A Midnight Kiss to Seal the Deal

by Sophie Pembroke

  ‘Never mind my lunch. Did you really take Rachel for afternoon tea at the Ritz?’

  ‘It was for work!’ Damon protested, far too quickly for Celeste’s liking. ‘She’s helping out on my latest project.’

  ‘Isn’t Rachel an English graduate?’ Diana asked. ‘How is she going to help with your...what was it? Cinema project?’

  ‘The cinema project was two years ago,’ Damon said. ‘This is a new one.’

  Of course, it was. It was always a new project with Damon. Always the next shiny thing.

  Celeste didn’t want him treating Rachel that way. And while she was pretty sure he wouldn’t, pretty sure wasn’t enough when it came to her best friend. ‘Just...be careful with Rachel, please? I’d hate for you to, well, give her any ideas.’

  ‘It’s work,’ he repeated, his voice flat. ‘That’s all.’

  Work was good. Rachel had been stuck in her job, working for her stepmother, for too long. Doing something new and fun with Damon could be good for her. As long as it really was just work.

  Rachel didn’t date much, and, after a nasty experience with one of her stepsisters’ friends the summer before, Celeste couldn’t see her jumping into anything new. But it was Damon. And Rachel had always been just a little bit misty-eyed when it came to Celeste’s brother.

  She had to warn him about that. He’d be careful if he thought he might hurt her. He wasn’t a bad guy, just...not the settling-down type. With anything.

  ‘Good,’ Celeste said, looking away as she spilled her best friend’s secrets for her own good. ‘Because, to be honest, I think she’s always had a bit of a crush on you. I’d hate for you to lead her on, even accidentally.’ Urgh, she hated doing this. ‘Just don’t break her heart, okay? I know what you’re like.’

  The double doors to the dining room swung open and their father appeared, the white of his Roman-style toga backlit by the hallway bulbs against the dim candlelight on the table. In his arms was a large platter with what looked like an entire pig on it, apple in mouth and all, surrounded by jellies with apple slices and spices inside.

  ‘Dinner is served!’ Jacob announced, holding the platter high, a smug smile on his face.

  Celeste laughed, and turned her attention back to lunch, happy to forget all about Damon’s love life—and her own fake one—for the afternoon.

  * * *

  Having hot coffee dumped in his lap wasn’t, in Theo’s opinion, the best way to spend a date. But by Monday morning, his lunch with Celeste seemed to be having the desired effect, at least.

  ‘She’s good for you,’ Cerys announced, when she’d finished cackling at the photo of Celeste trying to hide her own laughter as he mopped up the coffee with a napkin, which was doing the rounds on social media that morning. ‘If you can convince people she actually likes you—or, even better, wants you—it’ll help give the impression that there’s more to you than just a pretty face.’

  Theo didn’t ask if Cerys believed that there was more to him than his looks. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer.

  But the ultimate confirmation came as he walked into a meeting late on Monday morning with all the bigwigs involved in the New Year’s Eve Spectacular he’d hopefully still be hosting in just a few weeks.

  It might have been hard to think about the new year with Christmas still around the corner, but after the debacle of the Christmas Cracker Cranium Quiz Theo was more than happy to just skip the festive period altogether and start fresh on January the first.

  ‘Good to see you keeping your face in the spotlight ahead of the big show,’ one of them told Theo as he took his seat.

  ‘I heard it wasn’t his face, so much,’ another murmured, loud enough to be heard around the table. Theo ignored them and reached for the coffee pot. ‘Careful with that, old boy. Heard coffee’s a bit of a sensitive issue for you right now.’

  That caused a wave of laughter that cascaded through the room. It irritated him, but Theo had learned many years ago not to let that show. His father loved to see the effect of his jibes and would keep needling if he thought he was close to getting a reaction. Making Theo blow up had been easy when he was a boy, harder as he became a teenager and learned not to play the game.

  These days, one of his bestselling points was his easy-going nature, his ability to take a joke at his own expense and keep smiling. Something to thank his father for, he supposed.

  Always smiling. That was the job.

