Free Holly's Christmas Kiss by Alison May Page B

around her, Michelle followed Sean out into the city. There was snow on the ground, turning to slush as last-minute shoppers charged through it, rushing to get everything done in time for Christmas.
    Michelle stopped as the cold air hit her. Sean paused alongside her, reached down, and took her gloved hand in his.
    ‘What are you doing?’ She pulled her hand away.
    ‘Come on!’ Sean leant towards her and retook her hand. ‘You’ve got to hold hands on a first date.’
    ‘This is not a— ’
    ‘Go along with it.’
    ‘No.’ Michelle stood still in the station entrance. ‘I said I’d go along with Christmas. Holding hands is romantic not Christmassy.’
    Sean sighed and let go of her hand. ‘Ok. Come on then.’
    Michelle was caught off guard as he strode away from the station and made his way over the bridge, away from the bustle of the Princes Street shops. She ran after him. ‘Where are we going?’
    ‘This way!’
    She followed him along the road which twisted to climb steeply up the side of a long hill. Partway up, Sean turned and continued to climb up a narrow staircase between the buildings. Eventually they came out at the top of the hill and Sean settled leaning against a railing, looking out across the park and city in front of him.
    ‘What have we come up here for?’ Michelle came to a stop next to Sean, panting for breath after the steep, quick climb.
    ‘Just look.’ Sean placed his hands on her shoulders and gently turned her around to face the view.
    The park below them was full of light and movement. She could make out the gleaming white of a skating rink, and a Ferris wheel towering above the ant-like people on the ground. Next to the wheel there was a maze of tiny market stalls, all framed with sparkling lights. Beyond the market and the fairground, she could see trees across the park lit up with thousands of white lights, and beyond that Princes Street, still bustling in the last few hours of shopping time. It was only four o ’clock but darkness had already descended, making the lights below sparkle even more brightly. Michelle gasped.
    ‘You like?’
    ‘It’s very pretty.’ The scene below her was like a piece of moving artwork.
    ‘Excellent. Let’s get down there then!’
    Michelle sighed. ‘It’ll be really busy, and everything’s always very overpriced at these sorts of things.’
    Sean stopped dead in front of her. ‘Forty-eight hours. You promised. Come on.’
    And they were off again, racing back down the hill. Michelle had to skip and jog to keep up with Sean’s irrepressible bounds, and was out of breath all over again by the time they got down into the market. She watched Sean weaving his way between the stalls, bumping into other shoppers, and shouting random apologies and excuse me’s in every direction. Michelle followed more cautiously, squeezing herself between bodies, trying to blend in with the crowd.
    And then she was alone. She looked around, and saw only strangers, unknown bodies jostling her, shopping bags bashing against her legs. She stood on tiptoes and craned her neck to see where he’d gone, but Sean had rushed too far ahead of her and was out of sight. She told herself to breathe. She forced her way through the crowd, and stopped at the end of a row of stalls. Behind her, a group of buskers were singing God Rest You Merry Gentleman but Michelle was deaf to their instructions to ‘Let nothing you dismay.’
    Sean had vanished. She was cold. She’d been shoved and buffeted through the crowd from every direction. She hadn’t had a chance to catch her breath from the run up and back down the hill. She was stuck in an unfamiliar city hundreds of miles away from home, and thousands of miles from the beach she was supposed to be lying on. And everywhere she looked there was bloody Christmas.
    She walked a few metres in each direction, scanning the crowd. No Sean. She was absolutely, resolutely alone. She would have to go back to the station. Her case was