Page 91 of The Day After Christmas
‘All right, Grandma?’ Felicity laughed as he sat down. ‘I think you forgot the tea cosy.’
‘Right, let’s have this out here and now, Brooks. What do you have against The Tray, exactly?’
‘I don’t have anything against it,’ she laughed again, softly, ‘it’s just so… mumsy, that’s all.’ Felicity patted his arm (gently, so as not to upset the cat). ‘So… not you. Or Erika for that matter.’
A shadow passed across his face, just for a moment, as it always did at the mention of his ex-girlfriend’s name. And then it was gone. He leant towards Felicity conspiratorially, reaching up a hand to give Bobby a little scootch on the head as he spoke. Bobby responded with a little chirrup which made both their hearts melt.
‘Do you want to know a secret?’ said James, after a second.
‘Always,’ said Felicity, with a grin.
‘I bought it as a present for Erika. Because I knew she’d hate it.’
‘You didn’t?’
‘I did. Isn’t that awful? We were on holiday in some tourist village in the New Forest and I saw this dreadful tea set and tray, covered in flowers and a tiny dormouse and a fox and all that, and I thought, Erika would absolutely detest having that in the house. So I bought it.’
‘That’s terrible.’
‘It was a bit but you should have seen her face when I gave it to her. It was totally worth it.’
‘I’m surprised she didn’t smash it over your head.’
‘I’m lucky she didn’t.’
There was a pause.
‘I thought you two were perfect,’ said Felicity, in a small voice, trying to resist the urge to look away from those eyes of his.
James caught her eye, holding her stare. ‘Far from it,’ he said.
Something like relief washed over Felicity’s body at that. Apart from the whole walking out on James at Christmas and breaking his heart into a million pieces thing, Felicity always thought Erika and James must have been relationship goals. This exotic Japanese beauty and her blond titan. Perfectly perfect in every way. James never really spoke about Erika, and certainly never said a bad word about her. In Felicity’s mind, Erika was still really a rival, especially as she had made a play to get him back once before. To hear James actually admit she’d been a teensy bit annoying brought Felicity a disproportionately enormous amount of joy. She bit her lip to try and hide it.
‘Of course, you realise you’ve made a grave error,’ she said.
‘Is that so? Do you think that’s why she left me? Is The Tray really that bad?’
‘I mean, it’s pretty bad,’ said Felicity, giggling so much that Bobby got the hump and leapt off her chest in disgust. ‘But the error is that you ended up with the bloody thing.’
James nodded seriously. ‘You’re right. That was an error.’
‘Anyway, moving on. Today went well, I thought,’ said Felicity. ‘What did you think?’
‘I think that tray is going to haunt my dreams,’ said James, taking a sip of tea. ‘But yes, Ms Brooks, today went very well. Do you know the total yet?’
‘We reckon about £1,000 on the door, or that’s what Andrea said.’
‘Plus whatever Harry’s crazy readers thought to donate?’
‘Plus that. I’ve got it in my bag. I don’t dare open it.’
‘Do it, do it, do it.’
‘Okay, fine. Hold on.’ Felicity attempted to jump up sprightly and then realised everything hurt and had to cling to the arm of the sofa for support. ‘Ow,’ she said, managing to hobble out of the room as the muscles in her legs seized. She hobbled back in with an envelope full of cash and flopped down on the sofa again,all the while pointedly ignoring James who was watching her with great amusement.
‘You all right there, Crazy Cat Lady?’
‘How come you don’t seem to be even remotely sore after a day on your feet? And you have a bloody desk job. I should be used to it.’
