Tell It To Stella

Village hairdresser Stella has spent the year helping old friends and newcomers resolve dramas and realise their dreams but she has a secret heartache too...

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Frost patterns the window. Stella gazes out towards the sea across roof tiles dusted with white.

Everywhere looks so beautiful.

She hums along to Santa Baby streaming through her speaker.

"Only a couple of days until Christmas.

Not long now until we have our turkey dinner," she says to Dylan, the cat. He's curled up on her lap.

Not that Stella knows yet where she'll be spending Christmas Day. She's on the rot a to help out at the shelter in the morning but there are so many volunteers she isn't needed past midday.

She'd hoped to have lunch with her best friend Ali, and her family, as she'd had before but although Ali had agreed, she hadn't been able to look Stella in the eye.

Stella wonders whether Ali would rather be spending it with her boyfriend, Benito.

Rita, her part-time hairdresser and one of her oldest friends, usually extends an invitation to Stella too but she hasn't this year, changing the subject whenever Stella asked about her plans. So have all of her other friends, come to think of it.

Not that she wants to impose.

Christmas is a time for family. Perhaps Stella should have booked a flight to Spain to see her parents - they've been trying to repair their relationship-but she hadn't wanted to let the shelter down or miss the dance school's Christmas show. She always does the children's hair backstage.

"You should go and see them," Ali said.

"I really want to, but..." Stella didn't know how to put into words that at thirty-six she still feels hurt they'd moved to Spain when she was a teenager, even if she had been well looked after by her aunt and her gran.

SH Ali had wrapped her into a big hug. She knew how Stella felt.

"Anyway, best go and open the salon." She gently moves Dylan to the armchair and checks her horoscope. Somebody close to you has been keeping a secret.

She hopes it isn't Don, the man she's been dating.