The Perfect Christmas by Kate Forster Page B

closed her eyes, ‘You wanna try living there.’
    She put the pillow over her face again for a moment, before sitting up as though waking from a nightmare.
    ‘I have an idea.’
    ‘God help me,’ said Zoe.
    ‘No, seriously, it’s a good one,’ Maggie was now on the edge of her seat. ‘How about we go to London and escape from all this madness?’
    ‘Your madness,’ Zoe reminded her. ‘I have plans to drink champagne and talk business over roasted turkey with power players who are wearing paper hats.’
    Maggie was now out of her seat, pacing back and forth in front of the sofa.
    ‘No, that’s a terrible idea. You’re always working. Even when you think you’re relaxing, you’re working. I need to get away so I can think straight about what to do with my marriage, and you need to get away and remember how not to work for a while.’
    Maggie was warming to her own idea with each word.
    ‘Think about it. In London we can roam around all their gorgeous high streets or whatever they call them, drink ourselves to oblivion in shadowy pubs, buy lovely things for ourselves and each other, look at the Christmas lights, watch the snow fall. Be generally English and cultured and immerse ourselves in the place.’
    Zoe was laughing. ‘You’ve watched The Holiday too many times.’
    Maggie got up and looked out of the window into the flood-lit garden. ‘No. Well, maybe. But I just want to do something different. God knows, what I’m doing now isn’t working.’ She turned round, feeling her eyes fill with tears. ‘We are each other’s family, Zoe, we don’t have anyone else; no parents, no siblings, only us. If we don’t celebrate our friendship then we don’t deserve each other.’
    Zoe nodded slowly, ‘But why England?’
    Maggie shrugged, ‘I don’t know why. Maybe because it’s full of tradition and here it’s just about business. You know, last Christmas Will took a production meeting with Jeff Beerman after Christmas lunch. ’
    Zoe shook her head. ‘Jeff’s Jewish, so Christmas isn’t his thing and he’s a studio head who is a workaholic, but Will should have known better.’
    ‘I know, right?’ Maggie was sitting down again, holding the pillow to her chest. ‘Can we go? Will you come? Please?’
    ‘You sound about twelve,’ said Zoe good-naturedly.
    ‘Then I can’t go to London alone, I will need a chaperone,’ said Maggie with a smile and Zoe shook her head.
    ‘Okay, little Miss Christmas, let’s go to London.’
    ***
    Over the years of Zoe Greene pushing Maggie Hall to the heights of Hollywood, Maggie had learned that almost everyone was ambitious, that most people in LA would sell their grandmothers for a good deal and that true friendship was rarer than an actress over forty without Botox.
    Maggie was brave, Zoe was smart and somehow they were the perfect balance. Zoe could hear Maggie in the next room, talking to her assistant on the phone. Maggie made a point of not using Zoe as a PA, but as a business manager.
    No doubt Maggie would have them on a plane in a heartbeat and Zoe would be whisked away to the land of pints and pubs, and Maggie would spend the entire trip practicing her cockney accent.
    Zoe had so much work to do this Christmas. There were new clients with careers that needed careful guidance, existing clients who needed her advice in all areas of their life, and there was her busy office to keep running. A trip to London wasn’t something she had time for but Maggie was hard to say no to and, sometimes, friendship came before work.
    If she was honest with herself, she had to admit she had avoided Maggie as much as Maggie had avoided the world for the past few months.
    Being the manager of both Will and Maggie had the potential to create a conflict of interest and, with a separation on the cards, she had tried to stay out of the whole matter.
    But Maggie needed her and she couldn’t bear the thought of her spending Christmas alone in their huge house.
    For years Zoe