Page 90 of Make You Mine This Christmas

Haf huffs. ‘Nothing!’

Ambrose interrupts this with a barking, ‘Ha!’

‘Look, I’m going to introduce you to someone but I need you to behave, you know. Be on book, so to speak.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You know, the scheme . . .’ she hisses.

‘Oh, don’t blow the fake-dating cover. Got it.’

‘I’m putting you on video, so be good.’

Ambrose appears on screen, dressed in a chic black coat.

‘Where are you?’ Haf asks. ‘Are you outside?’

‘Ugh. I am, can you believe it? Joanne insisted I take the cousins out for a bit of exercise, so I pointed them at the playground and hoped for the best. Luckily, I have a double espresso.’

‘Aren’t they teenagers? Isn’t that too old for a playground?’

‘Probably. Either way, they’re racing to see how many times they can slide down the slide in ten minutes so who am I to judge?’

Haf walks back into the room where Laurel runs her fingers through her hair and adjusts her outfit, brushing off lint that doesn’t exist. Haf sits down on a little velvet couch and Laurel joins her, so both of them are on screen. Unfortunately, Ambrose is busy yelling something at their rampaging cousins.

‘Hello, Ambrose. I love your style, I follow you on Insta,’ says Laurel, giving a little wave as Ambrose turns back to the phone.

‘Oh hey, you’re Laurel Howard, right?’

Blushing, Laurel flicks her hair over her shoulder. ‘That’s me.’

‘Nice to meet you. What are you doing with this dork? I accidentally let her out of her cage and now she’s on a rampage in the South.’

All at once Laurel and Haf say, ‘I’m making her a dress!’ and, ‘She’s making me a dress.’

They giggle, and Haf continues. ‘Laurel isvery kindlymaking me a dress for the Christmas party, which has turned out to be a literal ball, and as ever, I wanted your advice.’

‘Because you can’t dress yourself.’

‘I can. A bit. Sometimes. This is just beyond my usual.’

‘Okay, show me the goods.’

Haf tilts her phone camera down to her boobs.

‘Why do you always do that?’ Ambrose laughs.

Haf cackles at her own joke and hands the phone over to Laurel, who walks Ambrose through her design ideas. The topic quickly turns to recent designs from the catwalk or couture, and Haf is completely lost. Instead, she just runs her hand along all the fabric samples that are laid out on the table.

She needs to talk to Ambrose about what happened with Kit, but that will have to wait until later. Kit was rather conspicuously missing all morning, up and out the house with Esther before Haf was even awake. She knew she was probably being oversensitive, or worrying too much, but it felt purposeful. Like Kit was avoiding her. After all, she said she wasn’t an early riser.

The conversation soon slows down as Laurel holds different ideas up to the camera, and Ambrose makes very loud ‘hmmm’ thinking noises.

‘Show me the first one again?’

Laurel complies, and for a while, Ambrose is silent. They close their eyes and there’s a slight humming coming from the speakers.

‘What’s happening?’ whispers Laurel.