Naturally, they’d discussed meeting between Christmases—but they never actually did it. There was magic at work. They hadn’t understood it. They were almost afraid to mess with it. Until that third year, when Tony had news. He was going pro. He had an agent, he’d told her with an endearing sense of wonder. The New York Rangers wanted him, offering the chance of a lifetime, a shot at a life he’d only dreamed about. For the sake of his proud, adoring parents, he would stay in school and finish his degree, because no Fiore had yet earned a college degree. They wanted Tony to be the first. The wait would be excruciating, but he owed it to them. He wouldn’t think of doing it any other way.

That night, he’d given her a gift—a key chain attached to a silver skate. Elaine, accustomed to receiving tokens from Tiffany and Harry Winston from other boys, was reduced to tears. At the gift kiosk, she’d bought a little snow globe with two tiny figures skating arm in arm, and told him to think of her every time he looked at it.

She became obsessed with Tony. His new status as rising professional sports star had changed everything. He was becoming someone her parents would adore. She’d dreamed about him, fantasized about him. He would be the next Wayne Gretzky. They would keep a condo in the city and a summer place on Long Island, maybe one with an ice rink.

By the time the fourth Christmas had rolled around, she’d been convinced. After only three encounters, she knew she was going to fall in love with him. Never mind that he was an Italian-American from a working-class family, that he had attended public school and worked summers for the sanitation department to earn extra money. Never mind that her parents would immediately enroll her in therapy sessions and try to convince her she was delusional. She was falling in love with Tony Fiore. She’d never been in love before. That fourth year, she showed up early at the ice rink.

Even now, she felt flushed with embarrassment as she recalled how long she’d waited for him. How many times she’d paid for ice time, how many wobbly ovals she’d skated around the rink, how cold she’d gotten from being outside for so long. When she could no longer feel her feet, she’d turned in her skates, trudged out to the street and flagged a taxi. At her parents’ annual affair, she drank too much champagne and danced with too many men she didn’t care about. The very next day, she’d embarked on the annual vacation with her family.