Page 37 of Snowed In with You

‘ “When We Were Young”,’ she said quietly. ‘Do you know the words?’

‘Of course,’ said Andrea. ‘It’s a beautiful song.’ She began to sing, and Lucy wrapped one arm around her knees again and pressed the other one over her mouth. She thought about the last time she’d seen Leo, when they’d both spent Christmas at home with their parents. He’d been a little quiet, but Lucy had put that down to being stressed and anxious about a promotion he’d just had at work. He was only twenty-one, but already being noticed by management and earmarked for big things. He mentioned a relationship that hadn’t panned out, but didn’t go into details. They’d made vague plans to maybe go away together in June, to celebrate their twenty-second birthday and Lucy finishing her finals, but never talked about exactly where they might go.

Whilst at times during that week they’d regressed to childhood silliness and private jokes, Lucy had felt the loss of connection between them, the loosening of the stitches in their sibling fabric. It felt like an occasional glitch, or a record scratch when one of them would say something and they’d look at each other as if to say who is this person? But Lucy had rationalised that they were both adults now, living away from the baggage of home and school. Over time they would start to value each other in a different way, and find time to make new memories together. They were twins, and that was an unbreakable, everlasting bond. They’d hugged goodbye just before New Year, and the next time she’d seen her brother he was in a wooden box in Croydon crematorium.

The tears flowed freely down her cheeks; eleven years of pain and loss and regret and unanswered questions. It was only when the song came to a close and the room exploded into rapturous applause that she noticed Nate’s arm around her, his hand gently stroking her shoulder. One of them had moved closer during the song, and right now Lucy couldn’t say if it was her or Nate.

‘Was that for Leo?’ asked Nate quietly, handing Lucy a napkin so she could blow her nose. All the attention was on Andrea for the moment, which felt like a relief.

‘Mmm,’ said Lucy, dabbing her face and trying to catch her breath. ‘The song came out after he died, so it wasn’t a favourite of his or anything. But it always makes me think of him.’

‘What kind of music did he love?’

Lucy forced a weak smile. ‘Dance music, drum ’n’ bass, UK garage. He was a huge fan of Craig David, actually. We both were.’

‘Me too,’ said Nate. He turned to look at her, his eyes huge from wine and emotion, then reached out to give her hand a squeeze, before quickly letting go. ‘I’m sorry, Lucy.’

A flickering ball of light appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, and it took a moment for Lucy to realise that it was . . . sparklers. Gunther started to sing ‘Zum Geburtstag viel Glück’, then Andrea struck up the music to the birthday song and everyone sang it in a combination of German and English.

‘Ice cream,’ sang Monica, placing a giant bowl of vanilla ice cream in front of Lucy as the sparklers fizzled out to burned sticks. ‘I emptied the freezer earlier and most of it is buried outside in the snow, but we might as well eat the ice cream.’ Chantal followed with a stack of small bowls and spoons, which she dumped in front of Lucy with a look that screamed I’m going to have to wash these up by hand later, and I’ve decided it’s your fault.

Lucy felt her heart fill with affection for this eclectic collection of people, rubbing her puffy eyes with the heel of her hands and smiling at Nate as he handed her a spoon. They all piled into the ice cream, an end-of-holiday vibe in the room. Alex started taking more photos and videos, presumably for a bumper content spree as soon as the Wi-Fi came back. She grinned for a photo with her fake birthday ice cream cake, feeling infinitely better for drowning her hangover in more wine and food. Crying out some of the heaviness of the past twenty-four hours had felt good too.

‘Tell me about Alex’s royal connections,’ said Lucy, as Willem slid into the booth next to her, shuffling her closer to Nate.

‘He’s sixteenth in line to the Dutch throne,’ he said mildly, as though he was simply telling Lucy he worked in financial services.

‘So if there was a really big plane crash, technically he could be king.’

‘Technically, yes,’ said Willem, his brow furrowed. ‘But those fifteen people would never get on a plane together. It would need to be several co-ordinated plane crashes.’

‘Who is sixteenth in line to the British throne?’ Lucy asked Nate.

‘You’d have to ask my Dutch grandma,’ he replied with a wry smile. ‘I think she’s got them all written down.’

‘Are you going to sing again?’ asked Willem.

‘No,’ said Nate. ‘That was very much a one-off. We’ve drunk all the wine, eaten all the ice cream, sung all the songs, and now it’s time to go to bed.’

‘Yeah, I think you’re right,’ said Lucy, stretching her arms above her head as she yawned lavishly. Somehow she felt less weird about sharing the attic with Nate than she had earlier – maybe because they’d both opened up a little this evening, or maybe because she was drunk again. His situation with Sasha still felt like the senior management elephant in the room, but Nate didn’t seem bothered about how his girlfriend might react to the Guntherhütte sleeping arrangements, so why should Lucy care? Maybe Nate and Sasha had a casual arrangement, like she had with Anthony and Marco.

‘You should get the cake video from Alex,’ Chantal announced, slithering into the booth across from Lucy. ‘When the power comes back on, you can send it to your two boyfriends, so they know you’re having a good birthday.’

There was a beat of silence as Nate turned to Lucy. ‘Two boyfriends?’

‘It’s really cool,’ Chantal continued animatedly, waving her hands to get Willem’s attention too. ‘Didn’t Lucy tell you? She’s in a relationship with two different guys.’

‘Oh, hello,’ said Alex smoothly, pulling up a chair and resting his chin on his hands, clearly enraptured. ‘This sounds like a conversation I don’t want to miss.’

‘That wasn’t public information,’ said Lucy through gritted teeth, fixing Chantal with her best laser death stare. ‘That was a kitchen secret, between us women.’

‘Don’t let that stop you now,’ chipped in Alex.

‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ said Chantal, not looking sorry at all. ‘I just thought Nate would know.’

‘No,’ said Nate with a forced smile. ‘And on that bombshell, I think it’s probably time for bed.’ He wriggled out of the booth and hurried off, saying goodnight to the rest of the crowd on the way.

‘That was completely out of order,’ hissed Lucy after he’d gone.