St Nick
Alex couldn’t help smiling as she reread the message. She loved this challenge and she loved that someone would do this for her. She was sad that St Nick didn’t want to set up a shop in the Wonky Tree Studios as that would have brought in good business to the studios which in turn would have helped everyone else. But she did understand his reasons. Maybe, once she unmasked him, she could talk to him about sharing his talent with more people, but ultimately if he didn’t want to do that she would respect it.
She couldn’t wait to tell Quinn about this. She practically burst back into the Wonky Tree Studios a few minutes later and ran up the stairs. He was working on a cute little monster wearing a metal Santa hat. He looked over at her with a smile but it soon fell off his face, his shoulders slumping as if in defeat. She frowned in confusion.
‘I take it the date went well,’ Quinn said.
‘God no, I got out of there as fast as I could.’
He moved over to her, concern filling his eyes. He put his hands on her shoulders. ‘Did he hurt you, are you OK?’
She smiled and reached up to stroke his face. ‘No, but you need to stop being so lovely. You set the bar impossibly high for other men.’
‘You know the answer to that then, date me instead.’
‘Oh, if only life was that simple,’ she said lightly.
‘It can be.’
Her heart ached at the thought, but he was just being nice, he didn’t actually want to date her. She glanced down at Quinn’s Christmas jumper, which was obviously one of Violet’s creations. She hadn’t had a chance to look at it properly earlier. She frowned in confusion.
‘What is that supposed to be?’ she pointed to the Picasso-style creature with arms and legs seemingly everywhere.
‘I have no idea but I couldn’t exactly ask for fear of hurting her feelings.’
‘It looks like roadkill.’
Quinn laughed and glanced down to her jumper. He cocked his head as he tried to work it out. ‘Is that… an aubergine emoji?’
‘Oh my god, Quinn, I thought the same. Dave, my date, probably thought his luck was in when he saw me turn up in this. I might as well have a flashing sign that says I love penis. Violet said it’s supposed to be a whale, because I loved our whale-watching trip.’
He burst out laughing. ‘That’s not a whale.’
‘It’s supposed to be.’
‘What did Dave think of it?’
‘He was too busy scowling at my hot chocolate with all the trimmings to notice my offensive jumper.’
‘What’s wrong with a hot chocolate with whipped cream?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Well, did you at least get your kiss out of this date?’
‘Eww, no. Pretty much the first words out of hismouth after he sat down were that he didn’t like children. He asked if I’d thought about boarding school so we could get rid of Zara and I left after that.’
‘Good lord. What is wrong with some people?’
‘Well, at least I found out now before I wasted any more time with him.’
‘True.’
‘And when one door closes another opens. I have dinner tonight with a man called Oliver, he wants to take me to Alberto’s.’
‘Oh nice.’
‘And before you ask, I’ve already told him about my shellfish allergy.’
