Page 36 of Christmas off Script
‘Need another teammate?’ Zach continued.
Ella sucked in a breath, the edges of her script crumpling in her grasp.
‘No,’ Leo said coldly. After what had happened in the past, Zach had the fuckingnerveto go there?
‘You can join our team,’ Scott said to Zach. ‘We’re Foxbrooke’s pub-quiz champions eleven months out of the year, and in a few weeks we’re going to make it twelve.’
‘Cool, thanks,’ Zach replied. ‘I’d love that.’
‘You’ll have to borrow a beard, though.’
‘Huh?’
‘We’re the Beardy Boys.’
‘Can we get on with it?’ Leo snapped. He didn’t want to draw attention to Ella, but for her sake, he wanted to get the read-through done and dusted.
‘Oh, er, yes, of course.’ Libby’s forehead puckered in confusion at his tone.
Henry placed a hand on her leg and glared at Leo.
Fuck. ‘Sorry, Libby,’ Leo muttered.
She gave him her sunniest smile. ‘That’s alright! Okay, let’s go to the kitchen at Hardup Hall, where Cinderella is mopping the floor and Buttons is peeling vegetables. Ella, take it away!’
A lump settled in Leo’s throat as Ella cleared hers. She suddenly seemed so small. Leo wanted to take her in his arms and shield her from Zach and the centre-stage role she’d never signed up for. An hour ago Ella had got a bit of her spark back, roasting Scott and Finn, then sharing her ideas for the set and costumes with Willow. Now she was hunkered down in her chair, her legs crossed away from her ex-boyfriend.
‘Oh Buttons,’ she began. ‘Do you ever dream of falling in love?’
‘Not at all,’ Leo replied.
‘You don’t? Why ever not?’
‘Because I’m already in love.’
‘You are? How wonderful! Who are you in love with, Buttons?’
‘Buttons turns to the audience,’ Libby said.
‘What do you think, girls and boys? Should I tell Cinderella how I feel?’
‘Hopefully the audience will be shouting “yes”,’ Libby continued. ‘But if anyone shouts “no”, then Buttons will make a joke about people from Twerton getting everything backward.’
‘Are you sure?’ Leo asked. ‘You don’tsoundvery sure?’
‘Audience will now be screaming “yes”,’ Libby said.
‘Okay! I’ll do it!’ Leo took a deep breath. ‘Ella, I love you.’
There was a charged silence as Leo ran the words he’d just spoken over in his head.
‘I mean—’
‘And I love you too, Buttons,’ Ella interrupted. ‘As a friend.’
‘Cinderella dances around the kitchen with the mop as if it were a person,’ Libby said, ‘whilst Buttons pulls a sad face to the audience.’
‘But I’m dreaming of meeting my one true love,’ Ella continued. ‘Someone who will sweep me off my feet.’
