Page 102 of Winter With You

‘Hey, I am sorry I am so late,’ he said, rushing forward, snowflakes on the shoulders of his coat, garment bag in his hands. ‘Hey, Phoebe. How are your eyes?’

‘Hello, Luca,’ Phoebe answered. ‘OK, thank you. I can see you and… your friend, very clearly.’

‘Hello,’ the woman greeted, waving a hand. She was dressed in dungarees covered in a graffiti-type pattern under a thick bomber jacket.

‘Oh, so, there’s someone I want you to meet. Gabriella, Phoebe, this is Steffi. My sister.’

‘Hey, again,’ Steffi answered, giving another wave.

‘Steffi, this is Gabriella and Phoebe Felix.’

‘It’s really nice to meet you,’ Gabriella said, stepping towards Steffi and offering her her hand.

‘Wow, so British, I love it. It’s good to meet you too,’ Steffi said, shaking her hand. ‘And you,’ she said, looking to Phoebe, ‘have the coolest dress ever. Did my brother style that?’

Phoebe pliéd and then answered. ‘Well, he did give me the dress, but the necklace is mine.’ She held the golden ‘L’ between her fingers. ‘It’s like my mum’s.’

Gabriella smiled and then she suddenly realised how little time they had left before they had to be on stage. She took the garment bag from Luca. ‘I’d better put this on and get ready.’

‘Sure,’ he answered. ‘So, where’s Cheyenne? I was expecting her to bite my head off the second I made it through the door.’

‘Oh,’ Phoebe said. ‘We had to lock her in the storeroom. But she has water and snacks so it’s more like a brief, yet necessary, staycation.’

Steffi laughed out loud, almost in some kind of solidarity of approval and then Luca looked to Gabriella as if he needed some kind of explanation. He did. Of many things but there just wasn’t time for more now.

‘Please don’t think about it. Just help me get dressed and I’ll tell you everything later.’

‘OK,’ he said. ‘Let’s get ready.’

62

ROCKEFELLER CENTER

Luca watched Gabriella and Phoebe out on the rink, making slow yet steady progress on the ice, avoiding falling skaters and laughing hysterically when one or both of them lost balance. With the lit Christmas tree, the festive music ringing out, the scent of sugared doughnuts and hot dogs in the air, he felt truly ‘in’ this winter moment, his mind not racing with worry about other things – his job, his family, his guilt. For the first time in as long as he could remember he almost felt free.

‘She is amazing,’ Steffi said, nudging his arm as she rejoined him at the barricade, a paper cup of steaming hot chocolate in her hands.

‘Phoebe? Yeah,’ Luca said. ‘The way she sat on that platform tonight and conducted the interview like a total pro. I mean it was everything, right? It was sweet and it was deeply personal and it’s going to be all over the internet in a few hours, if it’s not already.’

‘She is an incredible kid,’ Steffi agreed. ‘To have gone through all that trauma and still be so strong and so gentle in the world. But I was actually talking about Gabriella.’

If you could feel your heart clench, then that’s what Luca thought he could sense now. The sensation was warm, exciting and unfamiliar to him before he had met her. Yet, as the days had passed, as he had opened up to her, piece by piece, and she had slowly shared her thoughts and fears with him, the feeling had grown, expanded, arrived here where it now felt like something he couldn’t be without.

‘Wow, OK, again, like outside the prison, you don’t need to say anything to me. How you feel about her is written all over your face. Could you be more obvious?’ Steffi asked.

‘What?’ he asked, but he already knew he was going to blush before it even started happening.

‘This is better than I thought. This is love.’

‘Steffi—’

‘God, Luca, what are you gonna do about it? Isn’t she going back to the UK soon?’

‘I… don’t know.’

‘What d’you mean you don’t know? Tell me exactly what’s been going on with you two, because watching you finish dressing her and all the lingering looks and the hand-brushing, it felt like being trapped in the middle of a steamy drama I had no dedicated role for.’

‘Steffi!’