Mistletoe on 34th Street Read online

  Day one was rushing by and I realised mid-afternoon that I hadn’t stopped for a bite to eat. My stomach growled just as I felt a hand on my back and I turned. Jon.

  ‘Isn’t this brilliant?’ I said, before he could utter a word. ‘These women are so inspiring; did you hear what Judge Williams said in her keynote about women building their own bridges across the pay gap? She was so cool! And look at all these people, I feel like this is the best conference ever, don’t you think? I’m so hungry. Do you think I should run for prime minister?’

  Jon was smiling at me. ‘Do you want to run for prime minister?’

  ‘Absolutely! Well, no, but I could.’

  ‘You’d be a great prime minister.’

  ‘I think I would too. You might need a penis to be powerful in this world now, but vaginas are having an uprising, now more than ever, like superpower stormtroopers. Not that vaginas want to crush the penises, just stand hand in hand with them on top of the world. Wait, what was I talking about … ?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’m left wondering if we’re talking about sex or if I should put on a codpiece.’

  ‘Are you having a good time?’ I asked, shaking thoughts of penises – his in particular – from my mind.

  ‘It’s great, and it’s nice to see you enjoying yourself so much, even without Kim. Nerves all gone then?’

  ‘Completely. I have been having text-pep-talks from Kim in Antigua though. I feel just … full of energy. What’s your favourite bit?’

  ‘You.’

  I scanned his face for a moment – what did that mean? Was he making fun of me?

  ‘What?’

  ‘You.’

  ‘Why?’ I hoped this wasn’t about to become awkward. I felt myself start to blush.

  ‘Because you’re so … into it. And you’re standing here saying you’re so inspired by everyone else and talking about your lady bits becoming prime minister or something, but I think you’re inspiring. You’ve made me want my lady bits to be prime minister, too.’

  ‘I’m not inspiring.’ I brushed him off, embarrassed.

  ‘Look,’ he said, handing me a polystyrene container, ‘I have to get back, but I picked you up a pulled pork burger from the Montana BBQ stand near HeForShe – I had one earlier and they are amazing. Knowing you, you’ve probably not eaten since breakfast.’

  ‘When you’re on a roll, you’re on a— mmmmohmygod, these are amazing.’ I chomped into the burger without even finishing my sentence.

  ‘Dani’s going to come over in a bit; she’s really interested in getting to know you.’

  ‘Me?’ I said, mouth full.

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I told her you’re a lovable weirdo with a party trick of eating a whole burger in under thirty seconds.’

  Jon was amazing. This burger was amazing. Dani’s hair was amazing. I was in love with everyone and everything right now; maybe I should calm down.

  The rest of the day went by in a blur of people, activities, speakers and fun. My shoes and my cheeks were killing me by the time we said goodbye to our final guest at the stand.

  ‘What a day,’ I said to nobody in particular, but all my team agreed with me nonetheless. ‘Who’s ready for the drinks and cultural show?’

  Ian yawned and Abigail rubbed her eyes.

  I popped a party popper at them. ‘No time for sleeping, we are here in New York and we don’t have long and we can sleep when we get back to the UK.’ An image of my bed, my flat, my lovely, people-free flat flashed through my mind. Good things come to those who wait … ‘Let’s clean up the stand so we don’t have to do it in the morning, and then let’s have a well-deserved drink. Yes? Yes.’

  I was entranced. It was later that evening and I was watching some of the USA’s finest young dancers and musicians perform an adaptation of The Nutcracker that took us through Christmas in different neighbourhoods of New York. When the performance finished I shot up to applaud so fast that Jon wobbled on his seat next to me.

  ‘Those are the types of women I want to connect with if we bring Girls of the World to the US,’ I babbled to Jon. ‘Imagine how inspiring they would be to anyone with a dream to be a dancer? Look at their strong bodies, and their confidence!’

  ‘Excuse me,’ said a well-dressed woman with voice of silk who approached me. ‘Are you Olivia Forest?’

