The Twelve Dates of Christmas (16 page)

She still hadn’t decided what she was going to say to him, though.

She could tell him she had feelings for him but so did Penny, and for that reason they couldn’t be together. At least not until Penny was well and truly over him.

Or she could tell him she didn’t have feelings for him, which they both knew was a lie, and force him to move on. She wouldn’t say a word about Penny being the reason behind her actions, and maybe Penny would just be able to spark his interest. It was the only way she could keep Penny as a friend, but where would it leave her with Nick?

‘Your life is a mess, sort it out,’ Claudia said quietly to herself. She put her game face on and was about to stride into the building when she heard a familiar shriek.

‘Claaaaaaudia! Hello my darling!’ Christine was descending the steps in a long baby pink satin gown, accompanied by Penny in full costume. It was a beautiful sight, if an unwelcome one at this moment.

‘Hey Claud, what are you doing here?’ Penny grinned.

‘
Hello!
Lovely!’ said Claudia. ‘I’m just, um, I heard you were coming tonight,
Christine, so I thought I’d come and say hello.’

‘Twice in one week, I’m such a lucky girl.’

‘Twice? Have you ladies been hanging out without me?’ scolded Penny.

‘This one needed a bit of sense knocked in to her about my Nick. I am pleased you two are back on friendly terms.’

SHUSH WOMAN.

‘When were you not on friendly terms?’ Penny looked at Claudia, confusion washing over her face.

‘She just means, you know, when I was avoiding men after Seth.’

‘It was that Christmas party that did it,’ teased Christine, winking at Claudia.

‘What happened at the party?’ asked Penny.

‘I think Nick might have got a bit caught up in the moment, nearly turned our Claudia into the one that got away.’

Penny frowned at Claudia. ‘I didn’t know anything about this.’

‘We just had a disagreement about something. It’s over now.’

‘Or is it just beginning?’ Christine chuckled. ‘He’s been back to his happy little Christmas Elf-self since he’s got
you
back.’

‘I didn’t know anything was wrong. You two have seemed super-cosy over the last week, practically dating—’

Claudia’s mouth was dry as she watched Penny’s penny drop. The two girls stared at each other, Claudia with panic and regret and that horrible feeling when you’ve royally messed something up, and Penny with clarity and hurt.

Claudia saw Penny’s eyes fill up with tears and in that moment she’d never felt worse, even after all the crap she’d been through in the last week and a half. She was supposed to always mop up those tears, not cause them.

‘Christine,’ Claudia said quietly, ‘I just need to have a chatter with Penny for a mo. Do you mind if I steal her away?’

‘Of course, angels, girl-talk time. I’ll go and buy a programme, and maybe another brandy.’

Claudia and Penny crossed the street in silence and sat down next to the Young Dancer statue. Claudia didn’t know where to start.

‘You and Nick: are you together?’ Penny whispered, a line of black eye make-up
dribbling down each cheek.

‘No, no we’re not, we’re … um—’

‘What? Spit it out. Tell me what’s been going on behind my back.’

‘Nothing’s happened.’

‘Something’s happened, I can see it in your face.’ She looked really mad. She was giving Claudia the look she gave her ex-boyfriends, but this time with additional pain.

‘I promise you, nothing has happened. Nick and I … we’ve got weirdly closer over the last week. He’s been so attentive – just like you said – and there have been some sparks. Just tiny ones. But as soon as you said you liked him I knew I had to back off.’

‘Have you two kissed?’

‘
No
. Penny, there’s no way I would do anything to hurt you.’

‘But what about before you knew how I felt? What went on at the party? What did Christine mean by “Nick got caught up in the moment”?’

‘It was me that got caught up in the moment.’ Her actions still made her cringe to think about them. ‘I was drunk and felt something, and tried to kiss him but he wasn’t having any of it.’

‘Then what happened?’

‘Then I spent a miserable thirty-six hours stewing over everything, questioning mine and Nick’s whole relationship. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, and finally we talked it out over that Sunday roast.’

‘And?’

‘And then I came over to yours, and you told me how you felt.’

‘Why didn’t you just tell me you liked him?’

‘Because I was a total chicken and you seemed to like him for a more proper reason than me. You wanted his baby.’

‘I don’t want his baby if he likes you.’

‘But I didn’t know for sure he did like me then. I thought I might have just been reading things wrong; a bit desperate after Seth.’

