Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

by Carla Burgess

  ‘All right.’ Emily looked at me and shrugged. Ava woke up and started to cry, her little fists flailing above the sides of the pram.

  ‘Oh dear!’ Pamela cooed, rising to her feet and reaching for the baby. ‘Oh dear, oh dear!’

  ‘Mum lives in New York usually, so she can’t get enough of Ava when she comes over to visit.’

  ‘I might move back,’ Pamela said, lifting the baby into her arms and kissing the top of her head. ‘I miss you and your mummy so much, don’t I, little one?’

  The baby stopped crying and looked around her with wide, dark eyes.

  ‘She’s beautiful,’ I said. ‘How old is she?’

  ‘Four months.’

  ‘Is she good?’

  ‘She’s amazing. She only wakes to feed once in the night and then sleeps through.’

  ‘She looks like her daddy, doesn’t she?’ Pamela said, glancing up at her daughter.

  ‘She does,’ Emily said fondly, stroking her daughter’s downy head. ‘Does your mum want a hold?’

  ‘Ooh, yes, please!’ Mum appeared in the doorway, looking delighted. We all laughed as she held her arms out for the baby. ‘She’s beautiful. I think it’s time I had a grandchild, Rachel.’

  ‘Well, considering I haven’t even got a boyfriend, I think you’ll be waiting quite a while.’

  ‘This time last year, Emily didn’t have a boyfriend either,’ Pamela laughed. ‘I think I told you the story the last time I was in, didn’t I? She asked him to pretend to be married to her over Christmas while I was visiting. God knows why she thought she had to pretend to be married; I’m not that fierce! But it’s a good job she did, because they fell in love. Isn’t that sweet?’

  ‘Awww, that’s lovely,’ I said.

  ‘There you go, Rachel! Rachel’s had a bit of a disaster in her house and is actually staying with a friend.’ She winked at me. ‘You never know what could develop between you and Anthony over Christmas.’

  ‘I don’t think so, Mother.’ I bent over the file to work out the balance owing on Emily’s flowers and tried to block out the cute baby snuffles. She really was beautiful and my insides were turning to mush. ‘Come on, Rachel. You hold her now,’ Mum said, when I’d finished writing out the invoice.

  ‘Me? I don’t know anything about babies.’

  ‘It’s easy. Here, you stay there and I’ll pass her to you.’ I sat obediently while Mum placed baby Ava into my arms. Her warm softness made me want to weep. She looked up at me and smiled.

  ‘Oh, look at her,’ I said, melting instantly. ‘She’s absolutely gorgeous.’

  ‘Ha ha! Is she making you broody?’ Pamela asked.

  ‘I think so!’ I said, tears welling in my eyes. I blinked them away before anyone saw. ‘She’s too cute. I can’t take it.’

  ‘What do we owe on the flowers?’ Emily leaned over to look at the invoice, which I’d lost all interest in. She could have walked out without paying for all I cared at that moment. ‘Okay, I’ll just nip to the bank next door if that’s okay? Mum can stay here with you and the baby.’

  ‘Okay, darling.’ Pamela sat back down and crossed her legs. ‘I can’t wait until the wedding. I’ve waited years for her to get married.’

  ‘She’s not that old, is she?’

  ‘Thirty-five.’

  ‘That’s not old.’

  ‘No, I suppose not. It’s all worked out well for her. Better than for me, anyway. I got married two years ago, but I’ll be lucky if we see another year out together. We split up last Christmas, then I gave him another chance but it’s not going well. Did he come in here last week? He bought me some flowers? Guilt flowers, I call them.’ She rolled her eyes.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I don’t think so.’

  Pamela shrugged and looked across at me, still holding baby Ava, and smiled. ‘You look good holding a baby.’

  I laughed and resumed gazing lovingly at the little bundle of warmth in my arms. Her eyes had closed again and she’d drifted off to sleep.

  The back door opened and Anthony appeared. He looked startled to see me holding a baby in my arms. I was too enamoured with Ava to do anything other than smile at him in a slightly dipsy manner.

  ‘Hi, Anthony,’ Mum said. ‘I thought you were at work?’

  ‘I am. I just popped in to see Bobbi.’

