16. Olivia
OLIVIA
“All right.” Olivia stood in front of the elevator with her hands on her hips.
She’d gone back and forth about what to wear and settled on her own jeans and T-shirt, laundered the previous day.
She’d been tempted to loop her camera around her neck to take pictures, but had decided not to risk looking too much like a tourist. Instead, she’d spent too long braiding her hair and putting on makeup, just enough to bring out her eyes.
She still wanted her new, temporary husband to think she was pretty.
“Where are we going first?” She turned her gaze to Leo, who was standing beside her. He’d also opted for jeans and a T-shirt, which made him look less like a billionaire and more like a guy she might have run into at the grocery store or the park. It made her like him even more.
“Breakfast, obviously,” Leo said.
“Obviously,” Olivia replied with a smile. “What’s for breakfast?”
“I told you last night; no spoilers about the day’s activities. I want you to be surprised.”
“With you, I always am,” Olivia said. She nudged his shoulder with her own. “Like when we woke up handcuffed together. That was a surprise.”
“Let’s hope today doesn’t get that wild,” Leo said. “Unless…” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, and Olivia laughed — though part of her wanted him to finish that sentence. Just then, the elevator arrived, and they got in.
Down on the street, Leo led her a few blocks on foot to a bagel shop with a line that wound out the door and down the sidewalk. Olivia looked at the line with some dismay.
“This must be a popular place.” She’d hoped to spend her first day out in New York exploring, not standing in line, but maybe this was unavoidable in such a crowded city.
“Sure is.”
To Olivia’s surprise, Leo bypassed the line, going instead to a small window beside the main door. He rapped once with his knuckles and the window slid open, revealing a smiling man in an apron.
“Leo!” The man in the window had a faint Slavic accent.
“Igor!”
“The usual?” the man, Igor, asked.
“Yes, for me. And what would you like, Olivia?”
“Whatever you’re having,” Olivia said.
“Another usual, but with cream and sugar in the coffee, please,” Leo said. Olivia was touched that he remembered how she took her coffee.
“Coming right up.” The window slid shut. Then, a moment later, it reopened, and Igor handed out a paper bag. Leo handed him a few bills, and they continued down the street.
“How did you meet Igor?” Olivia asked.
“I love that bagel place,” Leo said. “Everyone does — it’s the best in the city. After I started coming regularly, Igor got to know me and offered to serve me right out the window so I didn’t have to wait for ages in line.”
“Wow,” Olivia shook her head. “I’d never even think to ask for something like that.”
“Ask and you shall receive,” Leo quoted.
“Maybe if you’re rich.” Olivia glanced at him. “Anyway, aren’t we going to eat?”
“We are, but not quite yet,” Leo said. “We have a destination breakfast this morning.”
“All right then.”
After just a few blocks of walking, the city gave way to rolling green grass, tall trees, and winding paths.
They were in Central Park. Olivia spotted a bench in the near distance and was about to suggest they go there, when a carriage pulled up in front of them.
It was shiny and black, and it looked as if it had rolled straight out of the 1800s.
The carriage was drawn by two white horses with shiny coats and bright eyes.
“Right on time,” Leo said appreciatively.
“Of course, sir.” The driver opened the door to the carriage, and Leo held out a hand to help Olivia in. She took it and climbed the steps, sitting on the wide, padded seat at the back of the open-topped carriage.
“Is this the destination you mentioned?” she whispered.
“It is. The best way to see Central Park is by horse-drawn carriage. And it’s the best view for our breakfast.”
As the driver coaxed the horses on and they started clopping down the wide path, Leo opened the bag and handed Olivia a smaller bag and a coffee in a paper cup.
The smaller bag contained an everything bagel filled with what tasted like garlic cream cheese.
The coffee was perfectly sweet and creamy, just how Olivia liked it.
“Yum,” Olivia said.
“Exactly. There’s a reason it’s my usual.”
Down the path they went. Olivia marveled at the lake, the small zoo, and the playground filled with laughing children.
Central Park was a real oasis amidst the bustle of the city, and she loved it.
It reminded her of the wide Idaho farmland near where she’d grown up.
A few times, she spotted images (a nest of birds above a picnicking family, a single red flower amidst a sea of white ones, a squirrel leaping from a narrow stone wall to a low branch) that she would have liked to photograph. It was an encouraging realization.
