sighed as she walked into the school assembly hall, she had no idea what he was doing there but his presence definitely wasn’t a welcome one. She tired to ignore him and carried on laying out the plates of food ready for the Christmas party her friend was organising and she’d volunteered to help out with.
“Are you ok?” A voice behind her asked, causing her to jump slightly.
turned to face her friend and gave her a small smile, “Yeah…I’m fine” She said, pouring out a bag of crisps into a large bowl. “I had no idea was bringing him along, I’m sorry” apologised, helping lay out some of the food. “It’s ok, I’m just going to pretend he’s not here” smiled slightly as she finished setting out the food for the kids, “What’ve you got helping with then?” “Well we needed a Santa and the costume just happens to fit ” laughed, seeing her husband sulking over in the corner. “How convenient…” laughed along with her friend, glancing out of one of the large windows, “Great, now it’s snowing even more” “Cheer up, it’s Christmas Eve and we’re about to have fifty kids in here all excited to see Santa and the last thing they need to see is your miserable face” said, sternly, “The whole point of asking you to help was to try and get you in the Christmas spirit” “Well I just don’t feel very Christmassy this year” gave a small shrug of her shoulders.
“Well, get over it” said harshly, “It was a year ago and you both said some pretty horrible things to each other, you should at least be on speaking terms now”
“I can’t see that ever happening” sighed, not wanting to admit how much she missed ’s friendship.
“Not with that attitude” Jo gave a small smile, “Come on, I need you to help me set up for pass the parcel” reluctantly followed Jo, allowing herself to take a quick glance in ’s direction. Quickly averting her eyes when he looked towards her.
The party was over a few hours later and despite ’s complaints about having to dress up as Santa, he actually enjoyed himself. , , and started tidying up as soon as the last child left.
“You think you’ll be ok here for a while?” asked walking over to , “Susie’s mom just called, she’s having trouble getting the car out of her street what with all the snow. Me and are just gonna take her home, ’s got his 4x4 and it should be able to handle the snow” “Are you coming back?” asked, terrified at the prospect of being left alone with . “Course we are, we’ll only be about half an hour and then we’ll go out and start celebrating Christmas” smiled reassuringly at her friend, “Do you feel more Christmassy yet?” “A little bit” admitted with a smile, seeing the little kids faces when they’d met ‘Santa’ had really given her that warm, fuzzy Christmassy feeling.
“Good to hear it, I’ll see you in about half an hour, ok?” gave a small wave as she took the little girls hand and walked towards the door with following behind.
The tension was clear in the school hall, could feel ’s eyes on her but didn’t dare turn around. This was the first time she’d seen him since their argument last year, aside from when he’d been on TV with Westlife. Half an hour passed which soon turned into an hour, made her way to the window and looked outside. The snow was coming down even heavier than it was a few hours ago. She frowned as she tried to gauge how much snow had fallen since they’d arrived at the school a few hours ago. Glancing round the hall, she realised that they’d finished tidying up and were just waiting for and to return. She chanced a look over at and saw him leaning against a table and staring down at the phone in his hands, frowning. ’s phone started to ring and she dashed across the room to answer it, “? Where are you, you said you’d only be half an hour” “’s car was no match for mother nature, we’re stuck in the snow. It’s really coming down now. You might have to walk back” said with a sigh. “Walk? I guess that’s better than staying here any longer” She replied in a whisper, not wanting to over hear her. “Meet you at the pub, ok?” asked, as agreed and they both hung up.
“What’s better than staying here?” ’s voice sounded behind her, causing her to jump. “Walking…’s car is stuck in the snow, so we’ve gotta walk back” explained, avoiding eye contact as much as she could. nodded his head and started to put his coat on, “Best get going before even more snow sets” He said walking towards the door. grabbed her things and followed him towards the door, was standing in front of the door with his hands resting on his hips, staring at the closed door. “It wont open” He announced, sensing her behind him as he tried to push the door again. “Did you try pulling it?” She asked with a smirk. rolled his eyes at her, “Of course I did, it wont open”
looked out of the window and frowned, the white snow was almost covering the window, “We’re snowed in…” She whispered, wondering if her luck could get much worse. As if on cue the light’s flickered once, then twice and stayed off, leaving both and in complete darkness.
