The Best Little Christmas Shop

‘Can you stay for coffee?’

As much as I loved Giselle and would do anything for her, I could also have quite happily throttled her right then, albeit temporarily.

Please say no. Please say no. Please say no.

‘That’d be lovely, thanks.’

Damn.

‘Martha’s with George and he’s already asleep. I was passing and just wanted to drop off the details of a couple of finds I’ve discovered to see what Xander thought about them.’ He took the seat that Giselle offered him, opposite Xander, and next to me, passing the files across the table.

‘How was the one today?’

Cal blew out a sigh. ‘Waste of petrol, mate. Nothing like the description really. For the time we’d have spent out on it even a really good auction price would barely cover it. And an average one definitely wouldn’t. Not worth the risk and effort.’

‘These look promising though,’ Xander said, scanning the paperwork. ‘Here, Muppet, take a look at that.’ Xander went to push the files towards me and then halted, glancing over at his boss. ‘I mean, if that’s all right? It’s just, you know, she knows a lot about cars.’

Cal grinned. ‘Of course.’

I took the paperwork and studied the pictures and descriptions of the classic cars, both in a very sorry state of repair.

‘Oh … this makes me so sad.’

I looked up to see Xander rolling his eyes. ‘We shouldn’t let you have wine.’

I slapped him with the papers. ‘Oh shush. You know what I mean. Cal will know what I mean.’ I scooched in my seat a bit more to face him. ‘You know what I mean, don’t you?’ I said, pointing at the pictures.

‘It’s sad that such beautiful machines have been left to rot.’

‘You see!’ I threw Xander a slightly inebriated, and very smug glance. ‘Exactly. That’s exactly what I meant. I knew you’d understand.’

Cal twitched an eyebrow and a broad grin showed briefly before the coffee cup hid it. He had a really nice smile. If I’d have had another glass of wine, I’d have gone so far as to say it was a very sexy smile. But I hadn’t, so I wasn’t going to say, or even think that at all. It really was no wonder half the mums wanted a play date with him. I didn’t even have a child and I was a handful of squashed grapes away from setting one up myself.

‘Oi, Muppet. What do you think then?’

‘Are you really calling her Muppet?’ Cal asked, his eyes shining with laughter.

Xander looked slightly confused. ‘It’s her name.’

‘I thought it was Lexi.’

‘Well, yeah. Officially.’

‘Actually, officially it’s Alexandra.’ I did a sweeping sort of motion with my hand, like I was bowing but I couldn’t be arsed to stand up so you had to use your imagination a bit.

‘And you’re really Alexander.’ Cal said, nodding across the table.

‘Yep. Born on the same day. Mums were in the beds next to each other, and they’d both decided on Alexander. Because Muppet here was supposed to be a boy.’

‘I wasn’t supposed to be a boy!’

‘All right. You were expected to be a boy. But that sort of happened anyway.’

‘Do you mind?’

‘What? You’re not exactly girly, are you?’

‘Giselle does girly enough for the both of us.’

‘She’s plenty girly,’ Cal interjected. ‘Carry on.’

I wiggled my head at Xander in triumph and he ignored me.

‘So, anyway, out pops this one and her poor parents hadn’t even begun to consider girls’ names because, although they didn’t have any scanning equipment down at the little cottage hospital we were born in, everyone was convinced in that mystical way people are, that it was another boy. Her parents had resigned themselves to it. And they’d spent so long choosing a name they just made it into a feminine version. Unlike the human being they produced.’

‘You’re such an arse,’ I mumbled.

‘But once we started recognising our names and especially at playgroup, it all got a bit confusing so they got adapted: hers into Lexi. Mine into Xander.’

‘OK,’ Cal said, breaking the leg of the gingerbread man that had now appeared in front of him and popping it in his mouth. ‘That makes sense. But why Muppet?’

‘Because she is one.’ Xander looked at his boss as if this explanation was obvious.

Cal glanced at me and tilted his head. ‘Ask a silly question …’

‘It’s fine. I don’t mind it. It’s all meant with love.’

‘That’s true. But you are a Muppet. You have to admit that. Last year was the perfect example.’

‘Xander,’ Giselle said. Her voice was quiet but there was a definite hint of warning.

‘What person, other than a total muppet, would travel halfway across the world, knowing that by doing so they were not only going to lose their job but their entire career as well, just to visit a friend.’

I let out a sigh. ‘You know it was more than that.’

‘I should never have called you.’ Xander swirled the last of his wine around the glass.

‘Oi.’ I nudged him. ‘If you hadn’t I’d have never forgiven you.’

‘You’d never have known! And you’d still have a job.’

‘Oh my God, Xander!’ I sat back in the chair. ‘This was not your fault. Or Giselle’s or anyone else’s but mine. You were in a state and Giselle was in emergency surgery for life-threatening peritonitis! You two mean more to me than any job, or any career! Don’t you get that? If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t change a thing. It was the right thing to do.’

‘But she’s fine!’

‘Yes. Thank God. But we didn’t know that and I felt much better being here at the time and for Giselle’s recovery than I would have done in a pit garage in some far-flung country. So can we just accept that and move on? I will sort out my life but you did the right thing in calling me that day and I did the right thing in coming home, whatever the fallout.’

Xander looked at me for a moment, half stood, and grabbed me in a gentle headlock before planting a kiss on my temple.