I went further back, showing her my whole week here. Grinning when I met Dominic, laughing as Nick and I flopped into a ball pit, dancing at Dean’s party… Some of my best-ever Christmas moments, and yet none of them had been part of my plan. They’d all been because of saying yes to Nick.

“Are you okay?” Dottie put her hand on my arm, concerned as my voice had started going all tight and wobbly.

“Just some biscuit going down the wrong way.”

I opened Elle’s account so we could talk about something, or someone, else instead.

“Look at that girl.” Dottie zoomed in, very close. Like “here are her nostrils” close. “All around the world on her own two feet.”

I felt genuine relief she didn’t ask me to explain what “heavenly AF” meant in the comments.

She stopped on the video of Elle singing next to the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. I could hear Fred going full opera beside her.

“Now I know you wouldn’t break her confidence, but do you think Elle might have found someone special under the Christmas tree?”

I smiled and shrugged. “Who knows? But it would be the best Christmas present for me if she had.”

I’d messaged Fred a zillion times in the hope I could tell him about Logan before it was too late. I’d told Elle he wasn’t with Eve too in case that helped, but last time I’d checked, neither of them had read anything. “Okay, well, tell me one thing.” Dottie delicately tapped her finger on my leg. “Do. You. Approve?”

I nodded. Hard. “What’s the biggest way I can say yes?” We both laughed.

“Well, in that case, I can’t wait for Elle to come back and tell me all about him or her… And it’s not long now.” Yup, just over twenty-four hours till Elle was here—but Dottie had a glint in her eye. “And you? Is there anyone special in your life?” She gave my knee a squeeze. “I always think love at Christmas is like no other time of the year. It’s when I met my husband, y’know.”

I tried to smile, but the timing wasn’t exactly great for this one. “It’s a big, fat no, I’m afraid.”

On the plus side, I had definitely moved on from Woody. I couldn’t wait to tell him exactly what I thought of him—but I was going to do that in person. Way more enjoyable.

On the not-so-plus side, I had caught both flights and feelings and was fully into Nick. And he thought I was a Christmas-loving, list-making, untrustworthy lunatic and wanted nothing to do with me.

Dottie was looking at me like she thought I had more to say. “Not even someone over here? No one caught your eye?”