There was a knock on Carla's door on Saturday afternoon, she ran over to it and opened it to find Peter stood there. He was wearing his warm black coat with gloves and a hat, as it was now the middle of December and was fairly cold outside. The warmth from inside Carla's flat had hit him fast as he stepped inside.

"Hey baby this is a nice surprise" Carla said putting her arms around his neck and giving him a kiss on the lips. "You're freezing" she shivered, pulling away from him a little because between the heat in her flat and the feeling of his cold body made goose bumps run along her arms and neck. She still kept her arms around his neck though.

"I've been watching Simon play football all morning, so I thought I'd come ere and let you warm me up." Peter smirked giving Carla another kiss. He then took a proper look at her, she was wearing jeans and a black vest top, only she was covered in a white substance, one which he could only assume, was flour.

He took a quick look at the kitchen and saw a load of cake ingredients scattered all over her work surface. Carla watched him look around her kitchen and looked sheepish as he then stared back at her.

"Has there been a flour explosion?" he asked, amused with his eyebrows raised.

"I'm baking a cake…" Carla said, smiling coyly at him.

"A cake?" Peter said surprised because he didn't think Carla even knew how to use her oven let alone bake a cake. Carla giggled as she let go of him and went to close her front door.

"Hold on." Peter said before she closed it.

"What?"

"I just want to make sure that you're my Carla and not some strange, cake making, alien shape shifter..." Peter said looking suspicious and laughing. Carla rolled her eyes as she went ahead and closed her door.

"Ha ha very funny" She said giving him a playful poke when walking past him into her kitchen. "I saw this Christmas cake in me magazine and as crazy as it sounds I wanted to give it a go." She said pointing at the magazine that she had laid out on her kitchen counter.

Peter looked down at his jacket and saw that it was now covered in little specks of flour from where he had been pressed up close to Carla. He dusted it off and then peered over at the magazine, which was also drowned in flour. There was a picture of a complicated looking Christmas cake on one side of the magazine and then on the other there was just a simple sponge cake with butter cream icing. He looked at Carla and smirked,

"So which one of these are you making then?" He asked taking off his coat and going to hang it up as he was practically sweating now, Carla rolled her eyes at him again and said,

"Hmmm let's see… I've never made a cake in me life, In fact I think this is the first time I've used my oven properly since I've moved in, so which one d'ya think I'm making eh?" She said peering at the magazine to double check something. Peter came over to the kitchen and laughed as she picked up the flour bag and in her haste, sent even more of it into the air.

"D'ya reckon you should be wearing an apron?" Peter asked, looking again at Carla's flour stained clothes.

"Oh please... as if I would own an apron." She said, shaking her head and pouring flour into her big glass bowl. She'd already mixed up some butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla into the bowl and the flour was the last step before putting her mixture into the tin.

"D'ya want any help?" Peter offered, sitting on a stool opposite her as she began whisking her mixture together.

"Nope I can manage…" Carla said, shaking her head again then she laughed "Although If I'm honest, this is me second go at this." She admitted "I wasn't paying attention the first time, I just chucked everything into the bowl, I didn't realise you were supposed to do it in a special order and anyway I got rather carried away when I was listening to Beyoncé and ended up pouring salt into me mixture instead."

Peter laughed as Carla continued to mix up her ingredients. He watched and he just couldn't help but smile affectionately at her as she stood there covered in flour, especially as it was even in her hair. She looked so cute as she kept peering into the bowl, as if she was trying desperately to get it right. He had never seen this side of her before, even after knowing her for so long he'd never seen her baking or even trying to cook properly.

Eventually Carla stopped mixing her ingredients as her arm began to ache and asked,

"Does this look right to you?" Peter had no idea why she was asking him, as he had just as much cake experience as her. He got up and walked over to where Carla was and took a look into the bowl.

