'Evie, come and sit back down.' Hannah called from the table to her left. 'I'm so sorry. I didn’t know she going to do that or I would have stopped her.'
'That's okay. It's good to see you both here.' As she watched Evie run back to her mum and sit back in her chair, Merri felt the tension in her shoulders disperse. It was good to see some friendly faces in a group of strangers. Really good.
'We popped over after school to pick up a little tree for the kitchen and Nick mentioned you were teaching this class.' Hannah smiled. 'And Evie insisted on coming. Luckily, we got the last two spaces.'
'Well, it's lovely to have you both here.' Merri smiled and looked around the class. 'It's lovely to have you all here.'
'THAT'S RIGHT. IF YOUtwist the willow this way you won’t have the same problem.' Hearing the creak of the door to the classroom, Merri glanced up from the woman she was helping to see Felix standing there. Turning back, she smiled. 'Does that make sense?'
'Yes, thanks. I see what I was doing wrong now.' The woman hunched back over the willow angel she was making.
'Great. Keep going. you're doing really well.' After checking everyone else was happy with what they were doing, Merri walked towards Felix. 'Everything okay?'
'I guessed you might not have had time to grab anything to eat or drink so I brought you a hot chocolate and a mince pie. Something to tide you over.' Felix held up a cardboard takeaway cup and a mince pie.
Just looking at them made her stomach growl louder. 'Oh, you don’t know how much I appreciate this.' Taking the mince pie, she bit into it before brushing the pastry from her lips. 'This is good. So good.'
'I'll pop your drink here.' Placing the cup down on a small table at the front of the classroom, Felix reached out and flicked a bit of pastry from her chin.
Merri laughed as she scrunched the now-empty napkin up. 'Thanks. I needed that.'
Smiling, Felix glanced around the room. 'Well, I'll leave you to it. It looks as though it's going well.'
Raising her eyebrows,Merri lowered her voice to a whisper. 'We'll see if you get any complaints.'
'Haha, I don’t think that's very likely.' Chuckling, Felix slipped back outside and closed the door softly behind him.
Chapter Twelve
Closing the door to the empty classroom, Merri grinned. The session had been a success. Or at least from what she could tell it had been. Everyone had left with a completed willow angel and a smile on their face. Perhaps Elsie had been right to suggest a career change? She shook her head. She was getting way ahead of herself. She'd taught one class. One. And she didn’t even know if Nick would receive any complaints about her teaching.
Even so she couldn’t help but imagine how her life would be if she took a leap of faith and changed careers. Or even perhaps moved down here. There was a big college over in Trestow. They might take on a willow weaving teacher for one of their adult night classes, or else she could work towards getting her own workshop like Carrie had. She could teach and travel around to the local craft fairs selling baskets and other pieces she'd made.
After being stuck renting a room in Aggie's flat and working in the small office for years she suddenly felt as though the world was opening up in front of her and offering her a heap of opportunities.
She rubbed her forehead. She was definitely getting way ahead of herself. She needed to take thing sone step at time and see where things led. But if she did move down here then she and Felix might actually have a future together. Yes, it was early days. Ridiculously early days and they could continue their relationship long distance when she went back home, but imagine if she was living here, living close...
As she stepped out of the barn, she noticed Felix standing up from where he’d been sitting in the sleigh and she walked across to him. 'Playing Santa now, are we? Not content on testing you paramedic skills on Fiona earlier, you're now trying out for Santa’s job too?'
Chuckling, he walked over to her before wrapping his arms around her and kissing her. 'Come and see for yourself.'
Tilting her head, she raised her eyebrows questionably. 'Okay.'
With his arm around her shoulders, he guided her towards the sleigh.
'Are you about to teach me how to fly the Santa's sleigh too?' She laughed.
'Haha, nothing so exciting, I'm afraid. I do however have dinner for you.'
Twisting to face him, she kissed him on the cheek. 'You made me dinner?'
Scrunching up his nose, Felix shook his head. 'Thankfully not. I wouldn’t subject you to my cooking skills yet, I have pizza though.'
'Aw, thank you.' As they came to the sleigh, he indicated her to sit down before he ran around to the other side and joined her before pulling out a large pizza box from where it must have been balancing on the sacks in the back. 'Yum, that smells delicious.'
'A lot more delicious than my cooking that's for sure.' Felix grinned as he opened the box up to reveal the freshly baked pizza inside. Reaching back behind him again, he picked up a book and passed it to her. 'And I thought it might be pretty fun to take a look at this.'
'What is it?' Turning the book over in her hands to reveal the cover, she grinned. 'Star Gazing for Beginners?'
