Page 23 of The Merry Christmas Project

‘I’m so sorry. We were talking about having dates,’ I said hurriedly, tugging at my scarf to loosen it. The hot chocolate had made me feel very warm all of a sudden.

‘With hot-looking boys, yeah, I heard,’ he said with a laugh in his voice.

‘Those were the days,’ said Nell.

‘I mean adventures,’ I corrected. ‘Having adventures, not dates.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘Even better.’

I found myself smiling back. He really was rather handsome ; he had a nice smile and lovely white teeth.

‘Although if you did want a date, I’m sure my friend will be only too pleased to oblige,’ said Nell, taking my cup from me. ‘Go on, oblige please.’

‘Of course, sir,’ I said, getting to my feet and ignoring her pun. ‘We have Medjool dates and er, these other smaller ones.’

‘Sukkhari,’ Nell supplied for me.

‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘It had been on the tip of my tongue. Plus, of course, we have a wide variety of … other stuff.’

I picked up the scoop and waved it vaguely over the dried fruit display. It was most peculiar, I’d been serving customers all day and knew what I was doing, and there wasn’t one of Nell’s innuendos about nuts I hadn’t heard before but for some reason all the names of things had gone out of my head. Behind me I could hear Nell sniggering under her breath.

‘That’s very helpful, thank you,’ the man said, pretending to nod earnestly. ‘I’ll take some sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds please, a scoop of each. My sister sprinkles them on salads. For some weird reason.’

I tipped some of each into bags and set them on the counter.

‘That looks nasty,’ he said, indicating Nell’s hand and then looking back at me. ‘Did that happen during one of your adventures ?’

‘Er …’ I blinked. He had such an intense gaze, as if he was giving me one hundred per cent of his attention. As if anything could happen around us and he wouldn’t even notice. It was a few seconds before I realised I hadn’t given him an answer.

‘Yes,’ Nell piped up. ‘You should see the other guy.’

‘Actually, she was wounded during a fight with a fish,’ I corrected.

‘Really ?’ He looked amused.

‘I won,’ Nell punched the air with her good hand. ‘The fish got battered. Do you get it ? Battered ?’

‘And when the chips were down, I stepped in to help on the stall,’ I nudged Nell. ‘Chips !’

We both laughed and the man stared at us, bemused.

‘Ahem, anyway,’ I said. ‘Can I get you anything else ?’

‘Some almonds please, the flaked ones.’

‘For your sister again ?’ Nell asked. ‘Or someone else ?’

I shot her an amused look ; she was so transparent. She might as well have come out and asked him if he was married.

‘No, these are for my dad, he has them on his porridge.’

‘Very healthy,’ I said.

He grinned. ‘It would be if he didn’t add a lake of honey and cream on top of it.’

‘Now that is my sort of breakfast,’ I said, putting the almonds next to his other purchases.

‘Apologies for my friend,’ said Nell butting in, ‘it’s very presumptuous of her to give her breakfast orders to men she’s never met before.’