Chapter 27
‘My feet,’ said Caz, pulling off her boots and collapsing backwards onto the monstrous bed. ‘I thought I was fit running round after the twins, but that was extreme.’
‘You’re such lightweights,’ said Amy, picking through the bags on the bed to inspect her purchases.
Caz threw a decorative pillow at her before collapsing back onto the bed.
‘Come on,’ said Amy, with a groan. ‘You can’t flake out now, we haven’t even had dinner yet.’
‘I don’t know how you can think of eating, that lunch was more food than I usually eat in a week.’ I rubbed my belly, straining to break free of my jeans that usually were a little loose.
‘You know how hard it was to get those reservations for the diner. We need to leave here in an hour. I’m going to jump in the shower. Power naps only,’ she said, pointing a finger at us accusingly.
I saluted and fell onto my back, my body sinking into the firm mattress. It was so comfortable that I didn’t want to ever move again.
The shower started to run and I rolled onto my side to face Caz who was flat on her back on the other side of the super king bed we were sharing.
‘Do you feel like staging a mutiny and just advocating for room service?’
Caz rolled over and propped her head up with her hand.
‘We’d never hear the end of it.’
‘True. I guess I shouldn’t moan. Thanks to Amy, we’ve seen more of this place than I thought we possibly could in two days. I honestly don’t know what we’ve got left to see tomorrow,’ I said.
‘I know, it does feel like we’ve walked every square mile.’
‘Perhaps we can head out across the Brooklyn Bridge; you’re supposed to get great views of the city.’
‘Hmm,’ said Caz, ‘you know Amy. She’ll have everything planned.’
‘Yeah, I guess so.’
Amy always did love to take charge, but since she’d become a mum she’d become even more of a planner.
I guess that she needed to, working full time and slotting in everyone’s activities.
It had almost come second nature to her.
And whilst I was grateful that she’d organised everything, part of me missed the travelling we’d have done in our twenties: ambling around a city, moving from bar to bar, picking up food in interesting-looking places along the way.
But this trip had been different, tickets purchased, and time slots were booked, and some of the restaurants had been reserved months in advance.
‘This has been just what I needed, some quality time with my girls,’ said Caz. ‘I feel like I’m surrounded by boys all the time, at home, at work.’
‘You really are outnumbered.’ Jacob and Max were the cutest little boys. It often felt when visiting that Nick was trying to relive his childhood with dens or imaginary explorations, the three of them heading off on chairs masquerading as boats to discover new lands.
‘Speaking of work, have you thought any more about moving jobs?’
Lately I’d really started to notice how much I’d outgrown my job.
It had happened a while ago, but I’d been distracted by caring for Mum, the pandemic and then falling in and out of love with Andrew.
Only now that I’d had six months without him and time to really think about what I wanted from life, I’d realised that I needed to move on.
‘I’ve actually started applying for a few things.’ I winced as I said it. I’d wanted to keep it a secret, just telling people when I’d changed jobs.
‘What? Why didn’t you say?’
‘I don’t know really. It’s been so long since I applied for anything, I’m worried that I won’t get any interviews.’
‘What, with all your experience? You’ll be turning down the offers,’ said Caz, shaking her head.
I wished I shared her optimism.
‘Are you applying locally?’
‘Yeah, but I’ve also applied for a couple of jobs in London too. I’m not saying I’d move or anything, but, you know, these days so much is hybrid that I’d only need to commute a few days a week.’
‘Would you not want to move?’ she asked softly.
‘I’m not sure now’s the best time.’ I didn’t often mention what was going on with my mum to the girls; it was too painful to talk about it. There was a sort of unspoken inevitability about what would happen to her, and we all knew that I wouldn’t be leaving the area until any of that happened.
‘Well, homeworking makes all the difference. Nick loves it. I think mainly because he gets to blast his death metal round the house whilst no one’s in.’
‘I still can’t picture Nick liking death metal.’
She wrinkled up her nose.
‘I might love him, but I don’t have to love his music collection.’ She laughed and then leaned back on her pillow. ‘My whole body is aching.’
‘Mine too.’ I tried to stretch out my tight calves. ‘What do you reckon Amy would do if we were fast asleep when she came out of the bathroom?’
‘Wake up your arses!’ she said, appearing with a towel wrapped around her and a hotel plastic shower cap on her head. ‘Come on, we’ve got to make the most of tonight.’