  ‘I am – hello!’ I answered, admiring her immaculate hair. ‘You have amazing hair. Are you from New York? I’m noticing more and more that New York women really are so well put-together, not just in looks but also in life. I’m sorry, I’ve been talking all day and I can’t seem to stop, I think it’s the adrenalin.’

  The woman laughed. ‘It has been a good day. I’m Lara Green, I run the Green PR firm here in New York – which is, yes, where I live. We have a meeting tomorrow, I believe?’

  ‘We do! Lara, it’s so good to meet you, Scheana’s told me so much about you.’ In particular, how important it was that this meeting went well. Lara had well-established and respected government connections, a great reputation, and Scheana really thought she might get on board with helping us branch out over here in the US.

  ‘I literally love Scheana, she’s the best. But listen, my calendar is kerrazy busy tomorrow; I swear it fills up more by the hour, even though it was already full. How would you feel about skipping the networking and movie screening tomorrow night and having our meeting over dinner and drinks?’

  ‘That sounds great!’ Whatever she wanted. I just hoped my team would be OK without me …

  I faced Jon once she’d left and he gave my shoulder an affectionate little squeeze. ‘You just got yourself a date,’ he said.

  ‘She wants to spend the evening with me! That’s a good sign, isn’t it? If she thought there was no hope in our little company she’d have just left me as one of her short day-meetings.’ This was better than I could have hoped. Now I just had to make her like me. A lot. ‘What’s my least likeable quality?’

  ‘Wow, talk about putting a guy on the spot! I can’t think of one.’

  ‘Yes you—’

  ‘Actually, yes I can,’ he said. Hmph. ‘I think you suck because you don’t work at HeForShe, and I’m jealous that Girls of the World get you instead.’

  I laughed. ‘Maybe one day I’ll come and do a keynote talk at one of your little seminars. You know, if you grow tired of Emma Watson or Kiefer Sutherland.’

  ‘I have no doubt about it.’ Jon grinned, shaking his head.

  ‘Come on,’ I said. ‘I owe you for this morning – let me buy you a free drink.’

  As we walked towards the bar, I gave myself a mental high-five, and threw in a mental hug too because why the hell not? I was doing OK – day one was nearly at a close and everything was going well. Really well. Told you you could do it, I told Olivia-from-the-past. I would be delivering keynote speeches one day … I’m coming for you, world.

  16 December

  1 week, 2 days to Christmas

  The second day of the conference began without any hiccups, and entirely in my own clothes. My suitcase had arrived with all pairs of knickers intact and accounted for. And that was pretty much the vibe for the day.

  It was Full On though. Other than one small errand I had to nip out to do at lunchtime, the entire day was spent smiling, explaining, helping, motivating, encouraging and solving any little issue that came up, such as Abi’s hair getting caught in one of the banners, and Ian asking a really irrelevant question during one of the seminars. I felt like we were spreading the word of Girls of the World like wildfire, and now I just had to hope it stayed alight.

  Thank God we were going home in two sleeps. I was having a great time, but responsibility shaken-not-stirred with jet lag was taking its toll. Other than the first night foray, precisely one block across and three down to St Patrick’s Cathedral, I’d barely seen New York City yet. I also hadn’t seen Jon all day, which was rubbish.

  But tonight was my dinner meeting w
ith Lara. I’d asked the rest of my team to go along to the networking-slash-movie screening event in my absence, but actually I had other plans for two of them …

  As we tidied up the stand at the end of the day I took the pair of tickets I’d purchased at lunchtime out of my pocket, and pulled Ian aside. ‘Ian,’ I said, ‘I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but it’s actually Dee’s birthday today?’

  ‘Oh?’ he squeaked, the voice of a man who had probably been up at the crack of dawn to wish his lady a happy birthday in his own special way.

  ‘Yeah, and the thing is, I bought tickets to take her to The Rockettes tonight as a surprise – you know that Christmas “extravaganza” they call it over at Radio City Music Hall?’ I sighed, forlorn. ‘Only I bought them before I knew I had to go to this business meeting this evening.’ Another sigh. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any way you could take her, could you?’

  Ian reached out and slowly took the tickets from me. He was very quiet. ‘You want me to take out Dee for her birthday?’

