Page 15 of Christmas off Script
‘True. Oh! I almost forgot!’ She went to a high cupboard and reached for the top shelf. ‘Can you give me a hand?’
‘Sure.’ He pulled down a bottle of limoncello they’d made the previous year. ‘You’ve still got some!’
She shrugged. ‘I gave it to Oliver, but he didn’t want it.’
Leo popped the stopper. ‘Well, as ever, he can’t see gold when it’s right under his bloody nose.’
Ella grabbed a couple of glasses, and he poured the bright liquid out.
‘It’s not cold,’ she fretted.
‘It’s still going to taste amazing. Got any ice cubes?’
‘Yep, good idea.’ She added ice to the tumblers, then held her glass to Leo’s. ‘Happy official start to Christmas, number four.’
He clinked his glass against hers. ‘Chin-chin, down the hatch, bottoms up, and cheers, me dear.’
‘Same to you with knobs on.’
They downed their drinks, then shook their heads like wet dogs at the sudden alcohol hit.
‘Again?’ Leo asked.
Ella nodded. ‘But this time we have to savour it with Mariah.’
He refilled their glasses, then took out his phone and cued up the track. This was the moment that happened only once a year. The moment when they knew they were on the candy-cane superhighway to Christmas town.
He paused. ‘You ready, my BFFFFF?’
‘Another F? What’s that one for?’
‘Festive!’ he cried, then started the song.
Holding their glasses high, they followed Mariah’s voice as she began singing. Leo held Ella’s gaze, happiness expanding inside him as they sang along, reaching the end of the intro and the words ‘all I want for Christmas… is you…’
There was a brief moment of magical silence, then the piano and sleigh bells kicked in and they were off, dancing around the kitchen like drunken elves and shouting along to the song like football supporters after their team had won the FA Cup.
Ella’s hair had come loose from her bun and was flying wildly around her head, her face lit up brighter than a Christmas tree. She paused briefly to drink her second limoncello and Leo did the same. Then she grabbed his hands, and they bopped around the kitchen, both of them hitting the high note at the end of the song with the accuracy of a teenage boy whose voice was breaking, but with the confidence of adults who didn’t give a fuck.
As the track faded out, they collapsed against each other, out of breath and laughing.
‘That never gets old,’ Ella said. ‘Although I think I am.’
‘Nonsense,’ Leo wheezed. ‘We’re in the prime of our lives.’
She snorted. ‘We both sound like we’ve run the Bath half marathon.’
‘We sprinted it in four minutes.’
Ella pulled back and lifted the bottle of limoncello that was now two-thirds empty. ‘We might as well finish it.’
‘We’d be offending Saint Mariah if we didn’t.’
She poured the rest of the liquid out. ‘And this will only help us make lebkuchen.’
‘Exactly.’ Leo took his glass and held it up for another toast. ‘To the best Christmas ever.’
Ella clinked her glass against his, a beaming smile on her face. ‘My first one back at the manor since—’ She broke off, her happy expression cracking. ‘Oh, god.’
