Mistletoe on 34th Street Page 13

  ‘You bought Subways for us?’

  ‘Yeah.’ He shrugged, his eyes remaining on me. ‘Gotta be hospitable and feed the Brits, right? Merry Christmas.’

  I didn’t know what to say. What a nice gesture. I thought he was leaving me with a suspicious package and all along he was buying us food. FOOD. Mmmm. I fumbled in my handbag. ‘Let me give you some money for these—’

  ‘No, don’t be crazy.’ He put a warm, rough hand on mine. ‘Now, you look like a girl who’d like a pizza sub, am I right?’

  ‘They do a pizza Subway? How do you know me so well already?’

  ‘I know a kindred spirit when I see one.’ He turned to the others and pulled out sandwich after sandwich. ‘Girl on the phone, you look like you could do with a pick-me-up. How does a bacon melt sound?’

  Abigail took the gift and practically teared up. ‘It sounds like comfort food.’

  ‘And for the happy couple, how about matching turkey and black forest ham?’

  Dee and Ian leapt further apart. ‘We’re not a couple!’ they cried in unison. Dee started laughing like a hyena sprayed with laughing gas. Ian reached forward. ‘We will take the Subways though, thank you, sir.’

  ‘My pleasure. And you.’ He fixed Jasmine with a smouldering look and she flipped her hair. It was all very Coca-Cola advert.

  ‘This is really cool of you, I didn’t think we were going to get to eat today,’ she remarked, glancing at me.

  ‘You look like you need something to put a smile on your face. So how about a big ol’ greasy meatball marinara?’ He handed her the sub and she unwrapped it, uncertainty on her face. Was that an insult? Elijah turned back to me.

  ‘Thank you for these,’ I said, chomping into my pizza sub. A pizza sub!

  ‘You’re welcome. All I need from you is to keep me company in this queue.’

  ‘Lucky for you, queueing is one of my fortes.’

  ‘That is lucky for me. You look like you’re enjoying that sandwich.’

  ‘Hell yes, I am.’ My inner goddess began to salsa – haha just kidding, I don’t have an inner goddess. But I hadn’t felt chemistry in a long time and it was like all my nerve-endings were waking up.

  ‘So, Olivia,’ he said, as we both chowed into our respective Subways. ‘What brings you and your friends to New York?’

  I sat down on my suitcase and he did the same on his bag. I remembered an article from Sugar magazine from when I was about fourteen that said a boy fancies you if he mirrors your actions. Elijah and I were clearly meant to be together. ‘Work. I’m a temporary manager at a company called Girls of the World, this is my team, and we were here for a conference.’

  ‘A conference about girls?’

  ‘A conference about equality. My company helps young girls stand up for themselves and have opinions and be confident in themselves and their brains. We go to schools and clubs around the country but also set up groups and days out and courses where people can meet new people and get involved in whatever makes them shine.’

  ‘That’s good spiel. A New York conference at Christmas, that’s a sweet free ride.’

  ‘Well, we’re a pretty big community in the UK, and online we have hits from all over the world, but we’re still trying to break through a bit more internationally. I didn’t really have a lot of time to make the most of Christmas in this city. Do you live here?’

  ‘I do, I live just below midtown, in the Meatpacking District. Did you get down there at all?’

  ‘No, I don’t think so. What do you do there, I’ve always wondered about that area? Is there a lot of … meat to be packed?’

  He laughed. ‘No. I’m a musician. I play drums for a rock band; we do gigs around the city most weeks.’ Of course he’d have a yummy profession. Of course he’d turn me into an eighties music video-style groupie.

  ‘Is that why you’re flying somewhere? Are you off to play a Christmas concert?’ I asked him, chomping into my sandwich, which was rapidly disappearing.

  ‘No, I’m just getting out of the city until the new year. New York is crazy with tourists during the holidays – no offence.’ He looked bashful. ‘But I have a buddy in Manchester in the UK so I’m flying over to visit him for a couple of weeks.’

  We talked for a while, eating our sandwiches and trading anecdotes, before a wary-looking British Airways employee appeared from nowhere and clapped her hands together to get the queue’s attention. ‘Ladies and gentleman, if I could have your attention please?’ We all fell silent and shuffled into a semicircle around her. My right arm became pressed against Elijah’s as we stepped forward, which I pretended to ignore.

