There was quite a lot of arm-folding going on down on the floor.
‘And bears have no concept of co-operation with other species!’ came a distant voice from behind the stacks.
‘Well, wasn’t that was justwonderful,’ said Skylar, beaming into the camera. She turned it on the children, managing not to get Carmen in shot at all. ‘Wasn’t that lovely? Amazing new story by Blair: Jimmy the Sad Christmas Bear. Let’s have a round of applause.’
There was a muted round of applause from the children, not replicated by the mothers who had secretly hoped Blair would be there.
‘Excuse me, bookshop lady?’ came a small voice. It was a little girl with the long pigtails who’d been there before. ‘I think I liked better the one where there was a little girl? And she died? And that was the end of the story.’
‘But it was sad about the bear? And then he played with the other animals and they were all friends?’ Skylar interjected.
‘Meh,’ said the girl. ‘We have a lot of those stories at school.’
‘Was it actually about anti-bullying?’ said another one. ‘All the stories are normally.’
‘AND KINDNESS,’ added a third.
‘Well, kindness is good, isn’t it?’ said Carmen.
‘Sometimes,’ said Phoebe. ‘People say “be kind” when they just mean “shut up”.’
The other girls nodded vehemently.
‘Well, okay,’ said Carmen. ‘Thanks for coming.’
‘See you next week!’ they all said cheerily, putting on their mittens, leaving Carmen slightly wrong-footed that this was apparently now part of their social calendars.
‘So Zoe’s coming down tomorrow, bringing the teens for a bit of Edinburgh’s Christmas,’ Ramsay was saying to Mr McCredie. Carmen made a face.
‘Don’t you start,’ said Ramsay. ‘Do you think we could possibly just leave them to it?’
‘There’s a lot of screaming and some vomit,’ said Carmen.
‘Well, perfect: teens love that,’ said Ramsay. ‘Anyway, we were wondering: are you doing a Christmas party?’
There was a silence. Carmen looked at Mr McCredie, who looked perturbed.
‘Why not?’ said Carmen. ‘Think how many … ’
‘ … people in the shop, yes, yes,’ said Mr McCredie. ‘She has changed me, Ramsay.’
‘I think she has too,’ said Ramsay, his eyes twinkling.
‘Well … I suppose we could,’ said Mr McCredie. ‘Gosh. Well. Yes. We’d better. I have some burgundy down in the cellar that we could probably crack, seeing as we’re on course to make profit for the first time in … ahem … some years.’
Ramsay grinned.
‘You have acellar?’ said Carmen in disbelief. ‘How? This building makes no sense.’
She glanced out of the window and saw that Bronagh was passing, her bright red hair piled high on her head, wearing a cloak and carrying a large archway of hawthorn.
‘Bronagh,’ said Carmen, slipping outside. ‘If I said we’re having a party, like, tomorrow would you be able to witch it round everyone who needs invited?’
‘Of course,’ said Bronagh. ‘Although sometimes what you need and what you want aren’t—’
‘Great, thank you, that is so kind of you.’
Carmen still felt a little sad and foolish, imagining that Blair, a man she didn’t even like, would like her. And the man she did like liked somebody else. It was particularly hard as she couldn’t go somewhere quiet and just sulk about it. The shop was busy, Ramsay and Mr McCredie having decided to just try a soupçon of the burgundy to see how it went down, the streets were mobbed, and of course ‘home’ was Sofia’s house, where Skylar was, uploading video to her boyfriend, Blair. Carmen’s phone hadn’t buzzed all afternoon. She was miserable. And stupid.