  ‘Well, at least I got lunch with a beautiful woman first,’ he joked, pouring his coffee without spilling a drop.

  That, of course, just opened up a new flood of questions.

  ‘What really is going on with you two?’ Matthew, from Finance, asked. ‘I read online that you’ve been secretly dating for months. And Fran said it was you who suggested getting Celeste on the show, so...’ He left it hanging, an open question.

  Theo considered how best to answer, Cerys’s words still echoing around his head.

  ‘If you can convince people she actually likes you—or, even better, wants you—it’ll help give the impression that there’s more to you than just a pretty face.’

  Wasn’t that what he wanted people to believe? He’d asked Celeste to help him rehabilitate his reputation—but now he wondered if she could do more. Could being seen with her help him persuade his bosses, and maybe even the Great British Public, that there was more to him than just the ability to smile on cue?

  Maybe that was asking too much. But it could be a start...

  ‘You know me, Matthew,’ he replied, with that smile he was so famous for. ‘I don’t kiss and tell. Now, what’s on the agenda for today?’

  There was still plenty to discuss before the filming date, so he managed to keep the group around the table more or less on topic for the rest of the meeting. But as they all filed out, Mr Erland, one of the real bigwigs, held Theo back.

  ‘I just wanted to say—I was worried, after Friday night. I thought we might have to look at replacing you for New Year, if the country was against you. But you seem to be turning it around.’

  Theo’s heart thumped in his chest. ‘I’m certainly trying, sir.’

  Mr Erland slapped him on the back. ‘And I always back a trier. Keep it up, Theo, and we’ll see you right.’

  Hands in his suit pockets, he headed out after the others, whistling a Christmas carol Theo remembered singing in school.

  Once he was sure he was gone, he reached for his phone, and scrolled through for the latest name added to its memory.

  Celeste answered promptly, but, from the click-clacking he could hear in the background, she didn’t stop typing while she spoke to him.

  ‘Yes?’ No messing around with unnecessary words for Celeste. It was kind of refreshing, after a meeting that had seemed to be seventy per cent waffle.

  ‘Are you free this afternoon? Well, this evening, really, I suppose.’ It was already almost two, and he needed to eat lunch and deal with some emails before anything else.

  ‘Which is it, Theo? Afternoon or evening?’ The typing sounds paused for a second, while she waited for his answer. Theo smiled.

  ‘Is your answer different depending on which one I pick?’ Dropping into one of the abandoned chairs, he kicked his feet up onto the meeting table and leaned back on two chair legs.

  ‘No. I just like a little precision in my scheduling.’ Of course, she did.

  ‘Four-thirty, then. At Hyde Park.’ He grinned as the plan came together in his head. ‘I want to show you a Winter Wonderland.’

  ‘You mean the Winter Wonderland, I assume?’ she corrected him. ‘Fairground rides and stalls and such? For kids?’

  ‘Not just kids,’ Theo countered. ‘It’s actually one of my favourite things about London at Christmas.’

  ‘Of course, it is.’ She sighed. ‘Fine, I’ll meet you there at four-thirty. Which gate?’r />
  Theo considered, mentally reviewing the map of the place in his head. He’d been there often enough to know the basic layout. ‘The Green Gate,’ he decided. It was closest to the Bavarian village, and he had a feeling he’d need a glühwein by then. ‘I’ll see you there.’

  He was about to hang up, when he realised that Celeste hadn’t. He waited and, after a moment, she spoke again.

  ‘So...we’re really doing this? Pretending to be friends?’

  Theo thought back to what he’d told his colleagues earlier. At some point, he’d have to break it to Celeste that he was hoping they could pretend to be more than friends. At that point, he figured he’d either get a glühwein to the face, or maybe, just maybe, a kiss for the cameras that were bound to be hanging around the Hyde Park winter attraction.

  He’d much, much rather the kiss, he decided. And not just because he’d had enough drinks thrown over him lately.

  ‘I told you,’ he said, after too long a beat. ‘Most people end up actually liking me, once they get to know me.’ Silence from the other end of the line. ‘But if you have to pretend, yeah, I’ll take that, too.’ He knew when to admit defeat.

