“Deal.” Ru looked back up. “Although why on earth didn’t you tell me sooner? All this time, I’ve been hanging out with the world’s most famous elf? No wonder you didn’t return my calls. Or messages. Or…” But he was grinning.
“OK, OK, I get it!” But I was laughing, a huge green-and-red weight lifted off me. All this time I’d been trying to hide who I was, and now Ru, no, Jay, knew and … he didn’t seem to care. “I just thought it might be weird. That you might not…” But I shrugged, too embarrassed to say, “Want to hang out with me”.
“Seriously?” He shook his head in disbelief. “Being the elf girl just makes you even better.” Even better? That sounded nice. “And anyone who doesn’t agree should probably hide, as I’ve seen what you can do with a wooden sign.”
“Oi.” I bumped my knee into his. “It was an accident.”
“Course.” He grinned. “Wouldn’t dare say otherwise.” He held his battered phone up. “So how about a photo? Me and Elf Girl. On this momentous bench… Maybe you could even not look petrified this time?”
“I can’t make any promises.” I laughed. But this time, squidged together on the bench, the snow falling, we got a photo of me laughing my head off and Ru grinning next to me.
It looked amazing. Like … we were a couple at Christmas. A perfect romcom moment, even better than the bench in Liverpool.
“Who needs Elijah’s photobooth, right?” Ru airdropped the photo over to me. I couldn’t help but see who I was in his contacts. Smiley Girl aka Dasher.
OK. That was cute. That was very cute. And I didn’t know what to say. And neither did he.
And erm…
“I think I need a wee,” I said, shattering any illusion of me being able to have cutesy couple moments. “Be back in a sec…”
As soon as I was out of sight I rang Elijah. He picked up immediately.
“Elf?”
“Oh, hi, Elijah.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re here early? Is that you on the jetty? Molly! We’re not set up yet.”
I bit my lip. This was going to go down like a lead balloon. But I thought of Ru, and him waiting on the bench, and, well…
“Hypothetically. If I couldn’t make the meal with Joseph D Chambers later … could we maybe, reschedule it?”
“You what?!” Elijah then made me repeat it. Twice. Before he went silent for about thirty long seconds.
“Hypothetically, I don’t even want to discuss it, Molly.” Elijah swallowed hard. “We pulled some serious strings to make this happen. Joseph NEVER does stuff like this. And we’re guaranteed at least twelve publications running the photos?!”
He really did only care about stupid press stories.
“So, is that a maybe?”
“It’s a ‘you better be joking’ silence. And what about your friend who paid all that money?”
Could I find out who?!
“Friend?”
“I’m not at liberty to say, but I’m sure they’ll tell you in good time.”
Who could it be?!
“But the bid would still stand if we did it another time? Like at the event tomorrow?”
Elijah gave a furious sigh. “We’re not talking about any old person here. Joseph’s got no availability after tonight.” My heart sank. If it meant losing money for the fundraiser of course I’d go. “Molly. Really. Even Tim liked the auction idea. Even more when you were the winner. Little Elf Girl and the lead.” So Elijah was going to use the photos to get his reveal of my Elf secret? Nice of him to tell me! “A perfect little story about Joseph for once!” Not sure how cute a set-up meal was, but it didn’t seem like the time to argue. “In the MOST CRUCIAL week for getting Christmas number one!”
“So is that a no then?”
Elijah actually growled. “It’s a ‘I’ll see what I can do’.” But he’d already put the phone down.
I felt bad. But minutes later, as I was drying my hands, a message from Elijah pinged through.
ELIJAH: Meet is cancelled for tonight. Still looking for another slot. Bid still stands. Can’t talk. Too busy waving bye to chances of me getting that job.
ELIJAH: Merry little Christmas.
He was taking it well then. I felt bad, but had to remind myself this was the guy who’d been threatening to release that red-carpet clip of me. Thank goodness I’d made sure it was deleted. I quickly messaged Grace to tell her the meet was getting rearranged, and that the bid was still OK and pinged over the selfie of me and Ru. I knew if she saw it, she’d understand why I’d asked to postpone.
I tried to push all thoughts of it out of my mind, and slid back next to Ru on the bench.
“So, Ru, I mean Jay.” It was going to take some getting used to. “Now that you know my deepest darkest secret…”
“You play the banjo?”
I gave him my best withering look. “No, about the whole elf situation. And I know yours…”
“I never mastered long division?”
“No, that you actually quite like Christmas.”