‘Don’t play the Seth card.’ Ouch. ‘So now you know he does like you?’

‘Yes. He told me last night.’

‘At the dinner?’

‘Yes.’

‘So he was the reason you looked so over Seth?’

Claudia nodded. ‘Seth who?’ she dead-panned.

‘How did it make you feel? When
he told you?’ Penny sounded so blue.

Claudia considered the question. ‘Relieved that it wasn’t only in my head, peaceful, happy. But also it killed me because I’m scared of losing you.’

‘You must have thought I was such an idiot, swooning over a guy who liked you instead.’

‘No, I didn’t – I don’t – think that at all. It just all got really complicated and I was trying to be a good friend and I’m an idiot and I messed it up and more than anything I just wanted you to be happy. So I came here tonight to tell him—’

‘To tell him what?’

‘I’m not sure yet. But it would be based around nothing ever happening between us.’

Penny looked away and over at the Opera House. She lapsed into silence for some time.

‘I’m really sorry, Penny.’

‘Well there’s no point in telling him nothing can happen between you.’

‘What?’

‘If you like each other, he’s obviously not going to want to go out with me. You do like him, don’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Just don’t tell him about my little crush.’

‘No, Penny, I’m not going to go out with Nick with you feeling like this, you’ll hate me for ever.’

‘Don’t be a dick, of course I won’t.’

‘You won’t?’

‘No.’ She let out the most ginormous sigh. ‘To be honest, thinking about it, maybe I just fancied Nick in the way you fall head over heels for the leading man in a rom-com.
Because
he was so devoted to
you
.’

‘But you’re still crying.’

‘That’s true, but that’s because I’ve lost something I never had, not because of something you’ve taken from me.’

‘How are you such a good person after all of this? Why don’t you hate me?’

‘Because if I hated you no one would do the
“Single Ladies” routine with me at the wedding next week.’

‘We can do that routine to every single song if you want to.’

Penny laughed. She fanned her eyes. ‘Do I look horrendous?’

‘Never.’

‘Look at me, the ballerina crying next to the statue of the ballerina. I feel very dramatic.’ At that moment, wispy snowflakes began to fall. ‘Oh!’ Penny cried. ‘This is even better, this would make a great photo.’ She ran her fingers down her face, spreading bigger, thicker streaks of mascara. ‘How’s this? Do I look
incredibly
dramatic now?’

Nick crossed the road. ‘Right, who’s dumped my mum? You know she’ll wander over to Dreamboys. Penny, what’s wrong?’

Penny smiled and wiped her eyes on Claudia’s coat. ‘I’m just really upset for Claudia because she’s going to have to see your willy.’

‘She is?’ Nick looked pleased as punch.

Claudia was unendingly grateful to Penny for not blowing up; there was literally nothing she would not let her friend do or say at this moment. So Claudia simply chuckled and shrugged at Nick. ‘Maybe.’

‘Okay,’ she sighed. ‘I’m going to leave you two to have a much-needed chinwag.’

Penny heaved herself up and Claudia draped her in a hug. ‘If you need a drink, I know someone in that restaurant who’s very good at cheering up sobbing Brits.’

‘A drink would be perfection.’

‘Ask for Billy, and tell him to put it on a tab for Claudia. I’ll go in and pay it tomorrow.’

‘A boy, hey? Even better.’ Off Penny went into the restaurant, leaving Nick and Claudia grinning at each other in the snow like a couple of penguins.

‘Is Penny okay?’ Nick asked.

‘She’s … fine. She just gets emotional sometimes. About having a baby and stuff.’

‘She’s going to make such a good mum. I hope she finds her answer soon.’

‘I think she will.’

Claudia shuffled on the spot, not knowing if she should go to Nick or wait for him to come to her. All her rehearsed scenarios, of
I like you, but
and
I don’t feel the same way
were no longer relevant. Now she had to tell him she liked him.

She had to tell a BOY that she FANCIED him.

She was
this close
to stealing Julia Robert’s ‘just a girl’ speech from
Notting Hill
when Nick stepped a little closer and ran his fingers through her hair, and her
entire nervous system disintegrated.

‘It’s snowing,’ stated Nick. ‘As much as I like you, I don’t want you to see my willy now.’

‘I guess I can wait a little, as much as I like
you
.’ There. She’d said it.

‘You do?’

