Another Year Older

By Emmie

“Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one! Happy New Year!”

All the staff bellowed out the count down to the New Year, gathered in a crowd around the cubicles. As midnight arrived, everyone began to cheer and scream, hugging anyone who they came into contact with, clutching their glasses of non-alcoholic punch in their hands. Even I managed a rare smile. I noticed Holly making her way towards me and smiled some more. Once again, just seeing her, I was taken back to the moment a week ago when we were stranded in the barn together . . . our faces moving slowly closer together, once hidden feelings flooding through me, but then her pulling away . . .

“Are you not gonna go and check on the weather first, ey?” I teased, grinning slightly at Holly as she stopped in front of me. Her cheeks began to turn slightly red and she looked nervous, as though she too was remembering Christmas. Neither of us had even mentioned that moment since it happened. I waited for a moment to see if she would say anything, but when she didn’t I began to lean towards her. All the time, I half expected her to pull away again, just like she had before. But she didn’t. After a moment, our lips met, and everyone and everything else in the room seemed to fade to nothing, just for one wonderful second.

We pulled apart and hugged briefly. Over her shoulder, I saw Dan standing a few metres away. Judging by the look on his face, he had been about to come over. Well, I got there first this time. There was a short, somewhat awkward pause. I was spared the task of trying to think of something to say, because everyone broke out into a chorus of ‘Auld Lang Syne’. People began to drift around to talk to others and eventually me and Holly got pushed apart. I stood at the edge of the festivities, feeling slightly separate from everyone else, but I noticed Holly glancing over at me every now and again. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. So many times I had dreamed about that moment, so often I had wished that it would happen. And now it had. And it was the best thing that had happened to me in a long time.

To anyone else it would just have been a simple kiss, like everyone does at the stroke of midnight. Just a tradition thing. But it wasn’t, not this time. It meant something more than that and we both knew it. It held a promise of something that we thought was lost and in the past . . . a rekindled flame.

After about five minutes of cheerful chatter and laughter, Charlie interrupted the celebrations to announce that an emergency was on its way in. Everyone groaned and drifted back to their work, moaning and grumbling as they did so. On the way to resus, I managed to corner Holly. “Listen, are you busy tonight?” I asked, trying to sound casual, though I wasn’t sure if I was successful.

“Yes, I’m working. In case you hadn’t noticed,” she grinned back at me.

“After the shift – you know what I mean!” I sighed.

She nodded and smiled at me. “I was going to go home and sleep, but . . .”

“Do you fancy coming back to my place?” I asked quickly, trying to get it over quickly in case she said no. “You know, have a glass of wine, celebrate New Year properly.”

“I’d love to!” she said straight away, grinning briefly at me, her eyes sparkling as she did so, then turned and made her way towards resus.

* * * * *

“Happy New Year . . . again,” I said, knocking my glass against Holly’s with a clink as we sank down into the sofa.

“Even if we are about six hours late!” she laughed.

“Well, there probably are people out there still partying.”

“I don’t know how they do it!” she exclaimed. “Just stay up all night and all morning! I would die!”

“Well, we used to . . .” I said. She turned to look at me and our eyes locked for a moment, both of us travelling back in time to some deep, hidden memory. I took the opportunity to kiss her again. Strong feelings started to race through me again, overwhelming me. “So . . . why did you pull away before – last week?” I asked suddenly.

Holly looked away and took a sip from her glass of wine. “Like I said, I went to check on the weather,” she muttered, her cheeks flushing pink again.

“No you didn’t,” I said simply.

“You always could see through me,” she laughed briefly.

“That’s okay, I always loved what I saw,” I said quietly, not really thinking about the words before I spoke them. There was a long silence. “So why did you pull away?” I persisted. “The truth.”

“Well . . . I suppose I was scared,” she sighed. She stared up at me, her face serious and her eyes wide. She looked beautiful. “I suddenly realised how . . . how strongly I felt towards . . .” she trailed off, as though she suddenly realised that she was actually telling me how she really felt. I smiled, glad that she had told me the truth. And that she felt the same way I did. “I hadn’t felt like that for so long,” she continued. “Since med school really. And I suppose it scared me a bit.”

There was another pause, although it wasn’t a tense one. Holly turned round and placed her wine glass on the small table beside her. “We’ve wasted so much time!” she sighed suddenly. “All those years . . .”

“Maybe we needed that to realise how special it was.” As I said it, it didn’t sound as though the words were coming from me. It wasn’t the kind of thing I would normally say. But perhaps it was true.

“You know, that may be the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me, Patrick Spiller!” she grinned at me. I shuffled up closer to her and placed my hand on the side of her face. She giggled and I grinned as our heads drifted together again and we sunk into a passionate kiss. Maybe, just maybe, it could work out this time.