‘Are you watching, Evie?’ Hannah glanced at her daughter who was watching Merri’s every move.
Having finished, Merri held the angel in front of her, turning it to face Evie. ‘There you go, that should stop it from unravelling again. She’s very beautiful. You have a real creative talent there, Evie.’
‘Thank you.’ Evie grinned as she took the angel back. ‘She looks as good as new.’
‘Yes, thank you so much.’ Hannah smiled.
‘You’re very welcome. Merry Christmas.’
‘Merry Christmas to you too.’ Evie said before they turned and began walking towards the car park.
‘Wow.’
Hearing Felix’s voice, Merri twisted to face him and shrugged. ‘It was nothing.’
‘Nothing? That was not nothing. The way you just...’ He moved his hands as though miming willow weaving. ‘...what you did, that was skilled. Super skilled. I didn’t have you down as a willow weaver.’
Frowning, she shook her head. ‘What did you have me down as then?’
‘I don’t know but not someone who can create what you did in two minutes flat.’
She shrugged. ‘You don’t know me.’
‘No, I don’t.’ Felix swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he did. ‘But I’d like to. I’d like to get to know you.’
Was he trying to say what she thought he was? Raising her eyebrows, Merri cleared her throat before she answered. ‘What do you mean by that?’
Felix met her gaze. ‘I’d like to take you on a date. If you want to?’
She grinned. He had meant what she’d thought. And he had felt something between them in the bakery earlier. ‘Okay.’
‘Okay?’ Felix rubbed his forehead.
‘Yes, okay. A date would be nice.’ It really would be. She hadn’t dated since she’d split with Nile a year and a half ago. She had neither wanted to or had anyone ask her. She’d never been a fan of the dating sites, and less so since discovering that’s how Aggie had met her boyfriend.
‘Fantastic. Well, before I embarrass myself any further, I present to you, your first ever wreath. On the house.’ Picking up the wreath, he turned it to face her, after swapping the ribbons, he’d also added a few extra pine cones which had been sprayed gold and perfectly matched the colour of the ribbon.
‘Oh that’s beautiful. Thank you.’ Holding her hands to her cheeks, Merri grinned. Hopefully this Christmas might just be the festive season of firsts she’d hoped it would be.
Chapter Seven
‘Morning.’ Looking up from where she was refilling the coffee beans in the coffee machine, Merri grinned as Tilly and Brooke entered the bakery.
‘Hi, Merri.’ Closing the front door behind her, Tilly placed her handbag on the counter before shrugging off her coat. ‘The wreath on the door looks gorgeous.’
‘Yes, I love the yellowy-gold ribbon.’ After taking her coat off, Brooke picked up Tilly’s and hung them both on the hooks by the door to the flat upstairs before throwing Tilly an apron. ‘Catch.’
‘Thanks.’ Deftly catching the apron, Tilly slipped it over her head. 'I think we're in for a busy one today. I'm sure Carrie mentioned a big Christmas craft fair was going on at the community hall all day today.'
'All day? They normally only go on for the morning or the afternoon. Not all day.' Brooke grimaced before turning to Merri. 'You probably remember a few craft fairs in the summer, well, they don't have a patch on the Christmas ones. Penworth Bay is well known locally for holding the best and biggest craft fairs so they'll be a few coach loads of people being dropped off from the surrounding areas.'
'Yikes.' Merri secured the lid of the coffee machine again before putting the bag of coffee beans away in the cupboard beneath the counter. She remembered how busy the bakery got when any coaches came into the bay. People would descend on the bakery enmass because of they'd all be arriving and departing at the same times. Still, she liked it being busy. Since volunteering she'd realised she actually loved meetingnew people and talking to them about their lives, something she never had the opportunity to do back at the paper supply company she worked for back home. which reminded her, she really should ring her boss and attempt to find out if there was any truth in the assumption she'd made about the company closing.
'I wonder if Elsie knows? She normally bakes extra for days like today.' Brooke tied her apron around her middle. 'I'll go and warn her.'
With the coffee and cake counter ready to go, Brooke in the kitchen talking to Elsie and Tilly setting things up behind the bakery counter, Merri pulled her mobile from her pocket. Now she'd thought about work and the possibility of the company closing down, she just wanted to check she didn’t have any weird emails from Brian or Martha which suggested anything. She scrolled through her apps until opening her email one. Nope. Plenty of spam emails trying to encourage her to recent to the gym she attended for four weeks six years ago and enough offers of money off the food delivery companies that she'd be able to eta like a king for a month if they didn’t start out as grossly overpriced to begin with. But nothing from work.
Maybe she should check in with Brian? Perhaps she wouldn’t ask outright but she could send one asking something generic like how many days holiday she had left to use up by April or something. No, she knew she didn’t have any left and she knew Brian knew that too because that's why she'd taken these few weeks as unpaid leave. She'd have to think of something else. Leaning her hip against the counter, she opened a fresh email and added the company's email address.
