Page 133 of Under the Mistletoe with You

Hopefully, he’ll be okay.The cat is curled up at the bottom of the bed, and gives him a look as if to sayI’ve got this.

So, he gets dressed and makes himself a tea, picking at the plate of leftovers from last night while the teabag stews.Boxing Day is always such a strange day if there’s nothing planned, a quick slide into the blur of Betwixtmas.Last year’s was a little chaotic, so he’s ready for a quiet day at least.

Downstairs, the bakery is so clean and tidy that he could have sworn he dreamed yesterday.The only sign that Christmas Day happened at all is yet more leftovers in plastic containers in the fridge.He’ll have to find a way to redistribute those today, if he can.

And that’s when he remembers that he never baked the gingerbread.He’d been so insistent on making it on Christmas Eve when they were both so tired, and yet he didn’t bake it at all.Is this perhaps his first ever Christmas without doing a gingerbread house before the actual big day?Well, nothing about this Christmas is particularly normal, he supposes.

With nothing better to do, he takes the clingfilm-wrapped gingerbread dough from the fridge and slowly starts rolling it out, ready to cut it into shapes.There’s more than enough for a small house, and he can also make a bunch of reindeer to give to everyone who helped yesterday.Plus, they’ll make a nice treat for Nash.

While he’s rolling the dough out, his phone buzzes.It’s Kit checking in again, after the panic of the reporters yesterday, and so he makes the decision to just video-call rather than get his phone all sticky.

Her sleepy face appears on screen, hair still sleep-mussed.‘Morning.Are you baking?’

‘The gingerbread.’

He hears a chorus of groans.‘Noooo, I’m so sad I didn’t get to eat it,’ whines Haf.‘Also why are you up and dressed?It’s Boxing Day.Go back to bed, you weirdo.’

‘Unless ...’says Kit raising her eyebrows.

‘Yes he’s in there still and no it’s not what you think.’

‘I highly doubt that.’

‘Plus it’s lunchtime.But, actually,’ he says, setting down the reindeer-shaped cutter.‘Erm, he wasn’t very well.I don’t want to go into specifics because I don’t know if it’s public but it’s—’

‘A disability thing,’ Kit says, but it isn’t a prompt for more information.She just gets it.

‘I just want to make sure I was looking after him okay.’

‘Did you follow what he said to do?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Then you’re okay.Just keep doing that.And maybe, you know, dial down on the you.’

‘The me?’he startles a little.He can’t help it.

‘You know.The worrying thing,’ Kit drawls.

‘Oh,’ he says, blushing.He starts measuring out the sides of the house, slicing fine tracing grooves into the dough while he makes sure he’s doing it right.

She softens.‘I don’t mean you’re being annoying.I just know you’ll be worried about how to help him, but this is normal for him, right?’

‘It seems so, yes.’

‘Okay, so he might feel a bit weird about it because it’s the first time you’ve seen whatever it is happen.’

‘And because you two have some kind of sexy emotional entanglement going on,’ giggles Haf.

‘Exactly what I mean, though.Like I was pretty embarrassed the first time Haf knocked my hip out while—’

‘Please for the love of God do not finish that sentence.’

The two women dissolve into mischievous giggles.The hazards of your best friend dating your sister is that sometimes they forget that you absolutely do not want to hear a lot of this stuff.

‘But I take your point.I’ll dial it down.It must not be nice being unwell when you’re not at home, though.’

‘No, that’s true.Do you have anything planned for today?’