"It looks okay to me." he said truthfully and he even poked a finger into the cake mix just so he could taste it. Carla looked back at him hopefully and Peter thought she looked so adorable, that even if it had tasted disgusting he probably would have found himself lying just to keep her happy. "Tastes amazing." he said, Carla didn't look too convinced so Peter dipped his finger back into the bowl and then raised it up to Carla's lips. She grinned and gave his finger a little lick, then she sucked the cake mix off it suddenly. "See?" Peter said also grinning as she made sure she licked his finger clean, it was all he could do not to throw everything off the kitchen counter and grab Carla there and then but she then smiled triumphantly at him and nodded.

She went into a carrier bag that was further up the work surface, She pulled out two cake tins and began to peel off the plastic, she had bought the tins earlier on in the day because she obviously didn't own that sort of thing. She placed to two tins on her counter and emptied the mixture evenly between the two. She then checked that she had the oven on properly and then double checked the time before gingerly placing the cake tins inside.

She turned around, proud of her efforts, to see that Peter was busy running a finger around the empty bowl.

"Peter don't do that its got raw egg in it!" she cried but Peter continued to lick his fingers. "Peter, you'll make yourself sick." Carla said, reaching over and trying to get the bowl off of him.

"Carla it's harmless, didn't you used to do this as a kid?" He said trying to pull the bowl back. Carla suddenly let go of it and stared at Peter. He quickly realised that Carla had never made her Mum sound like she would have been the baking type and that asking if she had ever been in such a situation was slightly ridiculous. "Sorry." he said apologetically and he put the bowl down on the counter. He put both arms around her waist and kissed her on the nose.

"It's fine." She giggled as Peter wiped some flour off of her cheek with one of his hands, She looked down at Peter's thick navy blue jumper and smiled, "Awww look at you in your cute little jumper."

"Eh are you takin the mick? It's freezing out there y'know."

"I'm being serious, it's well cute." She said kissing Peter on his nose, just the same as he had done to her.

"So… how long does this cake take then?" He asked as Carla leant forward so she could see what the magazine said.

"It says twenty to twenty five minutes…. Hmmm maybe I'll do twenty two minutes just in case." she said looking at the clock, Peter let go of her and took another look at the picture in the magazine.

"So what you gonna put on the top of this cake then?" he asked. Carla reached over to the same carrier bag that she had pulled the tins out of earlier, She got out a tub of ready made buttercream icing and also little box of green trees that were made out of fondant icing.

"Found these in Waitrose earlier." She said opening the icing tub as she spoke, "I know it's kind of cheating, not making the icing an all, but I thought why run before I can walk eh." She reached over and took a spoon off of the side. Peter watched her as she put the spoon into the tub and scooped up some of the icing. Her eyes widened with pleasure as she put the spoon into her mouth. "Oh my god" She gasped, licking her lips. "This stuff is amazing." She pointed the spoon towards Peter so he could taste it. "Open."

"Mmmmmmm" Peter said as he swallowed down the sweet creamy icing, Carla dipped her spoon back into the tub as Peter grinned and put his arms around her again.

"So..." he began with a wicked grin on his face as Carla helped herself to some more icing. "We've got twenty minutes or so to kill." Carla shook her head at him and took the spoon out of her mouth.

"I've got to keep an eye on me cake." she said but she leant in and sucked in Peter's bottom lip, he kissed her hungrily and pushed her playfully towards her bedroom making her giggle "Peter wait…" she cried as she was still clutching the tub of icing but Peter mischievously, shook his head.

"Bring it with you" he growled and they both disappeared into Carla's bed room.

It was almost half an hour before the smoke alarm, which was placed on the wall in Carla's kitchen suddenly began beeping loudly.

"Oh crap!" Carla cried, flying out of her bedroom in her black satin dressing gown. Her kitchen was full of smoke as she flung the oven door open, Peter soon appeared in his boxers as she pulled on her oven gloves and took the cake tins out of the oven. She sighed as she slammed the burnt cakes on top of her oven. "This is just so flamin typical!" she cried and then she threw her oven gloves across the room.

