She could see the lights and the statue in the middle of Columbus Circle up ahead. All she had to do was pass the circle and take a left. She paused again and tapped out a text back.
Lora:
Are you alone?
Veering left onto Broadway, she passed endless banks with their ATMs glowing and a West Elm furniture store where she could see employees vacuuming couches under the bright lights. She kept moving toward Sixty-Second and finally took a left.
Andrea:
Yes
I’m going to go back to my hotel, though
I’m sorry to bother you so early
She was so close. He couldn’t leave now. She paused on the corner of Broadway and Sixty-Third to try to stall him.
Lora:
You’re not bothering me
I am sure it’s beautiful
Not even one block to go. She had to think. If she were Andrea, where would she be in the plaza? Should she makehim send a photo? As she hustled up the block toward Lincoln Center, the image of Loretta Castorini getting out of her cab and Ronny Cammareri nervously standing in front of the fountain popped into her head. She turned to her left, and suddenly the plaza opened in front of her. The theater, opera, and concert hall buildings that lined three sides of the plaza were still fully lit, their tall glass facades gleaming in the night. Concentric stone circles drew the eye directly to the fountain in the center of it all, and the sound of the tumbling water sprays echoed in the space.He’d be at the fountain.
Andrea:
I wish you were here
Lora walked closer to the center of the wide-open space, scanning. There was a surprising amount of people still walking out of the buildings, laughing and talking in the cool, late-September night. She looked for any sign of him—his hair, his glasses, whatever she could imagine the New York version of Andrea wearing. She walked around the side of the fountain that was closest to the opera house and stopped short. There he was, sitting on the low wall that encircled the fountain. He held his phone in his hands while staring up toward the five glowing arches of the opera house’s ninety-six-foot-tall facade. Her heart squeezed in her chest. He was here, right here. Her hand shook as she pulled out her phone one last time and tapped on the screen.
Lora:
I am
He shrugged, and looked back up toward the sky. She waited for him to turn around and see her, but he didn’t even glance around for a second. He must have thought she was kidding.
Lora:
Andrea
Andrea:
Sì
Lora:
In the movie he at least turns around when she shows up
Andrea’s head snapped around to the right and then to the left where she stood, still holding her phone in her hand.
He stood and started walking toward her slowly, his eyes wide behind his glasses. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” she said, dropping her phone back into her pocket.
“Someone I know does this incredible research on thriving in life independently of family and social structure. So I came here to test the hypothesis,” he said. “Your turn.”
“Someone I know told me that we can’t do everything on our own. Unfortunately for that research you mentioned, it turns out that idea may have had some merit.”
