I jumped out of bed and pulled on my clothes. “Yep. I’m ready.” I popped the neck of my jumper over my head. “Let’s burn his shit to the ground.”
Sebastian grinned at me and pulled on his jumper.
“Actually, if I’m letting go of my past, then can you promise that you’ll do the same? If I’m setting fire to Carl’s stuff, can you promise you’ll send your mother the music box for Christmas?”
He paused, his arm midair as his hand still searched for light through his sleeve. We locked eyes and I could see ten different ways he wanted to answer me in his expression. I knew Sebastian well enough now to know he wouldn’t tell me he was going to do something if he didn’t intend to follow through.
He finished pulling his jumper on and with a simple scrape of his fingers through his hair, Sebastian became cat-walk ready. “I promise I’ll consider it. With my mother, it’s complicated.”
“Okay, then that’s a step forward at least. Let’s get the matches.”
As I emptied the bag out onto the small patio off the kitchen, I couldn’t help but wonder why I’d been hanging on so tightly to this sorry pile of worn paperbacks and old clothes.
“It will all fit into the barbeque, I think.” I scooped up the small mound of belongings and plonked them into the round metal barbeque that I never used.
Sebastian handed me the matches. “You want to say anything?”
“Like a spell or a hex or something?”
“Maybe? Or just something like goodbye. I don’t know. I’ve not attended many burning rituals in my lifetime.”
“Really?” I asked. “The way you advocated for this moment, I thought you were head of the Burning Rituals Lobby Group.”
Sebastian smiled at me like he thought I was amazing. When I was with him, I felt like I was. Or at least I could be.
I pulled out a match, lit it and tucked it under one of the pages of a worn, water-stained book. “Carl, you didn’t deserve me. And I deserve to be rid of you.” I lit another match and threw it on top of his AC/DC t-shirt and that bloody Star Wars duvet cover. “I don’t want to waste another moment of my life thinking about you or your stupid t-shirts.”
The fire began to burn harder now. More books were being eaten away by the fire and embers from the t-shirt had started to twist and curl.
Finally, I threw the Darth Vader pillowcase on top of the flames. Be gone, Vader.
Nineteen
Sebastian
Everyone shifted in their seats in Granny’s living room and began to stand as the morning Christmas Committee meeting at the Manor started to disperse.
Granny reached out and patted me on the hand. “Stay a minute, will you?”
As everyone filed out, Mary came in wheeling a tea trolley, Granny’s favorite teapot and two cups set out on the top tray. “Biscuits are in the tin,” she said, tapping the same purple-and-white-checked biscuit tin Granny had been using for the last thirty years.
“You pour the tea and I’ll prize this thing open. I’ve got your favorites,” Granny said, pulling the tin onto her lap.
“I have a favorite biscuit?” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten one. I poured out two cups of tea and added milk to both. I wasn’t a big tea drinker but I’d had my first-ever cup with Granny. It was more about comfort than taste.
“Bourbons, of course,”
I nodded in recognition. I’d loved them as a boy. “Of course.”
She offered me the open tin and I took out a chocolate Bourbon, getting the distinct impression I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Granny then took out a custard cream, because that had been her favorite biscuit for the last thirty years or more.
“It’s wonderful news that takings have matched last year’s,” she said. Celia had nearly burst when Barbara announced the good news about turnover from yesterday, and I couldn’t help but enjoy her excitement. Things were heading in the right direction. “I think it’s a relief to everyone that Snowsville’s market and my boo-boo with the website hasn’t completely destroyed what we’ve built.”
“I told you, you didn’t do anything to the website. There was a technical issue.” I wasn’t going to tell anyone the website had been hacked. Tempers were frayed enough when it came to Snowsville. “The email to customers seemed to provide a boost, and hopefully the journalists visiting today and the changes we’ve made over the last couple of days, together with the branding, will mean profits grow for the rest of this year and into next year.”
Granny shifted, lowering her foot to the floor, and picked up her cup. Seemed like she was getting better. “It’s very good news. I knew you were going to be able to help. In a way, it’s been good that I sprained my ankle.” She winked at me.