  ‘I’m afraid there won’t be any more flights to the UK today … ’ the BA lady started, and a low grumble began to rise from the queue. Her face fixed into a smile that was ready for battle. ‘The weather is just not letting up across the pond, and the most important thing is that you’re all safe. So we don’t fly until it’s safe, simple as that. Other airlines are facing the same cancellations, and we estimate that nobody will be flying into British airspace for at least another twenty-four hours.’

  Behind me, I heard Abigail whimper.

  Beside me, Elijah turned his head slightly and caught my eye, a small smile playing on his lips, which I couldn’t help but echo. Another twenty-four hours in New York? All right, so maybe that wasn’t the worst thing after all …

  ‘You’re welcome to stay in the airport if you want to, but I’d highly recommend you take the complimentary hotel service we’ll be providing. I’ll be coming down the queue to check how many are in your party and how many rooms you’ll need, and then we’ll be moving you to the Brooklyn Marriott, where your dinner and breakfast will be provided.’

  ‘Excuse me?’ I piped up, upon seeing Abigail’s sad face. ‘I just wanted to check – there’s no chance of us getting a flight to France or anything today instead?’

  The BA woman shook her head. ‘Not today, not with the weather how it is over Europe. I’m sorry. Hopefully we’ll be in the clear tomorrow.’

  I faced my team and slapped on a smile. ‘The Brooklyn Marriott, that’s not bad. At least we’re not stuck in an airport hotel. Think of it like a free holiday night in New York, no work or anything. You can do whatever you want.’

  I saw Dee look over at Ian and smile a small, tender, smile. Good for them. As the woman started moving down the queue with her clipboard, my team began gathering their things, folding their magazines back in their bags, stowing away their snacks and slipping back on their discarded shoes.

  Elijah slung his leather holdall onto his shoulder and looked directly at me. ‘Well, Olivia, I hope we get to do this the same time tomorrow.’

  ‘You’re not coming to the hotel?’ I accidently whined.

  ‘Nah, I live so close, I might as well go home for the night.’ He kept his eyes on me as he leaned in to kiss me on the cheek. ‘But thank you for the company; it was great to spend time with you.’

  ‘Ermanyu-nyuto,’ I said. What I meant was ‘oh, you too’ but I was still sparkling like a teenager from that stolen kiss. ‘Thanks for the chatter.’

  ‘Thank you for the chatter.’ He hovered. Was this like the end of a first date? Should I signal for him to kiss me on the mouth? This was not something I was completely averse to, though it was perhaps a little forward …

  ‘Thanks for the advice on looking after your hands, I’ll remember that,’ I said.

  ‘You’re welcome. Thanks for talking me through biscuits versus scones.’

  ‘Thanks for … ’ Oh lord, this wasn’t an Oscar speech. What I wanted was for him not to go – it felt too fleeting and too soon. He was hardly the love of my life after just two hours of talking, but I liked his company and it had been a while since that spark had actually sparkled. Why wasn’t he asking me out?

  Urgh, I could have slapped myself. What was I always telling the girls in school? Be confident, have an opinion, don’t be afraid to speak your mind about the things you like or the
things you want. And now I was all ‘why won’t he ask me out?’ like a big fat wet-wipe.

  Elijah leant in for one last one-armed hug and I grabbed his arm as he pulled away. He looked at me expectantly, amusement in his eyes.

  ‘Do you want to meet for a drink tonight?’

  He grinned. ‘Hell yeah, I thought you’d never ask!’

  ‘Why didn’t you ask?’

  ‘Because you’re here with all your friends and I’m the weird loner. Ball’s in your court.’

  ‘Fair enough. Where would you suggest we meet?’

  ‘What are you into?’

  In my mind Jon’s face appeared, telling me about all the things New York at Christmas had to offer, all the things I’d never done. ‘I have one more night in New York, so I want to do something traditional and Christmassy.’

  Elijah laughed. ‘Something touristy?’

  ‘Well, I am a tourist.’

  ‘All right … meet me on the corner of Fifth and Thirty-Third Street, outside the Empire State Building, at eight p.m.’

