The Little Christmas Kitchen

by Jenny Oliver

  ‘Would you like a hand up?’ Veronica asked.

  Maddy looked down at the icy floor and then up at Veronica who put her cigarette between her teeth and then proffered her hand.

  ‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘Yes I would. Thank you very much.’

  CHAPTER 45

  ELLA

  On Boxing Day Maddy and Ella’s planes crossed in the sky.

  Maddy happily tucked into the weird chicken fricassee concoction that came with a roll and triangle of Dairylea and knocked back a miniature bottle of red wine, closing her eyes between mouthfuls and remembering her Christmas Day – the oysters and champagne on the balcony, her dad chinking her glass and looking at her like she was the crown jewels. Veronica offering her a pair of black patent wellingtons when Maddy discovered they were going out for lunch. The restaurant with the big glass windows and starched white tablecloths. The fish course with a crisp Chablis, the beef served with a Malbec the colour of blackberries, the fluffy white meringues with passion fruit coulis and a miniature glass of sweet Sauternes. Nothing in the way of a cracker or Christmas hat, but a few discreet glass jars of silver sprayed fir cones. Maddy had drunk it all in like a wide-eyed tourist, mesmerised.

  When it was time to leave Veronica had kissed her on both cheeks, a wariness lingering still between them but there had been a noticeable thawing in their relationship. Her dad had asked if he could drive her to the airport in the morning and when he’d come to pick her up he’d come alone.

  Maddy had climbed into the huge Porsche four-wheel drive, snuggled into the heated leather seat and savoured every minute of the half hour drive with just her dad.

  At the airport he’d glanced over to her and said, ‘I think there’s just enough time for a Maccy D’s. What do you think?’

  ‘I think I’ll have chicken nuggets and a vanilla milkshake please.’ Maddy had replied with a grin.

  They had sat in the car watching the planes, some dreadful boy band version of White Christmas playing in the background – ‘Sorry it’s all I have on this, it’s my work iPod’ her dad had laughed, ‘They may be awful but they make me a lot of money’ – and they had talked about nothing in particular. She had mentioned the music gig in Austin, Texas, he’d said he’d be in New York around that time and she could come and stay at his apartment, if she wanted to, otherwise he could get her a hotel. She’d said she thought she would like to stay with him. And he’d nodded, turned back to his Big Mac and she’d watched out the corner of her eye as he’d tried to hide a smile.

  While Maddy was reminiscing about all things Christmas however, on the other plane Ella was doing exactly the opposite. She had shaken her head to refuse the tray of airline food and was using the time to scribble down ideas for the Obeille mobile phone presentation, blocking out all and every memory of her Christmas. It was done, over. She’d smoothed things over with her mum, now she could move on and start afresh. Anything else was just fantasy.

  Unlocking the front door of her apartment however she was confronted by a smell that hit her like a punch. The fresh, sharp tang of the Christmas tree mixed with her mum’s brand of washing powder, Maddy’s citrusy perfume and maybe even the lingering scent of food that she’d cooked while in Greece. It didn’t smell like her apartment.

  Yet at the same time it smelt exactly like her home.

  Leaving for work in the morning dressed in her favourite polaroid outfit of cobalt blue J Crew pencil skirt, white Stella shirt, leopard print belt and black leather Jimmy Choo boots, Ella was just locking her front door when the elderly woman next door came out and waved.

  ‘Oh you’re back, hello. Did you have a good time?’

  Ella glanced over her shoulder to see if there was someone behind her that this woman was talking to.

  ‘We had a lovely time with your sister, she’s fabulous.’ As the woman chatted on, a man with white hair and glasses who looked faintly familiar appeared next to her.

  ‘So you’re the sister are you?’ he said, inspecting her through narrowed eyes.

  Before she could reply the door opposite opened and Hugo stepped out. Ella had exchanged the odd ‘Good morning’ with him in the past but nothing more.

  ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ Hugo asked, big bright smile. ‘I think I’ll probably have some kind of New Year bash so you and your sister, if she’s still around, more than welcome.’ Then he looked over his shoulder at Margery and Walter and grinned, ‘Well look at you two! Love this–’ Hugo waved a hand between the two of them. ‘Never too old.’

  Margery raised a brow. ‘Thank you for that, Hugo.’

