Page 118 of Under the Mistletoe with You

She rolls her eyes, and hands him a carrier bag.Inside are a couple of rolls of frozen pastry.‘For the vegans,’ she says, by way of explanation.

Older people might find Tegan’s special brand of communication offensive or rude, but Christopher just accepts that she’s working on a different wavelength to him.She does areally good job with the customers so what does it matter if she’s a bit blunt with him on a one-to-one basis?Nash would definitely agree with Tegan that he’s a bit annoying, so he can hardly hold it against her.

Either way, this mostly non-verbal conversation seems to be the best he’s going to get for now, as she goes behind the counter and hangs her things up in their usual places.

‘Morning,’ Nash says, as he wanders in to start up the coffee machine, and he sees a flash of recognition cross Tegan’s face.

‘Hiya,’ she says, giving him a Tegan’s top-customer-service-level smile.‘I’m Tegan.’

‘Nash.Nice to meet you.’

‘Look at you trying to run an industrial coffee machine,’ Christopher smiles to Nash as he passes.

‘I’ll have you know I was a great little barista in my teens in between TV jobs, Calloway.When didyoustart working in customer service?Yesterday?’

This garners a smile from Tegan, and Christopher admittedly feels a little jealous as well as awkward.Of course he’d never worked in a café before.His first job when he was a teenager was doing data input for his dad.All his professional kitchen experience was from the internships he did as part of his course.‘I mean, yes, it was last year.’

‘Getting down with the plebs, aren’t you?’laughs Nash.

‘I don’t think ...plebs,’ he says, struggling to get the word out, ‘is a fixed category, and I think, Nash Nadeau, that as a man easily visible on all streaming services internationally, you might have transcended that class category.’

‘God, you lot really are obsessed with class, aren’t you?’

There are several tea towels within reach, and Christopher has a great desire to whip one into a rope and flick Nash with it.

‘Tegan, do you want a drink?’Nash asks the empty space where Tegan was previously standing.

They find her on the café side, picking up one chair at a time and moving it carefully to the edge of the room.

‘What is she doing?’whispers Nash.

‘I’m not sure,’ Christopher whispers back.Then, more loudly, he calls over to her, ‘Tegan, what are you doing?’

This garners a loud groan.‘I’ve been sent to help, haven’t I?I’m going to clean the floor and then I’ll set up the tables.No point moving stuff around first if the floor is covered in muddy footprints.’

‘It’s not—’ protests Christopher, but he sees that it is.All the stomping through from him and Nash over the past few days has left a spatter of muddy marks all over the centre of the café.‘Oh, it really is.And that would be a great help, Tegan.Thank you.’

She raises her eyebrows in a face that definitely meanswell yes obviously.‘The floor will need to dry and stuff, and setting everything up won’t take me that long, so if you need some help in the kitchen, just say.’

Normally, when she offers the help, Christopher bats it away.But he thinks of what his mother was saying about trust and delegation.Tegan has quite literally turned up on Christmas morning to help them out.There couldn’t really be a greater show of dedication.

‘Well, we were just about to start the loaves.I know you usually miss that part.Would you like to learn how to first?’

‘You’re not going to make me start coming here at four to make them, are you?’she asks warily.

‘No, I won’t,’ Christopher reassures her.

A beaming smile spreads across her face.‘In that case, yes please!’

Armed with fresh coffees, Christopher sets out a number of proving baskets, and flour on the central kitchen work surface.It’ll be so much quicker with two hands, even if one is learning on the go.

‘Can we have some music on?’Tegan asks.

‘I’ll be DJ,’ says Nash, pulling out his phone.He starts up a playlist of Christmas songs, which opens with an upbeat song about being nice from a Christmas movie, a deeplyironic choice from Nash Nadeau, a man who Christopher would never describe asnice.Charming, perhaps.Handsome, yes.But nice?Nice is too small a word.

‘Do you want to try, Nash?’

‘Sure.Three hands are quicker than two.’