  ‘It would really help me out. Jasmine won’t want to, and I think it would be good for Abigail to stay and network, but you’re like me; you’ve met all these people before. It would be nice for Dee – for you both – to enjoy a New York Christmas treat on her birthday.’

  He fingered the tickets for a moment and then looked up at me, searching my face with his eyes. I smiled, and he smiled back. He knew I knew.

  ‘Thank you,’ he murmured.

  ‘You’re welcome. Merry Christmas. And happy birthday to Dee.’

  I looked around one final time to see if I’d have a chance to say goodbye to Jon, but he was busy chatting to Dani, a big smile on his face, telling some story in his enigmatic way. So I slipped out of the room and rushed back across Manhattan to the hotel for a quick change. I planned to arrive at the restaurant, which was uptown, twenty minutes early and make a great impression.

  Sitting in a cool way doesn’t come easy to me. I arrived at the restaurant early, as I’d intended, and in the minutes that passed while I waited for Lara I must have shuffled positions so many times that it probably looked like I had haemorrhoids. I needed to calm down. What kind of small talk would Lara enjoy? Should I open with ‘So, do you come here often?’ No, that was a bit ‘pick-up-line’. How about, ‘I like the seating in this place. Did you know that the Chesterfield sofa might date back to 1574 and the fourth Earl of Chesterfield?’ Oh God, that was so boring. Maybe: ‘When you travel uptown do you get the song “Uptown Funk” stuck in your head, like every time?’

  The door opened and Lara walked in, all cool and Noo Yoik, just like when I’d met her yesterday. I opened my big gob and hit her with a ‘How you doin’?’ For crying out loud, I just Joey Tribbiani’d my dinner meeting. ‘So, do you live around here?’ I asked, trying to rein it back in.

  ‘Just a few streets away in an apartment block near the river. I’m sorry to drag you so far up town, it was entirely selfish; I just needed to go home first to unwind a little.’

  ‘I completely understand, the conference is full on.’

  ‘Right? It’s amazing but, man, I crave my bed at the end of the night. When do you and your team fly home?’

  ‘The day after tomorrow.’

  ‘Looking forward to getting back for Christmas? I bet London is beautiful at this time of year.’

  ‘It is … ’ We took our seats and ordered a couple of martinis.

  ‘All right,’ Lara said, snapping her menu shut. ‘Let’s get into this. Scheana wants me to help bring you guys to America, but I can’t invest unless I know what’s in it for me. I don’t have the time or the money for projects I don’t feel connected to.’

  ‘I completely understand,’ I said, beginning to sweat from the responsibility. Come on, Liv. My eyes flicked towards the street outside where women and men strode through this concrete jungle as tall and as confident as the skyscrapers they passed. I could be like them; I needed to be like them. I straightened in my seat and looked Lara straight in the eye, businesswoman to businesswoman. ‘What can I do to convince you?’

  ‘What are your profit margins?’

  Balls. I didn’t know. Why didn’t I know this? My heart sank and I felt like an amateur. But I would not quit. I never quit anything and I was not about to quit on myself now. ‘That … is an excellent question. May I email you a comprehensive document that talks about our profit and loss per year when I get back to my hotel room?’ … and write a comprehensive document that talks about our profit and loss per year.

  ‘Sure,’ said Lara. She signalled to the waiter and reeled off an order that seemed to basically boil down to chicken – plain – with hot sauce and salad on the side. I asked for a pulled pork burger, because they were turning into my every-meal staple, and prayed I wasn’t already in her bad books.

  ‘Let’s change tack.’ Lara cupped her hands around her martini glass. ‘Tell me what your favourite thing is about Girls of the World.’

  ‘OK, my favourite thing.’ This I could do. ‘Girls of the World does so many things for young women in Britain. We travel around the country, we speak in schools, we get these girls involved in so many activities that not only they might have not had access to but that they might never have even dreamed of having access to in the first place. And sometimes that’s because they’ve never put themselves out there before, and sometimes it’s because they’ve never realised that girls can do, well, anything. And that’s all great, but my favourite thing about Girls of the World is how it makes me a better person.’ I took a sip of my drink and glanced at Lara, who cocked her head in interest.