  ‘She’s just nipped to the shop for some teabags for us. She’ll be back in a minute.’

  ‘Oh, right. I just had some mince she might be able to use. Shall I put it in the fridge?’

  ‘Okay. Are you going away?’ I asked, slightly confused.

  ‘No, but it was two for one and we’ll never eat all of them.’

  ‘You could always freeze it,’ Pamela suggested, turning to look at him. ‘Ooh, what a beautiful man you are. My, isn’t he handsome? Like a film star.’

  ‘Oh yes, he is very handsome,’ Mum agreed.

  I laughed at Anthony, who looked slightly embarrassed.

  ‘Right, on that note, I’ll be off,’ he said, making a sharp exit through the door.

  ‘That’s the man she’s staying with over Christmas,’ Mum told Pamela. ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if the same thing happened to her as to your Emily.’

  ‘Oh yes, we’ll keep our fingers crossed for you, my darling.’ Pamela reached over and squeezed my hand just as Emily walked in the door. ‘Shall I take Ava? I’ll put her back in her pram.’

  Slightly reluctantly, I passed the baby back to Pamela and accepted the money for the flowers. We finalised the arrangements for when and where the flowers would be delivered, and said goodbye.

  ‘Aren’t they lovely?’ Mum said as the door shut behind them. ‘I hope Pamela does move back over here. I’d love to see her again.’

  I laughed and started a list of what we’d need for Emily’s wedding flowers. Just then, Bobbi came back with the teabags, looking frozen.

  ‘Are you all right, Bobbi? You’ve been ages.’

  ‘Oh yeah, sorry. The shop was dead busy and then I took a phone call.’ She frowned, but didn’t elaborate, so Mum told her about Anthony’s mince and she looked delighted, practically running to the fridge to check it out. ‘I’ll be able to make a cottage pie. My brother will be dead pleased. Tell Anthony thank you from me.’

  ‘Will do.’

  ‘How are you getting on, living together?’

  ‘Fine.’

  Mum and Bobbi exchanged a look. ‘He’s invited her to a ball.’

  ‘Really? That’s exciting!’ Bobbi’s eyes lit up. ‘What are you going to wear?’

  ‘I have no idea. Do you think I should dye my hair back blonde? I’ve been thinking about it for a while but I’m not sure.’

  ‘No!’ Bobbi looked outraged. ‘Your red hair is part of who you are. You always look amazing.’

  ‘Thank you. But I feel like a change.’ I wrinkled my nose thoughtfully. ‘So many crap things have happened, I’m starting to feel like a change could be good.’

  ‘Well, blonde is your natural colour,’ Mum said. ‘But everyone’s so used to seeing you as a redhead now, it might be quite a shock. Especially so close to Christmas.’

  ‘What’s Christmas got to do with it? Are you suggesting I keep my hair red so that I match Santa?’

  ‘Not at all. But it’s never a good idea to make a big change before a big event. What if you don’t like it? Besides, you probably won’t be able to get an appointment now.’

  I frowned. Maybe she had a point. Besides, I knew my main reason for wanting to do it was for Anthony’s ball. I had a vision of descending a spiral staircase in a shimmering gold dress, blonde hair swept up. The crux of it was, I wanted to impress Anthony. I imagined him on his knees, declaring his love and desire to spend eternity with me. Yeah, like that was ever going to happen. I shook my head and stood up. ‘You’re right. It’s a stupid idea.’

  Anthony was gorgeous, though. And kind. He really seemed to care about people. The
meat he’d brought for Bobbi, for example, and his refusal to let my parents reduce his rent while I was staying. He was lovely. When I went back into the flat later, he’d moved the tree from the hall and placed it in a stand in front of the arched window in his lounge, ready for me to decorate. Its sweet scent filled the flat and I felt excited as I collected my bag of Christmas baubles from my bedroom and started to decorate it.

  Anthony arrived back from work that evening to find me sitting in front of the tree, staring up in awe. The red and gold glass baubles caught the light of the golden fairy lights as they revolved slowly on their cotton threads. I’d turned the rest of the lights off so it was just the tree that was aglow. I felt like a child again.

  ‘Are you worshipping that tree or something?’

