One Winter Weekend

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

H e was wearing her down. The closer the time for her to return home, and the more time she spent with him, the less she wanted to leave.

Could it really work? Was this really their second chance? Maybe their last?

“You owe me a gift,” Patrick stated out of the blue.

“What?”

“A thank you gift for showing you around the city. Come on.”

They weaved through the crowd, their direction the Concorde Palace, but suddenly Patrick swerved to the right and led her down a side street.

Emily barely caught the name, Avenue Montaigne.

Like where they’d left, the avenue was illuminated in lights of all sorts of shapes, and in front of a Dior boutique was a giant chandelier. The trees were also dressed in their finest, decorated with so many lights that they seemed to be made entirely of them.

Still, she was baffled as to what Patrick could possibly want from there.

Then they stopped.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“Look up,” he said, pointing up the ball of lights above their heads, some mistletoe hanging from it. Emily laughed instantly.

“Is that it - your gift?”

“It’s enough, for now,” Patrick replied, but didn’t move.

Emily knew what he was saying, even without words.

Step towards me. Take a leap of faith. I’m right here.

Her eyes focused on the snow around their boots, and the way Patrick - her childhood sweetheart - held her fingers in his, each hooked into the other.

They’d always been bound together. In a small place like Kingham everyone knew everyone. They’d gone through every stage of school together, but only realised they loved one another when they were in their teens.

Now standing before him, in a city hundreds of miles away from all that, Emily had to make a choice.

She couldn’t keep wanting him near, yet pushing him away with her words.

She stepped forward and sure enough, Patrick was waiting for her.