Single All The Way by Portia MacIntosh

Author:Portia MacIntosh [MacIntosh, Portia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2022-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

18

Standing on Ben’s doorstep takes me right back to when I was a kid, knocking to see if Eleanor was there, but secretly hoping that it would be Ben who opened the door. I can feel those same nervous butterflies going crazy inside my stomach today.

It’s not quite dark yet, so Gerry’s Christmas lights aren’t turned on. If he takes his lights as seriously as my dad does, which I’m almost certain he does, then I imagine he’ll have his lights on a timer too, ensuring that they always come on as soon as it gets dark – God forbid they miss a second of night-time without their lights shining brightly. Gerry’s Christmas lights might not be switched on yet, but the large snowman ornament on their front lawn is impossible to miss. It’s just your classic depiction of a snowman, nothing too wild, but it’s taller than I am – it’s really quite creepy, with its piercing black coal-shaped eyes and its twisted twig mouth. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.

Today it is positively freezing outside. No snow has fallen but there’s still plenty of it left on the ground, so I’m all wrapped up in my long coat, my Ugg boots, and a scarf so big it might technically be a blanket. I’ve only just taken my gloves off, to knock on the door at Ben’s parents’ house, and already I can feel the cold creeping up into my sleeves. I’m definitely more suited to living somewhere warm, like the Caribbean, I’m sure, but I’m still more than happy to move back to the cold north. I really hope Rex can make this work for me.

I place my gloves in my handbag while I wait for someone to answer the door. I wish I’d touched up my lipstick before I knocked, then again, it isn’t that long since I put it on, it took me a literal minute to walk here. I don’t know why I feel so nervous.

Eventually, Ben answers the door. I can’t hide my smile.

‘Hello, Dani,’ he says. ‘Come in, come in.’

‘Oh, wow, I love what your mum has done with the decorations,’ I tell him.

Just like in my parents’ house, Ben’s dad handles the decorations outside but inside is all his mum. Not dissimilar to my mum’s efforts, their large banister is wrapped in a Christmas garland. Ben’s mum, however, has attached Christmas cards to hers, leaving a trail of them all the way up the stairs. My mum would never do this because she has a Christmas-tree-shaped frame, custom-made, for attaching greetings cards to so that they look like a Christmas tree. It’s absolutely gorgeous and seriously cool but, unless you live in a village where everyone knows everyone, you might worry about not getting enough cards to make up all the branches. I can safely say that I would maybe just about cover the top of the tree, and that would be it.

‘I’ll be sure to tell her you said so,’ Ben replies.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.