  I jumped. ‘Oh! I didn’t hear you come in.’ I scrambled up, searching the darkness for the shape of him. He stepped forward so he was included in the glow of the tree, his face in shadow. ‘I’ve just finished. Put the light on if you like.’

  He switched on the lamp on the side table so the flat was cast in a cosy glow. I smiled at him. ‘Thanks for bringing the tree up.’

  He shrugged. ‘It looks nice.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I said, pleased.

  ‘So, I hear your dad’s blown up the microwave?’

  ‘How did you hear that?’

  ‘Your mum told me earlier.’

  ‘She’s not very happy about it. And I feel bad because Dad seems to be more interested in my house than fixing his kitchen.’

  Anthony laughed lightly. ‘You can do Christmas here, if you like?’

  I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly at first. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Why not?’ He shrugged. ‘Your family own it, after all.’

  ‘But you’re paying rent on it, Anthony. It’s yours for however long you want to stay here.’

  He shrugged. ‘I’ll be at work so it won’t matter to me.’

  ‘But what if we’re all sat round playing charades still when you get home from work? Won’t that piss you off?’

  ‘Not really. I’ll just join in. Unless you’re saying I can’t play. Then I’ll be pissed off.’

  I laughed. ‘Of course, you could play, but you hate Christmas. It brings back bad memories for you.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean I want to wreck everyone else’s Christmas. I’m not The Grinch, you know.’ He took off his jacket and laid it over the sofa. ‘I’ll be at work. It makes no difference to me what you do here.’

  I got up and went to hug him. His shirt was smooth next to my cheek, his chest hard underneath. I breathed him in. ‘Thank you.’

  He put a hand on top of my head. ‘You’re welcome.’

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘I can’t believe Anthony’s letting us use the flat for Christmas Day,’ Mum said. ‘Isn’t that lovely of him!’

  ‘Especially as he doesn’t celebrate Christmas.’

  ‘I know, bless him.’ Mum had been Christmas shopping and had popped into the shop for a chat. Bobbi was working quietly in the back room. She’d been really quiet all day, in fact. ‘I hope we don’t stir up bad memories for him.’ She peered into the back room at Bobbi then lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘You have asked Bobbi to come for Christmas, haven’t you?’

  ‘Of course I have. You know you’re welcome, don’t you, Bobbi?’ I said, raising my voice.

  ‘Yes,’ she called, her voice quavering slightly.

  Mum frowned. ‘Is she all right?’ she whispered.

  I shrugged. ‘I don’t know. She’s been quiet all day.’

  Leaving her bags on the floor by the till, she marched into the back to see Bobbi. ‘Bobbi? Are you okay?’

  The door opened and a customer came in, preventing me from going in to see what was wrong with Bobbi. Instead, I moved Mum’s bags behind the till and answered the customer’s questions about wedding flowers. It was difficult maintaining a cheerful, knowledgeable manner when I knew something was going on in the back. Weddings were our main source of income, though, so it was crucial I concentrated on the customer. I kept hearing sniffly noises and my Mum talking in soothing tones, so I guessed Bobbi was crying. As soon as the lady left, I went into the back room to see what was going on.

  Mum looked at me with big, anxious eyes. ‘Bobbi’s in a spot of bother.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Fear shot through me as I looked at Bobbi’s tearful face.

  ‘She borrowed some money to buy some Christmas presents. Only a hundred pound. But now they’re asking for double that amount back.’

  ‘Who did you borrow money from, Bobbi?’

  ‘A woman up the road. She was always dead nice. She offered me it. She said I could pay it back gradually.’

  ‘But now she’s pressurising you to pay it all back?’

  ‘I changed my mind about it after hearing a rumour about her, so I took the hundred pounds back, but she says I owe more because of interest.’

  ‘How much?’

  ‘Ten pounds a day. So now I owe another fifty on top of the hundred I originally borrowed, but I haven’t got that extra fifty pounds, so that’s just going to go up and up and up. She says if I don’t make the payments, she’ll send her son round.’

  ‘Oh my God! Bobbi! So, is she some kind of loan shark?’

  Bobbi nodded. ‘That’s what I heard. I’m so stupid. I always thought she was just nice and friendly.’

  I covered my face with my hands. ‘But that’s not legal, is it? Can’t you go to the police?’

