Bella's Christmas Bake Off by Sue Watson Page B

she always landed on her feet.
    ‘Neil is a dickhead – if you want to know, I never liked him,’ Sylvia was saying as she poured us both another couple of drinks. I’d told her ‘no thanks’ after the last one, but Sylvia was on a roll. Was this the second or third glass? – I wasn’t sure but I had a very early start and could hardly turn up on national TV half-baked. Generation YouTube already had me down as a homeless drunk.
    Sylvia had been through a nasty divorce herself, but always stayed cheerful, helped others, and when it wasn’t the homeless or some kid at school she’d identified as neglected, she was helping me. Just thinking about all the support and kindness she’d given me recently made me reach out and hug her.
    ‘What’s that for?’ she said, hugging me back.
    ‘Thanks for helping me through all this - I’m so grateful to have you in my life,’ I said. After everything that had happened with Bella I had been wary of making friends, becoming too close. But since meeting her several years before, Sylvia had restored my faith in friendship, she was uncomplicated and selfless and I loved her for it.
    She was half watching Bella on TV and smiling. ‘Funny to think you’ll be there tomorrow, actually at Dovecote... in her gorgeous kitchen. Everyone at school’s recording it, I can’t wait.’
    ‘Yeah... it’s exciting,’ I said. ‘Nerve-wracking, but exciting.’
    ‘Look at her, she won’t be rushing round Debenhams at ten to five on Christmas Eve, will she? I bet she has everything delivered and wrapped and she just “does” Christmas,’ Sylvia sighed as she gazed longingly at Bella on screen.
    We both sat watching Bella ‘sparkle’ a tree branch, lost in our own thoughts.
    ‘Bloody hell, I wish I had the time to add glitter to individual branches,’ Sylvia laughed.
    I nodded; ‘Christmas is stressful enough without having to do that. While she’s glittering fronds, the rest of us are cleaning the house, out shopping and worrying if we’ve got enough money for everything.’
    ‘And drinking Baileys,’ she laughed, holding up her glass before becoming more serious. ‘Amy, don’t let Bella’s life get to you while you’re there,’ she said. ‘Money, beauty, a handsome husband, a mansion and a successful TV career isn’t everything.’
    We both laughed and she poured us another Baileys... though I couldn’t remember finishing the last one.

8
    Bella on Broadway
    T he following morning I woke and for a few seconds my mind was blank. Then I remembered what was happening that day and I almost threw up with nerves and a slight hangover. I looked around my room at the dated floral wallpaper, the old bedside tables Neil and I had bought together years ago – and thought perhaps it might be time for me to move house after all.
    At the age of forty I’d be starting a new life on my own, which was scary, but exciting too. Why couldn’t I have just a little bit of happiness, like Bella? Why did my life always have to be dull? I put on my old dressing gown, absently thinking that too needed to be replaced.
    I’d bought a lovely below the knee brown skirt, an autumnal blouse and a long cardigan for the first day’s filming. I’d spent money I didn’t have but I was going on national TV and I’d worry about that when my credit card payment arrived in January.
    I dressed quickly, made a cup of tea and breakfasted on Christmas cake. Tasting the moist fruitcake and nutty, buttery marzipan made me feel quite Christmassy, but the house showed no sign of the season. I thought about the decked halls and holly boughs that would greet me at Dovecote and what Sylvia had said the previous evening about not letting Neil take away my Christmas. I checked my watch; the driver was due in half an hour and I was ready, so I quickly ran upstairs and dragged out the Christmas tree I’d taken down days earlier. I grabbed a bag of baubles and put the tree back up in the living room, adding a few