Author's note - Re-read the title and don't say you weren't warned!
Assumpta looked up from sweeping to see Peter walking up the street humming. She frowned, the tune sounded vaguely familiar. Then she grinned as she recognised it. "Wham, really? Shouldn't it be all Ding dong merrily on high for you?"
Peter stopped in front of her and grinned. "I like the classics."
She stared at him for a second then laughed. She loved his quirky sense of humour. "Just don't let Father Mac hear you say that. He probably considers it blasphemous to sing any song other than a carol at Christmas time."
"Yes but his favourite carol is Little Donkey, so that goes to show how much he knows about music."
"Little Donkey really? It sounds like a funeral dirge."
"And yet he insisted that I included it at midnight mass."
Assumpta pulled a face. "And I didn't think the man could go down any more in my estimation. Why would he choose that when there are so many great carols out there?"
Peter glanced at her with a questioning look on his face.
"Oh don't look at me like that just because I don't like the church doesn't mean I can't enjoy a good carol."
"Really, so what's your favourite carol? Maybe I'll put it in the service."
"Still won't get me up there."
"Come on Assumpta humour me, it's Christmas."
She sighed, "Fine its Hark the Herald Angels Sing." She looked at him curiously, "So what's yours?"
"Tough to pick a favourite but if pushed I'd have to say Come All Ye Faithful."
"Does that beat Wham then?"
"Last Christmas is good but it's not the best ever Christmas song."
"And what would that be? Do they know it's Christmas?"
"A fine song and raised lots of money for charity but the best ever is also the first single I ever bought."
"Which would be," she prompted.
"It's Christmas," Peter screamed in a very credible impression of Noddy Holder at the end of Merry Christmas Everybody.
"Slade was the first single you ever bought, how old are you?" She said through the laughter.
"Hey, less of that, I was only eight and I think it shows pretty good taste. What was the first single you ever bought?"
"I don't want to say."
"Assumpta."
"Xanadu by Olivia Newton-John," she said quietly.
Peter snorted, "I'm sorry did you just say Xanadu?"
Assumpta held up a warning a finger at him, "I was only about ten and I was going through a phase."
Peter wasn't even trying to control the laughter now. "Here was me thinking you were cool," he gasped between laughs.
"Alright glam rock boy."
"If I added that into the midnight mass would that persuade you to come?" he asked still chuckling.
She bit back a smile and tried to put on her best 'don't mess with me face', "Not even then."
"Ah that has made my day." He turned to cross the street to Kathleen's which is where he'd originally been heading.
"Peter if you tell anyone," she yelled after him.
He merely grinned, waved at her and carried on walking.
She went back inside the pub pushing the door shut behind her and then allowed herself a smile. She loved it when Peter let his guard down with her and let her see the man under the collar. She rolled her eyes at herself and tried to wipe the silly smile from her face because if she was honest with herself it was far too close to being a silly love-struck smile for comfort. She mentally started listing everything she hated about the clergy, a regular activity for her whenever Peter's smiles and silly comments provoked that jelly-like feeling in her insides, but the memory of his green eyes twinkling when he'd teased her threatened to be her undoing.
"Focus Assumpta," she muttered to herself and started preparing for lunch. She was well into the task before she realised she had Last Christmas stuck in her head. She idly sang one of the last verses to herself. "A face on a lover with a fire in his heart. A man undercover but you tore him apart. Maybe next year I'll give it to someone. I'll give it to someone special."
She groaned this had to stop. At least she had friends coming over Christmas which would give her something else to think about and some new faces to talk to.