It was
Christmas Eve and it was understandably busy as Steve Berry stood behind the bar drying glasses and he watched his wife Holly as she
walked around the lounge bar talking to
the customers as was her usual habit.
He liked it as she walked
from table to table, he liked the way the flared skirt moved across her lovely legs
and found it quite sensual, she had a
less graceful gait than she used to, but Steve still felt a great sense of
pride that he was her husband and plus the additional
pride that Holly was pregnant, very pregnant in fact.
It had been two
years since they had met and she had changed the course of his life entirely.
It was
Christmas again and Steve Berry had always had a dislike for it, despite all
the jollity.
Unlike many
of his Christmas mad friends he’d had no happy Christmas memories to
anesthetise him against the season.
His
childhood Christmases were memories he would rather have forgotten.
So he never
trusted Christmas, he believed that shit lurked beneath the coloured lights and
paper chains.
That was
until Holly Davis opened his eyes to new possibilities and he realised that Christmas
could also magnify joy and through her love Steve
had been cured of his Christmas phobia.
After an excess of alcohol
and some sneakiness from Holly he found himself working behind the bar in her
Uncle Phil’s pub, the Pig and Whistle in Abbeyvale.
He was still, even to that
day, uncertain quite how she managed to affect that, but affect it she did and
during the ten days he spent working for her, she had turned his life upside
down and it culminated at closing time on Christmas Eve as the church bells at
St Mary’s chimed midnight, with him wishing her a Merry Christmas and kissing
her.
Judging by the way Holly
responded Steve hoped that the kiss on Christmas Eve might have been the start
of something between them but alas for him it didn’t lead anywhere, immediately
at any rate.
Holly had indeed responded
to his advance and in fact had been hoping for it, but she knew it was far too
soon to throw caution to the wind.
The effects of the kiss
proved to be a slow burner which didn’t burst into flames until the early hours
of New Year’s Day.
The two years since they
first made love, had been very eventful, they became partners in January,
engaged at Easter and Married in September.
However it wasn’t only
Steve and Holly’s fortunes that had changed over the preceding two years since they
had met but so had those of the Pig and Whistle.
It had gone from a rundown
dive with one large open bar to a thriving pub with a sports bar, a games room
and a smart lounge plus it had a growing reputation as a gastro pub.
The restaurant had always
been busy right from the outset but when Steve and Stephanos were in the
kitchen, they provided good pub grub and no more, because they didn’t have the
repertoire to take it to the next level.
However since Steve and
Holly had returned from their Sharpington honeymoon the previous year with Chef
Simon Clarke the restaurant had really taken off.
Simon Clarke had been
working at the Granite Hill Country House
Hotel where the Berry’s were staying for their honeymoon
as a sous chef for an arrogant sadistic bully.
Now he was a Chef in his
own right and Steve and Stephanos had grown as cooks under him.
So the reputation of the
Pig and Whistles restaurant contributed greatly to the busyness on Christmas
Eve.
So on Christmas Eve and
Holly, despite being told to rest by Steve and everybody else, was doing her
usual walkabout as hostess and as Steve looked at her he sighed because he was
so in love with the lovely girl in the maternity dress.
Just like Christmas Eve two
years before it was snowing, not as hard, but enough not to want to make any
unnecessary journeys.
She had had a twinge or two
which she just laughed it off, she said the baby had been really active all
day.
“She’s dancing to the
Christmas songs” she said to Steve “she really likes the Puppini Sisters”
But by 9 o’clock in the
evening it was obvious the twinges were more than the baby Christmas Dancing
and she was having actually having contractions.
Luckily Dr Claire Andrews
was dining in the restaurant with friends
“Get Doc Andrews” Steve
said to Petra
“Ok” she replied and ran
off while Steve and one of the regulars helped Holly into the private room at
the back of the bar.
“Where is she?” The doctor
asked
“In here” Steve called
Dr Andrews threw her car
keys to Petra
“Can you get my bag from
the car please?”
“Yes doc” she replied
“Ooooooh” Holly exclaimed
through gritted teeth “that was a big one”
After Dr Andrews examined
her she said
“She’s definitely in
labour”
“I’ll call an ambulance”
Steve suggested
“No she’s too far along” Claire
said “the baby is going to be born here, and quite soon”
“I’d be happier if we got
her to hospital” Steve said
“So would I” Dr Andrews
replied
“But she’ll never make it
to the hospital”
“She’s really too close?”
Steve asked
“Yes” Claire replied “so
under the circumstance, here is going to have to do”
“Upstairs it is then” Steve
said “but the first sign of an angel and three wise men and we’re calling an
ambulance”
“Christmas is never dull
with Holly” he thought to himself as one by one the remainder of happy
customers disappeared into the snowy night amidst a peel of Happy Christmas
wishes.
“I have to give her that”
Steve looked out the door
as he said goodnight to the last customer and it was still snowing but still not
hard.
He locked the doors and
went back inside to where the live in staff were sitting, no one wanted to go to
bed until the baby had been born.
So they sat around a table
in the bar until half past one when Noelle Claire Berry was born.
“How typical of Holly Berry
to have the baby on Christmas Day” Steve said with tears in his eyes.
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