‘Why? It’s not like it’s our last night,’ I groaned. ‘We could have room service, and all get into bed and watch something on TV.’
I went to pick up the remote and Amy gently tugged it out of my hands.
‘Get in the shower, you’ll feel better. And don’t you be going to sleep.’
Caz held up her hands. ‘I’m awake. I’m awake.’
She rolled over towards me again.
‘I don’t think your plan is going to work. Do you want to shower first, or will I?’
Two hours later we were seated in a restaurant that I didn’t even know how to begin to describe.
The décor was exactly as you’d imagine a 1950’s American diner: checkerboard floor tiles, red cushioned booths, and a metal-lined Formica bar with stools that ran along the back with the open kitchen beyond.
But that wasn’t the half of it. The most impressive part was the staff that kept breaking into song.
‘Isn’t this amazing?’ said Amy, in between singing along with the waitress to ‘Defying Gravity’.
‘It’s definitely stopping me from falling asleep.’
I laughed at Caz; there’d be no chance of that.
‘I don’t know how you found all these places.’ I sipped on my Bellini, which was nothing short of delicious.
‘You would not believe the amount of posts on Mumsnet dedicated to NYC itineraries. And this place is impossible to avoid on Instagram. I think every mum influencer and their dog have been here. It’s like the thing to do.
And unlike most things that you see on Instagram, this is definitely as fun as it looks on the grid. ’
‘Definitely,’ I said, nodding. ‘Well done you for such dedicated research.’
‘Ha, thank you. You know you should tell Paul that. He’s always giving off about how much time I spend on my phone. Even though he’s the worst.’
‘That’s exactly like Nick. He’ll be looking down his nose at me watching TikTok and then he’ll be refreshing his football scores.’
‘Do you ever wonder what we would have been like at uni if we’d had TikTok?’ I asked. We’d always loved our choreographed dances and I could see us all cramming into one of our tiny rooms trying to perfect the moves to the latest craze.
‘We would have been a nightmare. We’d have been all over campus dancing in the middle of the street,’ said Amy, shaking her head. ‘And can you imagine the kind of things we would have worn?’
‘I’m glad we only started using Facebook after we left. We used to take far too many photos as it was, let alone if we’d been posting them.’
‘Oh god, and could you imagine those pictures being up there in public and being reminded about them on an annual basis?’
‘That photo of you with pizza boy,’ said Caz, pointing at Amy.
I shrieked with laughter and Amy’s eyes almost popped out of her head.
‘How many love bites did you give him?’ I asked, through the giggles.
‘We promised we wouldn’t talk about that night.’ She hid her head in her hands, trying to fight the laughter.
‘And there was that photo of you when you ripped your skirt,’ I said to Caz.
‘And you grinding on that pole.’
Now it was my turn to recoil in horror. Our uni days had been amazing but cringey to look back on.
‘You know Paul’s got copies of all those photos, I could scan them and put them on Facebook,’ said Amy.
‘You will not.’ Caz glared at her with a stern look. ‘It was bad enough when Noah tagged us in those photos a few years ago. I still haven’t forgiven him for that.’
I shuddered. I’d done my best to untag myself, but anyone who was friends with Noah on Facebook would still be able to pick us out of the line-up.
‘Speaking of Noah,’ I said, ‘do you know what he planned for his birthday in the end? Did he head back to Costa Rica? I feel like we haven’t had an update in ages.’
‘Yeah, I think he’s been volunteering somewhere there, the place with the turtles or was it the cloud forest? You know what he’s like, his plans seem to change at the drop of a hat.’
I nodded. He’d changed so much over the last few years since him and Mags split. At times I felt guilty for what I’d said to him outside the Tate Modern, but seeing what he’d achieved on his own, I knew it had been the right thing for him.
‘I’ve got a chopped salad,’ said a waitress, holding out enormous bowls. ‘And two Mexican salads.’
Caz and I raised our hands ‘Mexican for us.’
‘These are ginormous, and there was me thinking the salad would be the lighter option.’
The waitress cackled like she’d heard it all before, and after checking we didn’t need anything else she went off.
‘I think the food has been my favourite part of this trip,’ said Amy, tucking in, her face exploding as she tasted it.
‘And there was me thinking spending time with us would have been your favourite,’ I teased.
‘Well, that’s a given, but on top of your scintillating company, it’s been so nice to eat out all the time and not have to think about what’s for dinner.’
‘Only because you thought about it months ago when you booked.’