Page 34 of A Winter in Wonderland
‘Wow,’ echoed Anna. ‘I can’t believe you get to work here.’
‘Yeah, me neither,’ I replied.
Beside me, Alexander gave me the smallest nudge and when I met his eye, he nodded. He looked nervous, but sure, so I leapt into action.
‘The light is ever-changing up here,’ I said, pulling off my thick mittens where underneath I wore fingerless gloves. ‘Let me take some more photos for you while you’re here, so you can always remember this moment.’ All right, Myla, let’s not give the game away …
Alexander handed me his phone and took Anna by the hand to stand a few metres away, the stunning background behind them, the snow pure and lilac-toned around them. The colour of the snow matched her hair, actually, which was a cute touch.
‘Photos, or video?’ I asked Alexander.
‘Um … photos, I think.’
I took a couple of snaps, and then a couple more, sneakily, when Anna thought I was done and turned away to open her arms wide in front of the view. Alexander took the opportunity to yank off one of his mittens with his teeth, which he then flung in my direction, and reach inside his onesie to pull out a ring box.
Oh my god, oh mygod! I couldn’t believe I was aboutto be part of a proposal; this was so cool! I hoped she said yes. If she wanted to, of course. I hoped this didn’t end up being a horrible Christmas memory for both of them which came back to sting them every year at the first sign of a snowflake.
Snap, snap, snap, I was snap-happy over here, and told off my wandering mind, forcing it to bloody well come back to the present.
Here we go …
As Alex got down on one knee in the snow, and opened the box, Anna turned around. It was all very fairy-tale. Then Anna shouted a gleeful, ‘COCKING HELL!’ and I was glad I was on photos not video.
I couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying to her, but she was happy laugh-crying and he was grinning and she was nodding so it all seemed like it was going well. I took photo after photo, feeling like maybe I could try being an event photographer when I got back to the UK because I was getting some lovely images and it wasn’t just because Alexander had the latest iPhone with a million lenses and a billion pixels. No, no. It was because of ME and my artist’s gaze.
Gosh, it was nice to be being artistic out in nature. It had been a minute.
Anna removed her left mitten, and I hoped neither of them developed frostbite on my watch with all these mitten-removals, and Alexander held the ring out and I was about to let out a whoop when –
He dropped the ring into the powder-soft snow.
‘Bollocks!’ I heard him say, and Anna dropped down to her knees in front of him.
I lowered the phone. ‘All right over there?’
‘Erm, yep, nobody move!’ he called back. He and Anna stayed still as statues while he peered down into the tiny hole made by the ring. ‘I see it, give me a mo.’
I walked over, stepping carefully as if I were navigating the surface of the moon, afraid of dislodging any snow clumps. Alexander was very carefully digging with his fingers and Anna was trying to look concerned about the ring but couldn’t keep the big, giddy grin off her face.
‘Use this,’ I said, handing him my pole, worried again about that frostbite becoming a reality.
As Alex scooped out snow and the ring wriggled tantalizingly further out of sight, I whispered to Anna, ‘Did you say yes?’
‘Yes, absolutely!’
‘Good, just checking. The photos are lovely.’
‘You took photos?’ She seemed over the moon, which was nice because I guess it meant she’d been so in the moment she’d forgotten I was there.
‘Any luck?’ I looked down at Alexander while simultaneously awarding myself the Stupid Question of the Year award.
‘How thick is this snow?’ he commented. Then looked up at me.
Oh, it wasn’t rhetorical. I had no idea. ‘Ten foot?’ I guessed.
‘Ten foot?!’ Both Anna and Alexander exclaimed in unison.
‘Oh, you mean this snow, sorry, probably only two or three feet.’ I don’t know why I was even talking, to be honest. ‘Shall I have a go?’