“Great…just great” let out a defeated sigh. “Guess we’re stuck here for a while” stated the obvious as he walked back into hall. followed him into the hall and sat down on the opposite side of the room, taking her phone out of her bag she dialled ’s number. Hearing a beep, indicating there was no service, she let out a low growl and tossed her phone back onto the floor. “Yours too” ’s voice sounded next to her as he sat down beside her. nodded her head, hating having him this close but at the same time, thankful for him being there with her.
They sat like that for almost two hours, neither one of them talking even though there was so much that needed to be said. Both of them missed talking to each other everyday but both were too stubborn to admit it. They both sat staring at anything but each other until started to sing low and soft, “Do you have to do that”? She asked, everything he did irritated her and as much as she loved his voice the last thing she wanted was to hear him sing or hum a Christmas song. “I thought it was appropriate” He smiled as he sang the next line from Bing Crosby’s White Christmas while looking directly at her. rolled her eyes and shifted her body away from him, “It’s annoying…” She mumbled. laughed as he stopped singing, hearing the grumbling coming from ’s stomach, “Hungry?” He asked, looking at her from the corner of his eye with a smirk. Receiving no answer from her, he grabbed his bag and pulled out a packet of crisps, “Here, take these. They’re turkey and stuffing flavour” He said, tossing the packet into her lap. “Thanks” muttered, opening the bag and offering one to , who declined by shaking his head as they both fell into a silence again.
“So how’ve you been?” asked, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence that they’d been sitting in for the past two hours or so. “Fine, what about you?” asked, refusing to look at . “Busy and glad to finally have some time off” nodded his head slightly, “I broke up with Linzi a few months ago, you were right about her” ’s head quickly snapped up and looked at , her eyes were wide with shock at what he’d just said, “What?” She asked, unsure whether she’d heard him correctly.
smiled, locking eyes with her, “I broke up with Linzi” He repeated. “I’m sorry , I know you liked her” tried to sound genuine but she wasn’t, she’d never liked Linzi and she’d never trusted her either. “Don’t be, you were right. She was just using me, she never loved me, she just loved the attention and money that came with being with me” sighed, “I’m sorry about last year, I was out of order” “We both said some hurtful things, ” ’s tone finally warmed and she saw the sincerity in his eyes. “And we both meant them at the time” added, knowing it was true, “Sorry I said you were a jealous bitch” “That’s putting it mildly” smiled at him, thinking back to their argument, “Sorry I said she was a gold digging whore, only after your money and fame” “It was true though” said with a sad sigh, he wasn’t sad about losing Linzi he was sad about not having in his life for the past year.
smiled at him, “I forgive you” She smiled, wondering how come it was so easy for her and to talk again after a year of ignoring each other, “Forgive me?” “I forgave you months ago, I just didn’t have the balls to talk to you and admit that Linzi had me completely fooled. I really thought she loved me, I thought I loved her too but what we had wasn’t love” tried to explain, “I know that now”
smiled at , “Can I tell you a secret?” She asked as nodded, “When you said I was jealous, you were right too” “I was?” smirked at her, “You were jealous of me and Linzi?” shook her head, “Not of you and Linzi. I was jealous of Linzi, she had you…” opened his mouth to say something but the words seemed to get stuck in his throat, “What?” He frowned, unsure whether he actually understood what she was saying to him. Suddenly feeling incredibly brave leant forward and brushed her lips against his, after a few seconds she finally felt him kiss her back. She pulled back first, feeling him lean forward as he tried to keep contact with her.
smiled shyly as opened his eyes and looked at her, “I was jealous of Linzi because I’ve liked you for a while now…actually more than liked you” She blushed, looking downwards from his penetrating gaze. “You have?” asked, still in shock from the kiss they’d just shared, “My turn to admit something to you too, I never stopped thinking about you after our little fall out last year. I’ve been miserable since then, which is why I tagged along with today. I knew you’d be here and just seeing you made me realise exactly how much I’ve missed you” “I’ve missed you too ” replied, forcing a smile on her face as she waited for the ‘I like you but only as a friend’ speech. “You’re one of my best friends… but I think I want us to be more than that” He admitted, shyly. “You do?” couldn’t keep the smile from her face as nodded his head, moving his face closer to hers as he kissed her again.
