More Than Words

Nina felt the room take in a collective breath and hold it. Their media push could’ve changed everything. Or nothing at all.

“And the next mayor of New York City is . . .”

“You’re killing me!” Jorge yelled at the screen.

“Rafael O’Connor-Ruiz!” the newscaster shouted.

Jane started crying. Nina felt tears in her eyes as well—tears of shock and relief and happiness.

Rafael crossed the room in two giant steps and kissed Nina, dipping her backward.

“We’re still supposed to be a secret,” she said as she tried to pull away. Cell phone flashes went off.

“Remember how I ran as my whole self?” he said to her quietly. “And I won? Well, part of that is that I’m dating you. And I want the world to know.” Then he kissed her again.

“Can I post this?” Samira asked.

Rafael quirked an eyebrow at Nina. Slowly she nodded.

“Post away,” Rafael said. Nina knew this would be all over the Internet in about five seconds, but she didn’t care. Whatever came next, she could handle it. They could handle it together. They were partners. She felt Rafael’s tears on her cheeks—and wondered if he kept kissing her so no one would see him cry.

She pulled away from him, just a centimeter, so their lips were no longer touching, but their noses were. “I love you,” she whispered, so quietly that even in a room full of people, only he could hear. It was the first time she’d told him that. The first time she realized it was true.

“I love you, too,” he said.

Then he wiped the tears off his cheeks and faced the room to thank his staff before they headed over to the victory party, where Nina would meet his family for the very first time. She wished her father were with her, her own piece of family, but Caro was meeting her there instead. Priscilla and Brent, too. Family by choice instead of by blood.

79

A week after Rafael became the mayor-elect of New York City, and a week after the world found out that he and Nina were a couple, the Vorpal Sword Philanthropic Foundation got its official 501(c)(3) designation and was open for business.

“How do you want to celebrate?” Rafael had asked Nina a few days before, while they were having dinner in Nina’s apartment. “My schedule’s insane, but it looks like I’ve got an hour and a half on Saturday. Maybe we can do something then?”

Even in the midst of all of his meetings, Rafael made time for Nina whenever he could. And she loved it.

“Have you seen the people taking trapeze lessons along the Hudson?” she’d asked back, as he refilled her water glass.

“I actually have,” Rafael said. “Though I’ve never done it myself.”

“Me neither,” Nina said, “and it scares the hell out of me, but I want to do it. Let’s celebrate this weekend by flying on a trapeze.”

When Leslie and Pris heard what was happening, they wanted to be part of the celebration, too—Leslie said she’d take the whole week of Thanksgiving off and come to Manhattan early with Cole and Vijay. And Caro said she’d love to fly, as long as she wasn’t too old. Nina assured her that she wasn’t. And then called Tim and left him a voice mail inviting him as well. He hadn’t called her back.

“I don’t mind if you want to invite TJ, too,” Caro had offered. “I know he misses you.” The two of them were talking, trying to find a way back.

But Nina hadn’t been ready yet. “Maybe for Thanksgiving,” she’d told Caro.

When Nina got to Pier 40, she looked up at the ladder she’d have to climb, the platform she’d have to jump off.

“Maybe this wasn’t my best idea,” she said to anyone who was listening.

“Are you kidding?” Leslie answered, Cole in tow. “This was absolutely your best idea. Well, after starting a charity with your family’s money. We’re gonna fly, Nina!”

“I’m gonna be a superhero!” Cole said. He was wearing a T-shirt he’d made himself with a big lopsided C on the chest and had already had what he declared was the very best day ever because he got to meet the NYPD detail that traveled with Rafael.

Rafael left the officers behind and came over to put his arm around Nina. She noticed a few people surreptitiously snapping a picture of the two of them, but she didn’t mind. She and Rafael had decided that they wouldn’t hide anything. They’d be themselves, be open with the media, live their lives authentically in the spotlight and hope that authenticity would make them real to everyone—no façades, no glamours. And if they were criticized, so be it. It made living a life on display easier when you weren’t trying to hide anything, when you were simply being yourself.

“I love you,” he whispered into her hair.

“More than words,” she answered him.

And even though she did, she loved him more than anything, she still loved Tim, too. And missed him. She looked around, hoping that he’d show up, even if he hadn’t called her back.

“He’s not coming, darling,” Caro said softly, realizing who Nina was looking for.

Deep down, Nina already knew that. She felt a shiver of sadness blow through her, until Rafael rested his hand on her hip. “Are you ready?” he asked.

She looked at him, squaring her shoulders, raising her chin. “I am,” she said. “Let’s fly.”

Nina climbed up the ladder, her heart racing. I can do this, she told herself, even though her hands didn’t want to move to the next rung. Her feet wanted to stay put, too. She’d faced so many things in these past two months—losing her father, losing Tim, taking over a corporation, starting something new from scratch, being in a public relationship with someone she loved so much that sometimes she was gutted by the power of it. She could handle this, too.

When she got to the top of the platform, one of the people working at the trapeze school handed Nina the bar.

“Hold on tight,” he said. “And on the count of three, jump!”

Nina’s heart raced even faster; it was like every molecule of her DNA was telling her not to jump.

“You can do it, Palabrecita!” she heard Rafael yell. “Superhéroe!”

“Go, Nina, go!” It was Pris.

Nina looked down at her friends—her family really—and smiled. And then she jumped, soaring over Manhattan, happy, strong, and free.

And as Nina looked out over the city she adored, time stretched. She thought about the past and the present and the future and decided that, regardless of the sadness she’d experienced, she was glad she lived in this universe.

It was a beautiful day to be a New Yorker.