couldn’t sleep last night, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I’m not trying to make it all about me, but I didn’t mean for that to happen yesterday, and I feel awful, and I’m sorry, and it’s the kind of thing where “sorry” doesn’t cover it, but I have no idea what else to say or do. And it had to beyou. Of all people, it had to be the one who’s got it in for me anyway, and in the middle of this stupid thing where we’re pitted against each other too.’
The sentence has come out in a garbled rush and he hasn’t taken nearly enough breaths to stop the words tripping over each other, and it makes me feel better to know he isn’t finding this easy either. I thought he’d be relishing being pitted against meandcausing me an injury, and it’s good to know he isn’t.
At first, I think about snapping something in response but I stop myself. He looks genuinely wretched, and his chest is heaving like he didn’t mean for all those words to spill out in one go, and I wonder how I’d feel if the roles were reversed. I don’t think I’ve ever caused anyone a serious injury either. It wouldn’t be something I could just brush off. I’d feel awful too. Even if it was someone I didn’t like. And I like that he openly admitted that. It’s good to think that he’s human too. Surprising, but good.
‘That was really nice of you. I didn’t expect you to give it another thought.’ I pull the heavy box over with my left hand. I’m quite touched actually.
I lift the lid off the box and gasp. My initial instinct is to be horrified by the fact he’s brought me a Dardenne snow globe and there’s no way I’m going to accept one of his fraudulent pieces, but it’s so beautiful that it stops me in my tracks. Inside the box, on a bed of red satin, is the most beautiful snow globe I’ve ever seen. In the middle of a landscape of snowy fir trees and tiny mountains, there’s a nutcracker soldier and a ballerina, dancing in a clearing. He’s dressed in a red and blue uniform and she’s wearing an iridescent pink dress and tutu. The detail is astounding, from the ribbons doing up her pink ballet slippers to every individual golden button on the nutcracker’s uniform.
I momentarily forget everything I know about Dardenne Snow Globes. It’s the most beautiful creation I’ve ever seen in my life. Andhemade that.Forme.
‘God, Raff, that’s…’ There aren’t any words for how incredible it is.
He’s looking around my shop rather than looking at me, almost like he expected me to hate it, and I use my left hand to lift it from the box, but it’s heavy and the glass is too smooth for me to get a grip on it one-handed.
‘Oh, sorry, let me.’ Raff holds it with both hands and lifts it from the box and passes it to me.
The nutcracker prince and the ballerina are covered in a flurry of snowflakes and shimmering glitter that sparkles all around them, making the snow globe even more beautiful.
I go to take it from him with my left hand and use the splinted wrist of my right hand to steady it, and at that exact moment, it moves. The nutcracker prince spins the ballerina around, just once, a perfect pirouette.
No. This is impossible. Snow globes don’tmove. Only gullible people who believe in magic think a Dardenne snow globe would move. And I definitely don’t.
I must be seeing things. That’s the only explanation. Hallucinating from the pain. Maybe I’ve overdone it on the painkillers today. Okay, they were only paracetamol and I’ve only taken two, so I don’t think I’ve quite reached hallucinogenic levels yet, but what other explanation is there?
It’s not like the legend is true, is it? That if you hold a snow globe at the same time as your soulmate, it will move in a way that only you can see.
I look at Raff. He doesn’t seem to have seen anything. He’s still looking around the shop, his dark eyes flitting from nutcracker to nutcracker, and not concentrating on the snow globe he’s helped me get out of the box.
Even if there was any truth in it… I look at him again. It’sRafffor goodness’ sake. It’s not likehecould be my soulmate. We despise each other. And I don’t even believe in love, never mind soulmates.
The fact I’m even thinking about it means I’ve fallen into their trap. Am I a victim of the Dardenne con?
Maybe it didn’t move. Of course it didn’t bloody move. Comeon, Franca. Think sensibly. There’s no way. Maybe it was a reflection? A refraction of light coming in the window? Raff has let go now it’s safely in my good hand, and I shake it again, trying to recreate what just happened.How? How did it move, just once, but now it won’t?
Exactly like my mum and dad’s one. It moved on the day they met and then never again. No matter how many times I shook it as a child, it never moved. My mum swore that when she first picked it up, the couple kissingspunaround. Just like the nutcracker prince and the ballerina just did. Is there something in that?
Raff is looking at me looking at the globe. ‘Do you like it?’
‘It’s…’