‘Um, quite a lot.’

‘Well then, bestie, can I take you on a date tomorrow? An actual date, that you agree is a date?’

Claudia supressed the urge to take off all her clothes and streak with happiness. Instead, she concurred to go on her seventh date this Christmas. How things were changing.

‘Let’s do this,’ said Nick. ‘And because it’s a real date, I can feel you up, right?’

YES. ‘No you can’t. Just because we’ve had a thousand years of getting to know each other doesn’t mean you can skip all the traditional dating stuff. All the romantic stuff.’

‘Fair enough, traditional dating it is.’ He leaned into her, their smiles centimetres apart. She didn’t dare move her face. ‘So I guess that also means no kissing on the first date.’

He stood back with a grin but this time she didn’t mind him pulling him away as much. This time she was breathless.

Nick had gone back into the Opera House to find his mum, so Claudia stuck her head around the door of the restaurant. Penny was perched at the bar, bathed in soft light, her tutu falling over the edge of the stool. Next to her was a large glass of wine, along with a pile of balled-up napkins smeared with make-up. From where Claudia stood, she was relieved to see that Penny’s face was scrubbed clean and happily animated. Billy couldn’t take his eyes off her; he looked enthralled.

‘Did you see sharks?’ she was asking.

‘Yep.’

‘Did you see wrasse?’

‘Yep.’

‘Did you see rays?’

‘Yep.’

This could go on for a while. Claudia smiled and left without a word.

Claudia heaved the second boot onto her foot and tugged at the laces with all her strength.

‘You know, that might be easier if you took those whopping ski mittens off,’ said Nick.

‘Are you insane? It’s freezing. I can’t believe you’re standing there in a T-shirt.’

Nick put his hands on his hips and struck
a model pose. ‘This is what happens when you’re tough and manly: snow doesn’t affect you.’

Claudia stood up and the two of them clomped out of the marquee to the ice rink, behind which loomed the ornate façade of the Natural History Museum. It was an extremely cold, bright-blue day; the kind of day that feels like peppermint mouthwash is being vaporised out into the air.

‘You can skate, right?’ asked Nick.

‘Yeah, I used to do it all the time. You?’

‘Nope, not a bit.’

‘What? Why did you suggest ice-skating?’

‘Because it’s festive, it’s one week to Christmas, we’ve never done it together, you’ve certainly never done it on a date and, frankly, if it means I get to spend a couple of hours holding on and accidently bumping up against you it sounds like a pretty good date to me.’

‘In that case, this was a very good idea.’ As Nick took her paw and grinned down at her, Claudia couldn’t have been happier. How had things worked out so perfectly? She couldn’t take her eyes off his yummy bare arms, and so slammed into the wall of the rink.

‘Are you okay?’ he laughed. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

‘You’re what’s wrong with me!’ Had his arms always been so defined?
Of course they have. Get a grip
.

They stepped onto the ice and Claudia spun in a smooth circle. By the time she was facing Nick again he was spreadeagled, leaning over and holding the hand of a large bald man.

‘Is this one yours, love?’ the man asked.

‘Yes he is,’ Claudia said proudly, extracting Nick’s hand and holding it in her own. ‘Nick, look at me, up here.’ He raised his torso up and gave her a huge grin.

‘I’m skating!’

‘Well, kind of.’ She towed him along, her skating backwards, him sliding, feet still, body and arms stretched out in front of him.

‘It’s very hot that you’re so good at this,’ he called to her across the distance.

‘You can do it too, come on.’ She guided him into an upright position but he stayed gripping her hands.

They slid in close to each other until their bodies touched. Claudia raised an eyebrow at him. ‘No rewards yet, Mister. You have a lot more work to do to impress me out here.’ She whooshed backwards and beckoned for him to follow.

Nick thud-thud-thudded across the
ice after her. Claudia’s laugh caught in the wind. ‘You’re like a yeti; stop picking your feet up.’

‘Look at me, Claud – look at me. I am Phillip Schofield!’

She zipped back past him. ‘Why are you Phillip Schofield?’

‘He dances on ice. Like I’m doing.’

‘He presents the TV show, I don’t think he joins in—’

‘You’re such a bloody liar, Claudia, don’t you ruin my dream. I AM PHILLIP SCHOFIELD!’ he shouted, whizzing past her in a straight line, fists in the air, and landing with a thwack against the barrier.