I feel his hand softly slipping into mine. In silence I'm cursing his cap, it's adorable but blocking my sight on his face. "Left." His nearly frozen fingers steer me in the right direction.
With still no idea where we're going I look at our feet. The snow has been walked over by a lot of people here, I have to watch out I won't slip. He's wearing his Vans, he refused to wear wellies. "I'm way past 5 all right. I'm not going to wear those… those… boots." He'd said with a face like he'd seen something that belongs in the sewer. I notice how fast he's walking while I keep sliding over the cold, slippery snow. It would have been better to bring a sled.
We walk past a pub, loud noises and the sound of Christmas songs are coming out of the nicely decorated door. "Where are we go– " "Watch out." He interrupts me. I sigh when I see a huge circle in the snow, as some animal has tried to dig a hole in there. Carefully he helps me to walk past it, the street is getting smaller. I decide to shut my mouth.
Every single option I have run through . He'd said he wanted to show me something, that's all, not a word more. "Amy," he said, "I want to show you something." He started to pull on his coat and scarf and all, then got mine and said I had to follow his lead. So I followed. I take a deep breath and blow. A white, frozen cloud comes out of my mouth. "I'm cold," I whisper. He looks at me. His nose has turned slightly red and he looks a bit like a clown. I expect him to say something, something like "me too," or maybe "it's winter, love," but he remains silent. He's turned his eyes off me to watch where he's going, the street is now treacherous slippery and full of puts and holes.
When turning right into another street the snow gets thicker. I can clearly see our footprints, my feet look even smaller next to his. Lashing wind is torturing my face. "Danny, I can't feel my cheeks anymore." I say, a little louder than the last time I spoke. He looks at me again. "We're almost there." If I wouldn't have seen his lips moving, I'd thought it was the wind. "Hold on."
He squeezes my hand and pulls me around the corner. I blink for a moment. We're on a huge square, one I've never seen before around here. "What is… where are we?" There are no lamps and the only light comes from the moon. Other than the squares I know, there's some sort of pond in the middle. The only bench I can see is in front of it. With a smile he pulls me further onto the square and settles me and himself on the bench.
"Dan, what – " He puts his hand over my mouth. "Shh… look." I try to follow his finger, which points at something in the sky. My eyes linger into the darkness, but the more I look, the less I see. "What are you – " Again a hand on my mouth. "Don't spoil it, just watch." So I watch.
He puts his hand down and his arm around my neck. All of the sudden I'm starting to believe I see something. From somewhere at the other side of the pond firework comes up, making loud noises and shaping all kinds of pictures in the sky. Danny puts his finger on my chin and politely closes my mouth. I realize it had fallen open. "This is…" I whisper, but don't know what more to say.
"What do you think?" I see him looking at my stunned face with an amused smile. "I… this is… how did you..?" "Easy," he says and looks back at the firework which is now drawing hearts-shapes, "With some money and good connections I can almost do everything, you know."
"But – why?" I feel his hand sliding into mine again. With a sigh I rest my head against his chest. We sit in silence few minutes. "Does there have to be a reason?"