One Perfect Christmas by Paige Toon Read Free Book Online Page A

steering wheel, sobbing my heart out. A loud knock startles me and I look up to see Roxy standing there, white-faced and anxious. I
quickly brush away my tears and wind down the window.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ she asks with horror.
    ‘I… I…’ I can’t tell her. Not yet. Not until it’s official. ‘It’s personal,’ I manage to say.
    ‘Oh, okay, then,’ she replies, a little put-out. We’re really only colleagues – we’ve never spent time together outside of work. I’m not sure I can trust her
with this.
    I take a deep, shaky breath. ‘I’m not coming back after the holidays,’ I tell her.
    ‘Why not?’ she gasps.
    ‘I can’t go into details right now,’ I manage to say, reaching for a pen and a piece of paper. ‘But will you call me in the New Year? Maybe we’ll go out for a
drink.’
    ‘That would be great,’ she says warmly, taking the note with my telephone number on it.
    I sniff loudly and smile up at her. ‘Have a good Christmas.’
    ‘You too,’ she replies, patting me on my arm. ‘Drive carefully!’ she calls after me.
    What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall when the news of my relationship with Joe breaks… She’ll want to kill me for not telling her beforehand. But I’ll introduce
her to him one day to make up for it.
    My parents are coming to spend Christmas with us. They still haven’t met Joe in person. Well, not since he became famous, and not in the last year since we found each
other again. They knew him over ten years ago when I fell head over heels in love with him. I still remember coming home from Dorset on New Year’s Day almost a year ago. I had just said
goodbye to Joe at Wareham Station in Dorset after Lukas had discovered us at the cottage. I felt like my train was travelling at lightspeed as it raced me back to London. I didn’t want to go
home, to have to explain to my parents and Lukas what had been going on. But it was something I knew I needed to do.
    Just under a year ago
    The hall light is on, but I can’t tell if my parents are in when I heave my bags up to the white-painted-brick terraced house where I grew up, in East Finchley, north
London. It’s six o’clock in the evening, but it’s the middle of winter – New Year’s Day, in fact – and the sun sank a couple of hours ago. I scan the street-lamp
lit road with my heart in my throat to see if Lukas’s silver Porsche is parked up somewhere, but it’s nowhere to be seen. I don’t know if he’s still in the UK or if
he’s gone back to Germany. The thought of trying to track him down there… Of returning to the country house belonging to his cold mother and father… I’m filled with
fear. I need to find him. But first I need to face my parents. I know from the voicemail messages I forced myself to listen to on the train that they’ve been worried sick.
    I put my key in the lock and turn it, pushing the door open. At the far end of the long corridor is the kitchen and, right at the end, eating their dinner at the little white table, are my
parents. They meet my eyes with shock in theirs, my mother’s mouth falls open and then they’re on their feet and rushing towards me.
    ‘Alice!’ my dad shouts.
    ‘Where on earth have you been?’ Mum shrieks, pushing past him to get to me.
    I drop my bags with a thud onto the wooden floorboards as she reaches me. She checks my face with her hands to see if I’m harmed, and comes away finding nothing.
    ‘I’m sorry, I…’
    My voice trails off. This is going to be the first of a very long line of apologies.
    Where do I start?
    ‘Why did you lie about being in Germany with Lukas?’ Dad asks accusingly. ‘We were out of our minds with worry when Lukas turned up looking for you! He said you told him you
were staying with us!’
    ‘Shall we go back to the table?’ I suggest. I know I’ve interrupted their dinner.
    ‘No, no, I’ve lost my appetite,’ Mum hastily replies, pushing me into the living room. My dad looks a bit