Chapter 33
Ella
Friday
“There’s the New York Hard Rock Cafe, and there’s a great Italian restaurant close to your hotel.
Oh! And you have to have dinner at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, where the waiters suddenly jump onto the benches and start a musical in the middle of the place while you’re eating!
It’s so good. There are so many amazing places to eat in New York.
Oh, I wish I could have gone with you,” my sister says over the phone.
She kept making her infinite list of restaurants I should go to, either assuming I would be staying a whole month or eating ten meals a day.
“I’m sorry. You’re so indecisive, and I’m not helping,” she says, cutting herself off from yet another food recommendation, and it makes me laugh.
I’ve been here before. New York is not far from Evermere. But Mira’s been here way more times than I have, hence her million suggestions for my solo trip.
“Well…” I say, “it’s late, and my brain can’t think when it’s hungry.”
I’m just walking around with my phone pressed to my ear, completely distracted from the world, feeling like a true New Yorker.
“But thank you, Mira.” I smile on my end of the line, and I know she knows it, even though she can’t see me.
“I miss spending time with you,” she says.
“Me too!”
She’s still the one of the two of us who finds it easiest to show physical or verbal affection. But as the years go by, I’ve started learning from her, because little sisters have a lot to teach us too. “I promise I’ll visit you soon,” I say.
My sister is living in our hometown, where she fell madly in love with our next-door neighbor, Leonard.
Who knew that love had been waiting for her all her life behind the next door?
They now run their event planning and catering business.
This successful business has never stopped her from travelling around the world, which she loves to do.
Things are going well enough for them to manage a team of employees remotely while they’re away, or to plan the events they agree to take on flexibly.
And that’s why she knows so much more about New York, where I’m feeling kind of lost right now.
“Thank you for the list you made for me of places to visit,” I continue. “I’m starting tomorrow! I’ll enjoy these two free days.”
“That’s great! You enjoy your alone time. You deserve it. Now go to that Italian place I told you about, the one close to your hotel. Then you can put on your fancy hotel robe after a relaxing bubble bath.”
Mira is already imagining the whole scenario as if it were hers. But honestly, it all sounds good to me too. The conference starts in two days, and I could use some relaxing moments before then.
“Let’s plan a trip here someday, just the two of us,” I suggest. The best scenario possible would be me and my sister walking the streets of New York, impersonating Carrie Bradshaw. Just us and the 8.3 million busy New Yorkers.
“Yes! Let’s!” she answers enthusiastically, like I’ve just given her something to dream about for the next 24 hours straight. “Enjoy your evening. And use your phone to take pictures!”
I stop my feet when we hang up our phone call. I look around, trying to place myself in this city that never sleeps.
“Left,” I murmur. “That’s definitely where I just came from.”