Page 2 of Escape for Christmas
Despite this, she also had to admit that putting up with awkward people for ten minutes in her shop was quite different from having them stay for days in your home.
‘Do you ever miss your shop at all?’ Vee asked.
Sophie thought for a few moments. There had been times when, cleaning hairs from a shower or mopping up cat-sick from the guest-lounge carpet, she might, momentarily, have rather been gift-wrapping a Shakespeare bauble for an American tourist.
This time last year she had been the proprietor of a year-round Christmas shop in Stratford-upon-Avon, which was loved by tourists from all over the world who travelled to it. It had been fun and thriving, and she’d been as happy as the jolly elves grinning from the shelves in the July heat.
Until Christmas Eve, when she’d found her ex, Ben, writhing naked on the floor of the stockroom with her best friend, amid a sea of luxury double-strand tinsel.
‘No,’ she said firmly, deciding that even the yuckiest chore was preferable to staying in a place that had so many painful memories. ‘It’s true that things happened fast and it’s been a bigger change than I ever expected, but life doesn’t always run to the schedule you plan.’
‘You can say that again,’ Vee replied. ‘I never thought I’d have two kids within three years! Bloody Kev …’ She rolledher eyes and Sophie smiled. ‘Wouldn’t have it any other way now, of course,’ she added.
‘Neither would I,’ said Sophie. ‘You know that Ben sneered when he heard I was selling the shop to buy a guest house up here? He thought I was mad and told me he “didn’t think it was wise to make any hasty decisions while I was vulnerable”.’
‘Oh, the cheeky sod!’ Vee exclaimed. ‘You mean that, after cheating on you, he still thought he had a right to comment on your life choices?’
‘I think he was furious that I was selling the shop and flat –myshop and flat – and he’d have to find another job. A proper job,’ Sophie said. ‘But most of all, I think he was shocked that I could possibly make a new life on my own.’ She stopped, a lump forming in her throat. As strong and happy as she felt now, talking about it somehow made her feel that little bit smaller and less assured.
It had been so hard to make that decision to move away from the town she’d grown up in and where her support network was. She and Ben had a few joint friends, which had made life awkward for a while after the split. Plus, her parents were understandably worried about her upping sticks to take on a huge new venture.
‘I had to do something drastic, for a clean break. I felt that life was telling me that now was the moment I should go for things I’d always fancied trying. Mum and Dad used to bring me up here when I was younger. I didn’t always appreciate the scenery then, but on the few occasions I’d persuaded Ben to have a break with me, I felt almost bereftwhen I had to go home, as I’d felt such a strong connection to the Lakes. It’s so majestic and the landscape changes so much, depending on the weather. You never know what you’re going to get, and I like that.’
‘It’s certainly full of surprises,’ Vee said wryly. ‘Did you ever think of running a B&B together up here?’
‘Well, it’s funny you should say that. Because as much as I loved the shop, it was always going to be the same, so a few years back I did start to wonder if we should have a change.’
‘Were you withhimthen?’ Vee asked, curling her lip at the reference to Ben.
‘Yes, we’d been working and living together for a couple of years. We managed a long spring weekend in Ambleside a while ago. The woods were filled with bluebells and wild garlic and everywhere looked as if it had been reborn after the winter, if that doesn’t sound too airy-fairy.’
‘I know exactly what you mean. I could never move,’ Vee replied.
‘We stayed in a guest house and it was nice, but I kept thinking how I’d have run it differently, although Ben hated the idea.’ Sophie glanced out of her window at the sun glittering on the distant lake and felt sadness weigh on her again. ‘Sometimes I wonder how long he’d fancied Naomi, and if she was the reason he’d wanted to stay put in Stratford.’
‘But then he set about breaking everything anyway.’ Vee shook her head disapprovingly.
‘Yes … and I wasn’t going to let him destroy every last part of me. I’ll admit I was terrified when I started lookingfor a business here within days of finding him with Naomi. I needed to take that rage and hurt and turn it into something positive. I just never thought Sunnyside would come up so soon.’
‘Clearly you were meant to buy it,’ Vee said.
‘I think so,’ Sophie smiled, feeling a renewed determination to continue making this work.
‘Shall I make a cuppa?’ Vee offered.
‘That would be amazing. I could do with the caffeine hit. I’ve lain awake for ages composing this ad and thinking about this ad.’
‘Done,’ said Vee, heading for the kitchen.
Sophie stood up and stretched her back, thinking again of how much her life had changed in the past year.
The speed at which events had moved had left her breathless. In the ten months since her split with Ben, she’d sold her shop and bought Sunnyside. A business acquaintance who owned a boutique in Stratford had always wanted to run the Christmas shop and had made an offer the moment she’d heard it was up for sale.
The very next day Sophie had been alerted by a Lake District estate agent that Sunnyside was going on the market. She’d already viewed – and rejected – several guest houses as being too big, too small or in need of costly renovation, but Sunnyside had only recently been refurbished. Its owners had just finished the makeover when the husband had been offered a lucrative contract in Dubai that was too tempting to turn down.
Sophie didn’t have the trouble and expense of having todo it up and, more importantly, it was an established business with forward bookings, so she could hit the ground running. Otherwise she could never have afforded to take it on. Even so, she’d had to pump the proceeds of her flat and business into Sunnyside and take out a mortgage.
She’d finally moved in at the very start of March, in time for the busy Easter period – a baptism of fire that had left her wondering if she really had been as mad as everyone thought to make so many huge changes in her life in such a short space of time. Her parents had certainly thought so and urged her ‘not to rush into something she’d regret’.
