One night in NYC - Part 2

The night was breezy and dark. The towering skyscrapers blocked out much of the moonlight. I’ve always wondered about that reputation that New York is the city that never sleeps. Perhaps it’s just the areas I’ve been in, but the city certainly shuts down, and for many parts of the city, quite early at that. Maybe I shouldn’t believe everything Will Smith says on his songs.

There were no businesses opened as Emma and I walked towards the train stop. Our path took us through a retail neighborhood with some fancy high end stores. ‘I have 3 of those at home!’ Emma pointed to the photo of an obviously expensive looking piece of jewelry. With just the street lights radiating above, that warm and contagious smile was clearly visible as she pointed to other items in the store.

Emma had stories for each thing she pointed out. Jokingly suggesting how she received each as a present or how she knew someone who had to purchase something for someone in a soap opera-ish situation. I was not about to be outdone by made up stories. This is one of my favorite pass times. Making up situations and stories in things I see around me. My favorite has always been doing this at the mall or at airports. Making up stories as to why someone is purchasing something or where someone is going and why. I’ve always enjoyed the stories, especially the made up variety. I think stories are what make memories worth while. The story is what makes an experience memorable. Even if it’s not true.

As we walked down the street, we started exchanging stories on the items in each store. Soon we were creating stories together on who buys these ridiculously expensive things. The conversation was fast and smooth. We were talking one after each other like we were telling a story to the cold empty city.

The night grew colder and windier as we walked past each city block. I was looking at a store window when I felt a nudge on my left arm. I turn to see Emma had wrapped her arms around mine to keep warm. When I saw her around my arms, no weather could have cool down my beating heart.

It was beginning to get pretty late in the night. We finally arrived at the train station and walked to the platform waiting for our train. There was only one other person waiting at this train stop. He was standing across the tracks with his head bopping to the sound of his music. The interesting thing is that he wasn’t listening to the music on headphones as everyone does. The person across the tracks was carrying an old school boom box. Wow, talk about a throw back thought to myself. I think the music may have even been coming from a cassette.

There were no train to be seen anywhere. At least there was a sound track for this moment now. The music was some nice trance dance songs. Mostly beats. I wanted to yell more beats!, but didn’t think that was appropriate at the moment. I was thinking. A mostly deserted train station with blaring beats. Can’t beat that.

Our arms were still locked together. Even though it wasn’t windy in the subway, the temperature continued to drop as we stood waiting. Our bodies were naturally swaying to the music. Even though we couldn’t really hear the music all that well, the beats were coming through loud and clear. Suddenly, the song that was playing ended and silence took over the platform.

During this time standing on the platform, a million things were racing through my head. It was all about what do I do? This is the first time I’ve met Emma, but she’s so wonderful. Should I be doing something? Should I just let it be and see? I don’t want to do anything stupid, but I also didn’t want to not take a chance. I am definitely not the best judge on this type of situations as my history will tell you. No situation is too good or easy for me to screw up. There were plenty of scenarios and thoughts racing through my head as to what would happen if I did or did not do anything.

Right when I was in the middle of another ‘what to do’ thought, I heard music coming back from across the tracks. This time it wasn’t the beats that we were hearing before. I could hear horns, brass to be exact. After a few measures, it was obvious that it was a very familiar jazz song. The song began with a loud fanfare, but then settled into a nice smooth groove.

I wasn’t sure what was going through my head. I think the adrenaline had taken over as I fought every nervous impulse in my body. I took a deep breath, and I loosen the lock on our arm. I turned our bodies around so we were facing each other in a swift motion. I put my arms around her waist and began moving to the music. She was expectedly a little surprised by the move, but without missing a beat, she moved along side to the music.

I was terrified to look down to see her reaction. There’re a number of reactions going through my head. This could easily go from a good night out situation up to this point to super creepy. I figured I should look to see if I needed to stop and get totally embarrassed. I looked down to see her face. I felt my heart was about to jump out of my body.

My eyes were met with a big grin on her face. What a relief. Not enough to slow my pounding heart, but I was so glad. After I saw her reaction, I reached for her hand moved her around our little dance square. A couple of spins were involved and more dancing ensued. A silly grin was permanently planted on my face as we moved around and laughed at ourselves. We danced for what seemed like an eternality. This was a moment I never wanted to end, but the music began fading out as the sound of the train grew louder.

To be Continued….