Read The Twelve Dates of Christmas for Free Online

it, even after her mum, Diana, had moved away.
    ‘Yep, I used my Oyster card and everything,’ he said proudly. ‘It’s fine, love, it only took half an hour or so door to door.’
    Claudia squeezed his hand and willed the tears not to overflow. He was such a lovely, sweet liar. It would have taken him at least two hours. She picked up her tea but her shaking hands gave her away. Joe took the mug and put it back on the table. ‘I know Penny’s a mucky pup, but let’s not pour tea all over the place for the sake of it.’ He pulled his daughter in close. She let the tears flow.
    Eventually, through bubbles of snot and high-pitched snorts, Claudia explained what had happened. Not the part about the evil willy making an appearance in the toilets, though – she left him zipped away.
    Joe listened, smoothing Claudia’s hair. When she’d finished and his polo shirt was soaked, he nodded thoughtfully. ‘This is a good thing,’ he said eventually. Claudia raised her eyebrows and wiped her nose on her hand. ‘Seth was tolerable: always pally towards me and seemed to treat you well enough. Liked the sound of his own voice a bit too much. But he’s only half the man you deserve. He isn’t even that.’ He lapsed into another silence. Claudia looked as his crinkled, handsome face. He comforted her. She hadn’t known it, but he was the best medication she could have taken in the past two days. Good old Dad.
    Claudia’s phone jingled and she struggled to slip under the weight of her dad’s arm as he was lost in thought. She smiled as she read the text message.
    ‘That better not be him … ’ Joe spoke up, unconsciously twitching his hands in and out of fists.
    ‘No, it’s Nick. He wants to meet up this afternoon. I’ve been kind of avoiding him.’
    Joe sat up and grinned, the sparkle back in his eye. ‘Now Nick I like. I like Nick very much, he’s a good chap. Why are you avoiding him?’
    ‘Avoiding all men, I should say. No offence.’ She quickly typed back,
Not ready to face the world yet, can we give it another day? Sorry I’m crap, miss your face x
.
    Joe stood up. ‘Well stop being a wet wipe and go and meet him.’
    Her phone jingled again.
    I have to see you. Today.
    Why??? You’re such a stalker!
    ‘What’s he saying?’ Joe asked, craning his neck to see her phone.
    ‘Dad!’ she laughed. ‘I’m just getting rid of him.’
    I have something very important to ask you and it can’t wait.
    Joe stood and pulled on his coat. ‘Come on, daughter, I’m taking you for lunch at that Hard Rock place you like, then you’re going to see your boyfriend— I mean, your best friend … ’ He threw Claudia a cheeky sideways glance.
    By mid-afternoon the temperature had plummeted. The sun was low in the blue sky and frost was forming wherever shadow had settled. Claudia walked briskly between the white-stoned law courts at Holborn, clapping her gloved hands together and burrowing her lips inside her scarf.
    What a nice lunch with her dad. She felt calmed but also a pang of homesickness. The wedding of one of her loveliest school friends, Ellie, to her equally scrummy partner Emma, would take place in their hometown on Christmas Eve, and the gap between seeing her dad today and seeing him then seemed like a lifetime.
    She rounded the corner onto High Holborn and spied Starbucks, with Nick sitting on a stool by the window.
    She stopped on the other side of the street and smiled at the sight – her Nick, in his Christmas-patterned jumper and three-day stubble, engrossed in the battered copy of
A Christmas Carol
he read every year. He lit up at Christmas; everything was about tradition and magic.
    She stamped across the road and pushed open the café door, releasing a happy tinkle of bells and a plume of toasty air. Nick looked up and beamed, jumping from his seat and folding her into a bear hug. He steered her to a stool, gave her a big kiss on the forehead deliberately overloaded with spit, and jogged off