We sat out on the balcony, laughing when looking down on the occasional passerby, just talking and chilling. We’d been out there for a while before I decided it was too cold, and there were more things to do inside.

“But I don’t want to do anything.” He grinned at me. “I just want to spend time with you.”

I insisted that we came inside; otherwise he’d be spending time with an ice-sculpture baring a shocking resemblance to myself. This is how we found ourselves cuddled together on the sofa, the computer monitor talking to itself, while we talked again.

But the conversation steered towards dreams, and ambition. He had a lot of those two things, I guess, and I was going to have to listen to it eventually - so why not there and then? Sure I wanted to watch the Wizard of Oz, but that could wait.

“I wanted to be somebody.” He sighed heavily, “I wanted to go into real estate, business, media... Something.” He sounded incredibly sad.

“Why didn’t you?”

“I was impatient. Not enough money and not enough time it seemed like, so I grabbed everything I could at that moment. Dropped out of school and whatever.” He made a grab for my pinkie finger, and I could feel him getting calmer when he locked it with his. “But I can’t go back to learn. I didn’t even graduate from high school. I don’t have any qualifications, so no-one wants me. Not even vocational courses.”

I struggled against him, realising how small the ragged sofa was. Realising how small our apartment was. Realising how small my dreams were compared to his, even though I had a higher chance of achieving what I wanted. It all seemed too simple, and comfortable. I got up and went into the kitchen, grabbing a Cornetto before sitting back down. He looked at the Cornetto before looking at me and smirking, probably because I’d been talking about freezing only two minutes ago.

“You like children right? Work on that.”

He laughed. “Look at me. Who would wanna hand their kid over to me?”

It was sad but very true. He had a burly sort of build, definitely rough around the edges even though he always shaved. It was hard to believe that this rough talking guy would always be the first to run to the window when the snow fell. It was even harder to believe that kids actually liked him, and he loved kids. He’d always pop round the orphanage when he could, to see the children. Even though the workers didn’t mind that, they definitely wouldn’t ever hire him. He didn’t have the appearance visitors and inspectors generally wanted to see.

I didn’t say that to him though, it wouldn’t have helped the situation. I just my strawberry Cornetto patiently, waiting for the conversation to make a turn for something else.