"Don't start throwing things…" Peter said almost laughing but then he felt sorry for her when he saw the look of disappointment on her face as she folded her arms frustratedly. The smoke alarm eventually stopped beeping and Carla sighed. "Why don't you just make another one?" He suggested.

"I can't, I aven't got enough ingredients to try again, I don't even know why I bothered, I'm so useless at stuff like this." She said sighing and turning off her oven. "Always ave been."

"Hey don't say that, you're not one bit useless" Peter said softly, as she leaned against her fridge.

"Peter I can't even bake a simple Victoria sponge without almost setting me flat on fire." Carla mumbled.

"Baby you did everything right, that cake mix tasted amazing before it went into the oven." Peter insisted, Carla thought for a moment and then grinned at him.

"It did didn't it." She said smugly and then she looked at the burnt cakes. "Y'know I feel inclined to blame you for this" she said pointing at them.

"Me?" Peter exclaimed, "What did I do?" Carla moved forwards and put an arm around his neck.

"You were the one who dragged me into the bedroom." She said, kissing him roughly on the lips.

"Dragged?" Peter smirked with an eyebrow raised. "Sure I did." he said as Carla put her other arm around him. She sighed heavily and looked at the mess in the kitchen. "I'm sorry about your cake" Peter said following her gaze.

"Ahh well, you get points for tryin right" She paused "It's a good thing I didn't tell Roy I was makin it in the first place, at least he won't be too disappointed."

"Roy?" Peter asked, slightly confused.

"Yeah I saw him earlier and he seemed so depressed. I've been talking to him recently and I know that he's finding it really hard without Hayley, especially at this time of year spreading her Christmas cheer. She loved Christmas Hayley did…" Carla sighed sadly.

"Awww, she did didn't she?" Peter said reminiscently.

"She used to loved making Christmas themed foods n then I saw this cake and thought that if I made it and maybe took him a slice…. Y'know maybe it would cheer him up… Maybe I'll just take him for a drink instead." Carla said sighing and beginning to make her piece with the fact that her cake seemed to be history.

Peter smiled at Carla adoringly as she spoke, he loved how kind hearted she was at times, especially where Roy was concerned and he thought it was such a shame that the cake had got burnt. He gave her a quick kiss and made her let go of him.

"Right give us that magazine then." he said pointing at it, Carla stared at him.

"Why?" She asked handing it over to Peter suspiciously.

"I'm gonna go down to Dev's n get you some more ingredients." he said looking at the list of things that he needed to buy, Carla shook her head at him lovingly and said,

"No Peter it's fine." but he wouldn't take no for an answer. He reached over and pulled his phone out of his coat pocket and took a picture of the recipe so that he didn't have to take the whole magazine out with him.

"Right I'll be back soon, is there anything else you need whilst I'm down there?" he asked.

"You going down there in ya boxers?" Carla smirked looking down at his bare legs. "I guess it's a good thing that Sophie likes girls isn't it?" Peter laughed and went into the bedroom to get dressed again. He came back after a few minutes, in his jeans and blue jumper. He picked up his coat and gave Carla another quick kiss.

"Don't you dare get dressed" he said huskily, running his hands down the silky material of her dressing gown, Carla nodded obediently and said,

"I'll miss ya."

"I'll miss you too" Peter said kissing her twice more before finally going towards her door.

"Peter…" Carla called after him, he spun round and looked at her to see what she wanted. "I'd see if Dev sells that icing if I were you."

Peter was gone for roughly fifteen minutes, he'd took a key with him and when he'd let him self back in, he found Carla sat on the sofa watching television. She was still in her dressing gown as Peter had instructed and had her bare legs propped up on the coffee table. She was eating the butter cream icing straight out of the tub with a spoon when he came in. She grinned at him in a guilty fashion and took the silver spoon out of her mouth.

"Hey." She said.

"You're not still eating that icing are ya?" Peter said, closing the door behind him as Carla got up off of the sofa and met him in the kitchen with a kiss.

