“It’s not going to be easy,” I said, the back of my bare legs sticking on the leather as I slid inside the car.
“Nothing worth it is easy, right?”
“Is that right?”
“Well, being with you is ... so, maybe I’m wrong.”
He kissed me, and off we went.
“What now?” I asked.
“You’ll see.”
Johnny pulled up in front of Price’s building, but instead of going inside, Price tugged me out of the car, took my hand, and crossed the street.
“Tuck?”
“He’s with the dog walker. Come on,” he said, entering Central Park.
I’d been in New York for a couple of months, but I hadn’t even ventured inside the park.
“Pretzel or hot dog?” Price asked, nodding toward some street vendors.
“Pretzel.”
“Done.”
We jumped into line for a pretzel, and after Price paid for two of them, we walked and munched.
“They say it’s the water that makes them so good,” he said. “New York water ... for both the pretzels and the dogs.”
“Ha! I guess so.”
“Same with the bagels.”
“There’s nothing like the bagels here,” I said. “At the beach, people used to talk about the bagels from New York, and I thought they were kidding. Or exaggerating.”
“Nope. They’re pretty fucking good. Though, I miss some stuff from home. It was fresher or some shit,” he said, looking wistful.
“You should’ve gone home.”
Price shook his head. “Nah, it’s all good. I’m just thinking out loud.”
“Oh yeah, about what?” I tossed my pretzel wrapper in the garbage, tucked my hair behind my ear, and looked up at the man who was stealing my heart.
“I was thinking how I could bring a piece of home to the city.”
“Um, I’m pretty sure somewhere along the way, you said you didn’t like it here.”
“It’s growing on me,” he said before swooping me up in one huge lift and tossing me over his shoulder.
“Put me down! I just ate,” I said, but who was I kidding? I would have stayed.
When he put me down, I asked him, “So, what could you do?”
“I don’t know. My final for my econ class got me thinking about some sort of urban-garden-type restaurant. It’s been done before, but I could do it better. Make it down-home, authentic.”
“Sounds so cool. You said the same kind of thing this morning when we were eating pancakes. You should look into it. Make some plans.”
