As the shop door closed with a ding, Emma said, ‘Now he was a nice-looking lad.’

‘Yes,’ Holly answered, her tone a pitch higher than normal. She watched the young man walk past the window, gave him a brief, friendly smile, and went back to packing up the gift bags once more.

Emma grinned across at her. It might be a good thing that someone other than the apparently offhand Tom at school had taken her assistant’s attention.

7

There was a knock at the back door of the cottage and Emma went to answer it and seeing who it was or, more exactly, who it was and what she was wearing, burst out laughing.

‘I’m all set,’ Bev grinned, making her way into Em’s back kitchen.

‘I can’t believe you’ve actually walked around here like that.’

Bev lived a ten-minute walk away across the far side of the village.

‘Yep, well, why not? I drew the line at coming across in my slippers, mind – they’re in the bag, along with a bottle of Prosecco and some cheesy nibbles.’ She offered up her carrier bag to Emma.

‘You look like some crazy bag lady.’

‘Well, thanks.’

Bev stood before her in a full-on zebra-print onesie.

‘Right, well I suppose I’d better go and get mine on, then. Don’t want to be outdone. There’s two glasses ready there on the side so you get the Prosecco popped and poured. I’ll just be one minute.’

‘Can I still raid the chocolate shop like you promised?’

‘Yes,’ Emma shouted from halfway up the stairs. ‘But wait until I get back.’

‘Meanie.’

Em found her giraffe-print onesie on the chair in her bedroom, where she’d left it last night, and stripped off her jeans and jumper combo and pulled it on. She felt cosy straight away. Right, slippers on. So, she was ready for their ‘big night in’.

She arrived back down in the kitchen.

‘Can I fill my goodie bag now?’ Bev’s eyes lit up.

‘Yes, go on then.’ Emma led the way through the door from the back hallway to the shop, and switched on the lights.

‘Yippee!’ came a squeal from behind her.

‘Bev, anyone would think you were four, not forty-odd.’ But Emma was smiling as she spoke.

‘I know, I know. I still can’t quite get over the fact that my best friend actually has a chocolate shop. How did I get that lucky in life?!’

This evening, with it being especially dark outside, Em had to admit it did look rather like a chocolate version of Aladdin’s cave, with neatly piled truffle and ganache gems, gold and silver foil boxes, trails of ribbons and coloured packaging.