No, we really couldn’t. Because when Janet dropped us off, Ev whooped, clapped his hands, and went, “Let’s go, Islanders!”
In response, our driver gaped before scrunching her face, flashing him the finger through the window, and then furiously speeding back into traffic.
“I thought we were going to lunch,” Isa said drily. “Not a business meeting.”
“Wearegoing to lunch,” I said as the three of us stared up at the gleaming glass building. “Lunch is in here.”
“Like a box of day-old donuts in a conference room?” Ev joked.
I sighed. “Okay, lunch is upthere.” I pointed to the tippy-top of the skyscraper. At sixty stories, the Comcast Technology Center was not only the tallest building in the city and the headquarters for the global media company, but it was also a top destination for art exhibitions and fine dining.
Oh, right, and the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel.
Isa and Ev gawked when I told them we’d be eating at Jean-Georges, a Michelin-starred chef’s restaurant. My parents once had an adults-only dinner here with Isa and Ev’s parents.
The food was apparently amazing…and expensive.
“How are we going to pay for this?” Ev asked when we’d passed through the front doors and stood in the skyscraper’s expansive lobby.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” I told him. Every Christmas and every birthday, my grandmother gifted me a crisp hundred-dollar bill. But instead of spending them, I’d squirreled my money away for a rainy day.
“G, you don’t need to,” Isa started, but then a man who probably ranked somewhere between a doorman and security guard approached us.
“Good afternoon,” he said.
“Good afternoon,” we replied.
He gave us a long up-and-down look. I felt Isa move closer to me, although I wasn’t intimidated when he asked for the “purpose” of our visit.
“We’re having lunch,” I said with a confident smile. “At Jean-Georges.”
“Ah,” he said. “I see.”
“Could you please point us in the direction of the elevators?” Ev added after a second. “We wouldn’t want to be late for ourreservation.”
There was a twinkle in his eye, one that pulled at my heartstrings. It reminded me of the mischievous gleam that would take over Mr.Adler’s face whenever he shared an inside joke.
To be honest, Ev was so much like his father.
I didn’t tell him that; it would be the last thing he’d want to hear, because everyone told him he looked like his dad. “Okay, Isa, give Ev James’s blazer,” I said once we were in theelevator, flying up to the fifty-ninth floor. Was I afraid of heights? I guess we were going to find out today. “Guys have to wear jackets in the restaurant. It’s a dress-code requirement.”
Isa didn’t relinquish the blazer right away, keeping it protectively tucked under her arm. My brows knitted together. What was the big deal? It was just a jacket.
Around the forty-seventh floor, she finally handed it over to Ev. “But don’t ruin it,” she told him as he slipped an arm into a sleeve.
“How am I going to ruin it, Isa?” he asked. “Spill soup all over myself?”
She ignored him, turning to me. “It’s too tight on him,” shesaid.
“Well, uh, yeah,” I responded with arms behind my back, to hide my knotted fingers. All I wanted to do was step forward and smooth Ev’s lapels. They weren’t wrinkled or anything; I just wanted to smooth them for the sake of…
Get it together, Grace,I told myself.Snap out of it!
“I knew it would be a little tight,” I continued, aching. “Because James is smaller—”
“He’s notsmaller,” Isa interjected in this weird, high-pitched voice. “He’s slighter and a couple inches shorter, while you”—she gestured to Ev—“are like one of the Avengers.”
“Thank you for the compliment,” Ev deadpanned. “Truly sincere.”