"I can't help it, it tastes so good" she said kissing him again and undoing the zip on his coat and taking his jacket off for him. He handed her the bag of cake ingredients. "Thanks baby." She said and she took the bag into the kitchen.

Carla then set about making cake number three, Peter watched her from over the counter as he'd been given strict instructions to stay away. Carla was almost quite used to the mixing and measuring by the third time around and she was placing cake tins into the oven in no time.

"Did you not hear me earlier?" Carla said to Peter as he tried to pull her away from the kitchen.

"But you're finished now…" Peter practically wailed, Carla chuckled at him and shook her head.

"I've still got to keep an eye on the oven though and your sexiness is far too distracting." Carla said turning away from him and grinning. She then picked up her phone.

"Come on Car, we won't forget this time I promise." Peter insisted, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.

"Your damn right we won't forget because I'm putting a timer on me phone." Carla said setting her clock to go off in twenty minutes.

"Okay so now you've done that can we at least have a cuddle on the sofa?" Peter suggested knowing that if he at least got Carla on the sofa she'd be like putty in his hands.

Carla reluctantly gave into Peter's suggestion and went to sit with him on her sofa. He instantly pulled her over to him and kissed her, he kissed her so passionately that she got scared that she would get too distracted again. As Peter ran a hand up her dressing gown and made her gasp excitedly she pulled away from him suddenly.

"Honestly Peter you said cuddle."

"Yeah we can cuddle…Naked" Peter grinned.

"You my friend, ave only got one thing on your mind." Carla said backing away from him a little, He chuckled and reached out and took her hand instead.

"Well what can I say eh? I mean have you seen yourself in the mirror." He said squeezing her hand tightly and smiling. "Come on then." He said with his arms out wide, Carla gave him a suspicious look "It's just a cuddle I promise." He said and Carla leant against him and snuggled into his soft jumper.

"I mean what I said earlier, I think this jumper is well cute." Carla said running a hand along it and stroking the material.

"Really? Me Dad got it me when he went shopping last week, I thought it were a bit random at first but it's actually really warm, A little too warm for in ere though." He said because Carla's fireplace was still on, full blast.

"Eh d'ya reckon I should give ya Dad a slice of cake?" Carla asked looking up at him "That's if I mange not to burn this one to a crisp that is."

"I think he'd love some." Peter said kissing Carla on the head. "And this cake will be fine, third time lucky and all that." They cuddled up tight on the sofa and just listened to the music that Carla had been playing, At first Carla would sing along to the lyrics every so often but that soon ceased and by the time her phones timer went off her and Peter had almost fallen right asleep.

Carla practically jumped off the sofa and ran over to the oven, Peter got up and joined her in the kitchen as she put her oven gloves on, She bit her lip and looked at him.

"Right, third time lucky, ere goes." She said hopefully, almost closing her eyes because she wanted this to turn out right so bad. She then opened the door to her oven and pulled out one of the cake tins. The cake had risen to the top of the tin and the mixture was now a nice shade of golden brown "That's more like it eh?" She said putting it down on her work surface, she then got the second tin out placed it next to the first.

"Baby they look delicious." Peter said going behind Carla and wrapping his arms around her. She smiled proudly and picked up a skewer that she had set aside earlier. "What you doing now?" Peter asked still with his arms around her.

"Checking it's cooked the whole way through, you're meant to stick one of these in the middle and if it comes out clean then it's done... well that's what the magazine says anyway."

"Check you out, you're a regular Mary Berry." Peter said looking rather impressed and making Carla laugh. "Go on then." He said. Carla poked the metal skewer gingerly into the middle of one of her cakes and then pulled it out again, it came out as clean just as it had gone in. She checked the other one and the result was the same. "Wahey… and the winner of the next Great British Bake of is… Carla Barlow." Peter said nudging her and kissing her on the cheek.

"I actually did it." She breathed, turning off the oven, rather astonished that it truly had gone well.

