Enough for the Kellers and Bailey to eat for a week. Finally, with the kitchen clean and the beautiful night beckoning them, Bailey turned to him. “I wish we could take a walk … go somewhere outside. The night’s beautiful.” It was one thing the Kellers’ apartment didn’t have: a balcony.
“Is there roof access?” A sense of adventure brightened Brandon’s expression.
“Ummm,” Bailey tried to remember if the Kellers had ever said anything about the roof. “You know … I’m not sure.”
“Well,” he took her hand and led her to the front door. “Let’s find out.”
Bailey often wondered what life would be like with Brandon if their friendship led to something more serious, more long-term. Marriage, even. Would their lives always be a series of adventures and surprises, the adrenaline rush of escaping paparazzi and searching for hidden places to share their time? Bailey smiled to herself as they hurried into the hall. She wouldn’t mind, that’s for sure. Bailey loved everything about their time together recently — even the chase through Central Park today was fun. He brought a sense of magic to any situation, never knowing where he might show up or what new memories they might make together.
A lifetime of this would be practically perfect, right?
Bailey didn’t stop long enough to answer her own question. She and Brandon tiptoed to the other end of the hallway. “Shhh,” he whispered back at her, his eyes alive with the thrill ahead. He snuck a glance over one shoulder and then the other, pretending that someone might jump out at them at any moment. Bailey had to work to keep her laughter at an appropriately quiet level.
The door at the end of the hall led to a stairwell, and Brandon raised his brow at her. “See? We might be onto something.”
Bailey had no idea how many floors made up the apartment building, but she hoped it wasn’t more than twenty. She could climb stairs all day long, but between laughing and trying to catch her breath, she wasn’t sure how many flights she could take. At first Brandon kept up the light steps and whispers, like he was playing a part in an espionage movie.
But after six floors he began dragging his feet, exaggerating every breath in. “I need … to get … to the gym more.”
Again she was overcome by a bout of laughter, this time strong enough that she grabbed the railing and stopped, bent over. She laughed so hard tears came to her eyes, and when she finally regained her composure enough to move on, she gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. “Quit it … I can’t breathe when I laugh that hard.”
“Risks of hanging out with me, I guess.” He shrugged, again moving lightly up the stairs, the out-of-shape act finished for now.
As it turned out there were eighteen floors in the Kellers’ apartment building. Only then did Brandon stop and turn abruptly to her. “Of course … we could’ve taken the elevator to the eighteenth floor and then looked for roof access.”
Again they both started laughing, holding each other up from the silliness of their walk up the stairs. It was one of those times when a person looking in on them might not understand, a time when every moment seemed funnier than the last thing. Bailey thought about all the hours she’d spent with the Hairspray cast, and how little she’d laughed. A night like this, laughing until she couldn’t see for her tears … was more wonderful than anything else they might’ve done for her tonight.
One last flight of stairs went up after the last floor, and as they rounded the corner they saw a door printed with the words Roof Access.
“Ahaa!” Brandon stopped and thrust his hand in the air. “The explorers are victorious!”
“Exhausted …” Bailey trudged up the last few steps. “But definitely victorious.”
The minute they walked onto the roof, Bailey drew a quick, quiet breath and stopped, shocked at what she was seeing. A garden filled up most of the roof, and through it pathways and benches that gave it a feel of Central Park. There were lights along the winding walkway, and pretty bushes marking every ten feet or so along the railing that ran along the perimeter of the roof. Suddenly Bailey remembered a conversation with Bob a month ago when he’d said something about hanging out with Betty on the roof. Bailey hadn’t given the idea another thought. Where she grew up, people didn’t hang out