His eyes scanned the screen from left and right until he landed on something and turned it around for me to see.
‘Too late.’
A receipt. A QR code. Two tickets booked on the Caledonian Sleeper.
Two incredibly expensive, non-refundable tickets booked on the Caledonian Sleeper. As someone who grew up without any money, who was mired in student debt, the number on the screen made me feel sick to my stomach.
‘Don’t worry about it, this isn’t your problem,’ Callum said when he saw the look on my face. ‘I made my bed, I’ll hide underneath it until my parents stop shouting at me. I’ll call them, explain we’re not coming, stick it out here on my own.’
On his own. Even a self-professed Grinch like me couldn’t stand the thought of him skulking around alone all Christmas, it was too depressing.
‘What if you tell them I dumped you after they left?’ I suggested. ‘Then they’d have to be nice to you?’
‘If I break up with Caroline, I lose my get-out-of-going-
home card and I’m not ready to part with that just yet and if I show up at home without you, they’ll probably lock me up in the tower to keep me there, and I really wish I was joking.’
‘OK, Rapunzel,’ I muttered. ‘Your hair isn’tthatnice.’
‘It’s not your problem,’ he said again. ‘Worry about the hot water tap in the bathroom, don’t stress yourself out about me.’
He was right, it wasn’t my problem, but I hated the thought of him hanging around this empty, tree-less flat all Christmas and I really hated the thought of his parents wasting so much money. It all seemed so unnecessary, especially when there was an alternative. Even if it was a deeply, deeply stupid alternative …
‘What if I did come with you?’ I said. ‘I don’t have any big plans and, you never know, it might be fun. I could be Caroline.’
Callum stared right through me, two lines bracketing his mouth as he pursed his lips. I squeezed the tape measure in my pocket until the edges bit into my palm and stared right back. For some reason, whenever he looked at me, I couldn’t quite work out what to do with my hands.
‘You’re joking,’ he said. ‘Of course you’re joking.’
Was I? Of course I was. Unless I wasn’t.
‘It’s only an idea,’ I replied. ‘I mean, how difficult could it be? Nice train ride, couple of days in Scotland, smile and nod at your family. Would it be so ridiculous?’
‘Yes,’ Callum answered without hesitation.
‘Right,’ I agreed. ‘Completely.’
‘And it wouldn’t really solve the problem in the long term,’ he added. ‘What are you going to do, come with me every time I have to visit my parents for the next ten years?’
‘Or,’ I said, a concept of a plan forming in my mind, ‘we make Caroline so unbelievably awful they beg you to never bring her back to Braewick ever again.’
The creases between Callum’s eyebrows smoothed out slowly as his eyebrows crept up his forehead.
‘Really and truly heinous,’ I added. ‘I’m talking tracks mud all over the house, talks on her phone at the dinnertable, puts empty After Eight wrappers back in the box horrible. We could really make them hate her.’
‘I may have led my parents to believe Caroline isn’t especially social,’ he muttered, more to himself than to me. ‘All you’d have to do is show up then avoid them for the rest of the trip.’
‘For how long?’
‘The train leaves tomorrow night, gets into Inverness on the twenty-second and we’d travel back to London on the twenty-sixth.’
‘Show up, be rude, hide in my bedroom for four days,’ I surmised. ‘Yes, that sounds like a proper family Christmas.’
‘It’s such a lot to ask.’ Callum glanced at me from underneath his very long eyelashes and I could tell he was tempted. ‘We don’t even know each other, I can’t expect you to give up your Christmas to help me out of my own stupid mess.’
‘There’s really nothing to give up,’ I assured him. ‘It’s just me and my two friends eating an entire Chocolate Orange each and watchingA Muppet Christmas Carolon a loop.’
‘That sounds like more fun than hanging out with my family … What about work? Surely you don’t get much time off?’
