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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