The whole day. Including dinner. Audrey buzzed with excitement, but she couldn’t. She should go into work. She really should. And she had left her work phone at home. She couldn’t even check it in the bathroom. He bicycled ahead towards the river. But she’d regretted it the last time she had ditched their date to write a brief. She might not get another chance. She could work really late on Sunday and Monday.

She caught up. “I’m impressed. I love going for bike rides. I did a semester abroad in Amsterdam and I loved that I could bike everywhere.”

“One of my best summer jobs was working as a travel editor for my college’s travel guide. I covered Holland one year, so I spent the summer there. I loved it,” Jake said. They passed the bronze statue of Eleanor Roosevelt and entered Riverside Park.

“My semester abroad at the University of Amsterdam ranks as one of the best times of my life,” she said. She’d been “off.” The classes had been stimulating yet doable.

As they entered the biking lane by the Hudson River, Audrey glanced over at the rippled blue water. A few sailboats floated out and about; a tugboat chugged up the Hudson. Across the river, New Jersey’s coasts were green forest with tall beige buildings poking out like sentinels.

“I did a year abroad in Australia. Great fun. If music hadn’t taken off, I might’ve moved back there after college.”

They swapped stories about their adventures abroad, laughing out loud as each sought to impress the other. Jake won. They moved to bike single file to allow another person to pass and then returned to biking next to each other. She breathed in the salty air.

“Okay,” Jake said. “Top five favorite countries that you’d return to in a heartbeat.”

“Holland, United Kingdom, Kenya, Costa Rica, Spain. You?” she asked.

“Australia, Kenya, Vietnam, Italy, Scandinavia.”

“Scandinavia is not a country,” she said.

“Technicality. It’s a way of living. I covered Denmark the year after Holland.”

“Not Sweden?”

“Lost out to the guy who spoke Swedish,” he said. They bicycled comfortably up the Hudson River.

“What’d you like about their philosophy of living?” she asked.

Jake stopped his bike and looked out over the river: “That you should take the time to enjoy life and it’s not all about making more money. It’s about making time for friends and your relationships. Something hygge can be a good meal, candles, and friends over.” He turned to look at her as if to gauge her reaction.

Audrey, stopping her bike next to his, returned his gaze. “Yes,” she said. “I wish I knew how to be better at that.” She did. But today was a step in that direction.

He nodded. Their eyes met as if some bond had just formed. They cycled up the path.