Cuddling in the afterglow after some very vigorous lovemaking in her room, Danny suddenly said
“Where
are the Decorations?”
“What
Decorations?”
“The
Christmas Decorations from Lakeside” Danny said.
“They’re
in my wardrobe.” She said and got out of bed and slipped on her robe and went
to the wardrobe and returned with a shoebox.
“Here
they are.”
“Is
that all of them?” Danny asked.
“Yes,
why?”
“It’s
not a lot, is it?”
“What
do you mean?” asked Molly.
“Where
are the garlands, the bells, the stars?” he asked.
“We
never had any of those” she confessed.
“Right,
we’re going to my flat tomorrow to get all my decs.”
“Why
tomorrow? We’ve got weeks to go before we need them”. Molly said.
“What
do you mean weeks, when do you put yours up then?”
“We
decorate the tree the day before Christmas Eve.”
“Nothing
until the 23rd?”
“Well,
we put wreaths, and Advent calendars up at the beginning of the month obviously”
she explained.
“But
Grandfather didn’t like too many
decorations.”
“Well Avery can’t spoil the
fun anymore” Danny said,
“So tomorrow morning I’m
going to take you to the mainland, and we will bring Christmas back with us.”
Danny would accept no
argument and they set off first thing the next morning so they could catch the
first ferry from St Pierre.
Once they left the ferry,
they drove straight to his flat in Applesford stopping only for coffee.
“Why is your flat always so
tidy?” she asked.
“I have a cleaner come in
once a month” he confessed.
“We need to get one of those”
she said, “It would leave us more time for canoodling.”
“I thought we did quite well
on the canoodling front” he said.
“There’s always room for
another canoodle” Molly said and kissed him seductively.
After Molly had contented
herself to their mutual satisfaction they returned to the lounge and Danny went
to a cupboard and returned carrying two large boxes.
He put one on the floor in
front of Molly and the other in front of him and they opened them
simultaneously.
“When did you last put these
up” Molly asked.
“4 years ago, I’ve been away
every Christmas since” he said, “These are all looking a bit tired aren’t they”.
They only had a small pile of
items put aside that they both liked well enough to take back to the island
with them.
“We’re going to have to go to
Emmaline’s.” Danny explained.
“What’s Emmaline’s?”
“Emmaline’s
Christmas Emporium” he replied.
“It’s an all year-round
Christmas store, in Sharpington?”
“In Sharpington?”
“Yes”
“Oh, I like Sharpington”
Molly said excitedly.
“We’ll stay the night at the
Seaview” he suggested.
“Or two” she added “Can we
stay here tonight though?”
“Sure, we’ll have to order
takeaway though, I’ve got no food in.”
“Ooh can we have pizza?”
The next morning, they drove
to Sharpington through torrential rain, but the sun was shining, albeit hazily,
when they reached the coast.
After checking into their
rooms, they walked along the promenade to the parade of shops and next to
Doily’s Bookshop was Emmaline’s Christmas Emporium.
“Wow!” Molly exclaimed as
they walked through the doors, and her eyes were like saucers.
Once inside Molly was like a
child in a sweetshop at the end of rationing.
She didn’t know where to look
first, Danny had to rein her in a number of times otherwise she would have
bought the whole shop.
Nonetheless they probably
bought far more than they really needed when they left the shop by
mid-afternoon.
To save having to take
everything back to the Hotel they arranged to pick it up the next day on their
way home.
“I’m starving” she said.
“What do you fancy?” Danny
asked.
“A burger will do to fill the
gap” Molly replied.
“Ok there’s a good burger
place round the corner.” He said and took her hand.
When he looked through the
steamy windows Danny saw a familiar face, Sam Archer, the guy who made the snow globe for
Molly’s Birthday, sitting at one of the tables, which was a surprise.
He
pushed open the door and let Molly go ahead of him but took hold of her arm as
he said.
“Hi
Sam.”
“Oh,
hello Mr Nigh….”
Danny
cut him short by saying.
“This
is Molly”
Then
to Molly he added.
“It’s
Sam who made your snow globe.”
“Really?”
she asked and shook his hand “I’m so pleased to meet you.”
“Were
you happy with it?” he asked.
“I
absolutely love it; you are so clever” she said gushingly.
“Thank
you, but I can’t take all the credit.”
“Oh?”
“It’s
me and my brother Harry.”
“Well,
I look forward to meeting him, and it was lovely to meet you, but I need to
spend a penny.”
She
said and rushed off.
“Have
you heard from Nikki yet?” Danny asked.
So, Danny asked her to film
Cliff Haven from every conceivable angle, without Molly realizing.
“Yes,
she emailed it to me today,” Sam replied, “I’ll let you know when it’s done.”
“Great, it was good to see
you again mate” he said and shook his hand and then went to join Molly who had
just emerged from the loo and was looking at the menu behind the counter.
They didn’t stay a second
night because the rains returned overnight with a vengeance, so the next day
they collected the boxes from Emmaline’s and took a slow drive back to
Pipershaven, where they had to check into the Mablethorpe Spa Hotel because the ferries were cancelled.
They got back to the Island
on St Andrews Day, following an extremely uncomfortable crossing, and had a
very lazy day watching trashy Television.
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