"I'm proud of you baby." Peter said turning her around, "I can't wait to taste it." He then smirked, looking at her in a way that she was all to used to. "Now whilst it cools down…" he began but Carla was way ahead of him and had already begun undoing his jeans.

It was almost an hour by the time Carla had made it back to her kitchen, so she could ice the cake. Peter followed her and watched as she emptied the cake tins onto a plate and filled the middle of the sponges with Strawberry jam and the rest of the butter cream icing that she had bought earlier.

Peter had bought another tub in Dev's luckily and that was what she began to use to ice the top and the sides of the cake. It was messy job but after a while the entire cake was covered and as she finished up by putting on the little green Christmas trees that she had bought, she kept helping her self to some of the left over icing that was in the tub.

"Honestly Carla." Peter said watching her in disbelief. "You're gonna make your self sick if you eat anymore of that stuff."

Carla just grinned as she suggestively licked the spoon that she had been using to eat the icing with.

"I saw a strawberry and a chocolate one whilst I were shopping earlier, I bet they taste amazing, Did Dev have any of those ones?" She asked grinning with her eyes wide.

"He did but don't get any ideas because I will be going down there in a minute and telling him and Sophie not to sell em to you because this is getting a little out of control isn't it." Peter said because Carla was already eating another spoonful "You and that sweet tooth though, you're gonna need dentures by the time your fifty."

"Yeah well... you would know." Carla joked, Peter then leant forward and took the tub of icing away from her. "Oi" She cried trying to grab it back off him.

"Nope, No more. I'm cutting you off." Peter chuckled and he put the lid on the tub and he went put it in the fridge. He came back as Carla was placing a final tree onto her cake.

"That's it I reckon." She said studying her cake and then looking at the one in the magazine.

"It's perfect" Peter said and he then picked up his phone "Come on then, pick it up I want a picture of this."

"No Peter, how embarrassing." Carla said hiding her face as Peter held his phone up to her face. "Stop it." She said pushing the phone away. "I'm half dressed and look at the state of me hair." After an afternoon of baking and having sex with Peter, her long hair was a little on the wild side and she still had some specks of flour in it.

"I'm not gonna show anyone, It's just you've tried so hard and I want to remember how adorable you look right now." Peter insisted.

"Fine." Carla said picking up her cake and smiling triumphantly at Peter's phone. She then took a picture of it on her phone so she could show Michelle what it had looked like.

Peter helped Carla tidy up her kitchen, which took them rather a long time because it had got very messy during Carla's baking session. It didn't help that every time they passed each other they ended up having a little kissing session, eventually Carla's kitchen was back to normal and as she put the last bits of washing up in her dishwasher, Peter grinned and said,

"So now you've baked a cake, what are the chances of you cooking me a nice roast dinner tomorrow?" Carla raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head,

"I'd say the chances are very slim seeing as I don't want to step foot in this kitchen again this weekend." She said as she went to sit down on her sofa.

"Can't blame a guy for trying eh?" he said following her. "So Aunt Bessie, tell me, where's your Christmas tree?" he asked because he had noticed she hadn't had one up yet when he had walked in but had forgot to mention it until now. Carla shrugged and rested an elbow on the sofa.

"Don't ave one."

"You must ave a fake one somewhere." he said but Carla shook her head at him. "So what did you use last year then, I thought you hated the real ones?"

"Well I didn't ave a Christmas tree up last year if you must know" Carla said, leaving Peter rather astonished.

"You didn't ave a Christmas tree?" he exclaimed as if it was the craziest thing he'd ever heard of.

"No I flamin well didn't."

"Why not?"

"Peter, this time last year was a horrible time for me and the last thing I wanted was a tacky green tree filling up me new flat." Carla said, Peter felt an immediate pang of guilt and Carla could tell he was feeling the blame "Baby don't feel sorry for me." She said, "I'm a million times happier this year, if that makes your feel any better." she said giving him a quick kiss.