  The Empire State Building? A ripple of excitement went through me. I’d never been up it, and I’d seen from my hotel that it was lit up red and green for Christmas. Hang on, was this what it felt like to be excited about Christmas? Or maybe I was just excited about Elijah.

  The staff from British Airways were beginning to usher us towards the buses. I suddenly had a thought and stopped short. ‘Wait,’ I said to nobody in particular. ‘What about Jon and Carl?’

  ‘What about them?’ said Jasmine. ‘You do know they don’t work for us, don’t you?’

  ‘Of course, but we should see what they’re doing, let them know we’re going back to the city.’

  ‘Who are Jon and Carl?’ Elijah asked, picking up my case for me and shuffling closer to the door with us while I craned my neck behind me.

  ‘They’re our good friends and their flights were cancelled too … ’

  ‘Everyone on buses one to three please exit the terminal using the doors to the right and head straight to bus stop five, where you’ll be directed onto your coach.’ The BA woman rubbed her eyes, tiredly. ‘I’m sorry, sir,’ she called to a man who’d broken free of the group. ‘The buses can’t wait; they have to do many trips between the airport and the hotels this afternoon.’

  ‘Can I just—’

  ‘No,’ she snapped, and he shuffled back into the group.

  ‘Come on,’ Elijah said, edging me forward. But I hadn’t said goodbye to Jon. I hadn’t told him Merry Christmas.

  ‘Chop-chop,’ shrilled the BA attendant, her patience wearing thin, and who could blame her? Perhaps she too thought she was about to finish for Christmas, and now she had to stay in New York, with everyone looking to her for answers and expecting her to sort everything out. With a final look back at the terminal I followed orders. I hear ya, sista.

  Outside the coach I said goodbye to Elijah. ‘See you tonight then!’

  ‘Sure will. I’m looking forward to it.’

  ‘Me too. And thanks again for the lunch – dinner is on me.’

  ‘You’re more than welcome, and I wouldn’t dream of it. It’s not every day a struggling musician from New York gets to take out an English rose.’ He leaned over and for a moment I thought we were going to snog (I was feeling bizarrely up for it, even in front of my colleagues). My mouth curved into a smile as he came closer and I drew in my breath, but instead he met my eyes and then moved a fraction to the right to give me another cheek kiss. I exhaled and shook my head, just a tiny amount, as he walked away. Santa baby …

  The drive back into the city was surreal; hadn’t I just left here? The yellow taxis, the road signs, the skyline, it was all coming back to me like it was yesterday. Only it wasn’t, it had been this morning. I sat in comfortable silence, excited at the prospect of one more day in the city, Jon and Kim would be proud. Behind me Abigail was murmuring into her phone. I knew she needed her privacy, so I only half strained to listen in to her conversation. Well done, me.

  ‘I just want to come home and see you,’ she was saying. ‘Do you think your mum will be OK with us coming a day later?’

  I thought about what Jon had been telling me about his big family Christmas. Would his family, and all his brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews, be OK with him being delayed? I knew if it were my family they’d barely notice. Well, that’s not fair. They’d notice, but there wouldn’t be any chewed fingernails, or worries about missing out on Christmas activities. I, however, was a bit worried on missing out on my downtime.

  Thinking about Jon I pulled out my phone and tried to call, but just got his answerphone. So after a text to Anne to update her, if she was interested, I called home instead.

  ‘Hello?’ barked Dad down the phone.

  ‘Hi, Dad, it’s Liv.’

  ‘Hello, love. How’s New York?’

  ‘Good thanks, looks like I’m stuck here a bit longer – the flights are all cancelled.’

  ‘Oh dear … you’d better speak to your mother.’

  ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Lucy, just eat the bloody apple. Livia! How are you doing, sweetie?’ Mum said, coming on the line.

  ‘I’m fine thanks – we won’t be coming home today though, because of the weather. BA are putting us all up in a hotel back in Brooklyn and hopefully we’ll be on a flight tomorrow. Lucy’s still there?’

  ‘Yes, her flight to Thailand is delayed until who knows when, and she’s being the world’s stroppiest teenager. Do you know she only wants exotic fruit because she wants to “at least pretend she’s on a South-East Asian beach and not stuck here”? And I’m paraphrasing – she was much ruder than that.’

