MISTLETOE
My mother and I had agreed that we'd have a quiet Christmas - she'd just broken off with her latest lover, and I had no plans, so we decided we'd spend the day at home together, just the two of us. But on Christmas Eve we learned that my oldest and best friend, Frank, would be on his own – his family had gone on a short skiing holiday and got snowed in. He and I had visited each other's homes innumerable times, and he was almost like a member of the family, so of course my mother insisted that...