Some New Year’s Eve stories sound like they’ve been scripted by a rom-com mastermind. “I had been looking for a boyfriend and told my friends I was going to make it happen before the year was out,” says Cindy, 31. “I was at a New Year’s Eve party and had planned to do the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes under the table, but I forgot the grapes, so I figured I needed to find someone to kiss for good luck instead. I started looking around the room and then this guy grabbed me, saying, ‘I know you!’ I replied: ‘Okay, that’s good. Do you wanna kiss me?’” After the kiss, the guy asked her out; they’ve now been together for two years.
For Holly, 38, New Year’s Eve has always carried an added dose of pressure given that it happens to be her birthday. One year in particular stands out. “It was at university and every girl I knew suddenly became obsessed with the same guy—let’s call him M—after he broke up with his girlfriend. Tall, dark, and ridiculously handsome but also funny, incredibly clever, a great actor, and always carrying a book of poetry…he was perfect.”
A flirtation blossomed after a few spontaneous run-ins at various indie music nights, leading Holly to invite M to her 21st birthday party, a “joyful, gigantic, messy celebration up a hill in rural Wales.” The chemistry was palpable: “We couldn’t take our eyes off each other, but I was too shy to make a move, even at midnight,” Holly recalls. “When everyone finally crawled into sleeping bags, squished in like sardines on the floor, a friend shamelessly engineered that I be next to M, and after hours of whispering and very slowly inching ever closer to each other, we finally kissed. On the floor, surrounded by my snoring friends, I don’t think I’ve had another moment of such pure, cannot-believe-my-luck happiness in my life.”
Clearly, an Ephron-worthy New Year’s Eve story is possible in real life. And while it hasn’t happened to me yet, who knows what could happen when we ring in 2025? The cynic in me says to let the delusion go and focus on spending time with my friends. But the hopeful 15-year-old girl in the blue eyeshadow? Well, she’s a little harder to convince.
