Free Christmas At The Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan

hollered Louis.
    ‘Well, yes,’ said Issy. ‘But also the Romans. And mistletoe is from even further back, from the Druids, their midwinter festival.’
    Pearl sold another six polar bear cakes and didn’t say anything. Caroline turned up to let Issy get back downstairs to the baking. Her face fell when she saw the holly on the fireplace.
    ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘You’vedecided to go with red and green, have you?’
    ‘At Christmas?’ said Issy. ‘Well. Yes, funnily enough.’
    ‘But there’s so many more chic ways to do it!’ said Caroline. ‘I was thinking maybe an all-silver motif, or those clear plastic trees they do in the Conran shop? So stylish.’
    ‘If I wanted to be stylish, I wouldn’t wear clothes from a catalogue,’ said Issy. ‘I want it to be nice and cosy and comfortable, not scary like those posh places where they make you sit on jaggedy chairs and everyone is blonde and skinny and wears leather trousers …’
    Realising she was exactly describing Caroline, Issy fell silent. Fortunately Caroline, despite having zero body fat, managed to be very thick-skinned.
    ‘We’ll never make it into the
Super Secret London Guide
,’ she said. ‘They choose the most select hidden shops of the year and run a special issue. There’s a prize for the most stylishly decorated.’
    ‘We will not,’ said Issy. ‘I will try and get through it as stoically as I can.’
    Caroline pouted. ‘Don’t you want to at least make the effort? They run a special supplement in January.’
    ‘The problem is,’ said Pearl, ‘if we were in it, we’d fill the shop with other people who looked like you. And people that look like you are bad for turnover. Don’t eat enough cakes.’
    ‘Yes, but we take up less room,’ pleaded Caroline. ‘So you can fit moreof us in. And let’s face it, we’ll pay almost anything for a smoothie, especially if it’s green.’
    Issy smiled. ‘Well, even so. We wouldn’t win and I don’t want to spend a lot of time doing stupid stuff.’
    ‘You might,’ said Caroline. ‘And it might bump you up the ladder a bit. It’s time you were expanding anyway. That’s how the Bastard grew his business. Well, I think. He used to talk about it, but I didn’t really listen, obviously – very boring.’
    ‘I will never understand why you two split up,’ murmured Pearl.
    ‘At least I was a married mother,’ sniffed Caroline.
    Thankfully, the bell tinged, and Helena entered, carrying Chadani. She had a gigantic buggy that had cost about as much as a small car, with personally commissioned muff, hood, foot cosy and car seat in pink and purple tiger stripes, so that from a distance it looked, as Austin had pointed out (quietly), like a small monster that had just eaten a baby, then exploded. It didn’t fit up the stairwell of their apartment, through the doorway of most shops or in the boot of their Fiat, so Helena regularly left it in the middle of the pavement, which managed to make it look even more like a monster, and meant it got in absolutely everybody’s way. This didn’t stop her from recommending it as the very best in buggies to everyone she met. Issy was rather grateful it didn’t fit inside, but she’d had to insist that Helena chain it to the little tree that grew in their courtyard, after she kept leaving itoutside the door and it tripped up four people in one morning (it had an extra, malevolent wheel that jutted out the front, and was used mostly to jar people’s heels at pelican crossings).
    ‘Hello!’ said Issy cheerily, glad she wouldn’t have to break up Pearl and Caroline. ‘Hello, Chadani!’
    Chadani yelled and contorted her face.
    Issy looked at Helena.
    ‘Tell me that isn’t real fur.’ Chadani was practically buried in a huge fur coat with a matching bonnet and her pale pink Uggs.
    ‘No!’ said Helena. ‘But doesn’t she look so CUUUUTE? Ashok’s great-aunt wants to pierce her ears.’
    Issy didn’t say anything to this, but kissed Chadani on