"So... does that mean that you're gonna ave a tree this year then?" he asked Carla, who just shrugged indifferently. Peter then grinned, "You do realise that if there is no tree for presents go under, they'll be no presents." Carla's face lit up at the word presents.

"Oh you do ave a point there don't you Peter Barlow." Carla said grinning "Maybe I'll get a tree after all, If there are going to be presents involved."

"Oh there shall definitely be presents involved." Peter nodded, kissing Carla on the cheek.

"D'ya fancy going out tonight?" Carla suggested after a little while more of sitting on the sofa.

"Like where?" Peter asked,

"I Don't know maybe we can get Simon and go n get some nice dinner or something?" Carla said,

"Hmmm If I didn't know any better I'd say you were just trying to get out of cooking." Peter laughed.

"Oi!" Carla said, nudging him in the ribs.

"Ow!" Peter cried, Carla giggled and bent down so she could kiss him in the spot where she nudged him.

"So are we going to dinner or not?" She asked, rolling up his jumper and kissing him on his bare skin.

Hours later and armed with a Tupperware box full of cake Carla and Peter were walking down Coronation Street. They had made plans to meet Simon at half seven but stopped off at Roy's on the way.

He let them into his flat and was very surprised to see that Carla had come baring cake. Homemade cake as well.

"You made this?" Roy asked looking at the cake in awe.

"I did." She nodded as Peter said,

"I wouldn't believe it unless I hadn't watched her do it myself." Peter grinned,

"Are you looking to get another nudge." Carla said poking him in the side as Roy bit into the slice of cake that Carla had cut for him. She watched him anxiously, wondering if Peter's "It tastes amazing." was just him being nice because he was her husband and that the cake maybe tasted awful.

Roy chewed the cake and swallowed it down as Carla awaited his approval.

"How is it?" She asked nervously.

"Delicious." Roy said with a nod, "Honestly Carla this truly tastes wonderful."

"Really?" Carla said as Peter nodded and kissed her on the cheek for about the one-hundredth time that day.

"I told you it tasted good." He said, as Carla smiled elatedly.

"I'm glad you like it." She said as Roy ate some more, as he finished the slice that Carla had given him, she looked into the Tupperware box and said, "D'ya want to take another bit… for later?"

"Sure why not." Roy said. Peter glanced around Roy's flat, another place which also looked like it needed some Christmas love.

"No tree yet Roy?" Peter asked,

"No... Christmas Tress aren't really my kind of thing." Roy said. Peter thought for a moment and then watched as Carla got out another piece of cake out of the box and placed it on a plate for Roy.

"Roy… me, Carla and Si are going to get something for dinner, do you fancy joining us?" He asked kindly, Carla smiled at the idea and looked hopefully as she waited for Roy's response.

"That is mighty kind of you Peter but no thank you, there is a documentary on in a bit that I must watch." Roy said with a grateful nod.

"Are you sure?" Carla said, coming back from the kitchen.

"Yes I'm sure." Roy said.

"Okay." Carla said disappointedly, "How about we maybe meet for a drink tomorrow instead?"

"That sounds lovely." Roy said.

"Well maybe we'll get out of you hair.?" Peter said, as he looked down at the clock and saw that it was almost half past seven.

"Thank you for coming over." Roy said to them, "and Thank you for the cake. I am really pleased to see that you are getting into baking."

"Hmmm I wouldn't exactly say that." Carla smirked before kissing Roy on the cheek. "Bye."

Peter said goodbye to Roy also and then they both made their way over to get Simon who was at his Mum's flat today.

"He's not ready yet." Leanne said letting Carla and Peter in her flat with a raised eyebrow. "Although I have no idea just what he has to get ready." She laughed.

"Hey Lea… want some cake?" Peter said with a grin, Carla shook her head at him and pushed him into Leanne's living room.

"Cake?" said Leanne.

