I smile, still staring out, before I answer, “Me too.”
Rory
3 p.m.: Ice-Skating in Central Park
How are you so good at this?” I yell as Oliver passes me again.
He’s been whipping around this ice-skating rink since we got here. I’m equal measures jealous and impressed. Also, it’s so hot. The way his muscles ripple under his jacket. When he got hot and unzipped it, I couldn’t keep my greedy eyes off him.
I may have snuck at least three pictures to Cece, who is enthusiastically encouraging me to get naked with him tonight.
She doesn’t need to do any real convincing. It’s why I flirtatiously added him to my list. I’d have to be a complete fool to look a gift horse in the mouth.
When the universe gives you a second chance, you take it.
And I remember every single moment of that kiss in college. It literally set the bar for every kiss since.
Oliver spins around, showing off his backward skating skills.
“Show-off,” I lob, making him laugh.
Or maybe he’s laughing at me holding the rail with all the five-year-olds out here for the first time.
He’s skating slowly as he extends a hand. “Come on. You can’t hold on the whole time.”
“Ummm, yes, I can.”
Michael Bublé’s “Save the Last Dance for Me” begins to play as he raises his brows.
“What happened to the daredevil trying to look all the way down from the Empire State Building?”
I laugh but shake my head. “First tell me your qualifications?”
He’s definitely showing off as he skates beside me, doing a slow spin as he speaks.
“Well, see, I had a huge crush on this girl named Sophie in high school—”
“All the best stories start this way,” I interject.
“With Sophie? I didn’t realize she got around ...”
“Shut up.” I giggle. “Continue, please.”
He grins. “Sophie wanted to be an Olympic skater when she grew up. So I spent five weekends in a row, and all the money I’d earned from the summer, learning how to ice-skate. Just so I could impress her doing something she loved.”
“Oh my god.” I’m swooning. “That’s so sweet. I bet she was super impressed. How’d she manage to let you get away?”
He shrugs and winks. “She fell for a skateboarder with holes in his Vans and Bob Marley stickers all over his notebook. Last I heard, they moved to Hawaii after graduation and have a bunch of kids and own a surf shop.”
I wince. “Oh man. That’s rough.”
Oliver reaches for my hands, giving a little jerk of his chin. “Now, trust me ... I’ll go slow.”
I shake my head, but I give him my hands anyway.
“Do not let me fall.”
“I won’t. But look at me, not the ground.”
