Sleety rain had begun to fall as Jill and I ran to the restaurant entrance and dashed through the doors. I folded my umbrella and knocked the water from it before slotting it into the rack.
Following Jill inside, the sudden noise of lighthearted chatter hit me along with the stuffy heat of the busy dining room. Most of the noise was coming from the crowded table in the far corner of the tinsel and holly draped room and I recognised the voices and laughter of our friends. There was an ironic cheer as they saw us and beckoned us over with cries of; 'What time do you call this?' and 'It's always the ones who live the closest that arrive last!'
I grinned ruefully back at our friends and said pointedly, "In my defence, I would have been on time, but someone, didn't want the rain to spoil her hairstyle, so we had to go back and fetch the car!'
Jill playfully punched my arm. 'But then someone couldn't find his car keys could he?'
I shrugged sheepishly and sat at the vacant chair at the end of the long table.
It was an annual tradition to have a meal out with our friends before Christmas. Both Debbie and Jonathan had birthdays on the 5th and 2nd of December respectively and for years now we had used it as an ill-disguised excuse for an early Christmas party.
About a dozen friends were seated along the either side of the table. Some were pulling Christmas crackers with their neighbour, others already wore their cheerful paper crowns.
One of the merrymakers who was seated further down the table was Sally. My eyes met hers fleetingly as I waved a general greeting at those sitting around her. I was aware that my heart was suddenly thudding.
The last time Sally and I had met, it was late summer at a pre-arranged "chance encounter" outside the sandwich shop one lunchtime. We had talked in a business-like manner about how the "thing" we'd had going on must come to an end. Earlier in the year, after years of flirting via text, we'd had sex together in order to get our frustration and curiosity out of our systems. A few months after, we had another frantic, lustful encounter on my desk at work, but we both knew that it had to stop.
I hadn't been in touch with her since, no texts or chance meetings, so, although I knew that she would be here, to see her again, beaming at me made my insides flip over.
Sally looked really good. Her make-up was discreet and classy with cherry red lipstick that seemed to offer a glossy invitation. Her fair hair was sleek and shiny. Her black tunic-style top with sequined detail that glittered alluringly, hugged her lithe body in all the right places. I noticed with relief that Max, her husband, was not with her and assumed that he'd picked the short straw for babysitting their young daughter.
With a panicky rush I broke eye contact. I felt unreasoned fear that if I looked at Sally for a moment longer, my friends would surely suspect something had happened between us.
My chair was at the opposite end of the long table to Sally and on the same side, which, I found to my relief, meant that, whilst seated, making further further accidental eye contact was unlikely.
I passed on the offer of wine and poured myself a glass of water instead. When Debbie commented on this, Jill laughed derisively. "Matt was out with his work colleagues for a Christmas party last night and today he doesn't want a drink! I wonder why that is?"
I grinned ruefully, it had been a boozy and late evening and it'd taken most of the day to recover from. What was more, I had another Christmas party with the regional office lined up next week, so I figured that a sober evening might be a good idea.
The evening passed with shouts of raucous laughter, gossiping about mutual acquaintances and the recollection of times past. The wine flowed lavishly for all but me. As the restaurant began to empty and fellow revellers paid their bills and left, I was suddenly aware of a hand on my shoulder as someone walked past the back of my chair. Glancing up I saw that Sally was talking on her mobile and walking over to the restaurant window that had steamed up. She wiped a peephole in the condensation and peered out, still talking to somebody on the other end of the line. After a moment peering out into the darkness, Sally said goodbye and hung up to her caller and turned back to the table.
She waited until the friends were paying attention before making an announcement
"Hey everybody, that was Max. He's been trying to call me for ages, but I didn't hear my phone, apparently all the roads around where we live are completely impassable."
There was a puzzled silence. "what do you mean impassable?" somebody asked.
Sally pointed towards the wet window. "It's been snowing hard for the last hour."
There was a rush to look outside. The air was thick with large, fluffy snowflakes that were spiralling down onto the already white pavement. In the road, the snow had been churned into brown ruts, but these were already turning a pristine white in the blizzard.
The evening ended. Suddenly everyone was leaving, paying their portion of the bill, shrugging their coats on and offering to walk friends home who lived nearby.
Jill swayed over to me. It didn't take much wine to make Jill merry and she'd had enough to make her very giggly. She clung onto me as we headed for the door with the rest of the crowd.
We followed our friends as they spilled out onto the pavement and into the white, whirling flakes. A good-natured snowball whizzed overhead. Suddenly there was a squeal and a shout of laughter and I saw that someone had slipped and fallen.
Sally was lying prone in the fluffy snow laughing hysterically. Many hands helped raise her to her feet and tried to dust off the snow that was sticking to her jacket and trousers.
There was a collective wishing of "Merry Christmas" to each other and hugs and kisses all round.
As the group split to go their separate ways and Jill and I turned to go back to the car, I heard a shout behind us. Sally was trying to catch us up, tottering on her heels in the slippery, powdery snow, giggling as she came.
She squealed as she nearly slipped over again as she reached us and grabbed my arm to steady herself. "Can I get a lift with you guys?" she asked breathlessly. "I don't mean my house, I'm going to have to stay at my mum and dad's tonight, the taxi I booked has called to say he's stuck and no-one wants to take the job of driving me up the hill to where I live."
We readily agreed, after all, Sally's parents lived not far from our house so it wouldn't mean a diversion.
The short walk to the car was memorable as Jill hugged my arm on my left and Sally had looped her arm through mine on my right, both pressing themselves against me to gain the shelter from my umbrella. The feeling of their bodies so close to me and the small of their combined perfumes was intoxicating.
