Page 1 of Christmas Ever After
1
This is it. I’m finally going to kiss him.
I have never loved mistletoe more than I do right at this moment, because mistletoe is about to bring me lip-to-lip with the man I’ve had a crush on since I opened The Nutcracker Shop four years ago: Jorge, the baker who works at the year-round festive bakery on the corner between Ever After Street and our little festive cul-de-sac, Christmas Ever After. Until now, I’ve never had the courage to say anything more than some inane comment about the weather when I go into his shop to buy cakes. And I go into his shop to buy cakes alot.
He makes the most perfect mince pies, gingerbread, chocolate orange muffins, stollen buns, and Yule logs, and Imightspend a not-small amount of time, and money, in there, because with every cake, I think… maybe this is the one.Thisis the cake where he’ll look up, meet my eyes across the counter, our fingers will brush as he hands me my change, and he’ll suddenly realise that the love of his life has been working right down the street all this time.
He’ll pick up my hand and lift it to his mouth. ‘How have I never seen you before?’ he’ll say. Or maybe it’ll be somethinglike, ‘Did you do something new with your hair? How have I never noticed how beautiful you are until now?’
Okay, beautiful might be pushing it a bit, but daydreams aren’t meant to be realistic, are they?
‘Cameras ready!’ A shout interrupts my reverie. ‘Are we in position? Jorge, move a tad to the left, the sun’s reflecting off your cheekbones. Franca, stand on tiptoes or the angle will be awkward. We really should’ve picked someone taller,’ Mitch continues. He’s the social media manager for Christmas Ever After, self-appointed cameraman, and also one of the Santas who occupy Santa’s Grotto every day of the year. I move back to give Jorge more room and the stool I’m standing on wobbles precariously under me.
It’s the first day of December and we’re hanging the first mistletoe of the season – an event that’s streamed live online and photographs from which will be published on our website and sent out with press releases to local news outlets to advertise the festive season on Ever After Street.
Every year, there’s a ballot to decide who gets to share the first kiss and be the face of the Christmas Ever After photos for that year. The name of every shopkeeper goes into a barrel, and then one man and one woman are chosen to hang the mistletoe on the arch that marks the entrance to the year-round Christmas end of Ever After Street, and share a kiss underneath it.
And this year, Jorge’s name was chosen first, and then, in a twist of festive fate that I didn’t see coming because I never winanything… so was mine.
‘Franca, can you stop moving about like that? Do you need a wee or something? You’re practically vibrating, the camera keeps getting a motion blur.’
‘Right, sorry.’ I swallow hard. I’m nervous. Ridiculously nervous. The man I’ve fantasised about for so long is going to fall in love with me in just one kiss’s time. It’s a lot to preparefor. It’ll be our first Christmas together. I’ll need to get him the perfect present. Will we meet each other’s families or will it be too early? No, wait, he canneverbe allowed to meet my family. Crikey, he’ll need to be seriously invested in the relationship before that happens because they’ll send him running for the hills. My family will have to wait until the wedding, but maybe I could meethisfamily… They might like me and that will further prove to him how perfect we are for each other.
Jorge is ignoring Mitch’s fussing. He’s ignoring me as well actually, even though I’ve tried to make conversation a few times since we’ve been standing here. I’ve tried a ‘good morning’ and a ‘how funny meeting you here’, and then a ‘well, this is awkward’, and I even lowered myself to a ‘so, do you come here often?’
Each one has been answered with either a look or a grunt. Which is fine, because I’m embarrassed enough for myself. It’shardto make conversation with someone you fancy this much. A lot is riding on this kiss being absolutely perfect, and not just the marketing success of Christmas Ever After’s festive campaign this year. My ex was enough to put anyone off relationships for life, and after a few years of being single, Jorge is the first person who’s made me reconsider that. Thishasto go well.
Now he’s got a pocket mirror out and is holding it up and doing various model-like poses into it, pursing his lips and tilting his head from one side to the other.