“You’re shivering, c’mon let’s see what we can find to keep us warm” said getting to his feet and pulling her up with him. He took her hand and led her into the small wooden hut they’d been using for the grotto. The small room instantly felt warmer and they both smiled when they saw the large faux fur throw, placed over the large chair that ‘Santa’ had used whilst the kids visited him. grabbed the throw and laid it on the floor, taking a seat on it and inviting to join him. “All that’s missing is candle light” She said sitting down beside him and smiling as he wrapped his arm round her to try and keep her warm. “How about we go out on a date or something when we get out of here?” asked as leant her head on his shoulder. “What if it doesn’t work and we really fall out? I don’t wanna risk our friendship” asked honestly, she’d rather have him in her life as just a friend than not at all. “We were never that close” smiled capturing her lips with his, once again.
allowed him to gently push her backwards until she was lying on her back, their lips never parting as they both gave in to the feelings of lust and passion they’d both tried to ignore for years. Before either of them could think about what they were doing, they were tugging at each others clothes, needing to feel skin on skin. Soon they’d both managed to strip each other down to their underwear, their kissing had turned into a frantic frenzy of tongues duelling for control. They both parted from the kiss, the need for oxygen outweighing the passion they both suddenly felt. They stared at each other, their chest’s rapidly rising and falling as they panted and tried to catch their breath back.
“Does this feel weird?” asked, finally expressing her fears out loud. “Not at all” smiled shaking his head from side to side, the smile quickly fading from his face as he lifted his weight slightly from on top of her, propping himself up with his hands either side of her head, “Does it feel weird for you?” smiled and shook her head, “No, it feels…right” nodded his head in agreement as he let one of his hands trail down her body then letting it slowly move back upwards, pushing the strap of her bra away from her shoulder as he kissed her. He felt her hands roaming over his back, stopping at the waist band of his boxers and letting her fingers slide under the elastic as she tried to free him from them. After a few more minutes of desperate fumbling and hands roaming over naked skin, they were both finally naked. held pinned to the floor as they kissed, beads of sweat slowly rolling over their skin as the air in the small hut got more and more heated, the small hut feeling more like a sauna, than the winter wonderland it was supposed to look like.
Hours later, was the first wake up, she shivered and felt an arm pull her closer to the warm body lying next to her. She opened her eyes, suddenly remembering what had happened and smiled at the sight of lying next to her. Never in a million years did she think her feelings for him, would be returned and all she’d wanted after their argument was for things to go back to the way they were between them. Last year when they fell out she finally realised that she felt more than friendship for him, it was the only excuse for her taking an instant dislike to Linzi. After and her had yelled at each other and said some things that she still didn’t want to think about, she knew he was right. He’d called her jealous and he was right, he wasn’t aware he was right and neither was she straight away.
“You cold?” asked, pulling the fur rug round them both. “I’m fine, better than fine actually” smiled, snuggling closer to him. “I can’t believe we wasted all those years being friends when we could’ve been doing this” smiled back, placing his lips softly on her cheek. “Better late than never, ” smiled caressing his face with her hand, “What time is it?” raised his wrist to look at his watch, “Just after midnight…” “Christmas Day…” added with a small sigh. “I can think of worse ways to spend Christmas Day” He smiled, pressing his lips against hers, “Merry Christmas” “You’re not gonna start singing White Christmas again, are ya?” asked, causing to laugh at her. “I thought you liked my voice?” pretended to look hurt, forming a pout with his lips. “Given the circumstances, I don’t think that song is very funny at the moment” smiled, kissing his pout. “I dunno, if it wasn’t for the snow then we wouldn’t have ended up stuck here and we might have gone another year without making up” smiled, finding the silver lining in the sudden snow storm. “I suppose you have a point” admitted with a smile, “ and are gonna be worried about us” “There’s not much we can do about it now, no phone’s, no power and no one else around” pressed his lips firmly against hers, conveying everything he felt in that one kiss. “I like your thinking, Mr ” smiled as she wrapped her arms round his neck and pulled him impossibly closer, making love for the second time that night in the small Santa’s grotto.
