Violet smiled as she dug out the next one, a bright blue one with what appeared to be a dog on it. Alex guessed it was a poor attempt at a Skye terrier, also wearing a Santa hat, but honestly it could have been a gorilla or maybe a platypus.
‘This is for Immy.’
‘It’s gorgeous,’ Alex said, suppressing a smile.
Violet dug in her bag for the last one and Alex held her breath with nerves and a little dash of excitement about what would be on hers. It was always a treat to see what kind of jumper she would get from Violet for Christmas. Violet pulled out one that was a bright Barbie pink and on the front was… well, to be honest Alex wasn’t sure what it was. There were droplets of water coming out the top of the thing and it kind of looked like it might be an aubergine emoji, which most people knew represented a penis in text messages. She half squinted her eyes as she tried to work it out. She was pretty sure Violet hadn’t knitted her an aubergine emoji Christmas jumper, even if she didn’t know the alternative meaning behind it.
‘Do you like it?’ Violet said eagerly.
‘I love it,’ Alex said. ‘It’s wonderful.’
‘I thought I’d do you a whale as Quinn said you loved that whale and dolphin watching trip he took you and Zara on in the summer.’
It was a whale! Now Violet had identified it, it was obvious. OK, it wasn’t obvious at all but there were some similarities.
‘Thank you, that’s really sweet.’
‘Well, let’s see if it fits.’
Alex pulled it on and tried to suppress her laughter as she looked down at her aubergine or whale themed jumper. ‘This is… amazing.’
‘I’m so pleased you like it. Anyway, I must dash. I promised my neighbour I’d help her feed her tortoisethis afternoon, the little bugger is quite vicious and we have to wear welding gloves to feed him.’
‘Violet, before you go, I wanted to talk to you about something,’ Alex said. She hadn’t been sure whether to mention the dating to Violet or not, especially as the chances of finding the man of her dreams from an online dating site were slim to none so it would probably never amount to anything. But she didn’t want Violet to find out accidentally. Judging from Quinn’s reaction to it, it was certainly something she should have mentioned to him, not just launched it at him as a fait accompli, so she wanted to do that for Violet.
‘What’s that?’
‘I have… signed up to an online dating app. I’m meeting a man at lunch for coffee.’
Violet’s face fell and she looked utterly heartbroken. ‘Oh.’
Alex bit her lip. ‘I’m sorry.’
Violet forced a smile on her face. ‘You don’t have anything to apologise for. I knew at some point you would start looking around for a new man. You’re funny, sweet, beautiful. Does Quinn know?’
‘Yes, he wasn’t happy about it either.’
‘No, I don’t suppose he was, silly boy.’
Alex frowned in confusion.
Violet put a hand on her shoulder, clearly putting on a brave face. ‘You should have some fun. Just make sure you pick someone nice for Zara.’
‘She will always be my priority,’ Alex said. ‘And I’mnot looking for someone to be Zara’s new dad, Liam will always be that.’
Violet nodded and when she spoke her voice wobbled. ‘I should go. I hope you have fun today.’
With that Violet hurried from the studio leaving Alex feeling like the most awful person in the world.
Quinn walked into Alex’s studio a while later with his big apology planned in his head. She was wearing one of his mum’s Christmas jumpers. He was just trying to work out what was on her jumper when he saw she was crying as she tried to build one of her paper sculptures. His heart dropped into his stomach.
She spotted him and put her hands up. ‘If you’ve come to shout at me again then can it wait? I’m really not in the mood.’
He moved over to her and immediately enveloped her in a big hug. She wrapped her arms around him and cried against his chest.
He was suddenly aware of a customer walking past Alex’s studio door looking in at what was going on so Quinn quickly shuffled her backwards into her storeroom and shut the door behind them.
Alex looked up at him in confusion. ‘What are you doing?’
