Page 28 of The Christmas Letter

‘Still upset about it, are you?’

Holly shook her head seriously. ‘I never forget a biscuit.’

‘Clearly.’ His eyes hadn’t left hers the whole time, and Holly felt her cheeks heating at the intensity there – so much so that she had to look away.

Ed held up a finger. ‘So let me get this straight. You met once, and now you’re here to see Jack again, Holly? Is that right?’ He turned to Jack, his lips quirking with amusement. ‘So you do have friends! Where have you been keeping this one hidden?’

She could feel herself flushing – why did she always do that? ‘No, I . . .’

A slight frown creased Jack’s forehead. ‘Yes, what exactly are you doing here? Not to be rude or anything,’ he added quickly.

She hesitated. ‘I came to find someone.’ And, apparently, was not quick enough on her feet to deal with the unexpected hitch.

Jack smiled. ‘And instead you found me.’

She nodded slowly. She supposed both were true – she had come to find someone and she had found him.

In her handbag, Holly’s phone buzzed, and she drew it out, thankful for the distraction. A WhatsApp from Abi.

How’s it going? I still say this is a terrible idea and you should talk to Emma about it first, so if you get this before you find the elusive grandson then consider yourself warned. If not, then I hope it’s all going swimmingly. Either way, I need you back in an hour, stat. No one is staying in their assigned room and it’s a total disaster and I’m considering sending up the security guards to scare them.

Oh God. Abi was going to have a field day when Holly told her about this. Though come to think of it, she didn’t think she’d ever told Abi about the man in the café that day – because it would have meant recapping the accident in more detail than she was willing to. Besides, it hadn’t felt important to mention him – why bother telling Abi about a man she’d spent five minutes with and was never going to see again? Now, that felt like an oversight.

‘Err, I don’t mean to hurry this reunion along,’ Ed said, ‘but do you still want to get lunch, Jack? Or I can grab something for you if you want to, ah, catch up?’

Jack looked at Holly. ‘You could come?’

‘Come where?’

‘To lunch?’

Lunch? He was inviting her to lunch, now?

‘I mean, we’ve only got about thirty minutes, but you could come. You wouldn’t mind, would you, Ed?’

‘Fine with me,’ Ed said easily. ‘You can both fill me in on your one and only previous meeting. I love a story about chocolate biscuits – you can never go wrong. And any friend of Jack’s is a friend of mine and all that.’

Holly laughed, the sound a little high pitched. ‘I can’t, I—’

‘Oh right, you’re here to meet someone,’ Jack said. ‘Who is it? Maybe we can help?’

What a complete fuck-up. ‘No, I . . .’ She swallowed. ‘Actually this is totally embarrassing, but I think I’m in the wrong office. This part of London always confuses me. I was actually looking for, umm . . .’ Think. What was the name of a company?

Any company will do, Holly.

Both Ed and Jack were looking at her expectantly. ‘Cecelia Appleby,’ she blurted out. She’d gone to school with a Cecelia Appleby, and it was the first thing to come to mind.

Jack frowned. ‘Don’t think I know her, sorry.’

‘No,’ Holly said quickly. ‘I think I got confused about where she works.’ And now, she looked like a total idiot. Great.

‘So . . . does that mean you are coming to lunch?’ Ed asked.

Holly bit her lip. ‘Sorry, I can’t. I’m on this school trip and I—’

‘School trip?’ Jack asked, his eyebrows shooting up.

‘I’m a teacher,’ she explained. ‘And we—’