Martha and Vikki were both “sweet sixteen and never been kissed” and the girls were the best of friends.
And to be perfectly honest
they were not really interested in boys, their leisure time was spent sailing,
mountain biking, orienteering, climbing, you name it and they did it.
Basically Martha and Vikki were
the outdoorsy type.
They both lived in
Dancingdean Hall, Martha in flat D with her widower father Andrew and Vikki in
flat F with her divorced mother Alexandra and their primary aim in life was to
get their respective parents interested in each other so they could become
sisters.
Dancingdean Hall was once the
residence of the Earls of Dancingdean but that line of aristocracy had long
since died out and the hall was now divided into 6 spacious family apartments.
Alexandra Quarit was 38 years
old and had raised Vikki on her own since she was 10 months old when her
husband walked out on them.
He hadn’t contested the
divorce and although he had not reneged on his financial obligations he had
made no attempt over the years to see his daughter.
She was content however with
her life, she loved Vikki and she had a successful business that she had built
up from nothing.
And she now had a shop in Abbottsford’s Phoenix Centre called Crazy
Chocolatiers and for the past seven years she and Vikki had lived on Teardrop
Lake.
Alex was a no nonsense
practical person, a “what you see, is what you get” type and she wasted no time
on frills and fripperies.
Her normal apparel was a blue
shirt, sleeves turned up, black skirt, blue wool tights and stout shoes.
And she wore her grey
streaked dark hair short and low maintenance.
She was an attractive woman,
clean and presentable but she didn’t tend toward the glamorous, she favoured
the subdued look.
She wasn’t interested in
attracting a partner because she didn’t think she could ever trust a man again.
Dancingdean House was
situated on the highest point on the cliffs above the Lake and commanded a
magnificent view.
Which was a great comfort to
Andrew McShane as it was a much loved view of his wife Rachel which became all
too familiar in the summer of her death.
Andrew was an accountant and had
not long turned 40, an event he would have ignored entirely had it not been for
his daughter who did her best to mark the milestone with party poppers, banners
and helium filled balloons.
Although he humoured her and
put on a brave face, for him it merely marked another year without the love of
his life.
Martha knew her dad still missed
her mum and she did too but she was determined to get him back into the world
of the living if it was the last thing she did.
But Andrew thought he would
be betraying Rachel’s memory if he found someone else, if he even entertained
the thought it would be a betrayal of her memory.
Martha was 10 when the cancer
finally took her mum, and it was her friend Vikki who got her through it.
The girls were gregarious,
bubbly and outgoing and everybody liked them.
Victoria was the ring leader
and was the complete opposite of her mother in almost every respect apart from
the fact they both stood five foot two inches tall and Vikki wasn’t looking for
a guy either.
She wore her unruly chestnut brown
hair tied in a kind of loose arrangement on top of her head which gave the
impression she was taller than she was.
And when it came to her mode
of dress there was nothing that could be in any way considered to be subdued.
Vikki generally went for the
Tomboy appearance and as summer began to give way to autumn
She wore a white top beneath
a garishly bright multi-coloured striped shrug.
Red skinny trousers and
orange converse shoes and she loved jewellery, lots and lots of jewellery.
She had lovely laughing hazel
eyes which narrowed when she smiled, which was often, and her smile illuminated
her face.
Like Vikki, Martha was also a
tomboy but she was a little more subtle in her choices and favoured blue jeans,
a white top and blue plaid shirt and on her feet she wore either baseball boots
or just plain black leather boots.
Her hair was mousy hair and
there was less of it than Vikki’s but like her friend she stood five foot two
inches tall.
And Martha never wore
jewellery but then Vikki wore enough for the two of them.
Her complexion wasn’t as
clear as her friends and she had a number of what some people would have called
blemishes which far from detracting from her beauty, enhanced it rather.
With her stunning green eyes she
was by far the prettier of the two girls.
They had made the decision to
intervene in their parents love lives the previous Christmas.
Although “love lives” wasn’t really
an accurate description as they had no love in their lives save for what they
held for their children.
The incident occurred after
Christmas lunch which that year the girls had suggested they do together,
It had always seemed silly to
them that they should have separate Christmas lunches when they lived in the
same building, when they lived next door in the same building.
It was met with some
resistance from both parties initially but the girls were very persistent.
After all it was not unusual
for them to do shared events, they were both big BBQ fans and their children
were the best of friends so they often used to eat together in the communal
gardens during the summer.
So Alex reluctantly agreed to
host Christmas dinner and Andrew said he would do the next one, quietly hoping
that there wouldn’t be a next one.
But despite their misgivings
the occasion was less onerous than either of them had expected.
The girls helped clear away
and as they were exiting the kitchen the grownups were coming the opposite way,
they paused to let the girls past and Vikki and Martha both blurted out in
unison.
