Page 64 of The Wedding Forecast

‘My face is burning from the cold. Is that normal?’ I say in case he thinks I’m blushing.

He takes off his gloves and presses his bare hands to my face.

‘You do feel cold.’

‘So do you.’

It’s too intimate, standing here with him touching my face, and yet, now we’ve made physical contact, I don’t want him to let go. I want to take his cold fingers into my mouth and warm them up.

The jet lag must be heightening my hormones. Everyone is more attractive when you are on a holiday. That is a proven scientific fact (I saw a headline once).

He lets go of my face and pulls his gloves back on.

‘Let’s go look at art,’ I say.

‘Okay.’

I make him take a photo of me posing embarrassingly on the steps of the Met, to fulfil my old Gossip Girl dreams, and then we go inside. And it’s then I remember why I don’t go into art galleries with other people.

‘I need to tell you something,’ I say.

‘What’s that?’

‘I sometimes get…emotional at art galleries.’

‘Emotional how?’

‘It sounds a bit ridiculous but seeing art in real life, especially famous art, can make me cry. Not all the time. Sometimes. I am just telling you in case you see me looking teary and you think something’s wrong, it’s not. I just have this thing. I cry at art, and live music, musicals, things like that. So don’t worry about it. Don’t even look at me.’

I am babbling. But of all the people to see me get emotional, it has to be the man who witnessed my total sobbing meltdown earlier this year. He must think I am a ball of sloppy drama. I’m not. I have never even cried at work, despite having the world’s most infuriating boss and often soul-deadening tasks to complete. I can turn myself into a robot with the best of them.

But art is a different matter entirely.

Mac leads the way into the museum.

‘I can’t not look at you,’ he says.

‘Yes you can.’

He doesn’t answer that.

‘I won’t make fun of you.’

‘Good.’

‘You can cry in front of me anytime you like, okay? For any reason.’

‘Okay.’

‘Besides, I feel like that all the time, when I go to the theatre. And the movies.’

‘Really?’

‘Of course. People who aren’t moved by art are the weird ones.’

‘Right. Imagine never having cried reading a book or watching a TV show. Or a play.’

‘Most people have never even seen a play,’ he says.