He really isverywell groomed. Such perfectly shaped facial hair that it looks like it could be painted on. I peer a bit closer. I’m actually not quite convinced that itisn’tpainted on. There are some suspect patches that look like someone’s taken a liquid eyeliner pen to them.
‘Do you want to borrow a comb?’ He says it to the mirror and it takes me a moment to work out if he’s talking to me or his reflection.
‘Er… no?’ I mumble, and then self-consciously try to tidy up my hair. The wind is getting up and blowing it all over the place. Is that his subtle way of telling me I look like a scarecrow?
A comb, though. Does he actually have a comb on him? Who carries a comb around on their person these days? Is he secretly a parent to a small Victorian child whose hair and clothes must be neatly in order at all times?
‘And must you really wear that dreadful thing?’
‘It’s a Santa hat!’ My brown hair is mid-back length, but the front is a long, grown-out fringe, and I had it artfully arranged under the Santa hat, tucked to one side and half-covering one eye. I was going for an alluring, sort of Mariah Carey-esque look, but it’s windier than I expected, so I’ve had to tell myself that the look I’m going for is ‘relatably windswept’ or ‘festively dishevelled’. I’m surprised by his comment though. It was very disparaging for someone who’s usually so kind, and it’s made me feel even more self-conscious than I was feeling anyway.Wasthe Santa hat a bad choice? No, Ilikethe Santa hat. It’s Christmas. What kind of person objects to a Santa hat at Christmas?
‘Smile, you two!’ Mitch calls, still perfecting the camera angle. ‘You’re about to share a kiss under the mistletoe! Jorge, we’re not putting together your pouty modelling portfolio for some frightfully posh brand of aftershave that costs more than a small car! Franca, can you hold out a hand to showcase “Christmas Ever After” across the archway, just to make extra sure that people will know where to go.’
Every shop on Ever After Street is themed after a different fairy tale, and Christmas Ever After is its little sister at one end, where every shop is festively themed and where it’s Christmas all the time.
I make bespoke nutcrackers at The Nutcracker Shop, and there’s the bakery, and a shop solely for Christmas lights, acouple of handmade decoration shops, and All You Need Is Gloves – a winter clothing shop for humans and pets run by Mrs Coombe. There’s also Coming Gnome For Christmas – a shop dedicated entirely to Christmas gnomes that the owner, Mrs Bloom, makes herself. And there’s All Wrapped Up – a gift-wrapping shop, and a few others, including my favourite, A Very Muggy Christmas – a shop that sells nothing but Christmas mugs. It’s impossible to have too many Christmas mugs.
‘This is big business for our social media. It’s like the launch of the John Lewis Christmas advert.Everyonetunes in to see the first mistletoe kiss of the year.’
Mitch might be exaggerating there. It creates a bit of a buzz and people always come out to watch the ‘official opening’ of the festive season on Christmas Ever After, and there’s a photo opportunity for couples to stop for a kiss underneath the archway for the rest of the month, but the John Lewis ad trends on social media and people make parodies of it on YouTube, so I don’t think our little corner of Herefordshire is quite at that level yet.
At least, I hope not. Especially when Mitch adds, ‘We’ve already got three hundred viewers and the livestream hasn’t started yet.’
My cheeks heat up at the mention of the livestream. The main camera is on a tripod, but there’s also a videographer walking around with a camcorder to capture the action from every angle. I smooth down my sparkly red Christmas jumper self-consciously. With the number of mince pies I’ve eaten lately, some angles are better avoided.
Admittedly, I’d have preferred my first kiss with Jorge not to bequiteso public. Our fellow shopkeepers are gathered to watch, and shoppers have started to hang around to see what’s going on. That’s without the photographs, the video recording for TikTok, and being livestreamed on YouTube for all the worldto see, but every relationship has to start somewhere. As soon as Jorge kisses me, he’s going to know I’m the one for him. He’ll see past the inane comments about the weather and that laugh-snort-gurgle thing I do when I’m nervous, and none of the multiple pairs of eyes on us will matter any more.
‘Can you two stand a bit closer together and look lovingly into each other’s eyes so we’re ready when the camera starts rolling?’
