The Christmas Sisters

“The pitch will give you an excuse to escape from all the awful family stuff.”

Beth decided this probably wasn’t a good moment to admit that she loved the family stuff.

She noticed that Corinna hadn’t once asked her about the children. “When is the pitch?”

“January. We need to knock this one out of the park.” Corinna gave her details on the company and outlined the key marketing strategy for the new makeup range. “We have dozens of samples. Take some when you go. Your ideas are very important to me. The moment we were given the brief, I thought to myself, Beth McBride.”

Beth was ridiculously flattered. She forgot about the stress, the pressure and the obstacles.

Corinna thought her ideas were important.

She had something to contribute.

She sat a little straighter. “I can’t wait to read the brief.”

“Tell me what you’ve been doing since we last met.” Corinna’s desk was made of glass and topped by neat piles of glossy magazines. Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, sat alongside the New Yorker. Everywhere she looked there was the gleam of glass and the dazzle of white. The place smelled of success.

“I’ve been at home with the children.”

Corinna’s expression made her wonder if she should have lied about that.

“That’s what I heard, and I was surprised. You were so good at what you did, I thought you’d be back at work before you could say diaper.” Corinna picked up her phone, her nails gleaming under the lights as she dialed. “Annabelle? Bring us drinks.”

Beth resisted the temptation to interject with say please. She’d been a mother for far too long. Next she’d be cutting up Corinna’s food. “That’s kind. I’d love a c—” She’d been about to say coffee, when a young woman, presumably the long-suffering Annabelle, entered the room carrying a bottle of champagne and two glasses. “Champagne. Delicious.”

“We work hard and we play hard. Annabelle, ask Dan and Sylvia to join us.”

By the time she left, Beth was floating on air, and the feeling wasn’t entirely due to the quantity of champagne she’d consumed on an empty stomach.

She’d entered the building unsure of herself, but now she felt glamorous and confident. She was no longer just Ruby and Melly’s mother. She was Beth McBride, fashion and beauty PR. She was the type of woman who knew what to wear and when to wear it.

She felt as if she’d been stuck behind traffic and suddenly the road ahead had opened up. She was ready to put her foot on the gas.

She was back in the fast lane.

The excitement was dizzying, and the first thing she did when she arrived back at her apartment was to grab a notepad and start scribbling ideas. Not only was she determined to impress Corinna, but she needed to prove to herself that she still had what it took.

By the time Jason arrived back with the girls, she was on fire. The kitchen table was piled high with samples, and paper covered in her scrawl. Her laptop was open, the screen glowing.

Ruby and Melly tumbled through the door with him, their cheeks pink from the cold.

Ruby’s cheeks were also smudged with brown.

Chocolate.

Beth was too high on champagne and life to care that Jason had obviously used chocolate as a bribe.

“Hi! Did you have a great time with Daddy?”

“Melly was late to school,” Ruby said, “and she cried. She said she hated Daddy and that he was doing everything wrong.”

There was a flush on Jason’s cheekbones. “She’s exaggerating. And we weren’t that late. We couldn’t find Ruby’s shoes or her gloves.”

“She hides them.” Some of Beth’s euphoria faded. Wasn’t he even going to ask her how her meeting went?

“I want to draw with you.” Ruby clambered onto the chair and reached for Beth’s neatly sorted papers.

“Don’t touch those!” Beth flew across the kitchen and scooped up Ruby before she could leave chocolaty prints. “It’s Mommy’s work.”