Page 107 of Break the Ice

‘My parents told me about everything. The proposal tonight, how two-faced the Pattons have been, and you knew too, yet didn’t say a word. You just focused on me, on how it would all make me feel. You care so intensely about other people.’

I nod. Because that’s what my mother taught me to do. It’s all we have, to love people properly, how they should be loved.

He grins, tears filling his eyes. ‘You asked me before if I’d be coming back to London. Yes. I want to stay there, next to you, with you. If you’ll have me. You feel like home. After this is all over, I would like to⁠—’

But I don’t let him finish, I reach up and kiss him, putting a hand to his head, pulling him in, feeling his lips soften under mine, parting gently. It’s a perfect kiss, a perfect moment. The Knicks game was not a lie. That was real, this is real. He pulls back my coat, his hands on my hips, and pulls me in gently. Let’s see where this could go, let the adventure continue into the New Year. I step back from him and look him in the eye. He has the biggest smile on his face.

‘Yes,’ I answer.

‘I don’t think there was a question,’ he says.

‘Still, yes.’

And I kiss him again, and he wraps his arms around me and I let him lift me off the ground. Both of us are laughing at how it’s come to this, on this rooftop, a million miles from where we started. And we miss the countdown, the ball dropping, the crowds below. Instead, fireworks. Loud, bright, glowing in a thousand different colours, lighting up the sky around this building, and ringing in a brand-new year.

EPILOGUE

They called him Steve because every time they shouted out the name Cookie, he got distracted, thinking they were going to give him biscuits. He left the shelter that snowy December day with a lady called Phoebe. Phoebe had a big laugh and always had food in her pockets. That December day was busy. He met a man called Joshua who had an orange car and a different accent but he knew exactly where to tickle him on the belly. He always knew Phoebe and Joshua would end up together. Call it a dog’s intuition but he thought it ridiculous it took them that long to figure out they were perfect for each other.

After New Year, Steve lived with Joshua and Phoebe in her London flat. Every day, Phoebe would chat to him about her day and ask him rhetorical questions about life and what she should wear that day. She always gave him the ends of her toast and let him get up on the sofa for pats and cuddles. Joshua would take him to the park for long walks and throw him the best and biggest sticks. He gave him bacon, cooked the American way so it was always crispy. He always called him his best buddy. Except Steve’s best buddy remains Martin the Monkey.

Six months later, Phoebe and Joshua bought a small house just outside London with a garden and some wall space for Picasso prints. Joshua got a permanent lecturer position at the London School of Economics. He’s a world expert on projective geometry. Phoebe gave up an empty, badly paid life in events and went to train to be an educational psychologist. Kids love her but her appointments always overrun.

Steve sleeps at the foot of their bed. When it’s cold, they make s’mores and experiment with different biscuits. Steve likes the marshmallows. They’ll put on Stevie Wonder and dance and sing around the living room. Steve nearly always joins in. They make time for adventures, they love being in the car together. Sometimes Steve goes on walks with different humans called Flo, Henry, Norah and Adam. So many humans, and they all give his ears good rubs and feed him treats. There’s a girl who sneezes at him but she’ll cuddle him too and tell him about her new pet lizard, Lionel, and how he came to live with them soon after Christmas.

They don’t call it Christmas Eve any more in the Allbright family, they call it Christmas Steve to celebrate the day they rescued him. They all gather together and they make him a cake. He’s never been alone since.

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