One Winter Weekend

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A New York Christmas; a lifelong dream come true.

I’d always wanted to visit the famed city, especially around Christmastime, so when the opportunity came up to visit my cousin Sarah, an estate agent who lived in Manhattan, I jumped on it immediately.

Plus the perfect opportunity to get out of Dublin for a while and nurse my broken heart.

Don, my boyfriend of two years had cheated on me just weeks before, and the fact that it happened so close to Christmas seemed to make it even harder.

Since the split I’d felt numb and broken, so a trip to New York seemed like the ideal distraction and a perfect getaway.

It would be a reset button of sorts and while the festive atmosphere might well underscore my pain, I longed to see the legendary twinkling Christmas décor.

I wanted to feel snow crunch beneath my feet while I walked along the streets of the world-famous city.

My imagination was already alive with scenes of mesmerising department store windows and sparkling Christmas trees, Central Park, ice rinks and softly falling slow, reflecting some of my favourite Christmas movies.

To put it simply, I wanted to experience a classic New York Christmas.

Now, I sat on the sofa of Sarah’s thirty-fourth-floor apartment waiting for her to come home.

She had a tall, fat Christmas tree, a real spruce. It made the entire apartment smell of fresh pine needles. Simply decorated in silver and gold, all the ornaments were replicas of antiques. Tiny red, white and black nutcracker soldiers hung from the branches with red ribbon and silver tinsel dangled, giving it a wilder aesthetic.

It was perfectly placed next to an enormous window overlooking the city streets below.

Just then my cousin burst through the front door with piles of paperwork and two laptop cases.

She was definitely one of those typical New Yorkers you hear about; the ones who always seemed to be in a hurry even when they had all the time in the world. Rushing around like they were in some sort of imaginary race.

A complete contrast to my comparatively slower-paced Dublin lifestyle.

Sarah piled her stuff on the table and then turned to me with an apologetic expression.

“Let me guess, you have to work?” I asked.

I’d only just arrived last night. I went straight to Sarah’s where we had dinner - Chinese takeout — and did some catching up. That had been the extent of my New York adventures so far, but today she had promised to show me around the city and have dinner at the Russian Tea Rooms.

“Maddie I’m so sorry. If I don’t get to this property right now I could lose it. Potentially a million-dollar deal or more and with Christmas only a week away I’m on a deadline. Do you hate me?” she asked.

I feigned a narrowing of my eyes but then laughed.

“Of course not. Obviously, I don’t expect you to stop your life just because I’m here. Do what you would normally do. Just give me a little guidance so that I can get out and explore on my own. I’m a big girl and I can handle the Big Apple on my own. Can’t I?”

Half an hour later I looked at myself in the mirror.

I took hot rollers out of my hair and brushed out the soft shoulder-length curls. Now it was thick and bouncy. My hair was a dark auburn brown and my skin was pale, typically Irish.

I put on a nice matte shade of red lipstick, not something I would normally wear but it was Christmas after all, and I was in a festive mood.

It stood out against my hair and dark lashes. I was petite at only five foot three, so I tried to always wear at least one thing that made me stand out.

It added a nice touch to my otherwise basic outfit of blue jeans and a red woollen sweater. I tugged on black calf-length leather boots, added a grey cashmere hat and saying goodbye to Sarah, headed out the door and into the bustling city.