over mine as he slipped a cold bottle into them. ‘Beer. Dutch courage.’
‘For what?’
‘Wait and see,’ he said. ‘Eugene, is the Uber here?’
‘Just pulled up.’
‘I need my bag!’
‘Eugene’s got it. Don’t worry,’ said Zach.
As if carrying out a very civilized kidnapping where the hostage is given a drink before being bundled into the getaway car, Zach led me outside and gently pressed on my head so I could fold myself into it.
‘Florence, can you put your fingers in your ears please?’
‘What? Why?’
He sighed. ‘If this was for real I’d have taken you back already, no ransom required. Just do it. I need to talk to the driver about where we’re going.’
I propped the bottle between my legs and waggled my fingers in and out of my ears until I heard Zach shout that I could remove them.
‘Can we have Magic?’ Eugene asked from the front so the driver tapped at his radio and the speakers belted out Tina Turner’s ‘Simply the Best’. Eugene started singing along.
‘Come on, birthday girl, you know the lyrics,’ said Zach, before he joined in too.
‘Give me a lifetime of promises and a world of dreeeeeeams,’ they shouted.
I swallowed another mouthful of beer and pinched my lips together.
‘Florence, I can’t hear you,’ said Zach.
‘All right,’ I said, opening my mouth and muttering a few words: ‘Better than all the rest, better than anyone.’
‘You sound like a virgin at choir practice, come on!’ Zach urged, before bellowing another line.
‘Zach, I had no idea you were such a fan,’ said Eugene, pausing from his own harmony.
‘Tina? Love her. Big fan of an Eighties ballad.’
Eugene tutted. ‘I wish you were gay.’
‘Sorry, buddy. But if I was, you’d be first on my list.’
I smiled into my bottle. This was crazy. Sitting in an Uber, blindfolded, singing Tina Turner while drinking a Peroni was crazy. But good crazy.
‘Just here’s great, mate, thanks,’ I heard Zach say a few minutes later and the car stopped.
‘Out we get, come on,’ he said, taking my hand and pulling me across the seat. I felt his hand on my head again to protect it as I stood up.
I could hear the buzz of London traffic and the odd squeal of a child. Where were we?
‘Ready?’ said Zach, before untying the blindfold.
‘SURPRISE!’ came a unified shout.
I blinked at the fairy lights on the trees around us. We were outside the Natural History Museum and Ruby, Mia, Hugo, Jaz and Dunc were all standing in front of me.
‘Happy birthday, doll,’ said Jaz, stepping forward to give me a hug. ‘Dunc, show Floz what you’ve got for her.’
He stepped forward and offered up a card with ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ written in crayon. ‘Made you this,’ he said.
‘Oh Dunc, thank you, is that me?’ I said, pointing at the drawing. It was either a woman or a blancmange wearing a wig.
He nodded.
‘It’s brilliant,’ I said, crouching down to squeeze him. ‘Thank you very much.’
After several ‘Happy birthdays’ and hugs from everyone else I turned back to Zach. ‘So what are we doing?’
‘We’re going skating,’ he said, pointing around the others to an ice rink at the side of the museum. That’s where the squeals of children were coming from. Blue and pink neon lights flashed across the white surface as people skidded across it, circling a giant Christmas tree flashing in the middle. The sound of Justin Timberlake floated through a speaker.
‘I can’t skate!’
‘Yes, you can,’ he replied. ‘Dunc, can you skate?’
He looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Yeah, but only if my mum holds my hand.’
‘Exactly,’ went on Zach. ‘If Dunc can skate, so can you. Let’s go, our time slot’s up.’
He led us down a slope and into a marquee behind the rink. Shelves of blue plastic skates spanned one end of it.
‘Size?’ said a bored-looking man standing in front the shelves.
‘Eight,’ I whispered very quietly.
‘Pardon?’
‘Eight,’ I said, slightly louder.
‘EIGHT,’ shouted Ruby, appearing beside me.
‘Thanks, Rubes.’
We stomped outside like Transformers, unable to bend our legs properly once the skates were strapped on. Hugo muttered about whether the rink had the correct health and safety insurance; Mia told him not to be a baby. Jaz said she’d always wanted to be a skater when she was younger.
‘Did you? Why?’ I asked.
‘I loved that Torvill and Jean.’
‘Do you mean Dean?’ said Zach.
‘Yeah, her.’
She and Dunc slid out first. Then Mia and Hugo, followed by Eugene, then Ruby, which left me and Zach.
‘Come on,’ he said, holding his hand out.
‘I bet you’re good at this, aren’t you? That’s why you’ve picked it,’