I shake my head.
“Times Square?”
“Only for Good Morning America.”
Ian chuckles and shakes his head, exasperated. “Okay, then I know what we’re doing with the rest of our day.” Then, under his breath as we’re leaving Rosa gaping and sputtering her protests, he adds, “And I know where you can get the best eel rolls in town.”
“Wow,” I say, leaning against the glass with my palms. “I never realized how big this place is.”
Ian chuckles. “They don’t call it the Medium or Small Apple.”
I send him an annoyed look, but he knows I don’t mean it and just laughs. We’re at the top of the Empire State Building, his arm around my waist, his hand on my hip holding me tight against him. Only a few people have recognized us—well, the ones that recognize me mostly have no idea who he is and vice versa—but we stopped and took selfies and signed some stuff without it getting in our way. And now that we’re up here, it feels like we’re all alone in the world.
Which is silly, because we’re not even alone up here, but I don’t care because I have Ian and he doesn’t hate me and nothing could be better.
“You know we can go outside,” he says, motioning to the deck beyond, caged in by crisscrossing metal rods.
“Should we?” I ask, hugging myself as I watch the wind whip some girl’s hat up and over the cage, floating down to the busy streets below.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall,” he teases.
I give him that unamused look again. “I’m pretty sure accidentally falling over the twelve-foot-high safety fence would be an act of God, so you probably shouldn’t intervene.”
He just squeezes me closer to him, kissing the top of my head. “I don’t care who wants to pull you away from me, they can fuck right off.”
I wince and look up, ducking, and he frowns.
“What?”
“Just waiting for lightning to strike you down,” I joke. “I guess we’re safe for now.”
“Come on, you dork,” he says, pulling me toward the door. “You need to see the view from out there.”
I’m still hesitant, but I let him pull me with him, hugging myself tighter as the cool wind hits me.
He walks us right up to the safety fence and I’m hit with an intense wave of vertigo as the world far below swims before me. It’s crazy. From up here, the other buildings look like they belong to a Lego set. And it’s hard to believe the tiny specks down there are actually the famous New York yellow cabs. But with Ian by my side, I’m not scared of being way up here. I do think I’m probably good with only visiting once though. It’s not natural to be this high up.
“You know, I heard once that if you throw a penny from up here, when it hits the ground it’s going faster than a bullet,” I say, crouching to peer through the binoculars at the Hudson River sparkling in the distance.
“Really? We should try it,” Ian says, rummaging through his pockets.
“No! Are you crazy? Someone could get hurt.”
“I’m pretty sure if it were true, they wouldn’t let anyone bring loose change up here.”
I just frown at him.
“Anyway, you’re in luck. Can’t tell you the last time I had loose change on me.”
I roll my eyes. “Of course. Because you’re a big-shot rockstar.”
He laughs. “I just meant because I’ve got a debit card like everyone else?”
“Right,” I say, feeling a little bad for teasing him, but I know he doesn’t take any of it to heart. That’s the best thing about me and Ian. Everything is just so natural. We don’t really have to explain ourselves to each other. We just have fun together and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had with anyone.
“Okay, I’ve seen it now,” I say, backing toward the door.
Ian smirks. “What? Don’t like heights?”