  ‘Then I’ll see you at four-thirty,’ Celeste said, and hung up.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘MOST PEOPLE END up actually liking me, once they get to know me.’

  Theo’s words were still fresh in Celeste’s mind as she hopped off the Tube at Hyde Park Corner, wound her scarf a little tighter around her neck, and headed in the direction of noise, lights and Christmas music.

  She hadn’t wanted to tell him that actually liking him was exactly what she was afraid of.

  Lunch with him had been fun, apart from the coffee incident. And even that had been kind of funny, if she thought about it. Most people she knew would have been furious to find themselves suddenly doused in hot coffee, but Theo had merely rolled his eyes and mopped up the mess. At least it hadn’t been boiling, she supposed.

  And yes, they’d bickered for most of the lunch, but even that had been fun. It turned out she didn’t mind people disagreeing with her quite so much when they actually listened to her reasoned arguments and, sometimes at least, changed their mind off the back of them. She was so used to arguing with people who held such deeply entrenched opinions they’d never change them, whatever evidence she presented, that Theo was a lovely change.

  He even seemed genuinely interested in her historical knowledge—something she definitely hadn’t expected after the Christmas Cracker Cranium Quiz debacle.

  But none of that meant that she should start liking him, for one, very good reason.

  He didn’t like her.

  He was pretending to, obviously, to convince the Great British Public that he wasn’t a mansplaining, patronising, patriarchal idiot. He was a faker. Pretending was what he did. But he didn’t actually like her. Very few people did. Rachel, possibly Damon. Maybe one or two of her colleagues or students, from time to time. She wasn’t honestly sure about her parents. She’d always worked more on winning their respect, professionally, than worrying about whether they liked her.

  It had never bothered her before. She had the people that mattered to her, and she had her work. Everything else was basically surplus to requirements. She knew she wasn’t always easy to get along with, that her priorities weren’t always the same as other people’s. But she had the respect of the people who mattered, who made decisions about her career and her future.

  What else could she want?

  Except suddenly, ridiculously, she wanted Theo Montgomery to like her, the way she liked spending time with him. And that was stupid, so she was going to push it aside and focus on the fact that they were pretending to like each other for reasons entirely to do with their careers and nothing to do with them as people.

  ‘Easy,’ she said, out loud, gaining an odd look from a small girl in a princess costume who was walking along the path towards the Winter Wonderland with her parents.

  Celeste ignored that, too.

  Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland was quite the spectacle. Celeste had never been before, although she knew groups of colleagues from the university had organised trips in past years. It would be easy to get lost, especially with only the poorly drawn and not-to-scale map she’d printed out before leaving the university to guide her. She was glad that she’d insisted that Theo specify which gate they should meet at, as there were four, all leading to different areas of the fair in which to start their exploration. She was relieved to see that Theo had chosen the one nearest the Bavarian village, rather than the ice-skating rink. She’d never actually been skating, but she was willing to bet she’d fall over a lot. She wasn’t clumsy, usually. But she made a point of sticking to what she was good at, rather than risking being bad at something new.

  Another reason not to try and be friends with Theo. Making friends was most certainly something she wasn’t good at.

  She spotted Theo almost instantly, leaning against a lamppost, his expensive-looking wool coat and what had to be a cashmere scarf lit by the soft glow. His face was as ridiculously perfect as on the telly, and for a moment Celeste was thrown back to that moment in the green room when he’d interrupted her work. She’d looked up and seen the most attractive man she’d ever met in real life smiling down at her, and panicked.

  So she’d done what she always did, and gone into what Damon called her ‘superior professor’ mode.

  Apparently, it took more than abject rudeness to drive Theo Montgomery away when his career was on the line, though. As she approached, he looked up and smiled as he saw her. Pushing away from the lamppost, he headed straight for her.

  ‘You came!’

  ‘You thought I wouldn’t?’ Maybe she shouldn’t have. Maybe she should have stayed safe in her small office, her small, contained and organised life.

  No. She was overthinking this. Hadn’t she spent yesterday reminding herself that she was immune to charm, and all that stuff? This was a career decision, pure and simple.

