Here.
Bev and I agreed to get coffee early the following week, and then she wanted to show me her dance studio. We said Tuesday or Wednesday, and I was out the door without a glance behind me.
Price flung the door to an Uber open and yelled, “Hey there!”
“Where’s Johnny?” I slid into the back seat of the black sedan.
“Don’t be mean.”
“I’m not,” I told him, pulling the door shut behind me. “I was honestly asking.”
“I told him to take his wife out. They had a babysitter for their five-year-old.”
The car stuttered in stop-and-go traffic; the driver seemingly knowing where to go. We jerked forward and came to a fast stop.
“Geez, I don’t think I could ever drive here.”
“I did when I first got here. Determined to do this my own way.”
“I thought a limo picked you up and brought you to the Big Apple?”
When I referenced our conversation during our first dinner out, Price smiled.
“You remembered what I said. Well, another perk of being my dad’s son is a sleek Tesla kept in the garage underneath my building. To get me out to the Hamptons, where, yes, my dad owns another place. Keep your judgy opinions to yourself. Anyway, refusing a ride from Johnny, I tried to take the Tesla to class one day. My patience for all the traffic here was nonexistent, so I didn’t try again.”
“Ha! I drove myself here and then sold my car when I got as far as Queens. I needed the money. It’s been a month, and this is the first time I’ve thought about selling it, unloading all my stuff, and taking a cab to a three-star hotel.”
People and cars whizzed by both of the passenger windows. The city was lit up like Christmas all around us, frenetic energy buzzing in the air.
“But I don’t know how people keep up with this pace forever,” I said to the window.
“Crazy. I’m still settling into it, and on the farm, we keep long hours.”
“The thing is, I can’t ever get that car back.”
“You’ll get a new car,” Price said, running the tips of his fingers over my hand.
My eyes started to water about the damn car. “Jesus, this is the most inconvenient thing. I’m getting all teary over a car. With you. It’s just that my dad got me that car. I guess I shoved everything about my dad to the back of my mind when I got here. I haven’t even told him I sold it.”
Price wove our fingers together and squeezed my hand. “You could always tell him that prick Robby sold it.”
I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing. “Stop.”
“Made you laugh, though.”
I nodded and smiled through damp eyes.
The Uber came to a stop, and I saw we were in front of a big storefront.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Come on,” Price said.
“Is this what you do on a Friday night? Shop for housewares?”
As he held the door open for me, I took him in. Worn jeans, hole in the right knee, and sneakers on his feet. His eyes matched his faded blue T-shirt. With his hair messy and framing his face, he certainly could have been a model or whatever. But he wasn’t.
He turned toward me. “Come on. You can help me pick out a nightstand.”
