Christmas Wishes at Pudding Hall by Kate Forster

MAIN COURSE

19

Selene always answered Christa’s calls, no matter where she was and who she was with and the two-in-the-morning call from a sobbing Christa was no exception.

‘Sweetie, tell me what happened again? Simon, a pudding, the bird lady – it sounds like a fever dream or you ate too much Stilton.’

Christa took a deep breath. ‘That woman at the restaurant, who was with Simon, she’s the producer of the TV show. And she’s Marc’s ex-wife. And she brought Simon for Christmas.’

‘Oh, okay, yes, that’s bad.’

Christa tried to forget the moment she jumped from the car and ran inside, ignoring Simon and Avian, while Marc called her name and she heard Simon laugh. It was a mean laugh, one she knew too well.

Then she heard Marc come to her door and knock several times but she refused to open it, instead throwing her clothes into her bags and calling Selene.

‘So now I have to go and live in Siberia and make pinecone jam for a living.’

‘Pinecone jam? Is that even a thing?’

‘In Siberia it is.’

Christa thought about Paul’s attachments to his pinecones and started to cry again.

‘And I think I like Marc, like, like like him’ she admitted, sitting on the bed.

‘Oh, that’s intense. And how does he feel?’ asked Selene.

‘We held hands and agreed to not do anything until after Christmas.’

‘Somewhere Jane Austen is nodding her approval.’

Christa lay back on the bed. ‘I can’t stay with Simon here. It’s humiliating.’

‘You like Marc and he likes you and yet you want to leave because of Simon. When are you going to stop letting this idiot control your life, Christa?’

Part of her wanted to hang up on her best friend and the other half knew she was right.

‘He forced you to leave the restaurant. He gave you nothing. He took credit for all your signature dishes. Why don’t you ask him if he wants to date Marc and then you can just get it over and done with? Since you’ve given him everything else in your life.’

Christa covered her eyes with her hand. ‘Ouch, that hurt.’

‘It was meant to,’ said Selene. ‘Do what you have to do but please stop changing your life to suit Simon’s agenda. You’re better than that and better than him. Okay?’

‘Yes, okay,’ she mumbled.

‘Call me tomorrow and let me know what you have decided to do but you know what I think and you know I am right because you wouldn’t have called me and asked otherwise. You knew the answer all along.’

After hanging up, Christa pulled on her pudding PJs and was sat on her bed thinking about what Selene had said when there was a knock at the door. She opened it, expecting Marc but instead it was Adam in a dressing gown and with tousled hair.

She hadn’t had much to do with Adam. He was intimidating with his business-like manner but when he drank a glass of wine and laughed, he was almost fun. But she liked Paul and she knew Paul liked her.

‘Hi?’

‘Marc tells me you want to leave,’ he said, rubbing his eyes.

‘Come in, I don’t want this broadcast to the house.’ She opened the door for Adam to step into her room.

‘Sit,’ she said, gesturing to the sofa while she sat on the end of the bed.

‘Are you here to ask for the deposit back?’ she said. ‘I can arrange it. I haven’t spent anything.’

‘Not at all. Marc said I should pay you in full if you want to go.’

Christa frowned. ‘Okay?’

‘Marc doesn’t know I’m here, but I want to talk to you about him. About Avian. I am overstepping boundaries but there are things you should know.’

Christa sighed. ‘This is where you tell me that Marc is still in love with Avian and I am merely a pawn in their shitty toxic marriage and Simon is being used a decoy and I should be aware that I will never win and nothing is real.’

Adam’s face was shocked. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘Isn’t that why you’re here?’ Christa was so tired she honestly did think she was having a fever dream now.

‘No.’ Adam started to laugh and tried to quiet himself. ‘What sort of cheesy romance novel storyline have you just concocted?’

Christa couldn’t help see the funny side also. ‘I don’t know, it seemed legitimate when I was saying it.’

Adam shook his head. ‘If this chef thing doesn’t work out then become a romance writer, okay?’

She giggled and then became serious. ‘So why are you here then?’

Adam waited for a moment, as though gathering his thoughts.

‘Marc is falling in love with you. I have no doubt about it and neither does Paul, and we have known him for twenty years.’

‘He hardly knows me,’ said Christa. ‘And besides, if he is falling in love with me, why is he sending his lawyer to tell me? That’s not your story to tell.’

‘That’s the thing, he doesn’t know he’s falling in love with you, so I don’t want you to go.’ Adam took a deep breath. ‘Avian is a stone-cold bitch who uses people and then discards them when they’re done being useful to her. Marc was useful because of his money but then she was tired of being a parent, tired of being a wife, tired of being nothing – according to her – so she left Marc and the boys. He does ninety per cent of the time with them. He’s not perfect but he tries. But since you’ve been here, he’s actually spending quality time with them and working less, which I could take or leave, but still, he’s present. And it’s because of you.’

She shook her head. ‘Me spending time with him and the twins doesn’t mean he’s in love with me.’

Adam crossed his arms. ‘I challenge that statement and I put it to you that he can’t keep his eyes off you. That he talks about you when you’re not around and that he looks at you in a way he never looked at Avian.’

Christa was silent.

‘Do you know the number of women who throw themselves at him?’

Now she looked up. ‘I don’t care. Are you trying to suggest that I should be grateful that the rich handsome American is even looking at me, the round, nearly broke, pastry chef?’

Adam stood up. ‘No, it means that he chose you and I want you to wait and find out if you want to choose him, because he’s a helluva guy and you’re a great woman and together you could be amazing.’

He walked to the door and put his hand on the door handle.

‘If you want to go, message me in the morning and I will arrange payment, but I hope you don’t because more than Marc, the twins will be devastated. They also adore you. You have won the Ferrier men’s hearts.’

He left then, closing the door quietly behind him, and Christa fell into bed, closing her eyes, where she prayed for dreams about anything other than Marc and Pudding Hall as she drifted off to sleep.