Chapter 44
Lili stood back in the dining room and admired the table, set with six places, each with a cracker, Santa napkin and wine glass.
She’d put out the condiments, and a box of mints to have after dessert with coffee.
A clementine and clove candle was lit on the sideboard and Christmas jazz played in the background.
Darkness was falling as she went to the French patio doors and bit on her fist. Silly really, but she felt excited, joyous, grateful…
This cottage hadn’t known much positivity in the last twelve months and it was almost too much.
A teacher at high school had taken Lili aside once.
She’d spotted that Lili had been crying in the toilets about her parents’ divorce.
‘Difficult things happen in life, Lydia,’ she’d said gently. ‘My boyfriend broke up with me the day before our engagement party. Not only that, but shortly after – only five years ago – I got diagnosed with cancer.’
Young Lili’s eyes had widened.
‘I’m telling you this because the way I coped was to follow a piece of advice my granddad gave me when I was little, which I’m passing on to you now.
He said that however bad things get, imagine yourself one year ahead, looking back on that difficult time.
It won’t seem as bad. I did that and it got me through.
And as fate would have it, that boyfriend turned out to be fiddling the tax office and went to prison – and my cancer was caught early.
I’m completely cured now.’ She’d patted Lili’s shoulder.
‘Time might not make you forget, but it will teach you how to get through and you’ll be stronger as a result. ’
The front door rang and Lili shook herself out of the past. She hoped Miss Brown was doing well now.
She hurried into the hallway, secretly pleased Dylan loved cooking so much and was happy for her just to help with the washing-up and arrange the table.
She smoothed down her Christmas jumper that had a reindeer with a lit-up nose on the front, a present from Dad last year.
She’d worn it on a video call with her parents, a couple of hours ago.
Not that either noticed; they were too busy looking at Dylan and quizzing him about his job, Italy, cooking…
He already had an invite up to Manchester in the New Year.
Lili opened the door. Tommo saluted and did a jig over the doorstep.
She took his biker jacket. Glenda came in next and slipped out of her anorak immediately to reveal a red blazer with gold buttons and green velvet trousers.
A necklace made of flashing fairy lights completed the festive combo.
She was talking to Meg’s gran, Elaine, about Meg’s vintage clothes business.
Elaine was saying that Glenda clearly had an eye for fashion and suggested the three of them got together to brainstorm further about Meg focusing on 1940s fashion.
Once inside, Elaine passed Lili a bottle of bubbly and a box of truffles.
‘They are from all of us,’ said Meg. ‘A big thank you.’
‘Thank you for coming over to Truro,’ said Lili.
Glasses of champagne accompanied chicken, beef, Yorkshire puddings, sprouts, parsnips, and roast potatoes.
And groans of contentment went around the table after the main.
Meg and Elaine had been served mini plates but had both gone back for seconds.
Gasps then sounded as everyone dug into the Tiramisu, creamy and decadent with a rum kick.
They toasted the chef with Bailey’s and mints, chatting about 2025, now it was coming to an end, the world events, personal ones.
Glenda went to fetch a glass of water, but the others could hear her starting to tidy up.
The guests went to get to their feet and help, but Lili gestured for them to sit down again and called Glenda in.
Lili topped up their Bailey’s glasses and raised hers in the air.
‘Here’s to the absent friends,’ she said.
‘My Alf. I miss him so much,’ said Elaine.
Meg raised her glass. ‘My parents. Especially at Christmas. I miss what could have been.’
Glenda nodded. ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about my parents lately too. They always put out a glass of sherry and a carrot on Christmas Eve.’
Tommo lifted his drink. ‘Joe, my sweetheart, Happy Christmas, hope you’ve found your favourite trifle where you are now. You always were the fruit to my custard.’
‘To Harry, the best brother a man could ever want. I should have said that more often.’
Lili gazed at the ceiling. ‘Em, I’ll always miss my sister from another mister.’ Her throat caught. ‘Love you.’
Tommo and Dylan cleared the table whilst Elaine and Meg volunteered to help Glenda with the dishes.
However, Lili tapped Meg’s shoulder and said to follow her upstairs.
She led her to Em’s room, barren and cold, the radiator switched off, the wardrobe and drawers empty, the bed stripped back to the mattress.
