WALK WITH YOU, CHAPTER 8

Walking up the pedestrian path of the bridge the lights of Manhattan come into view.

Beautiful twinkling, the city that never sleeps at her finest. Evan tells me about a spot on Washington Ave. where you can take a great photo of the bridge but of course my camera is still in my condo, so that‟s not happening. How does he know so much about this city even though he‟s not from here?

I have to ask, “Do you come to New York often?” “Why do you ask?” Always suspicious this one is.

“You know so much about what‟s around here and you seem to have a pretty good idea where you‟re going most of the time.” Relaxing a fraction, he says, “I‟ve been here a few times. Mostly for work and I‟m usually here for a few months at a time so I guess that‟s how I‟ve become so familiar with it. This place has a way of growing on you and you don‟t even know it.”

If that‟s not the truth I don‟t know what is. This city has been capturing my heart ever since I landed. The need to know Evan better is starting to get on my nerves so I try to stick with questions that won‟t make him uncomfortable.

“Where are you from originally?” His faces lights up with mischief and he looks like a little boy when he answers, “Boston. I miss it. Wish I could live there full time with my family but my work calls for me to be in L.A. most of the time.”

You can tell he‟s pretty close to his family by the way his mouth twitches upward when he mentions them. “Do you get to go back home a lot?”

“Not as often as I would like, but yeah I go back as much as possible. Especially since my niece and nephew are there. I miss their faces.” A huge white smile spans his face and I think my heart just flipped.

We slow our pace a little bit on the bridge to take in the view of the East River and Lower Manhattan. A slight cool breeze stirs the still warm air and I close my eyes taking it in. I can feel Evan walking beside me, feel him like I‟ve known him for years and we‟ve walked beside each other our whole lives. It‟s a weird feeling, I‟ve only ever had that feeling with one other person and that‟s Ella. I instantly hit it off with Shannon and Jon when I first met them but with Ella it felt like she had been around since the day I was born. That same feeling has been around ever since I fell onto the tall, lean muscle of a man walking next to me. Opening my eyes, I find him staring at me with a smug grin on his face.

“I did it again, didn‟t I?”

“Yep! Off in never Neverland once again.” I barely hear him say “Where do you go Wendy?” ever so softly as he means to say it to himself mostly. I‟m not usually this comfortable with strangers where I let my guard down entirely. It‟s starting to make me just that -uncomfortable.

Noticing my shields going up he jogs ahead and over to the edge of the pedestrian walkway climbing up the chain-link so his head barely sees over the top. Of course I would never be able to see over it so my view is permanently obscured by fence. He calls me over to where he is.

“Come see this Izzy!”

Walking up to see, really see, the view of what‟s ahead I can‟t help but whisper “it‟s breathtaking.”

Feeling his eyes on me he replies “Sure is.”

I turn my head to look at him and he is staring off into the view. I could have sworn… Looking back at the city I again replay the events of the past couple of hours. So much has happened already; what else could possibly transpire?