Page 154 of Ten Years and Then…
Daniel pulled Nora even closer. “That’s what I told her. We’ll get married at home, so everyone can come.” He turned to her, lowering his voice. “But did you see the Cartier store on the way here? We’ll go tomorrow. If they’re open, you’re flying back home with a ring on your finger.”
Daniel, eleven-fifty p.m.
They’d been dancing to French pop music for the last half hour,
Daniel had maneuvered Nora away from the Metro entrance—people kept pouring out of it like water from a broken faucet. They finally found a spot with a little breathing room, in front of a tiny souvenir shop a couple of hundred feet back.
The crowd was massive, bigger and louder than anything he’d ever seen. Eleven years ago in Times Square felt like a neighborhood block party compared to this.
And now there was a huge roar as spotlights clicked on one by one, illuminating the Arc de Triomphe in brilliant, almost blinding white light.
“I still can’t believe we found each other,” Nora said. Even with her face inches just from his, and her nearly shouting, he could barely hear her.
“I know!”
He couldn’t believe he’d promised to buy her an engagement ring less than an hour ago. But how could he not? He couldn’t let her go again. And she deserved it—she deserved the biggest and boldest promise he could possibly make.
He had no idea how the logistics of a life with her would work. She was still in Boston. He was still in Charlotte.
But that was a problem for tomorrow.
Right now, it was enough that he was holding her and they were going to ring in another new year together.
Nora, eleven fifty-five p.m.
Only five minutes to go, and their little pocket on the edge of the crowd was rapidly shrinking. Nora felt herself pushed even closer to Daniel, not that she minded.
He was so strong, so warm, so…everything.
Even when he leaned in and shouted right in her ear, she couldn’t hear a word he said. But that didn’t matter. There was nothing they needed to say now. The look in his eyes, and his smile and the way his arms wrapped around her—those said more than words ever could.
The countdown ticked down—four, minutes, three, two…
They were pressed closer still, locked together by the press of bodies all around them. She couldn’t see a thing around her, not even the Arc de Triomphe itself, just a few hundred feet away.
And then the sky exploded in bright, brilliant color, and even over the roar of the crowd she heard the booming thunder of the fireworks.
She leaned in that final inch to Daniel. Kissed him, eyes wide open.
He kissed her back, and in that moment, the fireworks, the cheering crowds, the whole world disappeared. There was only him.
When they finally broke apart, both breathless, the world came rushing back and she heard the echoing shouts of “Bonne année!” all around her.
That was it.
It was the year 2000.
Which meant tomorrow was now officially today. And today was the day she was going to get engaged—really, properly engaged, with a ring and a promise and everything.
Bonne année indeed!
Daniel, January 1, three a.m.
“I hope you and Bianca are in separate rooms,” Nora said, when they walked into the quiet lobby of Hôtel Le Six.
Now he understood.
Bianca hadn’t booked two rooms for her privacy, or to spare him from her snoring—not that she’d ever admit to that anyway.
