That… is very useful information.

“I was thinking,” Chloe starts.

“You? Thinking?”

Asher sets a tray down on the table. Three porcelain mugs are toppling over with mounds of whipped cream that are dusted with peppermint crumbs, a chocolate filled pirouette cookie speared through the side. Along with my chocolate croissant and Chloe’s pistachio macarons, Asher also ordered a raspberry tart.

“I’m always thinking!” Chloe says. “Mama says my brain’s gonna explode if I keep thinking too much!”

“And what has you thinking so much today?”

“Can Olivia come to my Christmas recital?”

It’s the wrong moment to take a sip of my piping hot drink. I almost spit it all over her.

“Olivia is very busy, Chlo,” he says.

“You’re very busy and you’re coming.”

Asher glances across the table at me, his lips parted as if he’s ready to speak. He doesn’t.

“I’ll try my hardest to get there,” I tell her. “I’ll have to sweet talk my boss into giving me the morning off.”

“Isn’t Uncle Asher your boss?” Chloe giggles.

I nod. “He’s a very hard man to persuade.”

“I think you can do it,” she says. “Especially if you do the thing.”

The thing.

The secret to make him laugh.

“What thing?” Asher asks.

“I’m sworn to secrecy,” I tell him.

His eyes shift between the both of us. “You two are trouble.”

To prove his point, Chloe reaches over and grabs the pirouette out of his mug of hot chocolate.

We spend the afternoon playing hangman on paper napkins, shivering each time the door opens and sends a frigid breeze through the café. Chloe wins every round, which Asher deems unfair, but when she smiles at him, he turns to mush.

I’m realizing I might have the same effect on him.

Because when I eye the last bite of his raspberry tart and bat my lashes, he’s all heavy sighs when he pushes it over.

Outside, New York is back to its usual hustle and bustle, just with more snow and ice. I’m holding Chloe’s hand and she’s pointing out all the buildings she’s going to own when she’s the most powerful person in Manhattan. I don’t crush her dreams when she tells me she’s going to be the king. Maybe she will be. The world is changing. Perhaps New York will secede from the United States and form a monarchy. Perhaps Chloe would be at the helm of it. Given the current state of our government, I can only hope.