Fred shook his head. “Ohhh, I’m sure he wouldn’t.” Trust Fred—so nice, he’d stick up for someone he hadn’t even met. “Anyways, your pictures from New York looked brilliant.” He’d been on my account? That wasn’t like him. “Elle showed me.” Elle. Ah. Just hearing her name made me feel fidgety. I really didn’t want to talk about her if I could possibly avoid it. “I heard you lost your list? Did you…survive?” He was grinning.

I put my hand on my chest.

“Well, it was touch and go, as you can imagine. But then Elle’s brother, y’know Nick, the man who hates Christmas, pulled it out of the bag. I’m still in shock now!”

Fred laughed, but not as much as I hoped. “I’m sure he doesn’t hate Christmas…”

To be honest, I wasn’t sure about anything to do with Nick anymore. But I was annoyed at him for going back to his usual disappearing ways and wanted to make Fred laugh, so I decided not to hold back.

“Fine. Not hate…just the word anti-Christmas springs to mind.” I thought about Nick’s Christmas tea going cold. His poor, lonely tea. “He’s probably allergic to tinsel. And all things festive and fun. Seriously, he makes Colin-human look like Father Christmas. A really jolly Father Christmas.”

But nothing. Not even a reaction.

“Some people are just different, Hol,” was all Fred said. Well, he was fun today. Lady Macbeth must really be getting to him. “I thought you said you liked him?”

“Hell-o. I catch flights, not feelings, remember?” I laughed. But I wasn’t sure if I was laughing because it was funny, or because there were moments in the last week where that had really felt possible. Not that I would tell anyone that. Not even Fred.

“Er…I didn’t mean like liked, but…yeah, of course.” Fred coughed awkwardly. “So, erm, did you see Elle finished the full fifty things? It was hec-tic!” I fixed a smile on my face. The less said about her the better—now I knew what she was like, there was no way I was going to let her hurt Fred too. “I really think she’s going to win—isn’t that amazing?”

“Well, London looked amazing. Or at least, an amazing opportunity for picking up followers, if not hanging with you.” I rolled my eyes.

“Come on, Hol—are you just jealous that”—he tried to wiggle his eyebrows even though we both knew he couldn’t and only his hair moved—“your Queen of Christmas crown might have been taken?”

He was joking, but when it came to Elle, I was not in the mood.