Sixteen things left to do today—and my phone was on overdrive with comments about whether I was really going to do it.

HappyHol_idays: How many iconic photos in one day?!

tooblessed2bstressedxx: Tick-tock Hope you don’t have to delete this account like your last one xoxo

I didn’t like it one bit, but when that reply had come just after I’d overtaken Clara, I was convinced that tooblessed could be her. As scary as it was, one more comment, and I was going to have to find out. I couldn’t have her ruin everything—again.

I’d turned my rage into energy for a jog down to Leicester Square, panic-darting into any store, desperate to find a souvenir for Dove—and the candy too. Luckily I found a London Bus gross-cute decoration that I hoped would do the trick and the chocolate, which cost a fortune.

But my success was short-lived, as just as I was about to tell her, she DMed me.

Hey Elle. Change of plan. Don’t get me a souvenir, I wanna see a hot British boy instead. I mean, I did say before…I’m SURE you can get me a selfie with one before anyone hits 15,000…

All that effort for nothing. And even worse, she was backing me into a corner I really didn’t want to be in.

Fred would hate it, and I didn’t want tooblessed, or Dove for that matter, to weigh in with their hot take on him. Which left me with only one option. Ignoring the knotted sick feeling in my stomach, I messaged my new follower whose ego was so big, they’d be happy to help. I’d have to explain to the others later.

And that included Fred—I didn’t want him to know what was going on yet. So with a breezy smile, I led him through the crowds to Trafalgar Square. When we spotted the huge Christmas tree, the singers underneath were packing up—so, pretending we both weren’t embarrassed as hell, we completed another challenge by launching into carol singing for two, with our own rendition of “Deck The Halls.” When we got to the “Gl-o-ooo-oo-ooo-ooo-rrii-aaaa” bit, Fred went full Carol from Little Marsh. It should have made people run a mile, but instead it made them laugh, and soon a crowd of twenty people had joined in. We ended up doing the full song and then “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” too. Hilarious…but a massive time suck. We had to sprint across the bridge to get to the London Eye on time.