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“Hannah?” he asked breathlessly. He’d been waiting for her to call all day. Hoping.
“Who’s Hannah?” Laurence yelled in his ear.
“Blue, buzz me up!” came Miriam’s voice instead.
“What do you mean, buzz you up?” He was, perhaps, a little buzzed already.
“What do you mean, what do I mean?” Her laugh cracked up to him. “This is New York City. How many definitions of ‘buzz me up’ are there, you nerd?”
He dropped the phone and buzzed her in, then barreled out the door to start running down the six flights of stairs to the street.
Wow, was he too drunk for this. But Miriam was here!
He met her halfway down, in the middle of the rickety old metal staircase. She was bundled up like she was going on an Arctic expedition, and he was wild haired and out of breath. They hugged each other and rocked and sat on the steps and cried. This was the longest they’d ever gone without seeing each other, in all their lives. They had missed each other at Carrigan’s, had been busy working all summer.
“What are you doing here?” he finally asked.
“It’s your birthday!” she declared, as if that explained everything.
He put his hands on his head in a vain attempt to keep it attached to his body. “What are you doing in New York? I thought you had some kind of fancy gallery internship.”
“I do! In Manhattan! Surprise!” She threw her arms up.
“You’re here? You live here? What?!” His brain couldn’t process any of this.
“Hey!” Laurence yelled down the stairway. “What are you doing down there?”
“Come and meet my friends!” he said. “We’re celebrating.”
“I don’t want to drink with your college bro friends, Blue. Come get food. Come on, we can go somewhere super fancy we would never splurge on, like that time when we were kids.” She pulled at his shirt.
He shook his head. “I can’t leave my friends! They came to celebrate with me—wait. I have an idea. It’s so much better than a fancy place. Come up so I can get my jacket.”
They ended up in a tiny Tunisian spot he’d found by accident last year, that took an hour to get to by train, was smaller than Levi’s living room, and served food that made him feel like he was having an out-of-body experience.
“I’ll never be able to cook like this!” he wailed as he stuffed more flatbread into his mouth.
“You’re not Tunisian!” Short Darren laughed at him.
Miriam watched him, a little smile on her face.
“What? What’s happening?” He wiped his face. “Is there couscous in my beard?”
“You’re happy here,” she said. “Happier than I’ve ever seen you.”
“You’ve never seen me outside of Carrigan’s,” he said, tipping his beer at her.
“Well, that’s changing now,” she declared. “We’re going to have every adventure this city will allow us, Blue. No Carrigan’s necessary.”
She looked down at her buzzing cell phone.
“You answer this,” she said, handing it to him. Hannah’s number flashed on the screen.
He suddenly panicked. “I can’t! I’m too drunk! I’ll say something maudlin! You have to pretend I’m not here. No, wait. Pretend you’ve never met me.” He handed it back.
Rolling her eyes, Miriam answered the phone. “NAN, my Nan, my favorite most beautiful cousin.” There was a beat of silence. “Why, yes, I do know a birthday boy, and I think he wants to talk to you.”
She put the phone up to his ear, and Hannah’s voice sang “Happy Birthday” to him, making all the hairs on his body stand up. Suddenly he wanted to cry from missing her, and with relief that she’d called, and also to beg her to be here, to be his birthday present. He wanted to scream from the rooftops that she should be his girl, but he wasn’t quite drunk enough for that. Not with Miriam’s curious eyes on him.