  I continued. ‘I know that sounds selfish, but it’s true. These girls are inspiring to me. I watch them become engaged in things that truly fit their personalities and they just come alive. And they make me want to be better. I had a time in my life where I felt really low, and untrusting, and I didn’t want anyone to be close to me, and in some ways I’m not sure I’m out of that yet, to be honest.’ Where had that come from? I ploughed on regardless. ‘But Girls of the World doesn’t try and teach girls that you can snap out of hard times like they don’t matter, that’s not what we’re about. We’re about being who you really are, and expanding on that, and showing the world. So now I want to show the world who I am.’

  Lara was nodding. ‘All right, I see that, I like where you’re coming from. Can you give me an example of what you help these girls achieve?’

  ‘Sure. Well, we have a group of girls from around the country who make videos – vlogs – for us. The girls are all really different from one another but they all have an interest in computers, and the inner workings of things. So we developed a course for them to hone and tone their coding and editing and whatnot. They went from being geeky outsiders who were afraid they weren’t being girly enough to these completely cool girls who vlog about tech stuff, but other things too, like standing up for yourself, teen life hacks, and sometimes beauty if that’s the mood they’re in. They’re the next generation of Girls of the World staff, to be honest with you. A whole group of Scheanas.’ I smiled. I loved those girls.

  Lara was listening intently. ‘I actually know the young women you mean – I checked out some of their videos on your site a couple weeks back. They’re bright girls.’

  ‘They’re so bright. We don’t ever want Girls of the World to just be about preaching to young people and telling them to “be better”, we want them to be involved, and be part of it. Like a club. It’s not about being better, it’s about being what they want to be.’

  ‘I like that,’ said Lara. ‘A club.’

  I nodded. ‘And it’s a club that anyone can join.’

  She lapsed into silence for a moment, a slow nod bobbing her head up and down. Suddenly she took a sip of her drink and asked me, ‘I’m so sorry; how’s Scheana doing?’

  ‘Oh she’s fine; the doctor just said she won’t be able to walk around for a few weeks.’

  ‘Oh my god! Is she in that much pain
?’

  ‘Yeah, I think so. I haven’t seen her since it happened, she’s been working from home, and I’ve never had it happen to me, but I gather it’s pretty uncomfortable. Both when it happens and the aftermath.’

  ‘When it happens … ’ Lara seemed to be having processing problems.

  ‘I mean, when the accident occurred it was just so slippy-slidey, I’m surprised it didn’t happen to all of us.’

  Lara blinked. ‘Oh, it was an accident?’

  ‘Definitely. She was pretty fed up about missing New York just because of it.’

  ‘And you were all there?’

  ‘Yeah, it was a sort of team-building, I suppose. Jasmine, who you may have met, she wasn’t there, she’s not really into anything dirty.’

  ‘I can understand that … ’

  ‘Is it not your kind of thing either? I must admit, halfway through I was ready to have a shower and never see a big wet bit of wood to climb ever again, but I did want to finish.’

  ‘Well, that is your right,’ Lara stammered.

  I nodded. That was a funny way of looking at it. ‘Yeah … I had paid for it, after all.’

  Lara downed her cocktail and signalled for another. ‘You paid for it. Did you all pay for it? Did Scheana?’

  ‘Absolutely, I think the money goes to charity.’ I sat forward. ‘We actually invited a group of our very own Girls of the World kids to watch us, and I think it really opened their eyes.’

  ‘Of course it goddamn did— You did what?’

  Uh-oh. Lara now didn’t just look confused, she looked kind of angry. And a smidge disgusted. I know New York women are gorgeously polished but surely she wasn’t that against a little outdoor activity? ‘They came to watch us … in the race. The obstacle course race where Scheana broke her leg … ’

  ‘Scheana’s broken her leg? Is the baby OK?’ Lara gasped.

  What?! ‘Scheana’s having a baby?’

  Lara’s hand flew up and covered her mouth. ‘Oh, you didn’t know. Wait, so you’ve been talking about a race all this time, one of those Tough Mudder things?’