‘You aren’t that short, titch,’ Ryan laughed. ‘Anyway, I didn’t come over to talk shoes, I’m sure you do enough of that on a daily basis, so I’ll spare you the monotony.’
‘What’s up?’ she asked.
He put his hands in his pockets and smiled at her, an adorable dimple forming on his right cheek. ‘Well, since it’s close to lunchtime, I just wanted to find out if you’d like to grab a bite somewhere.’ He extracted his hands from his pockets and put them up innocently. ‘Purely platonic, of course. I get that you have a guy at home and that’s cool. Not trying to step on anyone’s toes… in platforms or otherwise,’ he added chuckling, ‘Just hungry, and thought you might be too.’
Beth smiled and felt immediately at ease. OK, this was fine. He’d said it himself, purely platonic. ‘So, what do you say? Lunch? I need a fellow New York transplant like you to show a newbie like me where I should be eating,’ he continued, with a lopsided smile that truly was irresistible.
Just lunch. Completely harmless.
‘All right,’ Beth acquiesced, with a resigned smile. ‘You’re on.’
***
Half an hour later, sitting at a high-top table in La Birreria, a rooftop brewpub in the Flatiron District above Mario Batali’s Italian grocery store, Eataly, Ryan had Beth in stitches as he recounted how when he first arrived in the city, he had accidentally worn a Boston Red Sox baseball hat to a sports bar playing a Yankees game.
‘How on earth did you make it out alive?’ she laughed as she plucked a chip from her plate and popped it in her mouth. When Beth had first arrived in the States, being Irish, she hadn’t a notion about baseball or the famed rivalry between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox teams, but Danny had very quickly filled in the blanks. Over time she’d begun to follow and appreciate the game as much as she used to enjoy Gaelic hurling and football back home in Galway.
Ryan splayed his hands, expressing complete innocence. ‘I didn’t do it on purpose. It is just a hat I have. I really thought I was going to get my ass kicked.’
‘That would have been a mild punishment. Honestly, if you’re going to live in this city, you’re going to have to be schooled in what to wear, or more likely whatnotto.’ Though Beth noticed he was doing quite nicely with the former in his Tom Ford shirt and J Crew trousers. ‘You’re not in Kansas any more, Toto,’ she added, grinning mischievously. ‘Besides, where’d an LA guy get a Red Sox hat? And you don’t seem like much of a baseball guy, if you don’t mind me saying.’
Ryan chuckled and stole one of her chips. ‘What, I look like a pretty boy to you just because I can put myself together for work? I have a life outside of that, you know. Besides, I’m originally from Boston; I lived there till I was about ten or so.’
Beth feigned shock. ‘So youdidknow better! Hmm, now I get it. Youliketo live on the edge. I don’t even think that I feel sorry for you now.’ She laughed aloud and took a bite of the burger in front of her. ‘Not that I can judge. I’m a Mets fan.’ Danny was a lifelong fan of the team, and Beth had gone along to countless games with him and the Bishop family at the stadium in Flushing Meadows.
Ryan watched her with narrowed eyes and Beth suddenly felt self-conscious. ‘What?’ She picked up her napkin and wiped the corners of her mouth. ‘Do I have something on my face?’
‘No, no. You’re fine. I guess I’m just impressed. Not only about the Mets thing. I haven’t known too many women who would dig into a whole burger at lunchtime, or really anytime. Getting used to East Coast habits again is going to be an education. Not to mention the weather. Brrr.’
‘So how long were you in LA?’
‘Since I left Boston, so for the best part of twenty years now. My parents still live there, in a retirement community in Malibu. I’ll go back to visit now and then, but I am done with that scene. What about you? With that accent, you’re obviously not from New York… Irish, yes?’
She smiled. ‘And my family keeps telling me I’ve lost my accent. Yep, I’m from a small town just outside Galway in Ireland. Came to the US after college and ended up staying. Travelled quite a lot in between, too, but there is no other place I would rather live. And—’ She stopped mid-sentence, realising what she was about to say.
‘And what?’
But she knew Ryan wouldn’t let her off the hook too easily so she continued, feeling a bit silly about what she was about to admit but deciding to go ahead anyway. ‘Well, this city… from a very early age, I always felt like I already… knew it. And when I finally came here, I realised I did – know it, I mean.’
He looked intrigued. ‘How so?’
‘Because of the movies.’ When he looked blank, she went on. ‘Every street corner, every skyscraper, Fifth Avenue, Tiffany’s, Central Park, the Empire State Building – they were all so familiar to me. So when I finally got here I didn’t need to worry about settling in because it already felt like home.’
Beth thought back to the early days with Danny when she had persuaded him to take one of those open-top bus tours available all over Manhattan. After some initial protest, simply because it was such a touristy thing to do, he finally agreed, and even seemed to enjoy himself.
That was one thing that Beth had to admit. There were times when Danny might protest over something – calling it clichéd or silly – but then his mood always changed, lightened, when he saw the joy it inspired in her. Of course, some of the stuff on the tourwascheesy – like rubbing the Wall Street bull’s bronze testicles, or taking photographs with the Naked Cowboy on Times Square, but life was too short to be so cynical or judgemental over something that would provide some laughter and create a memory.
The tour had been fun too, and it gave Beth the opportunity to relive some of her favourite New York movie moments. The bus had coursed through Manhattan, past Fifth Avenue and Tiffany’s, where Holly Golightly had stood in her Givenchy gown eating a Danish and drinking coffee while feasting her eyes on a window-full of jewels, imagining her prince.
They passed the New York Public Library, where Big had so cruelly jilted Carrie on her wedding day inSex and the City,then onwards to the Empire State Building, where inSleepless in SeattleTom Hanks and Meg Ryan had recaptured the romantic essence ofAn Affair to Remember. Beth and Danny had then gone by Cadman Plaza and Furman Street, near the Brooklyn Bridge, where Daryl Hannah had longed for the ocean, as an incognito mermaid inSplash.
The bus had also sailed through the East Village and passed where the four-storey nightclub Danceteria had been located until 1986. Beth had practically jumped out of her seat when the tour director asked who had got ‘into the groove’ there and in what movie. Inevitably, she had proudly shouted out Madonna andDesperately Seeking Susan,before knowledgeably adding that while Danceteria was a memorable movie location, the mystery meeting point in the movie was actually Battery Park. The tour guide had bristled in annoyance at her stealing his line.
And while this iconic movie location wasn’t on the tour, Danny had secured a reservation at the famous Serendipity 3 on East 60th Street, where he took Beth after the tour ended. There, they sat at the star table, the same spot in which Jonathan and Sara had sat eating frozen hot chocolate in the movieSerendipity.
Though her boyfriend had pretended to humour her and tell her that the tour was ‘fine for tourists, but not something real New Yorkers do’, she had scoffed at him because she knew that despite himself he had had an enjoyable day too. And he definitely hadn’t had any qualms about scarfing down his dessert and then helping Beth finish hers.
She reflected back on the memory, searching for more details in order to make it last longer, but she felt something else sneaking into her brain, ruining her reverie. A realisation that they did that so long ago. It had been so spontaneous; she and Dannyhadbeen so spontaneous once upon a time. But it seemed so far in the past.