  Bobbi shook her head, looking scared. ‘There’s no way I’m going to the police. And don’t be telling Anthony about this either. If the police get involved and they find out it was me who told them, there’ll be hell to pay.’

  ‘Not if they all get locked away, Bobbi.’

  Bobbi shook her head. ‘That’s never going to happen. They’ve been operating for years, apparently. I was talking to my next-door neighbour and she told me people all over the place owe them money. Some of them borrowed just a small amount but now owe thousands of pounds. What if that happens to me? I can’t afford anything over what I’m paying already.’

  ‘So, how much are they saying you owe?’

  ‘Yesterday it was fifty. Today it’s sixty. Tomorrow it’s seventy.’

  ‘So how does that work? What kind of interest rate is that?’ Mum asked.

  I gave her a look. ‘I think they just charge what they like, Mum. They’re not exactly regulated.’ I looked back at Bobbi. ‘So, if I give you the money and you pay it off, they’ll leave you alone?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Bobbi looked slightly panicked. ‘I hope so. But you shouldn’t have to give me the money.’

  ‘I’m not letting you be threatened by scumbags like that, and you can’t pay more than what you’re being charged now. How can they do that to you? It’s inhuman. Don’t they know what you’ve been through.’

  ‘No, but Rachel, you can’t give me the money.’ Bobbi started to cry, big tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘You don’t understand. I don’t deserve any money from you. I’m not worth it.’

  ‘What do you mean, Bobbi? Of course you deserve it. What you don’t deserve is to be bullied and threatened by vile people who make a living out of exploiting the vulnerable.’

  She shook her head, covering her mouth. ‘I don’t. I haven’t been going to college, Rachel. I’m sorry. You pay for me to go, and I haven’t been going.’

  I frowned, not comprehending what she was telling me. ‘Of course you go to college, Bobbi. You go every Tuesday.’

  She shook her head again. ‘I haven’t been going. Tuesday’s the only day I can get to the foodbank. So you see, you should be sacking me, not trying to pay my debts for me.’

  She started to sob and I went over and hugged her. ‘I’m not going to sack you, Bobbi,’ I said, tears welling in my own eyes. ‘If you can’t get to college, you can’t get to college, and that’s that. I just w
ish you’d been able to tell me. We could see about deferring your course, maybe? I certainly don’t want to lose you from the shop. You’re far too good a florist.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Bobbi pulled away slightly and looked at me, her eyes huge with disbelief.

  ‘Of course.’ I looked at my mum, who was standing by, looking distraught. She nodded.

  ‘We’ll pay this horrible woman off for you. But I think you should consider reporting them somehow. Anonymously, obviously. You don’t want to leave a trail that leads back to you.’

  Bobbi sniffled and shook her head. ‘I really don’t want to be involved with any of it.’

  ‘So, if you go tonight and give her the extra seventy pounds, that should do it, shouldn’t it?’

  Bobbi nodded. ‘I really don’t think it’s fair that you should pay, though.’

  ‘It’s not fair that anyone should pay those rates, but if that’s what it takes to get her off your back then we’ll do it.’

  Bobbi looked bewildered that we should do this for her. Mum made her a cup of tea and she sat tearfully drinking it while I went to the cashpoint up the road. It horrified me that she had been so desperate she’d borrowed money off a loan shark. Thank goodness she’d seen sense and given most of the money back within a short amount of time. It could have been so much worse for her.

  Paying off this debt didn’t solve the rest of her problems, though. It didn’t help her buy food or presents for Christmas. It didn’t help her get to college on a Tuesday. It didn’t make her mum better. I wondered if there was another foodbank she could use on a different day so she didn’t have to miss college. I could pay her travel expenses, too. They had to be a factor in why she hadn’t been attending. I was so stupid not to have realised it before, but the college was a train journey away and then a bus. It wasn’t exactly around the corner.

  I discussed it with my mum later on, after Bobbi had gone home. Mum wanted to go with her to see the woman, but Bobbi had told her she was better off going alone. I hoped she was right and that the woman would set her free. I’d given her one hundred in the end, just in case she demanded more than they’d agreed. People like that couldn’t be trusted to keep their word. Mum didn’t have the answers either, and it made us sad that Bobbi was going through this.