Laurel glances at her through the wing mirror, and then the pair of them burst into laughter.
‘Absolutely not,’ she says.
‘Oh,’ she says, feeling a little silly.
‘We agreed to just be friends,’ she says. ‘At least, we are right now.’
‘We’re not discounting anything, but that’s not our priority, and we want to just be in each other’s lives,’ Christopher explains.
‘Wow... this is, like, terrifyingly grown-up,’ Haf murmurs.
‘I know, I didn’t know I had it in me.’ Christopher laughs.
‘And instead of dating, we’re going to be like each other’s, oh I don’t know, coach... supporter, I guess? We’re going to help each other with our new plans. Christopher has agreed to model for Ambrose and I, and he’s going to use that big brain to help me with the accounts. And I’m going to help him find a school, and I said I’d help him set up a foodstagram.’
‘I wish you wouldn’t call it that, though.’
‘What about cakestagram?’
‘What about if I make things that aren’t cake?’
‘Bakestagram?’ offers a sleepy Ambrose.
‘The point is, Laurel’s going to help me set up a professional social media thing.’
‘And get you on television. You were born for your own baking show, or at least one of those fun competition ones.’
‘We’ll see.’
‘Oh trust me, wewillsee. See you on the next season!’
They roll their eyes at each other and laugh, and there’s just so much love between them that this feels like a happy ending all their own. One where they choose to be back in each other’s lives, but in a new way to mark the new stage of their lives.
It’s kind of gorgeous, really.
They stop off at a service station so everyone can use the bathroom and pick up some sugary sweet Christmas drinks from Starbucks. Haf finishes hers just as they get close to Oxlea and starts fiddling with the lid. Perhaps having a gigantic caffeinated sugary drink before an anxiety-inducing familial situation was not the right thing to do.
Kit reaches out and stills her hand, cupping it in hers. ‘Hey, you okay? Bit nervous.’
‘To say the least. It’s going to be deeply weird, isn’t it?’
‘Oh, absolutely.’
‘At least we’ve got the little fan club.’ She laughs awkwardly.
‘I think they’re going to find that as weird as the rest of it, at least.’
When they pull up at the Calloway house, Otto and Esther stand waiting at the door.
‘Come on in, everyone,’ Otto beams as jolly as Santa and as though they’d just popped to the pub.
‘Especially you, Haf,’ adds Esther kindly as she approaches. ‘And I suppose my silly children can come in too.’
In a flash, Stella and Luna appear at her feet, bouncing and whining and wiggling. Haf crouches down to pet them, but they dash around her, too excited for their little bodies to be still.
Eventually, she gets back to her feet because really, she can’t avoid it any longer, even if she really, really wants to.
Christopher and Laurel follow Esther inside the house, and Otto, who still waits by the door, beckons her, Kit and Ambrose inside. Haf gulps down her nerves as she slips off her shoes in the hallway and follows everyone into the living room. Esther takes a seat in her usual armchair, but rather than taking his, Otto stands behind her.