‘Em filled every room she walked into with so much colour,’ said Lili.
‘And jokes. Or a friendly punch if she thought you were being an idiot.’ Meg gave a sad smile. ‘What do you want to do with this room? Do you need a hand? I know you like recycling objects. You could move out the bed and…’
‘It’s yours if you want it.’
‘What?’ Meg stepped back.
‘I’ve spoken to the property owner. She’s happy for you to live here as long as your references are good and the rent gets paid.’
‘But I couldn’t afford?—’
‘We can travel into work together, and you’re learning to drive – until you pass you’ll have to catch the train on the days I’m off. But that should be doable, right?’
‘Lili, it would be a dream come true, thank you. But there’s no way I could afford the rent for a cottage like this. It’s in such a nice street.’
‘What are you looking to pay for a flat? Come on. Cards on the table.’
Meg stuttered a figure.
Lili shrugged. ‘Then that’s how much your rent is here. It feels like money down the drain, me continuing to pay the lot. You’re helping me out. I can’t promise how long I’ll be here though. I am hoping to buy in the next couple of years but?—’
‘God, I’d love to, Lili. You are so very kind, but…’ She sighed. ‘I can’t take charity.’
‘Quite right too,’ said Elaine crisply, and she walked into the room.
‘Gran! Were you eavesdropping?’
Elaine flushed pink. ‘I was going to use the bathroom but heard voices, and when I realised what Lili was suggesting…’ She folded her arms. ‘I’ll pay the difference so that Meg is responsible for half.
I can afford it. This is your future, Meg – a first rung on the renting ladder; a bit of independence.
I should have supported you long ago, and I’m sorry about that. ’
‘You’ve done more than enough over the years,’ Meg said, voice thick. She looked at the two women. ‘You’re both amazing, but it’s too much.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Lili. ‘If nothing else, trial it for six months. You can always keep looking for somewhere cheaper. I’ve nothing to lose.
In fact…’ Her voice wavered. ‘I’ve everything to gain.
I’ve always had Em, you see. I’ve never lived on my own until this last year, so we’re both in the same position, really. ’
Meg paused before stepping forwards and pulling them both into a group hug.
Lili went back downstairs, leaving Meg excitedly talking to her gran about the plans she had for the bedroom.
Glenda and Tommo were having a friendly argument in the lounge, over the pros and cons of watching the Call the Midwife festive special.
Dylan appeared at the kitchen doorway holding a tea towel, and she went over.
‘Everything okay?’ he asked.
She told him about Meg moving in.
‘No more Netflix and chilling at your place then,’ he said and pulled an injured face before grinning.
‘That’s a great idea. I bet she’s thrilled.
’ He brushed a strand of hair behind Lili’s ear.
‘And I’m thrilled too, spending today with the first person, in a long time, to remind me about the good things in life.
In fact, to make me think about what it means to be alive.
That poster of Harry’s didn’t have a pulse, couldn’t replicate or breathe, but it held memories and emotions and happiness – the most important aspects of living. ’
Lili reached up and ran a thumb across his cheek.
‘It has been a fab Christmas Day,’ she whispered.
‘And I can’t wait to see what next year brings.
I’ve spent the last twelve months looking backwards to the past, as if I’m flicking through photo albums, revisiting my teens, my childhood, all the times with Em…
but now it’s as if I’m looking forwards again, with empty photo albums waiting to be filled with new memories.
’ Lili stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the lips, heart pounding, heat rising, a vortex of lights in her head.
Shyly, she stepped back and took his hand.
‘I… I can’t promise anything about the future…
I’m scared of getting close, really close, to someone like I did with Em, in case I lose them as well.
But how about we take it one day at a time?
Will you stay another day, Dylan? With me? In my life?’
Dylan took her other hand. ‘Nothing would make me happier, Lydia Taylor, than if you’d stay another day with me as well.’
And in that moment it felt as if there was no one else in the house apart from them. Nor in the street. Nor in Truro.
Apart from at the kitchen window where a robin peered in, against a backdrop of falling snow that the humans hadn’t noticed yet.
The small bird tilted its head and watched the couple, before it did a happy dance and flew away, a flash of red across the patio lights that disappeared into snow clouds for good.