  Booming a laugh, Hugo patted his laptop case and said, ‘Anyway, gotta run, no rest for the wicked. Good to see you back, Ella.’

  Ella just nodded, stunned by this new hallway camaraderie.

  ‘You really do have a fabulous sister.’ Margery said, reaching down and picking the newspaper up off her mat. ‘Really fabulous,’ she said again, and as she started to close the door added, ‘You’re very lucky. I wish I’d had family like that.’

  CHAPTER 46

  MADDY

  ‘So you just let her go?’ Maddy was sitting crossed legged on the jetty, holding a brolly, watching as Dimitri bailed out his boat.

  ‘I didn’t just let her go.’ he said angrily without looking up. ‘She didn’t want to stay.’

  ‘Well why don’t you go after her, you doofus?’ Maddy twirled her umbrella, enjoying this conversation with Dimitri immensely.

  ‘Because she made it quite clear, Maddy, that she didn’t want anything to happen. Said it wouldn’t achieve anything.’ Dimitri hurled the water in his bucket violently out into the sea.

  Maddy had to stifle a laugh.

  ‘I’m so pleased you find my suffering so amusing.’

  She picked at the hole in her red jumper. ‘I’m sorry.’

  Dimitri raised a brow as if to show that he knew she didn’t mean it.

  ‘Well what did you offer her? What did you tell her it would achieve?’

  He paused. In the distance it started to thunder. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Good one.’

  ‘But she said–’

  ‘Dimitri–’ Maddy stood up, rested the brolly on her shoulder. ‘What do you know about Ella?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ The thunder got louder.

  ‘List what you know about her.’

  ‘She’s clever. Smart.’ He started to walk to the stern of the boat, ‘Sharp. Pretty. Strong.’

  Maddy rolled her eyes. ‘Think back, Dimitri. People don’t change that much. This bit–’ she pointed to her chest, her heart, ‘… this bit stays the same.’

  She watched Dimitri as he narrowed his eyes, watched him roll his thoughts back into the past. See the Ella who did her ridiculous wiggle-walk down the jetty to try and seduce him, who waited on the steps of the supermarket to catch him as he went in to buy cigarettes, the Ella with the trousers that flapped around her ankles, the hair that stuck out like an tent, who sat patiently playing Sylvanian Families with Maddy – her cheeks pinking when him and his friends sloped past.

  ‘Shy.’ he said softly.

  Maddy gave an encouraging nod.

  ‘Soft.’

  She nodded again.

  Lightning forked, the crack breaking the sky in two.

  ‘Sensitive?’ he added with a shrug, lost in his daze of thoughts.

  ‘You betcha.’ Maddy laughed then leant forward and hooking his upper arm with her hand said, ‘Come on, we’d better get you off this boat before you get fried. Can’t go on a mission to rescue anyone if you’re struck by lightning.’

  CHAPTER 47

  ELLA

  Ella sat in the boardroom watching the work experience girl twirling a pen with a pompom on the top that she’d clearly got for Christmas. She looked like she was about nineteen, Ella thought, and noticed she was surreptitiously checking her emails, probably organising her New Year’s Eve.

  Ella had no plans for New Year.

  ‘So–’ A
drian tapped the table top with his pen. ‘Any thoughts from anyone about the Obeille campaign?’

  There was silence around the table, uncomfortable shifts in seats. The exec opposite her was focusing on trying to separate a bourbon biscuit while keeping the chocolate bit in the middle whole.

  ‘Come on!’ Adrian said, exasperated. ‘Someone must have something. I know it’s Christmas but–’

  Ella looked at her pad. Her ideas were terrible. She listened as a couple of people chimed in with the same pat stuff that they’d been throwing around before the break. She watched Adrian sigh, the work experience girl’s phone beeped. Ella wished she had her own phone for distraction but it was still sitting at the bottom of the Mediterranean.

  ‘Oh–’ she said suddenly, sitting up straighter.

  Everyone turned to look at her, she could see the desperation in their eyes, the hope that she might be about to crack it as she usually did.

  ‘What about if the phone gets thrown away?’

  Adrian sighed.

