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‘North of Birmingham. You were pretty sparko. How you feeling now?’ he asks, turning towards me, his eyes full of concern.
I don’t know how to tell him that I think I’mdefinitely coming down with something but I am suddenly distracted by the windows outside. ‘Fuck, is that…snow?’ I look at the ground outside, covered in a sparse dusting of powder, as it continues to float through the air.
‘Yeah, it started properly coming down half an hour ago. Let’s see if it settles though. Thought it was time for a pit stop,’ he tells me, patting down his jacket, looking for his wallet and phone.
I try and rearrange myself and wake up completely, sitting up. ‘I’m sorry, I’m a crappy travel companion. Did I have my mouth open?’
‘Yeah, but its fun trying to throw M&Ms in there,’ he jokes. ‘It’s fine. You looked tired, I didn’t mind. Fancy a coffee maybe?’
I nod and step out of the car, a blast of cold air hitting me, and I pull my hat over my head again. I look down at my hand, it still hurts so I pull a glove over it. It’s Christmas. Illness is not permitted, especially when I’m doing something as important as meeting Leo’s family, so I just need to keep it warm, hydrate, mind over matter and all that shit. I pull my coat up around my neck, looking at the buzz of activity at the services as people obviously try to make their way home for Christmas.
I feel Leo’s arm thread through mine as we head towards the bright lights of the services. ‘You OK?’ he asks, as we traverse the car park.
I nod, trying to work out what this feeling is. It’s all in your head, Maggie. Maybe I need a dram of brandy to kill whatever’s brewing inside me. But for now, coffee it is. As we get through the doors of the services, the throng of people inside is quite a thing. It’s a mix of people in Christmas jumpers, hats and antlers, doing their best to remain fuelled for journeys ahead. But there’s a sense of tension as well, as people have endured each other for hours, stressed couples carting their children to the toilets and shops and restaurants with empty-eyed staff, doing their best to muster some festive spirit for theircustomers.
‘I’m just headed to the loo…’ I tell Leo, separating myself from him while he signals that he will get the drinks.
‘Hazelnut latte?’ he asks and I smile because we both know our coffee orders and it feels nice to have all that minutiae that you usually have to uncover about a potential partner out there in the open. It’s nice to have someone who knows you that well. ‘Done, see you in a bit.’
Naturally, the ladies’ toilets have developed quite the queue and I get into a line that winds all the way out into a strangely placed arcade that is empty bar one little girl at a claw machine desperately trying to win a reindeer-shaped plushie. In front of me is a mum with a family of three girls, all wearing jingle bells sweaters and leggings, one of whom jumps on the spot, putting her hands over herself to, I guess, try to keep the pee from coming out.
‘Mummy, if Sofia pees herself then I am not sitting next to her in the car,’ one of the girls says in a leaning Northern tone.
The mum looks at her daughter and sighs, looking like she’s carrying the weight of some serious Christmas stress on her shoulders, this journey to wherever she’s going being the bare minimum of what’s she’s going through over the holidays. I reach into my pockets.
‘Hi, I hope you don’t mind but would the girls like a sweet while they wait?’ The girls look up at me, their eyes drawn to the sugar in my hands. I hope their mum doesn’t think I’m weird. My pockets are literally full of confectionery that I brought for the road trip and I’m hoping this might distract the youngest of the bunch who may pee at my feet, and that won’t be fun for anyone. She looks at the sweets curiously, realising they’re Starburst all wrapped and watches as I put one in my mouth as well to show her they’re safe.
‘Thank you,’ she says, sighing and smiling at one.
‘Mummy gets one too, yeah?’ I ask the girls. ‘I reckon she’s been the bestest this year.’ Their mum smiles to at least get theacknowledgement, taking a purple one from my hand. I hope you have a husband and he’s bought you something nice.
‘What do we say to the nice lady?’ she says to the girls, and there’s a chorus of thank yous.
‘Have a nice Christmas,’ one of them chirps at me.
‘I’ll try…’ I tell them, temporarily warmed to think of the next couple of days ahead.
Not wanting to seem rude, I then turn to the woman behind me to offer her a sweet too. It’s Christmas, why not? Surely the season calls for small moments of goodwill amongst the madness. The woman looks about the same age as me, her brown hair bundled on top of her head and a scarf wrapped messily around her neck.
‘I will not say no, thank you,’ she says, taking the sweet from my hand. ‘Don’t you just love these queues?’ she harumphs, as we edge forward, the sound of the hand dryers getting ever closer.
‘I reckon we should always have queues for degrees of urgency. Green lane for kids who really need to go…’
‘Brown lane for the emergencies and those who might shit themselves,’ she says, chewing her strawberry Starburst and chuckling to herself. I laugh in return. ‘Not me, by the way. I’m just making sure I empty my bladder before we get snowed in.’
We both look out to the large windows to see the snow now falling a bit more steadily, people coming in from the cold with snowflakes settled on their hats and coat shoulders. ‘You think it might go that way?’
‘Who knows with the British weather, but I quite like the idea of a white Christmas,’ she tells me. ‘Where are you headed?’
‘The Lakes. You?’
‘My fiancé and I have been in York for a couple of days, now headed back to London. You visiting family?’ she asks, noting my southern accent.
I hesitate to know how to answer. ‘Not really. I’m tagging along with a friend. Actually more than a friend. We’ve started…I mean…it’s very new. His family live up there.’
She smiles to herself. ‘So you’ve just started going out and you’re meeting his family? That’s a semi-big deal.’
‘Kind of.’ I haven’t really thought about the impact of what meeting all of Leo’s nearest and dearest will mean. Are we going to tell his family we’re a thing? Because that’s pretty soon. I might need to stay awake in the car to entertain an honest discussion about all of this. ‘I’ve bought a lot of bottles of Baileys, hoping it may set me in good stead with them though.’
