Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,140

and Dale absolutely never washed dishes. She was really getting spooked by it all now, regardless of his reassurance that he was trying hard to make a new start.

“Relax, babe.” He said as if reading her thoughts. “I just want you to have a lovely day. The last few Christmas Days have been crap and I really wanted to make up for that. Now go and have your shower.” He said, swatting her playfully on the backside as he pushed her towards the stairs.

Back in the bedroom Elise took a moment to consider the sudden change in Dale’s behaviour and was frustrated that she could come up with no rational explanation for it. Perhaps she should give him the benefit of the doubt and accept that he just wanted to make a fresh start? It was so out of character though and she hated the fact that this new version of Dale appeared to be trying so hard to fix things when for her, the relationship was over, and she was really only interested in getting through Christmas and working out the best way to end it.

The shower was hot and refreshing and Elise took her time, allowing the warmth to soak away all her aches and pains. She felt sad that hers and Dale’s relationship would soon be over but she was also completely certain that it was the right thing to do. The problem was finding the right time to tell him, and it was going to be all that much harder now.

Whilst in the shower, Elise had also pondered what to wear as she still wanted to put on the beautiful lace hold ups that Vaughn had bought for her. Initially she had been going to wear them with the ‘killer’ dress that she had bought for the nightclub, as she knew that when Dale saw them he wouldn’t register that they weren’t her usual brand. When he had mentioned going for a walk however, she had realised that the dress wouldn’t be very practical and realistically Dale would be surprised if she wore anything other than jeans. Perhaps she could wear the hold ups underneath her jeans and put socks on over the top. Then if Dale did happen to notice and think it strange, she could just tell him that she wanted extra layers on so that she didn’t get cold.

Decision made, Elise rummaged through her wardrobe until she found the jeans that she was looking for along with her favourite dark green chunky knit sweater. She then dug the stockings out of her handbag and eased them on, completely in awe at the delicacy of the lace and the material – they really were the most beautiful things that she had ever seen. It was an absolute travesty to pull her jeans on over the top, but needs must and so to complete the effect she added a pair of chunky socks and her hardwearing ankle boots. No one would ever know what she had on underneath her jeans and she looked perfectly presentable for a walk on a chilly winter’s morning. Arriving downstairs, she saw that Dale had found out their hats and gloves so she shrugged into her coat and followed him out of the door.

It felt strange to be out walking with Dale. They hardly did anything together anymore and she couldn’t remember the last time that they had been for a walk. Thankfully their volume of chunky clothes put paid to any hand-holding but Dale did put his arm around her shoulders on a couple of occasions and Elise had to struggle not to flinch and shake it off.

They chose a circuitous route which took about an hour and, surprisingly, they chatted easily throughout the walk. As it was Christmas day the roads and pavements were deserted and they enjoyed passing many houses and guessing what the people were up to inside. Some were heavily decorated, whilst others, like theirs, showed little sign of acknowledging the season at all, which made them all the more intriguing.

When they got back home they were both frozen through so they huddled under blankets in the warmth of the lounge, drinking hot chocolate and reminiscing. It seemed like they had been doing a lot of reminiscing lately and it didn’t escape Elise’s notice that Dale seemed to be encouraging it. She didn’t know whether he was looking to rekindle what they had once had or whether he just found the past much easier to