  ‘No hang on, bear with me.’ Ella said. ‘There’s a girl on holiday, amazing view out in front of her, totally picturesque, but she’s not seeing it because she’s on her phone. She’s so distracted that she doesn’t notice anything, the beautiful food put down in front of her, the lavish cocktail, the really gorgeous guy strolling towards her. And the viewer is just willing her to look up, to take in everything that she’s missing, but she stays tapping away at her screen. Then as the guy sidles up and she just gets a glimpse of him over the top of her phone and she gets excited that he’s about to say something flirty but instead of saying anything he plucks the phone from her fingers and hurls it into the sea. After that he just strolls on by. It could end on a line something like, When you’re on holiday be on holiday. All other times, enjoy your phone.’

  Adrian narrowed his eyes.

  Katya leant her chin on her hand and said, ‘Like a kind of, enjoy your phone responsibly campaign?’

  ‘Yeah, if you want.’ Ella nodded.

  All eyes in the room turned and looked at Adrian.

  ‘I’m not convinced.’ he said in the end, ‘I just don’t think they’ll go for something that puts their brand in a negative light. It’s a clever idea, Ella, I like the setting. Can we have her on her phone, same setting but finding some hidden restaurant or private island because of augmented reality?’

  ‘But she’d be missing the view.’ Ella said, sitting forward in her chair. ‘That’s the whole point.’

  ‘You’ve been on holiday too long.’ Adrian laughed. ‘We’re selling the phone, not the view.’

  Ella was about to reply but paused, her mouth slightly open, and then when Adrian raised his eyebrows in expectation of her saying more she shook her head. ‘No you’re right. Crap idea. Someone else have a go.’

  As the others threw some more ideas around, Ella found herself staring off into space, her pen doodling on her pad. All she could see was Dimitri chucking her Blackberry into the wide blue water, his eagerness for her to enjoy what was right there in front of her. She thought about him coaxing her back so she’d make up with her mum. Constantly checking to make sure she was happy. Holding her hand and leading her to see the lemon trees warmed by the lights.

  All of it had been for her. To make her happier.

  He had pushed her to step back into her family, and he had waited on the outskirts making sure she didn’t trip.

  She looked at the work experience girl playing with her pompom pen, at Katya writing ‘augmented reality’ down on the flip chart, at Adrian, tired and pissed off, rubbing his hand across his forehead, at the shabby bunches of tinsel along the wall and the bunches of baubles that had come untied and been bashed and broken by people walking past. Then she glanced down at her pad and saw that she’d written: We’re selling the phone not the view and wondered what the hell she was doing there.

  CHAPTER 48

  MADDY

  Maddy was just driving back from breakfast having dropped Dimitri at the ferry port at the crack of dawn when she saw Ella step out of a taxi.

  ‘No, no, no.’ Maddy shouted from the window. ‘You can’t be here.’

  The air was heavy, the clouds hanging low, exhausted.

  Ella frowned then said, ‘It’s ok, Maddy. I’ll stay out of your way. I’m not here to upset you.’

  ‘No you idiot,’ Maddy sighed, ‘He’s gone to get you.’

  ‘Who’s gone to get me?’ Ella paid the taxi driver, opened her brolly against the drizzle and started to wheel her case over to where Maddy was sitting in the Jeep.

  ‘Dimitri! He’s on a plane.’

  ‘He can’t be.’

  Maddy scrunched up her face and said, ‘He is. He’s up there now.’

  They both glanced up at the sky, the rain pattering down lightly on the Ella’s umbrella.

  ‘Oh.’ Ella said and they just looked at each other, surrounded by the noise of water plinking on plastic, the swish of the windscreen wipers and the throaty growl of the Jeep engine.

  ‘Yeah, “Oh” is about right.’ Maddy had to hold in a smile. ‘Get in.’

  ‘No I can walk, it’s fine.’ Ella gave a little shake of her head.

  ‘Ella–’ Maddy drove forward a few feet as Ella started to walk away. ‘Get in the car.’

  ‘Honestly I can walk.’

  ‘You’re so stubborn.’ Maddy shouted as Ella got further away and the rain started to fall harder, pounding the drooping dead leaves of the bougainvillea and tapping on the cars parked along the roadside. ‘Can’t you see it’s over. We can make this over and done with.’

