A Week in New York(22)

“You could stay here tonight, and then we could go up to the Hamptons first thing Friday.”

“You don’t have to work Friday?”

“I can do some calls from the car on the way up there. I should be able to manage a day off.”

“Ok,” I said. I was half-delighted, half-terrified. I wanted to spend the day with him Friday. I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible before I left, and I was terrified about that. I didn’t want to want that. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t want a man again. 3,000 miles apart after Monday should do it. I took a deep breath. “I’m in.”

“I knew I’d wear you down,” he said grinning at me.

“I just feel sorry for you, that’s all.”

He pulled my legs away from my chest and climbed over me, pinning my arms above my head. “What did you say?”

“I feel sorry for you.” He dipped his head to my neck and started to suck as I started to giggle. “I know you must have been having a drought before I came along. How long had it been? Five, six years?”

“Since a woman took pity on me and let me fuck her?” he asked and I laughed and tried to break my wrists free of his hands as his mouth tracked lower and started to suck again. “Since a woman let me give her three, four, five orgasms a night?”

“Since a woman came back for seconds.”

He let go of my wrists and moved off me.

“Hey, are you going to finish what you started?” I asked, propping myself up on my elbows.

“I have to get to work. Stop distracting me,” he said as pulled a tie on. He smiled, but I could detect that his mood had shifted.

“Sorry,” I said, trying to meet his eyes.

He nodded. I was joking. He must know I was joking.

I crawled out of bed and put on a robe as Ethan gathered his wallet and keys. I followed him to the door of the suite.

“Go do something cultural,” he said as he opened the door. Then he turned, kissed me on the forehead, and left.

Fear unfurled in my stomach. I wasn’t quite sure of the cause. Fear of not seeing him again, fear that I’d hurt his feelings, fear of going with him to the Hamptons, fear of complications, fear of going back to London.

I stood under the shower trying to decide whether to text him when my phone started to ring. I leapt out of the shower. It must be Ethan letting me know about plans tonight. I hoped it would Ethan letting me know about plans tonight.

It was Leah. I pressed Accept and hooked the phone under my chin while I grabbed a towel to wrap around me.

“Hey, I have a fun-packed day planned. I got those tickets for Book of Mormon and I thought we could go do the Empire State this morning. How long are you going to be?”

“Oh, great. You got those tickets. That’s awesome.”

“Don’t worry. It’s the matinee. It won’t interrupt your holiday romance.”

“There’s no romance, Leah. And anyway, it wouldn’t interrupt anything. I don’t think we’re seeing each other tonight.” I wasn’t sure if we were seeing each other tonight. How did we leave it? Fuck. This wasn’t supposed to be complicated.

“Oh. Are you ok?”

“Of course. We’re not attached at the hip. It was just a fling. Nothing complicated.”

“Was?”

“I don’t know. I’ll be ready in 15 minutes. Shall I meet you somewhere?”

We agreed to meet in line at the Empire State Building. I pulled on my jeans and a t-shirt and combed my wet hair. There was no point in blow drying it in this humidity. I’d leave it to frizz. I’d brought a few more things with me last night, thinking I may be staying tonight as well but I was careful to collect everything. I didn’t know if I’d be back. Before I left I took out my phone and snapped a couple of photos of the view. God it was amazing. Worth every penny this ginormous suite must have cost. When I grew up and won the lottery, I was going to live here.

Leah waved at me from the entrance to the ticket hall.

“There isn’t much of a queue.”

“Who’d have thought it? It’s 8-frigging-15 a.m. on a random Thursday in July. Of course there isn’t much of a queue.” I hadn’t realized how early it was until I was in the cab on the way to meet Leah.

“Alright, grumpy knickers. I’m just trying to make sure we squeeze everything in. I want to make sure it’s not just the New York men you get to experience.”

I rolled my eyes at Leah and then leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “Sorry.”

Without the queues we got to the top quickly and without the pushing and shoving that the crowds would inevitably bring later. The view of the park was almost surreal. Unlike from the hotel, where the view was lower, you could see the whole thing—as if a slice of somewhere else had been picked up and planted in amongst the buildings and bustle of the city.