I nod. “Go get your tattoo.”
He tweaks my nose and goes back to his chair. “She cried more for my tattoo than her own,” he tells Carlos. “Aren’t girls weird?”
Carlos chuckles. “The weirdest.”
“Come sit with me,” Daltrey says. “Come make me forget how bad this hurts.”
I know he’s just joking, but I can’t help but read the double meaning in his words. That’s what we do, after all. Since the first day we met and learned that we shared the sad distinction of being motherless, we help the other one to forget about the pain.
So I go and sit next to my best friend, just like I did when he cried about his mother, and I hold his hand until it’s all over.
Chapter Twenty-one
Daltrey
Some pretty cool things have happened to me over the past year: performing at the Hollywood Bowl, meeting some of my musical idols, touring the country with my band. But this day, here with Daisy in New York, is the most fun I can remember ever having.
After we get our tattoos, we head back out into the city. I show her the Village and Washington Square Park. We take a stroll through the Met, window shop at Barney’s, and spend a full hour browsing the books at the Strand. We even take a river cruise before making our way over to Little Italy for a very late dinner.
As the day goes on, I can feel a delicious sort of tension building between the two of us. It’s like we’re hurtling towards something, something out of our control, and I don’t know if I should be exhilarated or completely terrified. When I realize, over gnocchi and wine in Little Italy, that Daisy is actually flirting with me, I have to fight to keep from cancelling the rest of our plans so I can take her back to the hotel that very minute.
But the last event of the day is the one I’ve really been waiting for. I had to shell out an absolutely obscene amount of money to make it happen, and I can only pray it will be worth it.
We have a bit of time to kill so we wander around Midtown again, visiting the fountain at the Lincoln Center, all lit up for nighttime.
“We should go,” I tell her eventually, taking her hand and pulling her toward the steps. “We can’t be late.”
“Where are we going now?” She sounds breathless, happy.
I wish, once again, that I could wrap her up in my arms and kiss her right now. But I want this to be right, have waited too long for it to be anything else. Daisy deserves perfect. “You’ll see.”
Benny drops us right at the foot of the Empire State building, and I think she knows what’s up as soon as she gets out of the car.
“I thought you forgot,” she says, shaking her head at me.
“Nope. I just had something special planned.”
A woman is waiting for us inside. I’ve spoken to her several times on the phone, arranging everything.
“Hello,” she says, shaking hands with both of us. “My name is Natalie. I’m happy to welcome you to the Empire State Building tonight.”
“Thanks,” Daisy says, looking at me questioningly.
“Won’t you follow me?” She leads us through the packed lobby to the elevator.
“What the hell is going on?” Daisy whispers. “Are you playing the rock star card to get special treatment?”
“Yup.” I watch her face, wondering how she’ll react. “We’re going past the main observation deck, up to the one-hundred-and-second floor. We’ll have the entire place to ourselves.”
She stops, staring up at me. “How’d you manage that?”
I shrug. “I have my ways. I may have slightly exaggerated in the park. There are some other really nice benefits to being in a rock band.”
She shakes her head. Natalie has reached the elevator and is waiting for us.
“Come on,” I say, taking Daisy’s hand. “Let’s go up.”
In the elevator, Natalie explains that we have the smaller observation deck for twenty minutes before they’ll have to open it to tourists again.
Daisy shakes her head again. I think she might be shocked speechless.
The upper observation deck is quite a bit smaller than the main one down on the eighty-second floor and entirely enclosed by glass rather than open to the elements. Natalie leads us to a door beside the elevator, opening it to reveal a flight of stairs.
“Uh,” Daisy says, looking at me uncertainly. “What the heck is above this?”
“It’s kind of a secret floor,” Natalie explains. “You’re about to see something most people in this city never will.” She gives me a somewhat stern look. “And we usually don’t do this at night, so please stay right next to me.”
I nod and hold Daisy’s hand all the way up the steps, feeling a little nervous myself. I’m not crazy about heights.