The carriage stopped at the far side of the park just after they’d finished their breakfast.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going next?” Olivia asked.
“What do you think?”
“I think you’re going to try to be all mysterious again,” Olivia teased.
“It’s working, isn’t it? Or did you dislike the carriage and bagels?”
“I didn’t mind them,” Olivia said primly, raising her chin to make Leo laugh. It worked, and warmth surged through her chest.
“Then let me lead the way,” Leo instructed.
They set off on foot again, just a few blocks this time, and entered a building.
Olivia scanned the directory by the elevator for a sign of what they might be doing.
Laser tag? French cooking classes? A spa afternoon?
They didn’t stop at any of those, though.
Instead, they rode to the top floor, and the elevator doors opened onto the roof.
Olivia’s jaw dropped. A helicopter, an honest-to-goodness helicopter, was waiting for them on a helipad on top of the building. A man in a uniform smiled as they approached.
“Is this… Are we…” Olivia found herself speechless.
“I hope you aren’t afraid of heights,” Leo said.
“I’m not. I just can’t believe this. I’ve never been in a helicopter before.”
“Well, you told me you wanted to see all the sights,” Leo reminded her. “This is the best way. Trust me.”
“I’ll try.”
They got into the helicopter, fastened their seatbelts, and put on headphones.
Then the helicopter lifted off the rooftop, and the city fell away beneath them.
Gone was the noise of the streets, replaced by the thwack of the helicopter blades.
As they rose, an air current jolted the helicopter, and Olivia instinctively reached for Leo. He squeezed her hand reassuringly.
“This is completely normal,” he told her through their headphones’ intercom.
“Okay.”
Even after the moment of fear wore off, Olivia kept holding Leo’s hand.
The helicopter flew over Central Park, then banked over the river, which sparkled beneath them like a long ribbon. Leo was right. This was the best possible view of the city below.
“There’s the One World Trade Center,” Leo narrated, leaning across her to point. Olivia was just as aware of his shoulder pressing against hers as she was of the gleaming skyscraper below. “That’s the Empire State Building. The Chrysler Building. Oh, can you see Rockefeller Center?”
“Yeah!” Olivia looked down, impressed at how much detail she could see from this height. Was this how it felt to be a bird? She wished again that she had her camera with her to capture the beautiful sights below.
“Now on to the best part,” Leo told her as the helicopter pilot guided them across downtown.
Olivia realized what was happening just as the helicopter turned, filling the window with a close-up view of the Statue of Liberty.
They were flying right at her eye level, close enough to see her brave smile.
Close enough, even, to see tourists at the base of her crown.
A little boy waved to them, and Olivia waved back.
“This is amazing!” she said.
“I know,” Leo grinned at her. “I think so, too. There’s a reason I chose to live in New York City.”
Then they were flying over Ellis Island. To Olivia’s surprise, the helicopter began to descend, finally setting down on a helipad right on the island.
“Here?” she asked.
“Here,” Leo confirmed. The helicopter blades slowly whirred to a halt, and they both thanked the pilot before disembarking. “I thought you might like to look around,” he suggested.
“Yes, please.”
So, for a while, they explored Ellis Island.
Olivia was fascinated, more so than she’d expected.
Although she didn’t know much about her lineage, it was easy to imagine that her great-great-great grandparents might have stood here, signing their names in a ledger, on the precipice of a new life.
She had some idea of how they must have felt.
After a while, Leo beckoned for her to follow him. They went down to the dock, where a handsome yacht was waiting. It towered above them, gleaming white, with windows along the sides and a gangway to the dock.
“Wait…”
“You don’t get seasick, do you?” Leo asked, teasingly.
“No, but… is that for us?”
“Do you even have to ask?” Grinning, Leo led her up the gangplank.
A woman in an all-white uniform ushered them to the top deck, where a single table had been set with gleaming china, cloth napkins, and cutlery.
A single rose in a vase stood in the center of the table, and Olivia wondered if it meant anything.
Had Leo requested the rose? As the yacht slowly began to move across the water, as smooth as a stingray, the woman reappeared with glasses of champagne.
“This is our lunch stop,” Leo told her. “And while we eat, we can see the city from the water.”
“This is amazing,” Olivia shook her head. “I keep saying that, but it’s true. I can’t thank you enough.”
“There’s no need to thank me. It’s your first time in New York — we might as well do it right.”