  She pasted on a smile, and Theo recoiled.

  ‘What?’ She let the smile drop.

  ‘That’s better,’ he said, looking relieved. ‘I was afraid you were going to throw glühwein over me before we even got inside.’

  Celeste held up her empty hands. ‘No glühwein.’

  Grinning, Theo grabbed one hand and held it in his own. ‘Well, that will never do. Let’s go find you some. You can drink while we explore, and then we can talk.’

  ‘Talk?’ Everything was moving so fast. Theo’s words, his long stride, the spinning lights of the Ferris wheel in the distance. ‘We need to talk?’

  ‘Absolutely. And I’d definitely like to do it once we’ve both finished our drinks this time.’

  She couldn’t help but laugh at that.

  Theo slid her a sideways look as they strolled into the Winter Wonderland. ‘That’s better.’

  ‘What’s better?’

  ‘That smile,’ Theo replied. ‘That’s a real smile—not whatever that terrifying thing at the gate was.’

  ‘Yes, I suppose it was.’ A real smile. A real laugh. How long had it been since she’d had those things with anyone who wasn’t Rachel or Damon? Too long. Way too long.

  Still gripping her hand in his, Theo led her towards the Bavarian village, with its cosy wooden chalets and strings of lights illuminating the crowds.

  ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Glühwein waits for no one.’

  Maybe this wasn’t such a terrible idea, Celeste thought as they approached the nearest stall. Maybe this was just what she needed.

  * * *

  Maybe it was the glühwein, or maybe the intrinsic excitement of the Winter Wonderland experience, but Celeste seemed charmed by the evening. Even Theo’s ego wasn’t big enough to assume that was due to his company. But she’d laughed at his jokes and hardly complained about the accuracy
of the Bavarian-ness of the village—low—at all.

  Okay, it had to be the glühwein, because Theo was actually having fun.

  ‘How do you feel about ice skating?’ he asked as they passed by the outdoor rink.

  ‘Faintly panicky,’ Celeste admitted, a show of weakness he hadn’t expected from her.

  It seemed the more time they spent together, the more she relaxed and showed him the woman behind the prickly, know-it-all exterior.

  ‘We’ll save that for another day, then. Ferris wheel?’ She gave him a doubtful look. ‘Want to just drink more glühwein and maybe find some roasted chestnuts?’ he tried again.

  Celeste looked relieved. ‘That sounds good.’

  ‘You’re not much for doing things outside your comfort zone, are you?’ Theo asked, as they found a table outside one of the pseudo-Bavarian chalets to enjoy the glühwein.

  ‘I went on your stupid gameshow, didn’t I?’ she countered. ‘Although who possibly thought that I’d be a good guest, I can’t imagine.’

  Theo winced. ‘That...that might have been me, actually.’

  ‘Oh.’ Celeste blinked a few times, her eyes round in the glow of the fairy lights. ‘I...wait. How did you even know I existed?’

  He shrugged. ‘I’d heard you on the radio a few times. You know how it goes, you’ve never heard of a person before but suddenly, once you’ve heard them once, they seem to pop up all over the place.’ It was all down to the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, Theo knew. A frequency illusion, that owed everything to the brain’s predisposition to patterns and nothing to fate.

  See? He knew stuff, too.

  ‘I’ve only been on the radio half a dozen times,’ Celeste said slowly. ‘And only on historical or political programmes. I wouldn’t have thought they’d be your cup of tea.’

  ‘I’m interested in lots of things,’ Theo replied vaguely.

  He wasn’t about to tell her about the part-time history degree he’d been studying long distance for the last couple of years. His first attempt at university had ended in failure when he’d dropped out in his second year, and lucked into a TV gig through a random acquaintance. He hadn’t been prepared to study then, at eighteen and nineteen, and he hadn’t been at all interested in his course—it had ultimately been the subject with the least competition to get into his chosen university. Or rather, the university his parents had expected him to attend, all while telling him he wasn’t really bright enough to be there. Looking back, of course he’d dropped out—and his father would never let him forget it.