"I made a cake today and Peter seems to think that it's something to shout from the rooftops." Carla said holding up her box that was not so full of cake anymore, especially since they had ran into Ken and Amy on the way to Leanne's and they had both taken a piece home with them.

"You… made a cake?" Leanne said with her eyebrow raised again.

"Yes I did and I ave to say I am quite shocked at how surprised people are about this… I do know how to use me oven y'know." Carla smirked sitting down on Leanne's sofa as Peter looked around at the flat. He pointed at Leanne's Christmas tree and said,

"Nice tree." Carla rolled her eyes at him and said,

"What are you on tree watch on summat?" Carla asked,

"No I'm just saying how nice it is thats all." Peter grinned,

"Aww thanks, Me and Si put it up last night." Leanne said then she looked at Carla, "Ave you been to the pub yet?"

"The pub?" Carla shrugged, "No… why?"

"Oh… I just thought you would ave gone round that's all, I mean you're really close to the Connors, I thought Michelle would ave told you that her cousin is in town." Leanne said sitting next to Carla on the sofa.

"Cousin… which cousin? Aidan?" Carla said as Peter knocked on Simon's door,

"Si… hurry up!" He said,

"No not Aidan... I think he said his name was Rich." Leanne said.

Carla's face dropped at the name Rich, she had been smiling from ear to ear for the whole day so it was very noticeable that her mood had suddenly changed.

"Who's Rich?" Peter said upon seeing Carla's expression and also Simon came out of his bedroom.

"I'm ready." He said smiling, in his blue jacket and best trainers.

"Good." Carla said getting up off the sofa. She then looked down at Leanne, "D'ya wanna come with us?"

"Nah you're alright, Kal's coming over soon so we'll probably just have a relaxing night in." Leanne said with a smile, grateful for the invite from Carla all the same.

"Well let's get going then." Peter said still watching Carla.

"Bye Mum." Simon said, leaning in and giving Leanne a kiss on the cheek.

"Bye... ave fun you lot." Leanne said as Carla, Peter and Simon left her flat.

As they walked around to Peter's flat so that they could get his car, Peter still watched Carla, he had seen how quickly her face had changed upon hearing the arrival of this Rich and he couldn't help but wonder why.

"So… this Rich… who is he?" Peter said, unlocking his car so that Simon could get in, Carla went to get in too, but Peter gently stopped her.

"You know who he is, Michelle's cousin." Carla said casually.

"Yeah but what I want to really know is why when you heard his name mentioned that you're cute and happy expression suddenly turned into the one you ave now." Peter said.

"He's just not a very nice person that's all, He were a right pain to be honest and I were just a bit surprised out to hear he was ere." Carla said,

"You sure that's it?" Peter asked slightly unconvinced that Carla was being completely truthful to him.

"Yeah… I'm sure." Carla said with a smile, one that most people would believe but one that Peter could see right through. He decided he wouldn't question her too much right now as they were with Simon who, then wound down his car window after waiting for his Dad and Carla for a little while.

"Are we going any time soon?" he smirked, Carla nodded at him and looked at Peter.

"Sure." He said leaning in and giving Carla a quick kiss. "We'll talk later." He said opening the door for her. She nodded at him and then got inside the car.

"Hey Si… d'ya want some Christmas cake?" she asked with more believable on her face as Peter got in the drivers seat.

"You made a cake?" He exclaimed, Peter laughed at his son's shock and as Carla turned around and handed Simon some cake.

"Just shut up and eat it." She grinned as Simon chuckled along with his Dad before biting in the cake.

"Well…?" Carla asked still facing Simon as Peter started the car.

"Amazing!" Simon said with a mouthful.

Peter smiled as Carla, once again looked thrilled and even though he was apprehensive about the arrival of this Rich, he was more excited about the next couple of weeks.

Christmas was soon approaching and even though he wasn't sure exactly what his plans were, One thing that Peter new for sure was that after being apart from her last year, he was going to make sure that this year, Carla had the best Christmas ever.