Bridget and Scott begin their relationship after the carol concert

Bridget Jones and Mr Wallaker begin their relationship after the school carol concert, when a look across the church gives way to a private conversation, a kiss and a night together. What starts amid snow, hot chocolate and mutual suspicion becomes more than a romantic reversal: by dawn, Mr Wallaker has told Bridget about the deaths he witnessed in Afghanistan, and she responds not with a joke or a guess but by holding him. The scene joins their attraction to a new intimacy grounded in his grief.

From flirtation to renewed contact

Their relationship has a history before the concert. Bridget’s early attempt to text Roxster after meeting him is read aloud by Tom: its misspellings make her drunkenness obvious, and the late hour and eager invitation leave her friends convinced she sounds desperate. Almost immediately, however, Roxster replies by asking about her babysitting schedule and proposing the following Saturday. The exchange establishes a pattern of romantic hope mediated by phone messages, where small errors and delays feel consequential.

When Bridget first meets Roxster, he proves more handsome and cheerfully animated than his photograph. He stops her from tweeting about him by placing his hand on her phone. Later, after she finds his profile on Match.com, she recognizes the possibility that he has noticed her looking at his; his message addresses her through the overlapping identities of Jonesey49, Bridget and her Twitter name. Their renewed contact and the attraction to a younger man form the immediate romantic background to the later concert scene. By then Bridget and Roxster’s involvement has ended: after the concert she is distressed by what appears to Mr Wallaker to be an engagement, though it is actually a breakup.

The carol concert and the return

At the church, Mr Wallaker meets Bridget’s eyes while the congregation sings. She is crying, with mascara on her face and hot chocolate on her coat; he has stopped singing and gives her a slight, kind smile. The moment is quiet rather than declarative. Bridget understands the look as one that sees her, but on the walk outside she doubts what it means. She wonders whether he has merely gone to fetch his bassoon, whether he intends to meet Miranda, and whether his kindness comes from pity for a widow and her fatherless children.

Bridget sets off after the last people leaving the church, having finished her mulled wine and splashed red wine onto her already stained coat. Mr Wallaker calls after her and strides over carrying the enormous bassoon. In front of the stragglers, he says he is taking her carol singing, then quietly suggests that they go to the pub. His return turns her speculation into action: instead of disappearing after the concert, he chooses to accompany her.

The pub is old and festive, with flagstone floors, fires and holly on the beams, but the parents’ intense interest makes the new pairing conspicuous. Mr Wallaker ignores their stares, finds a booth at the back and pulls out Bridget’s chair. He keeps the bassoon beside her and asks her not to lose it. The comic practical detail remains in the scene even as the two begin to talk directly about the people each has seen with the other.

Misunderstandings, attraction and the kiss

Mr Wallaker asks about Bridget’s toy boy, whom he saw on Hampstead Heath. Bridget counters by asking about Miranda. His incredulous response clears up her mistaken assumption: Miranda is twenty-two and is his brother’s stepdaughter, not a girlfriend. He explains that they had simply met while she was shoe-shopping. He, in turn, thinks Bridget is engaged to a child. She clarifies that Roxster was twenty-nine, turning thirty by the relevant point, and Mr Wallaker jokes that this makes him practically a sugar daddy.

The teasing gives way to a more consequential question: Bridget asks whether Mr Wallaker has been single all this time. He does not claim to have lived like a monk, but his answer confirms that Miranda was not evidence of another relationship. The conversation brings their age difference and their mistaken readings of one another into the open; neither is left to guess from a glance at the school gates or an apparent date in public.

Outside, Mr Wallaker points out what he calls mistletoe. Bridget insists that the apparent sprig is an elm without leaves, continuing to talk as if the moment were a biology lesson. He touches her cheekbone and kisses her, first lightly and then with greater urgency. Her astonishment and physical excitement make the kiss a marked change in their relationship: the attraction that had been held in looks and speculation is now openly shared. They agree to take the bassoon safely back to his flat.

The night together and what follows

Mr Wallaker’s flat is large, with old wooden floors, a blazing fire, a fur hearthrug, candles and the smell of cooking. Martha, a smiling Filipino woman, is bustling in the kitchen; Mr Wallaker thanks her and sends her off. Once alone, Bridget and Mr Wallaker have sex. Their long-accumulated desire becomes mutual and explicit, and they sleep in each other’s arms before waking and making love again through the night. The bassoon, first a reason for going to the flat, remains part of the scene’s comic, practical texture.

At five in the morning they eat Martha’s soup by the fire. Mr Wallaker tells Bridget what happened in Afghanistan: an accident and a mistaken attack that killed women and children, followed by his discovery of the aftermath. He says he decided he had done his bit and was through. Bridget puts her arms around him and strokes his head. This disclosure changes the encounter from a night of desire into an exchange of trust and care. Their relationship begins not with a promise about the future, which the scene does not provide, but with his account of an experience he has not put behind him and Bridget’s willingness to comfort him.