She laughed. ‘God, I love Christmas. All the traditions you should have grown out of seem completely acceptable.’
‘Do they?’ he grinned. ‘What’s on the agenda for today?’
‘Hmm. I’m going to light the fire so I was thinking we would check out the Radio Times and basically that all day. Oh, and Christmas lunch at some point, obviously.’
‘But the snow, Lois.’ He had a glint in his eye. ‘It’s fresh, just begging us to have a go in it.’
‘Have a go in what sense?’ The idea of getting dressed and then going out in the cold wasn’t that appealing.
‘I don’t know, not sledging or anything but we should go for a walk at least. Just think how lovely and cosy it’ll be when we get back. And it is Christmas. We could pretend we’re in a Christmas film.’ He grinned a lop-sided grin at her.
‘Okay, but I don’t want to get wet.’
‘Deal. We’ll start by walking into town, we could go through the park, it’ll be really pretty.’
‘You sound like a girl. No offence.’
‘It’s Christmas Lois. Don’t judge me.’
She went into the lounge, cleared the ash out of the fireplace and laid a fresh bunch of Christmas kindling and logs. She’d made her own kindling with pinecones, dried orange peel and cinnamon sticks. It smelled delicious and was good at starting the fire which was a bonus. While she waited for the flames to take, she opened the curtains and looked out to the street. It had stopped snowing, but the road was covered in a deep blanket which only a couple of intrepid cars had driven through. She hugged herself. This was just what she wanted Christmas to be like. Cosy, snowy and with someone to share it with. It was so odd having him here in her house. The weirdness between them had gone, they weren’t quite back to the pre-Amy friendship level but maybe that was never going to happen anyway. This was good, having a friend to share Christmas with when neither of them could go anywhere else. The view from the window confirmed that. She added another log to the fire, put the guard around it and went to get dressed.
The walk into the city centre was magical. Lois loved how everything had changed because of the snow and she and Oliver had plenty of opportunities at being the first to forge a path across the swathes of virgin snow. Lois couldn’t remember the last time it had snowed so heavily since she’d lived in Worcester. She also couldn’t remember ever going anywhere on Christmas Day except to her nan and grandad’s house for lunch when she was little.
Once they’d crossed the bridge, instead of heading into the city centre, they walked along the riverbank and headed through College Green to the Cathedral.
‘Do you fancy it?’ Oliver asked, tilting his head towards the building.
Lois’s family never went to church at Christmas. They’d been to nativity plays and things like that but never gone to actual church on Christmas Day. ‘I’d love to.’
He grinned at her and led the way inside where the service had already started, and the congregation were in the middle of singing ‘See Amid the Winter’s Snow’. They snuck into the back row and Oliver grabbed a hymn sheet from further down the pew.
‘I love this one,’ said Lois.
‘Obviously,’ he said, rolling his eyes and smiling. ‘It’s got everything. Christmas and snow. What more do we need?’
They stayed for the rest of the service which was very traditional with readings of the Christmas story and many more of Lois’s favourite carols. Every time she sneaked a look at Oliver, he looked at her as if he could tell somehow that she was looking at him even though she tried hard not to move her head, or she pretended she was looking at something else. Watching him doing something so mundane as just sitting next to her was surprisingly charming and Lois allowed herself to think for a moment that Oliver was hers. This is what it would be like to be his girlfriend. They’d do things like this together, things that seemed unimportant and unimpressive, but which meant more than anyone could fathom.
When the service was over, they hung back, waiting for everyone else to leave before they made a move.
‘Wow, it’s lovely in here.’ They headed towards the altar where a nativity scene was laid out.
Oliver smiled back. ‘I haven’t been inside before.’
‘It’s a while since I have and never for a service. I loved singing the carols, it sounded amazing, especially with the choir doing the descants.’
‘Are you ready to head back for lunch?’
‘I think it might be dinner at this rate. And we need to watch the King.’
‘Dinner is fine. We can eat after the King,’ he said, easily as they walked slowly down the nave.
It was snowing again when they got outside so they pulled their hoods up and took the walk home at a much quicker pace than they had on the way. Lois enjoyed walking past other people’s houses and having a peek into their Christmas Day lives. It was snowing, on Christmas Day and she was with Oliver. No-one’s Christmas was better than that.
When they came in from their walk, Oliver took his boots and coat off and then went straight into the lounge to see if the fire was still going. There was just enough of a glow for him to think that he’d be able to liven it up again. He sat cross-legged in front of it while he tempted it back to roaring with some of Lois’s unusual kindling.
‘So,’ she said, sitting down on the sofa and picking up the Radio Times. ‘It’s Christmas Day so we have to watchLove Actually. Unless you’ve already seen it this year?’ Her eyes were wide with alarm which made something surge inside him, it was so endearing.
‘No, not seen it yet. What do you think aboutWhite Christmasfor later?’
