Jenny Oliver - Love At Christmas, Actually

‘Darling, you can call me anything you like. Trouble is pretty appropriate,’ Lucas shrugged. ‘Open it.’

‘Now? I thought it was a Christmas present?’ Skye looked to her mother uncertainly.

Megan nodded. ‘It’ll be good to have something to keep you occupied until Christmas, won’t it? Go ahead.’

Skye didn’t need to be told twice, launching herself at the wrapping paper.

‘This is really good of you,’ Megan said quietly to Lucas as they watched Skye tear the wrapping apart.

‘It was never mine to keep. Your parents let me keep it, or they forgot about it, I don’t know. It made me feel closer to you.’ He kept his eyes straight ahead, focused on Skye. ‘But here you are. Don’t need it any more.’

Megan wasn’t quite sure how to take that, whether it was a sign of connection, or a sign of closure. But it was a lovely thing to do.

Skye opened the rectangular cardboard box, and as she lifted the last flap, there sat Megan’s cherry red electric guitar. It shone at them in the soft lighting. It still had the leopard-print guitar strap attached, threadbare with wear, badges pinned to it. One said ‘fuck the police’ and Megan blinked, going over to remove it before Skye saw it.

‘A guitar?’ she lilted, surprised and delighted.

‘It was your mum’s,’ Lucas told her. ‘It’s only right that you should have it. I could teach you some Elvis tunes sometime, if you want?’

Skye turned to look at him with such a look of adoration that Megan wasn’t sure what to do. Skye was always composed. Sure, she’d do a little happy dance here and there, she expressed her feelings. But somehow, British politeness always won out. This time that was not the case, and she launched herself at Lucas.

‘Thank you, Trouble! Thank you, thank you! It’s perfect!’ She stayed with her arms clamped around his waist, Lucas blushing and awkward, until he offered to teach her something right then.

Megan left them to it, returning with coffees and watching from across the room as Lucas Bright taught her daughter to play guitar. He’d glance up every now and then and grin at her, and she felt her heart melt a little every time. Maybe this could have been her life if she’d stayed. Maybe she would have stayed with him, and he’d have taught Skye to play guitar, and she would have been happy. They might have had another kid, got married. Made everything simple again.

She shook the thought away like the fantasy it was, but every time she looked over, Skye so happy, and he so earnest as he leaned in to talk to her daughter, her chest hurt a little more.

A couple of hours later, when Skye’s fingertips were covered in red lines, but she’d performed a fair rendition of the first few bars from ‘Hound Dog’, they decided to call it a day. Lucas and Skye approached her together after she finished clapping, each taking a bow.

‘I was really sad, because this is the best gift ever, and I didn’t have a gift to give to Trouble,’ Skye said, overtly innocent, eyes to the ceiling, and Megan thought uh oh here comes a scheme. ‘So I thought because I didn’t have a present, I could give him you.’

My child, the pimp. Cheers kid, Megan thought.

‘Sorry, what?’

‘I would give him the gift of…’ She turned to Lucas, who mouthed something to her. ‘…the gift of your company,’ she said triumphantly. ‘Tonight. For dinner. Grandma wanted me to make our own pizza together. And you don’t like pizza, so you can go with Trouble.’

‘Hey, I like pizza!’ Megan argued. ‘And if you owe Lucas a present, why am I going to dinner? Shouldn’t you be going to dinner?’

Skye moved in closer, and put her hand up to whisper in her mother’s ear. ‘He said the best Christmas present he could have would be to spend time with you.’

Megan looked over at him and raised her eyebrows. ‘Way to manipulate my child, Bright.’

He held his hands up in a ‘who, me?’ gesture.

‘Mum,’ Skye grabbed her hand, ‘this will be good. Promise.’

She didn’t know how her child had this way of saying things like she was a fortune teller, but Megan always believed her.

‘Okay, okay. Let me go get changed.’ She stood up.

‘You don’t have to,’ Lucas said, smirking as he took in her current outfit of oversized jumper and leggings with reindeer on them.

‘Well, it would serve you right after getting my child to pimp me out to pay her debts. Sadly, I have too much pride to be seen around here in these clothes.’

‘Lucky me,’ Lucas said and stuck his tongue out, his eyes following her as she ran up the stairs.

‘What does pimping out mean?’ Skye asked, dragging his attention back.

‘It’s when you decorate a car really outlandishly,’ Lucas said quickly. ‘So…excited about Christmas?’

Skye tilted her head to the side, eyebrows raised. She knew when adults were lying, but she let it go, with more important things to cover. ‘You’re not going to cause trouble, are you? Because I like coming back here, and having a family. And I don’t want us to never come back again.’

Lucas held out his pinky finger to link with hers. ‘Promise, kid. No trouble, only making amends.’ He paused, seeing her confused look. ‘Making it up to your mum.’

‘What do you have to make up for?’

He sighed, his light eyes looking up to the ceiling. ‘I have no idea. But your mum was my best friend in the whole world. And she’s been gone a really long time. I want to make sure she doesn’t leave again. At least without saying goodbye.’

He sat back on the sofa, and Skye moved over to sit next to him, staring at the floor.

‘I asked Mum if you were my dad. She said you weren’t.’ Skye looked at him. ‘Is that true?’

‘Apparently so, kid,’ Lucas shrugged.

‘I wouldn’t mind if you were,’ Skye said quietly, tapping her fingertips together as she stared into the distance.

‘And I would be honoured to have a daughter like you.’ He put an arm around her shoulder. ‘But we get to be friends, right? Really great friends.’

‘Will you teach me some more guitar before I go home?’

‘I’ll have you performing on a stage before you go home, just you wait!’ Lucas nudged her and she laughed, until they both saw Megan coming down the stairs. Skye grinned at Lucas. Megan’s brown hair glowed in the firelight of the living room, and she had a black fitted dress with grey tights with her knee-high black boots. In her ears, novelty Christmas earrings twinkled, little silver stars with tinsel streamers. She looked radiant. Skye thought she’d never seen her mum look so…alive before. Like she’d been walking around in watercolours and now suddenly she was vibrant oil pastels in thick, bright lines.

‘Ready to go?’ she asked Lucas, who stood up and nodded wordlessly with an open-mouthed smile.

‘You look lovely, Mum!’ Skye said, hugging her.

‘Seconded,’ Lucas added.

‘Thanks.’ She shot Lucas a smile, before returning her focus to Skye. ‘So what’s the plan tonight?’

‘Me and Grandma make pizza, and I’m playing chess with Granddad, then we’re going to watch a film and I will be in bed before ten,’ Skye nodded, halo in place.

‘ Ten? ’ Megan raised an eyebrow.

‘That’s what Grandma said!’

‘Hmm, well me and your Grandma are going to have words then,’ Megan half-teased, but really, wasn’t that what this whole thing had been about? After telling her mother she was going out for dinner, and might be home late, she kissed Skye goodnight, and they set out.

She stood in her driveway and looked at his car.

‘You are kidding.’

The same little red Micra sat before her, sad and worn, and yet somehow, infinitely charming.