  I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of my mum and my sister spending this ‘quality’ time together. I bet it would be quite fun to be at home right now. ‘So is it really that bad in England, the snow?’

  ‘It’s pretty thick – more than I’ve seen before around these parts. Very Christmas card-like. It’s quite pretty actually. The neighbours have been sledding like mad.’

  ‘Is it snowing now?’

  ‘Oh yes, it hasn’t stopped all day.’

  Hmm, that wasn’t a good sign for tomorrow. ‘OK, I’d better go, Mum, but I’ll keep you updated. Let me know if Lucy gets her flight out.’

  I sat back in my chair and watched a yellow taxi whiz past the window, fairy lights entwined around its sign, and smiled at the thought of Elijah.

  I might still technically be the boss, but work was over. We were off the clock and into the Christmas holidays. I leant over the back of my chair.

  ‘You guys?’

  Abigail put her hand over the mouthpiece, Dee and Ian looked over and Jasmine raised her eyebrows at me without looking up.

  ‘It’s half past two, and I think I’m going to leave you on your own for the rest of the day. I have some things I’m going to do while I’m here, so feel free to sightsee, hang out in your room, whatever you want. After we’ve checked in, I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow. Sound good?’

  ‘Yep,’ said Jasmine, very quickly. After the others agreed I sank back down. I might not be home, but at least, just for a few hours, I was going to be alone.

  There was a definite festive spring in my step as I pottered about my spacious beige and red hotel room. It may only be for a day, but I was on holiday. The only thing, really, I needed to do work-wise was make sure nobody got lost on the way back to the airport tomorrow. I tuned my bedside clock radio into a Christmas music station and hummed along to ‘Let It Snow’. Come on, Christmas; show me what you’ve got.

  I was just sniffing the selection of Marriott complimentary toiletries when there was a knock on the door.

  ‘Go away,’ I muttered, assuming it would be Jasmine ready to complain that her towels weren’t soft enough or the pole up her arse was getting uncomfortable.

  But I opened the door to Jon! He was here! I made a loud ‘yaaaay’ noise like people do when they’re pissed and a friend walks in t
he room, and threw my arms around him. ‘What are you doing here?’ I asked.

  ‘Didn’t you know that all the flights were cancelled?’

  ‘Yeah, but I didn’t think we’d end up in the same hotel – how cool is that? How do they have space for us all?’

  ‘I don’t know, maybe because though the BA passengers have all been given separate rooms, I have to bunk in with Carl?’ he said, coming into my room and plonking himself down on the bed. He pulled two bags of mini-pretzels from his pocket and handed one to me. ‘I nabbed these from reception.’

  I climbed onto the bed and we sat side by side, cracking into the mini-pretzels. ‘Hey,’ I said between mouthfuls, ‘talking of free food, you would have loved this. We met a guy in the queue at the airport – a New Yorker – and he asked me to save his space while he went to get something to eat, and he came back with Subways for all of us!’

  ‘For all of you?’ Jon said, impressed. ‘That was nice of him. So you’re full then, I’ll take these back.’ He reached for the pretzels but I wriggled away, stuffing them frantically into my gob.

  ‘He was nice,’ I said slowly. I was watching Jon’s reaction carefully. It didn’t matter what he thought, not really, it’s just … it kind of did matter.

  ‘Cool. So, Miss I-Hate-Christmas-and-New-York-At-Christmas, we’ve just been given twenty-four work-free hours here, and I spent the whole journey to the hotel ignoring Carl and coming up with a total bucket list for us to do together, guardian angel Clarence-style. We need to head off while it’s still light to fit it all in, but I guarantee that by the end you’ll be feeling so Christmassy you might as well call yourself Jesus.’

  ‘Oh … ’ He made a whole itinerary? That was sweet, which made this all the more awkward. ‘I can do a couple of hours now but I have plans this evening.’

  ‘With your team? Can’t they go it alone for one night?’

  ‘Actually, no, with the guy from the queue.’

  ‘The Subway guy?’

  ‘Yeah. Elijah.’

  ‘But isn’t he like, fifty?’

  I couldn’t help but laugh at Jon’s aghast face. ‘No, why would you think that?’