  She saw Ella’s pace slow. Recognised her outfit from one of the polaroids – straight legged blue jeans, yellow scooped-neck sweatshirt, yellow converse, beige trench-coat. Taking her foot off the brake, Maddy let the Jeep roll forward till it was level with Ella.

  ‘It’s over. It’s no one’s fault. We were little. I was little and stupid and selfish and you were a bit bigger and stubborn and stupid.’ Maddy paused, watched Ella’s lips tighten, saw her hand grip the brolly. ‘What is it Veronica would have said? This is our time to show whether we’re still spoiled children or finally grown women.’

  Maddy watched Ella’s head turn and held her breath.

  ‘I can’t believe you’re quoting Veronica.’

  Maddy exhaled on a laugh. ‘I know! Silly cow. No don’t look at me like that, we’ve made up, sort of. Well, we understand each other. Respect each other. I respect her. I don’t think she respects me. But–’ she shrugged. ‘What can you do?’ As they spoke, the rain was drenching the windscreen faster than the wipers could push it away. ‘So are you getting in or not?’ Maddy shouted above the sound of the downpour.

  Ella ran round to the boot and chucked in her case, then coming round to the passenger side flung open the door and clambered in.

  ‘Are you soaked?’ Maddy asked.

  ‘Not too bad.’ Ella said, pulling off her mac and throwing it onto the back seat.

  ‘So–’ Maddy grinned. ‘You and Dimitri, eh?’

  CHAPTER 49

  ELLA

  ‘Are you sure it’ll work?’ Ella asked Maddy nervously, pulling at the hem of her jumper.

  ‘It’ll work.’ Maddy nodded before heading into the kitchen to help their mum.

  As they’d driven up to the taverna in the Jeep and seen the look of surprise on Sophie’s face as the two of them jumped out, Maddy helping Ella with her case, Ella holding the brolly over both of them, the rain had stopped. Like God had clicked his fingers, just like that.

  Now Ella was sitting on her own at the end of the jetty. She was wearing her jeans, her St Christopher and a pale blue woollen jumper. It wasn’t an outfit that appeared in any of her polaroids. Maddy had sat on the bed the night before and tried her hardest to convince her to throw the outfit photos away, to start trusting her instinct. Ella was trialling the idea tentatively.

  Next to her on the jetty was a jam jar filled with hellebores, their p
ale pink leaves squashed together as she’d crammed in as many flowers as she could. Chilled retsina sat in a bucket decked with sprigs of olive and a handful of candles were dotted about, burning bright in the low winter sun. From the wooden post she’d tied a fishing line, the float bobbing in the water ahead of her. Next to the jam jar was another line, still in its plastic packet, the thread wound round an orange handle in the shape of a fish.

  Dimitri had texted Maddy to say that his plane landed back in Greece at one o’clock and that Ella’s neighbour had politely informed him that Ella was away for the foreseeable future. She had refused to tell him where. Maddy had clapped gleefully when she’d read the text and then rung Margery to congratulate her on her part in the conspiracy.

  Ella looked at her watch. It was now half past two. She felt a bit of a fool sitting there on her own. The clouds had started to drift across the sun taking the vague warmth of the afternoon with them.

  She shivered as she started to stand up, then looked embarrassed at the wine and the flowers.

  ‘I’m not doing this,’ she muttered and bent down to chuck the flowers into the sea.

  ‘Doing what?’ she heard a voice say as the little hellebores landed with a splash in the water and glancing up, she saw Dimitri ambling down the rickety wooden jetty, his bag discarded by the taverna, his eyes fixed on her, his expression wary like he’d been set up but quite enjoying the fact he had.

  ‘Were they for me?’ he asked.

  Ella swallowed, could barely meet his eyes, could feel her cheeks getting hot. ‘Would you have wanted them to be for you?’

  He laughed. Took a step closer towards her. ‘Yes.’ he said without hesitation. ‘Yes I would have wanted them to be for me.’

  ‘Oh.’ Ella said.

  ‘You came back.’ Dimitri said.

  ‘You went to get me.’

  He nodded.

  ‘Well here I am.’ Ella said, arms half outstretched. ‘This is me. No facade. No brave face. Nothing. You should know though, I’m quite annoying. I worry a lot and I get kind of frantic about stuff and I snore. It’s awful but I do. I just think I should tell you all this stuff up front. You know, just in case.’