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we were. ‘I was delighted when Harry called. You’ve made so many people happy over the years, and now you two are together. Finding love amongst everyone else’s happiness. I can’t tell you how pleased I am. I want you to meet my boys, the ground crew.’
    The boys, as it turned out, were three strapping sons in their forties and two other men who worked for him. Frank ran round getting everything ready for our departure, clearly as fit as the men half his age judging by the way he dealt with the preparations with speed, strength and agility. And slowly the hot air balloons started to fill and rise, tugging on their restraints, desperate to be free.
    ‘What bloody time of the day is this?’ muttered a voice from behind us.
    I turned round to see Badger, Harry’s best friend and my cousin, scowling at us. His ginger beard was hidden inside the top of his coat, his eyes peeping out from underneath his blue and white Chelsea pom-pom hat. ‘It’s bloody freezing.’
    I adored Badger. He was one of those solid dependable types that would do anything for anybody. Jack, Badger and I had been quite close growing up, but in recent years we had become even closer after Badger had moved to London too. Jack and Badger went everywhere together, before Jack died. And he was the reason Harry had come into my life, something else to be grateful to Badger for.
    I hugged him and he immediately took his hands out of his pockets and hugged me back. Harry hugged him too. Despite the manly size of them both, they always greeted each other with a big hug.
    ‘What are you doing here?’
    ‘Cashing in all of Harry’s favours in one day.’ He returned to scowling again. ‘I was in a wonderful sleep this morning when the alarm went off at some ungodly hour.’
    ‘I needed some help for this one,’ Harry admitted. ‘And there was only one man for the job.’
    There was only one man who would get up this early and drive fifty miles to the countryside to help his friend out. Despite Badger’s scowl, I could tell he was pleased about the compliment. Although him being here did put a slight dampener on our nice romantic proposal.
    Frank came over to tell us the balloons were ready.
    We put the cool box into the basket and Harry helped me in, then held me close like a true boyfriend would do. Though it seemed Badger was to go in the other balloon.
    As the cables and ropes were released, our balloons slowly drifted upwards, floating almost aimlessly up into the clouds. It was an incredible experience and I couldn’t take my eyes off the receding landscape below us. We were far out of London now, Harry had driven for over an hour, and as far as the eye could see there were just hills and fields in every direction, all growing smaller by the second. Badger’s balloon bobbed gently after us, the wind blowing us in the same direction.
    We levelled out, obviously reaching the optimum height, and Frank turned the burners off. We hovered there in silence, as if we were hanging from the clouds. We didn’t speak, we didn’t need to. The world at our feet said it all.
    Suddenly a slice of pure gold shot straight from the horizon, lighting up the landscape below us, banishing the remains of the fading night sky and filling the world with a rosy haze. I watched with sheer joy as the sun appeared and for a few moments it wasn’t the burning ball of heat in the sky that you can never look directly at, but an orb of muted oranges and pinks, like a light bulb that had just been switched on and was yet to reach its full power.
    ‘It’s beautiful,’ I gasped, realising that Harry’s arm had been around me the whole time and I leaned back into him. I could see Frank watching us out the corner of my eye, a huge grin on his face.
    Harry released me and rooted around in the cool box as I returned my attention back to the landscape below, bathed in great swathes of scarlet and gold.
    Harry offered Frank a champagne glass but he declined.
    ‘Frank do