“You’re under the mistletoe”
“You have to kiss” Martha
added “it’s the law”
“What law?” her father said
“Christmas law” Vikki replied
“Nonsense” Andrew said
“Poppycock” Alex agreed
“Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss” the
girls chanted
Eventually Andrew and Alex
agreed to kiss, just to shut them up, but they made such a palaver about that
one simple peck that the girls resolved to help them loosen up which in turn
led to them to the task of trying to fix them up.
But it was not an easy task,
they had set their target for something meaningful to have occurred between
then by Christmas day, one year on from the mistletoe debacle.
Alex and Andrew got on very
well together they were both very hardworking and they were both devoted to
their children.
And that wasn’t their only
common ground they were also avid readers so literature was always a popular
subject for them to converse in, as well having a love of classical music.
So they got on well, had
shared interests and liked each other’s company,
But despite all of that
neither of them had any designs on progressing to another level, they were quite
comfortable with the way things were.
Between Lynn Cooper’s
birthday bash in May and Rob and Sheryl Brown’s anniversary party in September they
had had a dozen BBQs at least, and half a dozen day trips, cinema, bowling,
tree walking you name it they had done it, including getting them both out on
the lake sailing but by the end of September they hadn’t made an ounce of
progress.
Alexandra wasn’t stupid and
she knew exactly what the girls were up to, and although she hadn’t discussed
it with him she assumed Andrew must have been aware of it as well.
She was happy enough to play
along the shared meals and the days out were fun but she wasn’t interested in
anything other than friendship and judging by his reluctance to kiss her the
previous Christmas she was certain sure Andrew shared her disinterest in the
romantic.
Andrew was also well aware of
his daughters plot to hook him up with Alex, whom he liked very much, but only as
a friend.
And regarding the Christmas
kiss incident he remembered it slightly differently to her in as much as he
thought she was the reluctant one.
But he had enjoyed her
friendship and their combined social life, and he had actually begun to feel
alive again.
For Alex, October began her busy
period at the shop, firstly because the novelty stock had to be displayed in
preparation for Halloween and then at the beginning of November the Halloween
stock had to be removed over the weekend and replaced with the Christmas stock.
The shop also had to be
decorated and the window dressed for the season.
And because Crazy
Chocolatier’s sold the best handmade chocolates in Downshire they were also beginning
to take orders for Christmas.
Andrew was himself burning
the midnight oil during that period preparing the year end accounts for his biggest
client.
As a result of them both
being exceptionally busy they hadn’t done anything as a foursome for a couple
of months.
So when Vikki and Martha
suggested going bowling one Saturday night in December, Alex and Andrew both
jumped at the chance and furthermore surprised themselves by how much the idea
appealed to them.
From the girl’s perspective as
it was already December time was running out for them to hit their target of
having their parents involved, in some way, by Christmas Day.
Bowling was, they would have
to admit not the most original idea and even a little lame, but they were
getting desperate.
In the week preceding the
bowling Alex found herself looking forward to it considerably more than she had
anticipated and even treated herself to a colourful new blouse and a pair of
slacks.
On the day before the outing
Andrew decided he needed a haircut.
It was a bitter cold day when
the night of the bowling came around, and snow had been predicted so as Andrew
had a 4x4 he drove them.
After queuing to get their
shoes they made their way to lane 10 and took their coats off.
It was at that point that
they lost Vikki and Martha who were totally distracted by the devastatingly
good looking Addison twins on the next lane.
They weren’t identical twins
but they were clearly brothers and the girls thought they were absolutely
gorgeous.
As Alex slipped off her coat
to reveal her new outfit Andrew was moved to comment
“Wow you look lovely”
“Thank you” she replied and
blushed a little at the compliment and then began entering the names on the
screen.
The girls struggled to focus
on the game as they were totally smitten by the boys on the neighbouring lane.
Andrew was a good bowler but
his game had gone to pieces which left Alex in the unfamiliar position of
leading after nine frames.
She knocked down 7 with the
first ball of frame 10 and she was waiting for her ball to return.
Andrew was manipulating the
unwanted balls on the carrier and when Alex reached down to retrieve her ball their
hands touched.
Neither of them moved and
their hands remained in contact,
It was like electricity was
passing between them, then after a moment they made eye contact and smiled
“Gosh” she said and took a
proper hold of his hand.
“Indeed” he said and squeezed
hers and then they kissed
“What will the girls think?”
she said
“They’ve been throwing us
together all year, so they’ll be delighted” he said and they kissed again
Which was when the Addison
twin’s pointed out to the girls what was going on behind them
“It’s about time” Martha said
after turning around
“Absolutely” Vikki agreed and
they high fived
Neither Alex nor Andrew could
pinpoint the moment their feelings changed from friendship to something more,
they surmised it must have happened by osmosis.
Martha and Vikki had achieved
their target for something meaningful to have occurred between their respective
parents by Christmas day, one year on from the mistletoe debacle with over two
weeks to spare.
And that Christmas beneath
the mistletoe in Andrews’s apartment there was no hesitancy on eithers part, in
fact it went on a little longer than the girls were really comfortable with.
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