Page 15 of The Night Before Christmas
‘Yup.’
‘Interesting.’
‘Is it?’
‘Isn’t it?’
‘I’m not sure yet,’ said Felicity. Her face was burning suddenly and she didn’t dare turn around. Hopefully the back of her head still looked reasonably nonchalant.
‘Is that a real leather jacket, do you think?’
Felicity shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I suspect so.’
‘Hmm, I’m not sure how I feel about that.’
‘I think if it’s vintage that’s okay, right? It’s not like he’s harmed any animals to make it?’
A long pause. She could practically hear the cogs in Andrea’s brain rotating.
‘I guess you’re right.’
‘Come on. It’s better than that awful plastic stuff, isn’t it? For the planet, I mean.’
Another pause.
‘I like him. Let’s assume it’s vintage.’
‘Good call.’
‘He’s got a great arse.’
‘Andrea!’
‘What? Well. He has.’
‘And that makes the wearing of dead animals okay, does it?’
‘No. Of course not. But it doesn’t hurt.’
‘You’re impossible.’
‘I’m charming and endearing. You like it.’
‘Don’t have much choice, do I? You’re also my boss.’
‘You make an excellent point. Now get back to work.’
‘Gladly.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
James the Penguin Manhadn’t even touched her yet, let alone kissed her, but despite what she’d said to Andrea, despite her conversation with Bex, despite the fact he was clearly going to a fancy dinner with his model tennis player Nobel Peace Prize-winning girlfriend or something equally irritating, deep down inside Felicity couldn’t shake the slightly irrational hope that he’d come to the centre to seeher, not just the cats, cute as they were.
And now here he was, coming back on New Year’s Eve, apparently. Her heart leapt at the thought. Despite having been out of the dating game for longer than she cared to mention, she felt a tiny bit hopeful that they had some kind of an understanding, as Elizabeth Bennet would say.
So, she was beside herself with despondency when the day came and James didn’t show up. Andrea tried to reassure her that it was only a matter of time, that he’d probably got held up, but she had a bad feeling right down in the depths of her stomach as if she’d forgotten to eat. She tried to focus her attention on the cats, and as Gennie had started to show signs of wanting to play and even purring a little when Felicity was near, it was easy to distract herself for a few minutes at a time. Butthen she would remember the time and the pit-of-the-stomach feeling was back.
When the door banged shut at 7.30pm that evening, she felt she should be mad in some way and she fully intended to make him suffer a bit, but somehow Felicity found she couldn’t help the huge smile that instantly lit up her face. She turned from the sink in the cat nursery, arms covered in suds from the washing up, wiping her hair away from her face with the back of her hand, fully expecting to see James walking in with some kind of perfectly reasonable explanation for being late that she was entirely ready and prepared to accept.
