As I tried to remember how to form words, Nick got our drinks and hailed us a taxi. As we drove up Sixth Avenue, you could already see where the buildings stopped, dropping away as the enormous Central Park started.

I was living my dream. I finished my entire drink without even noticing one sip. Almost as bad as accidentally finishing toast. But there was no time to mourn, we had to hurry to make our ice-skating booking at ten. Luckily, my phone had the details of that one.

I didn’t want to hold Nick back, so I told him to do his own thing on the ice—I’d seen how good Elle was in her stories this morning. But Nick said he hadn’t skated in ages and edged his way around with me. I was so busy concentrating on not falling over that I forgot to look up until he reminded me. The skyline above us looked amazing, like a film set of skyscrapers, letters mounted on their roofs.

I couldn’t believe after years of dreaming, I was finally here.

I also couldn’t believe I fell over and took out a very small brother and sister, but as Nick said, “If you can’t handle the heat, then don’t go really slowly in front of an out-of-control British tourist whose scarf has blown over her eyes.”

Once we’d survived, we walked up through the park to this perfectly still lake that reflected New York back off it, and as we stood and stared, a man riding a street cleaner went past and shouted “happy Holidays” at me.

It was like he’d appeared there just to make my day. I actually whimpered, I was so happy. When we got to the nearest subway, Nick said I shouldn’t stress about remembering what should be next, I should just choose a stop I thought sounded fun. So I chose Grand Central, and after gawping at the terminal hall, which I recognized from every New York film ever, we walked a few blocks up to Rockefeller Plaza and their huge tree. That was something on my plan, but weirdly I was enjoying all the walking in between just as much. I wasn’t scared of heights, but when the lift started going up the seventy floors to the Top of the Rock, I did feel a bit odd.

“Okay, I admit it.” Nick was leaning against the glass at the edge of the roof. Nick was an idiot. We’d been walking around the top for about five minutes. “This was a great idea.” He peered down. “I’ve always avoided it, but it’s like looking down at the Sims. But real.”

We could see everything from up here. The Hudson and East Rivers, the huge bridges over them, the Empire State Building…

“Whoa, is that the Statue of Liberty?” The good stuff just kept on coming.