Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
He turns and points at a sign with a giant M&M on it. “Let’s go that way. We need to cross the street, so we need the crosswalk anyway.”
I nod, and we start walking that way. “Look,” I say as we approach the corner. “Classic New York hot dogs!”
He cracks a smile. “We can get one if you want for the experience, but I thought we’d grab pizza for lunch. It’s always good at the hole-in-the-wall places you’ll find all over the city.”
The signal changes, and we start walking along with a dozen other people.
The shop we’re crossing to doesn’t just have an M&M billboard like I initially thought. It has a row of giant M&Ms on the corner of the building. It’s a whole M&M store.
“I figure we’ll hit this one first, then double back to the Hershey store.”
“The Hershey store?” I ask, delighted.
“I told you I’d take you to a candy store,” he says. “We’ll do the touristy Times Square stuff first, get pizza, and then when we’re ready to leave the chaos, we’ve got some shopping to do. You need shoes to wear tonight, but I thought you’d want to try them on. I have a pair on hold. If you don’t like those, you can pick out something else. I’ve never seen you wear heels, so I wasn’t sure if you liked them.”
I shake my head. “I don’t. I’ll wear a short heel, but the really tall ones? Nope.”
He nods. “That was my assumption when I realized you didn’t own any. The sandals I picked out for you have a small heel, but you can see how they feel. You won’t have to walk that far in them. It’s probably about a ten-minute walk from our hotel. That’s why I booked us a place in Times Square. Typically, I wouldn’t stay right in Times Square, but I thought you’d get a kick out of it, and it suits my purposes for tonight.”
He lets go of my hand to open the door, and I thank him as we head inside.
___
There are too many fun stores in our immediate vicinity, so we end up hitting the M&M store, the Hershey store, the Disney store, a blind box store, and something called the Line Friends store, which has many adorable items. I buy myself a mug for my new apartment and a gray New York T-shirt, and I get Shaley a cute frog-face plushy pillow thing that I’m convinced she’ll love. We also stop at a souvenir shop where I get a NYC bookmark, a magnet, and a couple of postcards to hang on my refrigerator. We pass several hot dog carts, and Tor has to drag me away from them. Not because I’m hungry, but because they’re iconic. He assures me they’re just cheap boiled hot dogs, and I’m not missing anything, but I’m not entirely convinced.
Vendors are set up along the sidewalk selling all sorts of things. Artists have paintings and prints for sale, and other vendors have knockoff handbags and sunglasses.
I take a picture of the Broadway street sign. In fact, I take a lot of pictures of a lot of things. We get pizza for lunch, and Tor was right about that, too—it’s delicious.
We end up buying so much stuff that we go back to the hotel to unload before we continue with the rest of our sightseeing and shopping.
Once we get away from Times Square, the crowds thin out, and I feel like I can relax a little. I held his hand through most of Times Square because there were so many people. I was afraid we’d get separated.
Now that the crowds aren’t so thick, we can actually talk and hear each other better, too.
“I’m surprised you didn’t take me to Boston,” I tell him as we make our way down 7th Avenue.
He glances over at me. “How come? Did you want to go to Boston?”
“I don’t know,” I say with a little shrug. “I just know you mentioned moving there at the end of summer, so…”
“Boston’s not too far away. A lot of people who live there take day trips or weekend trips to hang out here. Personally, I’m happy to visit, but I don’t think I’d want to live here. Boston’s a little quieter than New York. A good middle ground. I figured this would be a more exciting surprise date, though. Boston’s where we’ll live, so we’ll have plenty of time to explore the area.”
I crack a smile, but I’m not amused. “Where you’ll live, at least. I don’t want to talk about this today,” I tell him, glancing over apologetically. “You planned such a nice date, and I don’t want to ruin it with reality.”
“This is our reality, Cassie. We are moving to Boston together. We just have to lay out what that looks like for you.”