“It’s nice to meet y’all.” His typical slight accent rolls out nice and thick, like honey spilling over the edge of a spoon. He’s clearly bringing out the big guns.

“Good to meet you, too.” Mark is trying to look anywhere but at Ryan’s eye, yet he can’t seem to look anywhere else except Ryan’s eye.

Silence stretches miles long until I jump in, taking Ryan’s arm. “Okay, so we should head out. Why don’t we just grab the bill and get going?”

“Sure,” he answers, smiling easily at the uncomfortable couple in front of us. “Y’all have a good night.”

There’s no mistaking it. Mark is dead focused on Ryan’s left eyeball. “Yeah, you, too,” he says quietly.

I pull Ryan away and try to hide my victorious smile. We arrive back at our table and he draws back my chair.

“So I know you said your ex was nice, but he seemed strange, if you ask me.”

I sit back down, distracting myself from laughing by looking for our waitress as he takes his seat across from me.

“He did seem a little off,” I agree. “He was probably intimidated by you.”

Ryan eats up my answer as he resumes the game and reaches for one of the last available blocks. “I’m happy I could help. Now, aren’t you glad you went over?”

“I am glad,” I answer truthfully. “I’m really, really glad.”

Something in my voice makes him look at me longer than he should as he pulls out his block. The tower topples with a deafening crash, scattering all over the table and onto the floor, drawing the eyes and cheers of everyone around us.

I sit back in my chair with a satisfied smirk. “Jenga.”

5

After leaving The Wharf, we head back in the direction of Ryan’s hotel. We move down 41st Street at a leisurely pace, and I take a deep breath in as I catch the scent of hot falafels from a nearby cart.

“Do you like being back in New York?” I ask, looking straight ahead.

“I do. I always liked it here.”

“That’s probably because New Yorkers are so cool.”

“Are you referring to yourself?”

“No, but it’s nice to know that when you think of cool New York people you instinctively think of me.”

Ryan looks over at me with an unreadable gaze. “You know, in some ways you’re just as I remember you in college, but in other ways, you’re completely different.”

“How so?”

“You’re more confident. You were so shy back then.”

“I’m still shy,” I assure him.

“You don’t seem like it.”

“I’m better at hiding it now.”

Ryan stays quiet long enough that I look up and catch him staring. He gives me a small smile and turns forward.