Page 37 of A Copenhagen Snowmance
“You’re supposed to be against that.”
“Nope, my job is toharnessit for the climate cause.”
He sticks his hand into her pocket and finds the hat, which he hamfistedly pulls over her head. Sure it will look appalling, she slaps his hands away and takes it off again to redo it. She does this all with an air of annoyance, but there’s something about the idea of a selfie with him that she likes.
Hat donned, she stands in front of him, her back to his chest. Jamie slings one arm around her collarbone and pulls her in, before holding up his phone with the other hand. Anna can see both of their grinning faces in the screen and feels a warmth that isn’t just their close proximity.
A couple of young women nearby have noticed them. Anna can see they’ve made the connection, but it seems best to ignore them.
“One more, smile, Anna,” he says, and she looks up at the phone again and gives it her best.
“Perfect,” he says, without even looking at it.
Anna is about to remove the hat when one of the women comes across. “You’re the Tivoli Couple, aren’t you?”
Jamie says “Yes,” before Anna can come up with something else. At least they didn’t mention the bikini.
The woman turns to her friend. “See? I said it was.” Then back to Anna she asks, “Can we take a picture?”
Having her photo taken with Jamie for a selfie is one thing, but Anna doesn’t feel happy about having her face saved in someone else’s camera.
“Not sure about this, Jamie,” she says quietly. “I don’t want my face plastered everywhere.”
Jamie thinks about it for a second. “I’ve got this.” He takes hergløggand places both cups by their feet.
He looks at the woman. “Ready?”
Before Anna knows what’s happening, he swings her around and dips her, so she’s side-on to the hotel and its lights and… Oh, her lips are connected to his. What with the whirling and the surprise dip, it takes her a moment to get a fix on things, unlike her lips it seems, which are well ahead of her and engaged with Jamie’s, as per earlier. Some things simply come naturally apparently.
“Tusind tak,” says the woman, and Anna is righted to see three other people have taken a photo of them kissing, too. She ducks her head to shield her face.
“Ashamed to be seen with me?” Jamie asks, reuniting them with their cups before moving them on, towards the lights covering the Magasin du Nord department store. White lights edge every window and the outline of the building.
“Very,” she says.
He gets another selfie of them, more discreet this time, and Anna’s intrigued by him wanting to record this. Unless he plans to send these to Lajla as proof, these are for him.
Heading home, they take a meandering route through Kongens Have, the royal gardens. They stop at a street vendor to buy more sugar-roasted almonds, but really, it’s the smell that seduces them as they’re both still stuffed fromtheir cakes. Walking in amiable silence for the first part, they smile at the range of snowmen and the snow angels in the park’s blanket of snow.
Anna secretly replays today’s kissing in her head. She has, it must be said, very much enjoyed it, in spite of it being fake. It occurs to her that she has perhaps been suffering from lack of physical contact in the last long while. The times she and Jamie have touched? She’s been aware of all of them. When he chucked her chin in the cemetery, she felt an incredible pull to lean into it. When he held her hands in La Glace, she didn’t want him to let them go. She can only conclude that her skin is craving touch.It might be something to consider once she’s back in London; the dating apps maybe, to find someone. Not a relationship, absolutely not, not again, but something casual, to meet that need.
Either way, she’s grateful Jamie’s reminded her she can still feel this. “Airdrop me those selfies at some point, yes?”
“Of course,” he says, and she can’t tell if he’s pleased by the request.
“That kiss at D’Angleterre?” she asks. “Lajla wasn’t around. Or are you hoping to go viral again and she’ll see it?”
“That hadn’t really occurred to me, to be honest. It was more that the woman wanted a pic, and you didn’t want your face in it, and as we’ve already established, kisses mean we can hide our faces, so everyone’s happy.”
“That’s important to you, isn’t it?” Anna says, thinking about it. “You like to make things work for people, to fix situations.”
“Erm… I dunno. I don’t feel I’m succeeding in my job where that’s concerned.”
“My God, Jamie. Managing climate change is more than a one-man task, don’t you think? Cut yourself some slack.”
“OK, fair enough. So, yeah, I like people to be happy, sometimes that needs some arranging, or fixing, or small pushes in certain directions. I like to facilitate that. When it works it’s satisfying.”
It brings to mind his suggesting she talk to Carl and Maiken.
