Chapter Four #2
What had she done? Groaning, she rocked back on her ankles and forced herself to look over her shoulder.
The Christmas tree! That had been what the loud thud had been.
It had tilted precariously, saved by the table beside it.
Leaning heavily against the table and chairs, it tilted precariously, an inch or two away from having fallen completely.
From what she could see, no one was hurt.
The table having saved the tree from falling complexly had also saved the customers sitting on the next table from ending up crushed by the weight of the top branches, being able to walk away unscathed, albeit with pine needles in their lattes.
A shiny red bauble rolled towards her, coming to rest beside her foot. What had even happened? She’d felt something tug on the toe of her trainer; she must have got caught on something, which had then resulted in this chaos.
She felt the stark heat of embarrassment sweep across her face as she heard footsteps rushing towards her.
‘Merri! Are you okay, Merri?’ Tilly raced towards her behind the bakery counter, shortly followed by Teresa, Brook and Diane.
‘What was...?’ The kitchen door swung open as Elsie emerged, her face ashen as she hurried forward. ‘Merri, Love. Are you hurt?’
Fighting back the urge to cover her face with her hands, cry or leg it out of there, Merri nodded instead. ‘I’m okay. Sorry, I...’
‘Oh, love, I don’t need your apology, I just need to know if you’re hurt or not.’ Kneeling beside her, Elsie looked at her, concern etched on her face. ‘Are you sure you’re not hurt?’
‘No, I’m really not. I’m okay. I don’t think the same can be said of your tree though.’ She grimaced as a group of people, Brooke, Diane, Teresa, Tilly and the customers who had been in the bakery at the time gathered around her.
‘Elsie, where’s the blue icing?’ Pippa’s voice rose above the chatter as she forced her way through the group of people before coming to a stop in front of Elsie and Merri. ‘Oh, Santa’s not going to be very happy.’
A wave of laughter swept across the crowd and, despite her dented, not cratered, pride, Merri joined in, and as Teresa turned and ushered Pippa back into the kitchen, the crowd began to disperse. She must remember to thank little Pippa before she left for her holiday.
‘That’s it. Give us some space. Diane, you go and carry on serving before we end up with a queue a mile long, and Brooke and Tilly, you set the Christmas tree right.
’ Standing up, Elsie waved her hands in various directions, dispersing the crowd, and slowly the customers went back towards the bakery counter to wait to be served whilst the people who had been sitting headed back to their tables, the show over.
‘We’ll help you with the tree.’ Nick and Gabby got to work setting the tree back up.
‘Thank you, loves. Now that’s being taken care of, Tilly, can you go back and help Diane, please and, Brooke, love, can you get this lovely pair a couple of fresh drinks, minus lametta and pine needles, please?’ Elsie indicated the couple who had narrowly escaped being squashed by the tree.
‘Coming right up.’ As she hurried towards the coffee and cake counter, she paused in front of Merri and held her hand out. ‘Do you want a hand getting up?’
‘Thanks.’ Taking Brooke and Elsie’s hands, Merri let herself be pulled to standing before she smoothed down her bunched apron.
She felt it. She could feel wet patches from the spilt drinks on her jeans, and the palms of her hands hurt from the fall.
She hardly dared look around and really take in the mess she’d created.
The kitchen door was pushed open, and Pippa peered out into the bakery. ‘Nanna Elsie! nanna Elsie! The oven’s beeping.’
‘The pasties.’ Glancing from Merri to Pippa and back, Elise frowned.
‘You go. I’m fine. I’ll get cleaned up here.’ Merri forced a smile.
‘No, you need to go and get yourself sorted and have a bit of a sit down after all this. You’ve taken quite the fall. Besides, Teresa will have everything under control in the kitchen for a few moments.’
‘Nanna Elsie! Something’s burning, and Mum’s outside.’ Joining Pippa at the kitchen door, Rueben pushed it open a little further, the sound of the beep from the oven filtering into the bakery.
‘Outside. Oh dear, I’d better go and see what’s going on. Are you sure you’ll be okay?’ Elsie frowned.
‘Yes, honestly, I’m okay. You go.’ Merri nodded towards Rueben and Pippa.
‘Okay. Make sure you take some time out. Grab a cuppa and put your feet up for a few minutes.’ Elsie looked pointedly at her before hurrying into the kitchen.
As Brooke knelt to pick up the dropped crockery, Merri leaned her hand on the counter, suddenly feeling a bit shaky from the shock of falling.
‘Careful, you’ve got something wrapped around your ankle.’
Turning, Merri watched as the man who had come in with Gabby and Nick hurried towards her, pointing towards her feet.
Looking down, she gulped as she saw a string of fairy lights trailing from her ankle.
That’s what had happened then, she must have got them caught around her, which had then pulled the whole tree down. Yikes!
‘Let me.’ Kneeling down, the man gently unravelled the lights from around her foot before throwing them in the direction of the Christmas tree and straightening his back again.
‘Thank you. I hadn’t realised. I must have got myself caught in them when I was walking and then.
..’ She flailed her arm around her, taking in the shards of crockery Brooke was cleaning up, the tree Nick and Gabby were straightening and the splatters of discarded drinks covering her apron and jeans.
‘I’m such an idiot. How could I not have noticed? ’
‘It’s easily done. I work over at Nick’s Christmas tree farm, and I’ve lost count of the number of trees I’ve had over.’ He chuckled at himself, a small dimple forming in his left cheek. ‘And that’s when I haven’t been felling them intentionally.’
‘Still, at least that’s out in the open. I dread to think what would have happened if the table hadn’t stopped the tree in time.’ She glanced towards the couple who had ended up with ruined drinks. If the tree had landed on them...
‘No, not always. Last week I had the tree down in the shop, and that created a mess, I can tell you. Whole baskets of baubles waiting to be sold were destroyed, along with an almost life-sized ceramic nutcracker.’ He shook his head.
‘Oh.’ She smiled. ‘It sounds as though you might just be as clumsy as I am then.’
‘At least ten times clumsier from what I’ve seen of your work here today. You’ve got nothing on me.’ He chuckled again before holding out his hands towards her. ‘I’m Felix, Nick's cousin.’
She quickly wiped her hand down the front of her apron, hoping to get as much cold coffee off her skin as she could before she took his hand. His skin was warm against hers, his handshake strong. ‘Nice to meet you, Felix. I’m Merri.’
‘Merri? What a lovely name.’ Felix grinned.
‘Thanks. A gift from my mum.’ Merri smiled as they locked eyes. There was something there, something kind, something...
‘I’ll just run these out into the kitchen and then come back to serve.’ Brooke glanced over her shoulder towards her as she stood, the floor now clear of debris and shards of ceramic.
‘Okay, thanks.’ Reluctantly lowering her hand from his grasp, she looked down at herself. ‘I should probably go and get cleaned up.’
‘Well, it was nice to meet you, Merri.’ Felix nodded. ‘Hope to see you around.’
‘You too.’ As she began walking towards the door behind the bakery counter, which led to Elsie and Ian’s flat above, she looked over her shoulder to see Felix helping Gabby and Nick collect baubles and ornaments from the floor surrounding the Christmas tree.
She really did hope she would see him again.