That was it. I couldn’t do this any more. I had to get the Elijah thing out in the open.

“OK. Look, don’t get mad. But there is something I didn’t mention...” Grace folded her arms. “When I first met Elijah, I didn’t just say yes to the events. I sort of … had to.” And as shocked as Grace was, I told her all about Elijah threatening to release the clip of me on the red carpet, and me having to go to the events. She made me go through what had happened in Pizza Express three times, sentence by sentence.

I sighed. “Honestly, I still cannot work him out. He does all that, but he also comes through with prizes, and hotels, and…” I sighed. I’d thought about it too much, and still had no answer.

“Blackmailing you though, Mol? That’s not OK. Although…” She prodded me accusingly in the ribs. “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME SOONER?!” She sighed and shook her head. “And all this time I thought Simon was the worst person I knew!”

“Please forgive me, oh great cardboard-boxed one.” It was a genuine plea. But Grace was still smiling. Phew. “In my defence, you did have some stuff going on.”

“Hmmm,” she said, fake-annoyed. “I thought the deal was we Jingle Ladies told each other everything? No secret left unshared?!” But she’d already shuffled across the floor and was yanking the big box of prizes out of my cupboard. “Anyway, I was thinking. Now Elijah’s helped with the meet and greet, we could ask if he’s changed his mind and will let us auction some of this stuff online too?”

But I was staring at the box in shock.

“Oi … what’s that face?” Grace wriggled towards me. “MOLLY, WHAT IS THAT FACE?!”

But then she saw it too. On the side of the box.

“It’s … it’s … the same … as … the popcorn container!” I pointed at the drawing. The bad, very bad, outline of a dragon with a nose ring.

“A reindeer, unless I’m very much mistaken,” Grace said immediately. “A reindeer, most probably called … RUDOLPH.” She sounded like one of her murder podcasts. “Mol, what is going on?! Cos right now I’m putting two and two together and getting a full sleigh.”

I thought back to when Elijah gave the box to us…

“Elijah didn’t actually say they were from him, did he?” My voice was shaking. Could this mean…?

Grace shook her head. “Nope.”

We both said, “Very Elijah,” in perfect unison.

Had Ru done this?

“So… What’s going on?” Grace asked, but I didn’t know what to say. “Fine! If you want to do it the hard way.” She got her phone out. “Let’s assess the evidence. Not only do we have this mega prize haul, which as we can see from the artwork” – she traced the drawing with her finger like it was dramatic evidence – “is clearly from Ru, yet he took zero credit for it. We also have this.” She opened up a photo taken from the hotel room of Ru and our dads on the hotel steps after we all bumped into each other. “Exhibit B! Eyes-on evidence that – after you failed to even say thank you for the prizes – not only did Ru buy us both hot chocolates but he didn’t spill A DROP when your dad lunged.” Yup, that was quite impressive actually. “And, exhibit C.” She started to quote the hot drink reviews I’d told her about that he’d been sending me since Edinburgh, along with a picture of his hand holding up random cups. “Mol, this guy must be spending all his usherly wages on heated beverages. All in the name of making you laugh.”

“Make it stoooooop.” I slid my hands forward and dropped my head down. I was a Jingle Lady! Not a Ru-liker. Grace didn’t even know about all the other stuff. The ideas he’d worked on for the fundraiser. The playlists. Making fifty snowflakes to post. Sending me venue links all week. But that what friends did, right?

“I’m a Jingle Lady!” Why was I wailing?! “There’s nothing going on.”

“So why,” said Grace, forcefully lifting up my chin to study my face, “are you smiling like that?” I tried to stop smiling. She leant forward. “Ru,” she said. Ow! My smile wanted to come back SO BAD. “Ruuuuuuu.” Owwwww! The smile was trying to break out. “RU!”

Too late. The smile was out.

“AH HAH! MY FINAL PIECE OF EVIDENCE, m’lud! How can this little reindeer be ‘just a friend’ when he makes Molly Bell, Molly of ‘I’m dead to romance’ fame, smile like THAT!”

I lay back flat on the floor. Was Grace right?

Did I like Ru?

I pictured him crashing into the door in the cinema in London. Offering me a mechanical robin in Liverpool. Searching around for my imaginary badge in Edinburgh.

I thought how even though I’d been having really bad days recently, he’d made me have fun in the middle of it all.

Eurgh.

Grace was right. Grace was always right.

Maybe, maybe I did like Ru.

And maybe, just maybe, for the first time in my life, I really did want to give a happy ending a go. But how could I, when I was a Jingle Lady?

I stretched my arms out. I needed to shake this all off. Get back to normal.

“This is stupid.” I sighed. “I’m never going to see him again. And I made a promise to be a Jingle Lady. And you’re more important than anything. And he doesn’t know anything about ‘Love Your Elf!’. And did I mention he thinks I have a reindeer called Derek?”

“OK. A lot to unpack there…” Grace’s face looked serious. “And, not gonna lie, I’m a bit sad—”

“Grace, don’t be sad! I’m sorry. I promise you can count on me. Even a Jingle Lady can have a wobble, right? But that’s all it is…”

But Grace’s face fell. For a second there was total silence.

“You really think that’s what I’m sad about?”

Nervously, I nodded.

But Grace … well, Grace laughed. “You absolute banana. I was sad you’ve been keeping this all to yourself. The Elijah thing. Now this. If you’d just told me, then I could have spent the last few weeks loving that my best friend had the cutest Christmas romance ever – which would have cheered me right up!” She shook her head. “Imagine all those funny yet spicy messages we could have written together! You’ve deprived me. DEPRIVED!” She howled.

I couldn’t help it. I had to hug her. My best friend was the very best.

“So, you don’t mind about the Jingle Lady thing?”

“What I mind is that you should have been having hot snogs at Edinburgh Castle but instead you were skulking around pretending to have a reindeer called Derek.”

“And he’s leaving the country in … less than a week. Ru. Not imaginary Derek.”

“For one so brilliant, you can’t half be a total wally.” She sighed, clutching her hands to her chest, a dreamy look in her eye. “London. At Christmas. My best friend falling in love.”

“Too far.”

But she ignored me. “Dasher and Rudolph. Two star-crossed reindeers—”

“Erm, before you get too carried away…” Maybe too late, but it was time for a bit of reality here… “Can we remember that this is me we’re talking about. Me, Molly Bell, who hasn’t ever snogged anyone let alone ‘fallen in love’.” She waved that sentence away. “Who even knows if he likes me?” I paused. “I mean, I did tell him I was all about that Jingle Lady life.”

Grace shook her head. “I actually despair.”

But being a Jingle Lady had felt nice, safe. If I wasn’t one any more it meant facing up to scary new things. How much I liked Ru. If he liked me. If this was all a big stupid idea. If I really knew him at all.

“There’s definitely something I don’t know about him, though.”

I had never got to the bottom of that weird phone number, and his grade-A ability to swerve questions.