I Think We Missed Our Turn - L.A. Witt Page 0,15

onto the road. No shit, Siri. “How about if I get us past New York, and you take over once we get to Connecticut?” That seemed like enough time for him to either doze for a bit or caffeinate enough to keep going.

“Sounds good to me.” He sipped his coffee. “I bought a couple of iced coffees and a Five Hour too, so those should wake me up.”

“Great,” I muttered as I pulled out of the parking lot. “You’ll be coked up and—”

Armin laughed and gave my arm a playful smack. “Shut up. I’ll be fine.”

I chuckled. “I’m just saying—if your eyes are bugging out and you’re shaking, you’re not driving.”

“Pfft. I’ll be fine.”

“Says you.”

“Yeah, says me.” He huffed with mock annoyance. “Fine. You can drive the whole way.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

We exchanged playful glares, then both laughed, and he went back to drinking his coffee while I drove. It was nice to see him waking up a bit. I was still worried about him, still wondering why he obviously hadn’t slept, but he was relaxing, so I did too.

The drive from Philly to New York was, theoretically, under two hours. Between the weather and the traffic—and especially a couple of bad accidents—it was closer to four.

By the time we started getting close to New York, the morning commute was long since over, but there was still plenty of traffic.

As we crawled toward the George Washington Bridge, the famous skyline was almost invisible thanks to the weather. I could still make out a few buildings, though.

“Man, it’s been a minute since I’ve been there,” I said.

“Yeah?” Armin turned to me. “How long?”

“Two years, I think?” I glanced at him. “You ever been?”

“Couple of times, yeah. But it’s been a while.” He laughed softly. “First time, we were some dumb kids, and it showed.”

“Color me surprised.”

“Ha, ha. You’re funny.”

I snickered. “So what happened? You guys get lost or something?”

“A few times, but I mean, who doesn’t when they’re in a city they don’t know?” He leaned down and rifled around in the plastic bag at his feet before sitting up with a bottled iced coffee in his hand. As he shook it, he said, “When one of my friends turned twenty-one, he wanted to go to New York, so we drove up.” Armin groaned. “Ugh, we should’ve flown. Or taken the train. Something.”

I laughed. “Anyone ever tell you not to drive in New York unless you have to?”

“Yeah—after I got back.” He rolled his eyes as he brought his drink to his lips. “Thanks, Dad.”

Chuckling, I said, “It isn’t like this”—I gestured at the throngs of traffic—“is a big secret.”

“Bite me,” he muttered. “The traffic wasn’t even that bad. It was finding a place to park.”

I grimaced. “Ooh. That’ll get you every time.”

“Right? Especially since we were all broke, so we got the cheapest hotel we could find, and of course it didn’t have parking. So we had to park on the street, like, five blocks away.”

“And it probably cost enough that you should’ve just gotten a place with valet parking.”

From his theatrical groan, I wasn’t far off the mark.

“Once we got there and had the logistics taken care of, though? We had a blast.” He looked at me. “What about you? When you came up?”

“It was fun.” I shrugged, keeping my attention fixed on the cars inching toward the bridge ahead of us. “Probably would’ve been more fun if we’d gone on our own, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“So, I went a couple of years ago. Chad’s got a buddy who lives there, and he said he’d show us around.” I was kind of proud of how much I didn’t flinch at the mention of my ex. That probably meant I was getting over him even faster than I thought I would. “But the guy was such a snob about tourists.”

“How so?”

“He just turned up his nose at anything touristy. But like, we were tourists. Neither of us had ever been there. So like, just indulge us if we want to see the firehouse from Ghostbusters or take selfies in Times Square, you know?”

“Ugh, that would’ve driven me nuts. I mean, the touristy stuff can get old, but if it’s your first time in New York…” He threw up his hand. “Who doesn’t do a Times Square selfie?”

“Right?” I tsked and shook my head. “Wasn’t like we were there on New Year’s, you know? But he wanted to take us to all these hipster breweries and the restaurants that, as he put it, ‘aren’t