It’s Christmas Eve and I’m battling up the M6 in my little Citroën. Destination: Rob and Justine’s ‘festive soirée’.
After the emotional roller coaster that was last Christmas, I was hoping for a rather less eventful twelve months, but it didn’t quite turn out like that.
So much has happened in the past year.
The hardest part was back in March when Seb left Scarsby and went to live in the Scottish Borders. I pretended I was fine. I didn’t want his last vision of me to be an ugly, streaky blubber-face. But I cried buckets after he’d gone.
Luckily, my new job as Jasper’s assistant and the group’s manager kept me so busy, I barely had time to mope at all. In theory.
Thanks to my dogged (and admittedly often fruitless) persistence, Continental Drift’s debut album is starting to get noticed. We’ve even had the odd mention in some fairly heavyweight music magazines and the boys finally gave up their day jobs last month to dedicate themselves to the music business full-time. Exciting times!
Jasper, bless him, still loses his keys on an almost daily basis and tells everyone he meets that he doesn’t know how he functioned before Barb and I arrived on the scene. He and Barb are madly in love and getting married in June. I’ve agreed to be their nuptials planner on one condition: that Barb ditches her idea of a Sound of Music-themed wedding, involving the entire wedding party careening over a hilltop in heels and fascinators in full vocalisation. (She claimed she was joking but I don’t think she was.)
Barb has invited Mum and Dad to her wedding, which is so sweet of her. And we’re optimistic that Mum will actually make it on the day. Dad leaving last Christmas was a real wake-up call for her and the memory of how devastated she was has left her with a real determination to get better. When they got home, she made an appointment with a doctor then promptly faked a headache to get out of going. But Dad’s not the pushover he once was. He’s finally realised that sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. I’m not suggesting that getting his motorbike serviced and leaving some route maps of Europe lying around was a subtle threat, but – well, Mum is finally getting the medical help she needs. It’s a slow process and we’re not expecting overnight miracles, but she managed a week in Brighton with Dad over the summer – their first holiday in years – and she’s already planning their next trip.
Also, Rosie and Josh are coming home for good!
Rosie broke the news to me over Skype. Her boyfriend, Alejandro, was offered a big promotion, setting up a UK base for the haulage company where he works – and, at the same time, Rosie made the decision to return to England so that Josh could be schooled here. When I said how marvellous it was that she’d be following Alejandro, she looked at me like I was nuts and snapped, ‘I’m not following him. It was just a coincidence.’ To which I replied, ‘Hm. And I’m a monkey’s uncle.’
Nathan and Crystal have split up.
I bumped into Crystal a few months ago in a restaurant with a friend. She was tucking into a massive burger with cheese and bacon, which gave me the impression she was still in the ‘Ha! Fuck you, Nathan and your nasty rabbit food’ stage. (I remember it well.) She was surprisingly friendly, although I think it was probably because she wanted the chance to off-load on someone who understood her ex’s – erm – peculiarities. Apparently it was the bog snorkelling that finally did for their relationship.
‘Didn’t you enjoy it, then?’ I asked, all wide-eyed innocence.
Crystal’s face darkened. ‘I’d rather strip naked and parachute into a junkyard guarded by starving Rottweilers,’ was her reply. She had a point.
But the biggest news of all is that Justine is pregnant.
After everything came to a head last Christmas, she and Rob agreed they’d go for one more round of IVF and then, if it failed, they would look into adopting. But then a miracle happened and Justine found she’d got pregnant naturally.
They made the announcement over dinner during a weekend at Mum and Dad’s.
The baby is due in February and they’re both absolutely over the moon.
Justine’s resigned as chairman of various committees and is currently obsessing over nursery colour charts. Forget blue for a boy and pink for a girl. Apparently, celery green is the colour this season for any self-respecting trendsetter parent. Rob remarked that perhaps filled-nappy green might be a more appropriate shade. Or even baby-puke cream. Everyone laughed, including Justine, which supports my theory that she’s become a lot nicer since being with child.
And now I have an announcement of my own to make.
Butterflies flit around inside me at the very thought of arriving at Rob and Justine’s (Mum and Dad are already there) and telling everyone the news.
They’ll all be pleased. I’m sure of it. Even Justine …
‘Penny for them.’
I turn with a mischievous smile and waggle the gorgeous square-cut diamond that’s sitting on my fourth finger at Seb. ‘Worth more than a penny.’
Seb’s mouth curves in response, his eyes crinkling sexily. ‘Don’t I know it.’
Even after a whole year together, that smile still has the power to turn my legs to jelly and make me think of stopping the car in the next lay-by to further the ‘getting-to-know-you’ process.
I give him a haughty look. ‘But I’m worth it?’
He squeezes my thigh. ‘Every penny.’
I look at the mountains with their covering of snow and a bolt of pure joy zips through me. Even Justine’s cocktail party will be fun as long as Seb is next to me.
‘Time for some festive music,’ I say happily, scrabbling about in the CDs. ‘To get us in the mood.’
‘Not “Driving Home for Christmas” again?’ groans Seb.
‘Please?’
‘Oh, go on, then. Just one thing.’
‘Yes?’
‘Please don’t sing …’