Page 13 of Escape for Christmas
‘Of course, then you don’t have to make something separate for Fliss. I should get back to things, but I’ll speak toyou soon,’ she promised, then hung up after they’d said their goodbyes.
Her mum mentioning cooking reminded Sophie of how much she had on her own plate. She took a deep breath to calm herself down, telling herself that she’d chosen this path, this place, she was in control and she could do this.
After the call ended, Sophie went to check that the cats weren’t in the guest areas. Vee had finished the changeovers and taken the dirty linen to the laundry, and the dishwasher was churning away. All was right with the world – apart from the fact that Sophie still hadn’t responded to Brody’s invitation.
Next she headed for the office to deal with the admin. The answerphone was flashing, which was pretty unusual these days. Most of her bookings came from her website and from booking agencies, but some guests still liked to phone to ask questions about the rooms and facilities and to get a better feel for her as an owner.
She listened to the message before she could tackle her emails.
‘Hello.’ A softly spoken man with a slightly unusual accent that she couldn’t place greeted her. One moment he sounded pure North London, the next pure Rome. ‘Do you still have a room available for the Christmas break? I mean, the “Escapefor Christmas” break. Oh, yeah. My name’s – it’s Nico Lombardi.’ He left his number, speaking so quickly that Sophie could barely understand it.
Luckily her telephone-message deciphering skills hadbeen honed over years of running the shop and working out garbled messages from all over the world, demanding ‘bare-bottom baubles’ (flat-bottomed, it turned out) and ‘hairy tinsel’.
Sophie called him straight back.
‘Nico,’ he barked, sounding agitated.
‘Mr Lombardi. It’s Sophie Cranford from Sunnyside Guest House in the Lake District. You left me a message?’
‘Did I? Oh yeah. Sorry. Work is hectic.’ A warmth crept into his voice, realising who was calling. ‘Yes, am I too late? I bet I’m too late. I tried to get on the website at work – not that I should – but the Internet went down. IT are fixing it. Nightmare!’
‘I bet,’ said Sophie patiently.
‘Anyway, I need to get away. From Christmas, I mean. And I saw this when I googled alternative Christmas breaks,’ he explained, talking as quickly as he did on his phone message.
‘You’re in luck. We do still have one room available, though I have someone else interested in it,’ Sophie replied, crossing her fingers that he’d confirm because of her little white lie.
‘Brilliant. I’ll have it.’
‘I’d need to take full payment now,’ she told him.
‘Great, happy to pay now. I don’t care.’
‘Oh, OK.’ She’d never known a guest show such enthusiasm for parting with their cash. It seemed too good to be true. In fact … ‘Before I take your booking, you’re aware that this isn’t a traditional Christmas break?’ she said firmly,so that Nico couldn’t interrupt or dash off. ‘We’re providing food and entertainment from Christmas Eve until after breakfast on 27 December, but the … celebrations will beverydifferent from the usual. Just in case you were expecting turkey and carols. The details are on the website, in case you want to have a look when the Internet is back up and then ring me again?’
‘I don’t care if you’re sending us all out to build our own igloos and hunt a seal for lunch,’ Nico insisted. ‘I need to book somewhere for Christmas andfast.’
That sounded a bit odd, but if he was happy to pay up front, then a booking was a booking.
‘Right … well, I would have to insist on full payment in case you cancelled at such short notice.’
‘I won’t cancel. I’ve got my card ready, if we can do that now,’ Nico said hurriedly.
‘Of course,’ she replied brightly.
Sophie took the card details and sent him a confirmatory email, which he’d hopefully receive when his Wi-Fi was working again.
She added him to her online booking system – and to her notebook too:
Room 5. Nico Lombardi. Italian? Not quite sure why he’s coming?
Her guests’ personal lives were none of her business, even if some of them seemed intent on making it so. She’d joked to Vee that she could make a good living as ablackmailer if the B&B failed. But with every month that had a good occupancy rate, those worries were pushed to the back of her mind.
Now that all the rooms were full, she could finalise her plans. She fired off an email to the flamenco troupe to make sure they were still coming, ordered an extra delivery of logs for the fire and made a start on the special welcome gift-packs for the guests’ rooms.
This Escape had to be a success. She’d staked so much on it and was determined to prove to everyone that she wasn’t the only person in the world who wanted to move away from the traditional Christmas, with all of its associations.
Sophie was also beginning to realise that she could be successful on her own, and one day would be able to achieve her other dreams too, like starting a family.
