A Kiss in the Snow - Rosie Green
CHAPTER ONE
I’m sitting alone at a table in the window of The Olive Tree, trying not to glance along the high street every three seconds - but failing utterly. It’s as if my eyes are on strings, being pulled sideways against my will.
Sunnybrook High Street has been touched with the magic of Christmas this early December evening. A sparkling tree lights the window of the department store opposite, and the glowing, festive lights strung from lamppost to lamppost would surely melt the hearts of even the most cynical Scrooge.
But it isn’t these festive delights that are drawing my eyes beyond the window and making my heart flutter.
I’m waiting for Adam.
Any moment now, I’ll see him, weaving through the crowds, hurrying a little to make it to our dinner date on time. The Christmas shoppers are out in force (it’s Thursday, late-night closing) but I’d spot Adam anywhere, however big the crowd.
Nervous excitement grips my insides, and I wonder how I’ll manage to eat even a single bite once he’s sitting opposite me, making me laugh and telling me all about his day. Not that we haven’t enjoyed each other’s company before tonight; we became good friends back in September following a brilliant night at the Sunnybrook autumn fair, and we’ve been hanging out together quite a bit ever since.
But tonight…tonight is different. The Olive Tree is considered to be Sunnybrook’s best restaurant, so not our usual grab-a-quick-bite pizza place. Adam suggested we come here for a change, and it feels…significant somehow. Especially after that awkward half-kiss on Wednesday night that I haven’t been able to stop analysing since…
My friendship with Adam has developed quite naturally. After the night of the fair, Adam fixed a leaky tap for us, but although Krystle and I both tried to pay him for the work, he refused to take any money, so I insisted on treating him to a pizza at Carlo’s to say thank-you. We had such a laugh that night. We got into a hilarious argument about who could cook the fastest, and the result was that he challenged me to a bit of a contest. One week, I went around to his flat and timed him as he made a (very edible) chicken and prawn paella. Then the following week, I cooked him an Indian curry, which was pretty good, if I say so myself – although, unfortunately, he found an empty jar of paste in the bin and declared I was disqualified because it was in the rules that we had to cook from scratch.
Since then, we’ve been to the cinema twice, each time to see a horror movie, which we both love, and we’ve spent a couple of Saturdays going for long walks, ostensibly ‘to get fit’ (although each time, we ended up in a country pub, wolfing down steak and ale pie, and drinking too much cider).
All the time, I kept telling myself that Adam was just a good friend. We laughed at the same things and we enjoyed each other’s company. That was all. It would never be anything more than that.
But then Wednesday night happened, and suddenly everything feels different…
My heart picks up speed as I spot him, moving purposefully through the Christmas shoppers, and I grab a soup spoon to try and check my reflection in it. But I look like a pin-head with enormous lips, so I abandon that and content myself with fluffing my fringe and subtly checking my antiperspirant’s working…
For heaven’s sake, calm down, Carrie!
The trouble is, Adam Bailey is my dream man.
I don’t mean he’s an embodiment of physical male ‘perfection’ – as in six-foot-five frame with impressive muscles and a blindingly white smile. Men like that terrify me, and they wouldn’t be interested in someone as boringly average as me, anyway.
No, Adam is just a normal bloke, really. Medium height (still a fraction taller than me when I’m wearing heels), with shiny, dark blond hair and a fringe that’s always flopping over his incredible blue eyes. He has a cheeky smile that makes me go weak at the knees when he’s telling me yet another of his funny anecdotes, and he has a fun personality to match. (He has me in stitches most of the time.) He trained as a plumber, does amazing wood carvings, and he loves animals as much as I do, which is always a massive green light for me when I meet someone.
I first met Adam when I came to work at the Brambleberry Manor Café, job-sharing