Chapter 11 #2
‘Oh, they have electrical appliances and cars and everything. And they wear normal clothes with zippers and all that.’
‘So not Amish at all, then.’
‘I said they’re like Amish. But theirs is more of a choose-your-own-adventure type of religion.’
‘And the adventure they’ve chosen is no TV? I definitely don’t want to go to their house for Christmas, then. They sound like weirdos.’
‘They’re not weirdos,’ Mary said crossly. ‘They’re lovely. And Carmel is a brilliant cook.’
‘Anyway, E.T. is on tomorrow, and I want to watch it. You don’t have the monopoly on Christmas traditions, you know.’ He sounded like a petulant child.
Damn! She’d gone too far and shot herself in the foot with that one. Watching E.T. was a Christmas tradition at the O’Sullivans’ too.
‘We can record it.’ She decided to appeal to his sense of decency – if he had any. ‘My mum’s having a bunch of your people over for Christmas. The least you can do is return the favour to one of her family,’ she said, pointing to herself.
He frowned. ‘What do you mean “my people”? I don’t have “people”.’
‘A woman called Magda from your building, and Arnold—’
His eyebrows shot up. ‘Arnold?’
‘He’s your doorman.’
‘I know who he is, thank you. Your mom’s having them for Christmas dinner? In my apartment?’
‘Yes.’
He shook his head, baffled. ‘Look, you can do whatever you want – go to dinner at the O’Sullivans’, whatever. You don’t need me to tag along.’
‘Oh, but I do. I promised Mum I’d take you. I’d never hear the end of it if I abandoned you on Christmas Day.’
‘Tell her it’s what I want.’
‘She won’t believe that.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I already tried it.’
‘Well, you can lie – say I went to the O’Sullivans’ with you. You don’t want me there anyway.’
‘And you think she won’t find out? Carmel is her best friend. Besides,’ she admitted, ‘I do want you to come. I wouldn’t feel right leaving you on your own here on Christmas Day.’
‘Why does everyone make such a big deal of it? It’s one day.’
‘Exactly. So what’s the big deal about spending it with me? It’ll be fun. The O’Sullivans are really nice and Carmel’s going to so much trouble. She’s already made you a personalised place setting.’
‘So you’ve told her who I am?’ He frowned.
‘Calm down. She knows your name is Evan. Lots of people are called Evan. Look, just come along to the O’Sullivans’, wear a paper hat, pull a few crackers and then I’ll leave you alone, I promise.’
‘You literally promised that last night and you’re already breaking it.’
She shook her head. ‘I promised I wouldn’t put you out if you were on fire. Lucky for you, we haven’t had the chance to test that out yet.’
There was a slight twitch of amusement on his lips. ‘Touché.’
‘Thank you.’
‘But just to be clear, you have my permission to hose me down if I should catch on fire while I’m here.’
That brought a distracting image to Mary’s mind of a very wet Evan, who’d somehow caught fire while naked.
‘Listen, I told Sheena I didn’t want to socialise while I’m here, and I’m sure she meant well, planning all this, but she’ll understand if—’ He broke off as Mary stifled a gasp. ‘What?’
‘Nothing.’ She’d forgotten Evan had spoken to her mother. That gave her an idea. She stifled a wicked smile and sighed heavily. ‘Okay, you win. I’ll tell Carmel you can’t go and hope she won’t be too offended. Mum’s going to be so disappointed, though.’
Evan blinked, looking slightly panicked. ‘Sheena? Why? What does it matter to her?’
‘Because she thinks you’re a lovely young man and she’s gone out of her way to make sure you have a nice Christmas. But like you say, I’m sure she’ll understand. I think it’d be better coming from you, though.’
Evan swallowed hard. ‘Me?’
‘Yeah, she won’t take my word for it. She’ll think I’m just trying to ditch you. So I’ll call Carmel and you can talk to Mum. You have her number, right?’
‘Um… yes. But I don’t want to—’ He grimaced, his eyes tightening.
‘Just let her down gently, okay? Think up a good excuse and try not to hurt her feelings.’
Evan was silent for a moment. ‘I mean, I don’t want to hurt her feelings.’ He sighed. ‘I suppose I could go to this dinner with you, if it means that much to her. But that’ll be it, right?’
‘Well, unless you want to—’ She bit her lip. Maybe now wasn’t the time to mention going to the pub tonight. She’d have to coax him along a little at a time like a recalcitrant toddler.
‘What?’
‘Um… I was just going to say that we usually go to the pub on Christmas Eve.’ He looked mutinous and she could tell she was pushing her luck. ‘You don’t have to come if—’
‘I know.’
‘I wasn’t finished. I was going to say you’re welcome to come, but no pressure. Just give me tomorrow and I won’t ask you to do anything else.’
He narrowed his eyes at her. ‘You said the other night that I wouldn’t even know you’re here. I can’t say that’s working out great so far.’
‘Well, I’ll leave you alone from now on. You can do whatever you want – mope around the place, go for broody walks on the beach or whatever you were planning to do.’
He gave her a wary look. ‘Promise?’
‘Scout’s honour.’ She blessed herself.
‘Uh-uh.’ He shook his head. ‘That’s not how you do Scout’s honour. I think maybe I should get it in writing. I am not having this fight with you every day.’
‘I wouldn’t call this a fight, would you?’
‘I just did. What would you call it?’
She shrugged. ‘An exchange of ideas. Maybe an argument at worst. But okay, I’ll draw something up.
In the meantime – deal?’ She extended her hand and they shook.
His warm hand in hers sent an unexpected tingle through her.
It was just as well she’d be avoiding him for most of their time here.
The last thing she needed was to start fangirling over him.
‘Okay, I’m going to ring Carmel back with the good news.’