What Are You Doing New Years Eve?

Ten…

Jack finished his speech and held up his champagne glass, Aimee looping her arm around his waist. They did make a good couple. They would be happy together. Tommy was happy for his brother, yet he couldn’t help wishing Tallie would give him a chance. Everywhere he looked in the living room, Tommy could see couples. They were everywhere. Genie and Hayley, Fifi on the phone to Clayton in Iraq, Jack and his fiancée. Tommy was alone. He had been alone for every New Years Eve since he was sixteen. Why hadn’t he insisted Tallie came? Why hadn’t he hand delivered the ballerina necklace? Why had he trusted the mailman to deliver it? What if she opened it and smashed it to pieces? Tommy felt dizzy with all the thoughts racing. He wished Tallie was here. Tommy sighed and turned away from the bay window where he had been sitting, hoping Tallie would come running. He had watched one too many chick flicks. 

Nine...

The cold outside the house was bitter as snow swirled around Tallie. Every step she took along the pavement threatened to topple her, her feet slipping on the ice hidden beneath the snow drifts. She was outside the house now. She could see the lights inside, the shadows in the window of the silhouettes moving around, standing in their couples with their drinks in their hands. She could hear them all inside chanting the first second of the countdown. Her friends, everyone she knew… Tommy. Why had she been so stupid? So what if they had had that stupid argument? So what if she thought they wouldn’t work together. How should she know unless she didn’t try? She made for the steps, every chick flick she had ever watched playing in her mind. 

Eight...

Tommy refilled his drink in time for the countdown. At least alcohol was always there for him. He chuckled to himself - that was a dangerous road to go down. He sipped his drink to remind himself he wasn’t an alcoholic, he was just a lonely man who had not gone for the love of his life because he had been scared. Tallie scared him, but he loved her too. Why had he never told her that? Why had he instead pushed her away like he did with every woman ever. Tommy sighed to himself. Really this was all his fault.

Seven...

Tallie knocked loudly on the door. She was out of breath from taking the slippery, icy steps two at a time. She was still wearing her lazy trousers and had pulled on her boots unlaced in her haste to leave her own flat. She had to see Tommy, to tell him everything she felt for him. She had to tell him… but even her pounding on the door went unanswered. The noise inside was too much. 

Six...

Tommy wandered to the middle of the room. He felt swamped by the couples surrounding him like sharks. They were draped over each other, looking lovingly into each other's eyes as the countdown continued and the fireworks got ready on the television. Tommy braced himself for kissing his glass at midnight. 

Five...

Tallie didn’t know what to do. She felt like a crazy person as she stood outside in the snow in her mismatched outfit. She was freezing despite managing to pull on her coat in her hurry to get to Jack’s house. The door was on the latch. They couldn’t hear her inside and midnight was fast approaching. He had specifically asked her to be here New Years Eve… before the argument. She needed to be there. She pounded on the door again, crying out for someone to let her in. She felt crazy. Maybe she was. Or maybe it was love making her do crazy things. Did she love Tommy? Yes. Yes she did. She pounded harder. Please! Someone, anyone, answer the door! 

Four...

Tommy put down his glass and pulled his phone out of his pocket. No messages from Tallie. Why would there be after how they had left things? He didn’t deserve it. He had treated her badly. He wished he knew if she had received the necklace. Maybe he should go to her? He wouldn’t make it before midnight but… would she even see him? Tommy pocketed his phone again and made for the front door. Blow midnight. Blow the couples surrounding him. He should have done this to start with. 

Three…

Tommy’s jacket was upstairs in his bedroom. He didn’t care, he didn’t have time for it. He would probably freeze by the time he made it to Tallie’s flat, but maybe she would see it as romantic? Maybe she would be overcome with emotion and fear for him and she would forgive him if he showed up half-dead. It was a horrible thought but worth it for Tallie. Everything was worth it for Tallie, and he only now knew that. Tommy hurried to the front door and unlocked the latch. 

Two…

Tallie was about to give up on pounding on the door. It was no use. They couldn’t hear her and she would freeze to death if she stayed much longer. The bay window was too high off of the pavement to try and get someone's attention. It was useless. Tallie stepped back, ready to return home and give up on Tommy and romance and living her own chick-flick altogether. That was when she heard the latch and she turned in time to see the door open. 

Tommy opened the door ready to run through the snow to Tallie’s flat.To his utter surprise, he met Tallie’s beautiful violet eyes as she stood shivering on the top step. It was like a scene from a movie, the movies that they both loved so much. She was wearing her pyjama trousers and her Docs open, the laces trailing. Her coat was misbuttoned and her hair a mess, but she was more beautiful now to him than she had been all those months ago when they had first met. Tommy swallowed hard as she took his breath away. She was here… at midnight. She was here. 

One…

Tommy was every bit as handsome as he always had been. His hair was tousled, his checked shirt creased, his black jeans ripped. Tallie felt her frozen breath catch due to more than the weather. They had no more time, but they didn’t need it. It was New Years Eve and they were together. Their own chick-flick. 

Tallie stumbled forwards and threw her shivering arms around Tommy’s neck just as the chime hit midnight. Her lips met his and he lifted her clean off the floor, his arms around her waist. It was freezing but neither of them cared. They had made it. This was what they were doing New Years Eve. It had been worth the wait. 

They whispered to each other as the sound of fireworks filled the bustling living room, the perfect end to their tumultuous love story… or maybe the beginning?

“Happy New Year.”