Page 15 of The Best Little Christmas Shop
‘Can you stay for coffee?’
As much as I loved Giselle and would do anythingfor 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, oppositeXander, 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 tosee 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 smugglance. ‘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 wanteda 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 sweepingsort 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.’
