Page 35 of Christmas Romance Galore!
Holly gripped my arm and clambered to her feet, wincing and holding her right knee. “Of course it wasn’t on purpose — I was pushed and went into the back of you. I’m not an idiot.”
“Could have fooled me,” Nicola snapped, her expression souring by the second.
An ice marshal skated in to help Nicola up, then Melanie. When he was satisfied nobody needed hospital treatment, he skated off to his next casualties.
“I’m an idiot?” Holly said, wrinkling her forehead. “You really want to get into idiocy stakes right now? Because I think you’d win hands down, don’t you?”
Oh shit. Please don’t say anything. Please don’t let this all blow up in my face now. Not when it’s over. Not when I’m just coming to terms with it. Not when this isn’t even what I want anymore.
I glanced at Holly who was grinding her teeth.
Nicola opened her mouth, went to say something, then closed it. She looked from me to Melanie, then back to Holly, then at the floor.
“What are you talking about?” Melanie asked Holly.
“Why don’t you ask your fiancée,” Holly said, her tone as hard as the ice we were standing on.
I couldn’t take any more — this was all getting far too close to the truth and if it came out, there’s no way Melanie would ever forgive me. I couldn’t let that happen. I grabbed Holly’s arm and squeezed it in an attempt to get her to shut up.
This wasn’t really letting me sort out my own mess, now was it?
Melanie turned to Nicola. “What’s she talking about, babe?”
Nicola shrugged in response. “I’ve no idea. I know she’s your friend, but she seems a bit unhinged.” Just then, a tall man in a blue jacket grabbed Melanie’s arm as he went by, nearly taking her down. Nicola saved her, giving the guy a mouthful in the process.
“Unhinged? Holly is not unhinged. Holly is my best friend and looking out for me.” I pointed at Nicola. “Something you’ve never done in your entire life.” I was dimly aware we were getting stares on the ice now, but it was too late.
“Come on,” I said, tugging Holly’s arm. I was so over this. “Let’s get out of here — I think I’ve had about as much drama as I can take.”
“Hang on,” Melanie said, grabbing my arm. “Why would Nicola be looking out for you?” Her tone was sharp.
“Maybe that’s something you should ask Nicola,” Holly said, taking my arm.
Her grip was firm, stopping me from saying anything else. As my skates slid me away to the safety of the ice hut, I risked a glance backwards, but Nicola wasn’t looking my way. Instead, Melanie was remonstrating with her, her words hitting Nicola with machine gun rapidity.
Nicola could do nothing else but stand there and take it.
We were sitting in the plaza at Covent Garden sipping mulled wine, our breath freezing in front of our faces. I’d been looking forward to my aprés-skate drink in the ice rink bar, but Holly had rightly pointed out it was probably best to get as far away from there as possible. So we’d made the five-minute walk to Covent Garden, and now we were sat at the end of the covered market, giant baubles hanging from its ceiling in a riot of festive colour, to our right a magician holding court in the midst of a bulging weekend crowd.
“So what’s next today — are we going to try to bump into any more of your exes to spice up our Sunday?”
I didn’t think Holly could ladle any more sarcasm on to that comment if she tried — it was almost drowned in it. She was smirking at me, but there was exasperation in her eyes too.
“I thought mulled wine, followed by more mulled wine,” I said, taking a sip and smiling as it warmed my insides. “What was Nicola like today? Playing the dutiful girlfriend and fiancée. Made my blood boil.”
“I could tell,” Holly said. “That’s why I jumped in when I saw you about to take her out from behind.”
“That really worked.”
“At least I broke the speed you were going — I took most of that hit, so I’ll be billing you when my knee swells to the size of a football, which it feels like it might have already.” Holly leaned over and rubbed her knee through her jeans, which were slightly ripped.
“Sorry,” I replied. “But you do have further to fall.”
The magician in the black suit showed the crowd his empty hand, then shook his arm and produced an orange silk handkerchief followed by a mass of coloured beads. Muted applause.
“You know you have to walk away now, don’t you? Leave Nicola to sort this out — no more meeting up just the two of you. I think I could tell you where that would end.”
I said nothing, just continued to stare at the magician who was now tapping a black box with a white-tipped wand.
