Page 30 of Escape for Christmas
Brody whistled. ‘Bloody hell.’
‘Yeah. I used to run a year-round Christmas shop in Stratford-upon-Avon.’
His eyes widened in amazement.
‘Hard to believe, I’m sure, now that I’m helping people get away from all the clichés,’ Sophie said.
‘You are full of surprises. I knew you were in retail, but I thought you had a general gift shop?’
‘That’s what everyone assumed, so I didn’t go out of my way to correct them,’ Sophie said with a sigh, realising that even though she hadn’t lied, perhaps she hadn’t been quick enough to admit the truth. ‘What no one up here knows, apart from Vee, is that I caught Ben and Naomi together in the stockroom on Christmas Eve. They weren’t playing“Santa”, I can tell you. More like “Hide the Carrot” …’ Sophie surprised herself by the way she could joke about it now. It was gallows humour, though.
Brody’s glass wobbled and some fizz splashed out. ‘My God!’
‘Please can you be discreet about this? I haven’t told anyone but Vee about Ben’s affair. I probably shouldn’t be telling you now. It’s hardly appropriate at your party.’
‘No, you should. That’s shitty, it’s awful.’
‘It was a pretty dire time for me, I’ll admit. So I came up here to make a completely new start, because I lost more than Ben when we split up. In the melee between running the shop and being a couple, I managed to lose touch with some of my old mates from university and from my jobs before I went self-employed.’
Sophie regretted prioritising work and Ben, and losing contact with some of her hobbies and friends, letting them drip away slowly without her even realising it.
‘I’d been too busy for stuff like Zumba and regular nights out with the girls. I didn’t realise quite how demanding the relationship had become until it was almost too late …’ She heaved a sigh. Even Lyra had once hinted that Ben could be needy, though she didn’t phrase it like that. ‘I’ve started to put that right. I’ve had three friends to stay already, as well as my family,’ Sophie said, happy that she’d managed to rebuild some of those relationships.
‘Finding your ex and a close friend together must have made life very complicated,’ Brody said. ‘Most of my mates have four legs, apart from Carl. Though he is themost loyal friend I’ve ever had, and one thing’s for sure: I’m never going to find him writhing on the floor with … a girlfriend. Relationships are always complicated, that’s for sure.’
Sophie laughed. ‘I’ve worked that one out.’ She also noted his use of ‘a girlfriend’. She didn’t know why, but she was sure Brody had hesitated a tiny bit before he used the words. Maybe she was being paranoid. She wondered if he was going to elaborate, but he didn’t, so she continued. ‘Our social life revolved around drinks and dinner at mutual friends’ houses or in the pub. The trouble is that “mutual” meant our friends either took sides or wanted to stay mates with Ben as well as me.’
‘That must have made for some awkward conversations,’ Brody observed. Harold licked sticky fizz from his fingers. ‘Harold, don’t be a lush.’
Sophie laughed, partly at Harold’s antics and because she was desperate to cover quite how hurt she’d been that most of Ben’s mates – the couples as well as the men – had decided to switch loyalties to Ben and Naomi. Her own friends had stuck by her, particularly Lyra, and this had made it doubly hard to move so far away.
Brody shook his head. ‘People can be weird. Why do you think I prefer animals? Present company excepted, of course.’
He smiled again, and Sophie warmed further to the empathy in his eyes. She was sure she wasn’t imagining it and it wasn’t just the fizz, but it felt like there was a definite spark between them: somehow she felt Brody must havegone through heartache himself. How else could he be single at thirty-five?
‘I could have walled myself up with the cats,’ she said, trying to keep everything light, despite feeling the hurt afresh as she told Brody, ‘I could have coped with losing his connections if Ben hadn’t gone off with one ofmybest mates. Because Naomi and I had mutual friends who also wanted to keep seeing us both.’
‘Ouch,’ Brody sympathised. ‘That sounds like adding insult to injury.’
‘It was painful, that’s for sure. My own friends were shocked and sympathetic to start with, but then most of them carried on as if nothing had happened. Of course they had to arrange different times to see us, which was difficult when they were all busy. Anyway,’ she went on, twirling her almost-empty glass in her fingers, ‘I tried to understand their point of view, but it was just too hard. I felt too raw to be reasonable.’
‘Why should you have to be reasonable? I’d have been so pissed off,’ Brody declared.
‘Oh, I was. Raging and hurt, but you have to get over it. I didn’t feel like I belonged to my old life any more, so I decided to start a new one. I’d always had a yearning to run a guest house, but Ben wasn’t keen. Now I had nothing to stop me – and so here I am.’
‘I think you’re brilliant. So does Harold.’
The Labrador nudged Sophie’s leg to show her he agreed.
‘It took real balls,’ Brody said. ‘Sorry. You know what I mean.’
She giggled. ‘It’s OK. It was mad in a way, really impulsive, and my parents and brother and his wife were so worried about me. They wanted me to wait and see how I felt, but it was too late. I sold the shop, saw Sunnyside and burned all my bridges. By spring, I knew it was the right decision to come here. You’re the only person I’ve told, apart from Vee.’
‘Well, I’m honoured you trusted me, and it goes without saying that this stays between us. As you can probably tell, I’m not one for village gossip – the main people I hang out with all day having fur and four legs.’
Sophie thought for a moment and then decided. ‘Same. Though I’ve probably ruined the party mood with my personal woes.’
‘You haven’t ruined my evening. Far from it.’
