The Christmas Bookshop(37)

‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Could I possibly ask you to forget all of this and not sell it to a newspaper?’

‘How much for?’ said Carmen, then when he looked stricken she had to laugh at his appalled expression.

‘I’m kidding,’ she said. ‘You idiot. But do you just unburden yourself on any random stranger that walks past?’

He gave his card to the waiter.

‘You’re not random … ’

‘Carmen,’ she supplied again.

He glanced at his watch, ignoring his buzzing phone.

‘You know I have a little time before the hospital.’

She looked at him.

‘And my room is just upstairs.’

She sat bolt upright, and almost burst out laughing.

‘Is this you living your authentic life?’

He shrugged.

‘Um … a bit.’

‘Ha. Well, well done, I suppose.’

‘You mean that?’ He got up and grabbed his jacket.

‘No, I mean, well done you for being authentic. I’m patently not coming upstairs with you.’

‘Okay!’ he said, somewhat insultingly. ‘No harm done.’ He asked the waiter to call him a cab, something Carmen hadn’t realised you could actually do.

‘Nice meeting you … ’ he said, back to the low tones he had had before.

‘ … Carmen.’

‘Carmen.’

She got up to leave, shaking her head.

‘Thanks for lunch.’

But he was on the phone, and not even looking at her.





Sofia slumped in her chair, exhausted. She was putting off maternity leave as late as possible – she absolutely hated looking as if she couldn’t handle anything or wasn’t in complete control, and frankly walking from her office to the maternity wing was the kind of person she would like to be. Federico was unsure about this but had learned long ago not to get in his wife’s way. So she managed to keep a fairly good display at the office but by the time she crawled home she was fit for nothing.

Skylar was going out again, and Carmen was supposedly making dinner (while moaning about having to do it), which only involved her heating up a pie she’d bought and opening some tins of beans, which Sofia was too exhausted to complain about and anyway, she secretly thought smelled quite nice.

She’d been hoping for a quick nap but had just heard some surprising news which made her lift her head up.

‘You turned down Blair Pfenning?’

Then she felt bad for sounding so surprised. Thankfully Carmen, normally so incredibly touchy, let it go for once. Maybe it was because she was being allowed to eat pastry.

‘Oh, he would have stuck it into a postbox if it was handy,’ said Carmen, who was in fact still a little tipsy from the Champagne.

‘Are you absolutely sure this happened?’ Sofia said. ‘He wasn’t … you know, just saying thank you?’

‘Yeah, you’re right, what could someone half-decent possibly see in me?’ said Carmen.

Ah, there it was.

‘That’s not what I meant!’

‘That’s exactly what you meant!’

‘Please, Carmen … ’

Carmen went back to stirring the beans. She was wondering whether or not she slightly regretted it herself. It would have been a funny story to tell, and it had been a while.

‘I mean, it would have been a funny story,’ said Sofia, in a conciliatory tone, as if she was reading Carmen’s thoughts.

‘Or he might have fallen in love with me and whisked me off on an exciting world tour!’

‘Well,’ said Sofia. ‘I am very glad that isn’t happening. Because … it looks like you’re doing very well with the shop.’

Carmen looked up. Was Sofia trying to be a goody-two-shoes or did she mean it? As she did so, it struck her how utterly exhausted Sofia looked. Even with money and help … it couldn’t be easy. She put on the kettle to make her some tea.

‘Did he take your number?’

‘He did not,’ said Carmen. ‘Which pretty much settles it for the falling madly in love with me thing … ’

‘You could message him! He’s on Instagram.’

‘I don’t want to! He’s weird.’

‘But very handsome and rich.’

‘He has teeth filed to tiny points,’ said Carmen. ‘And anyway, his publicist has my number if he wanted it, which he doesn’t.’

She couldn’t help glancing at her phone regardless. Sofia saw that and hid a smile. There was nothing of course.

Jack charged in.

‘Mummy! Mummy! They said it’s going to snow!’

‘Who said that, Jacky?’

‘Newsround.’

‘There’s still Newsround?’ said Carmen. ‘Cor. Most boring show ever.’

‘No,’ said Pippa. ‘It tells you what’s happening in the world. We watch it at school.’

‘You get it at school?’

They all nodded.

‘You get telly at school? How is that fair?’

‘Supper doesn’t smell very NUTRITIOUS,’ countered Pippa.

‘Well, that’s because it’s tea, not supper,’ said Carmen. Phoebe entered the kitchen, trailing as always, and scowling as always.