to spend several more minutes—or days or weeks—kissing him. But if Stevie was there, I had to be there too.
“Yeah,” Cary said, smiling at me, looking a little dazed. He gave me one quick kiss, then stepped back, toward his bike. “I have to go too, actually. I’m late for work. You know my number, right?”
“I Cruise!” I called, and he laughed.
“You got it.” We just smiled at each other for a moment, New Yorkers passing between us, and then I waved at him quickly and made myself turn away. I looked back before I pulled the door open, and froze the picture in my mind—Cary, standing by his scooter in the snow, smiling wide, waving back at me. I gave him a nod, then pulled open the door and hurried into Grand Central, trying not to skip.
I picked up my pace as I hustled toward the main area. For once, I didn’t want to be late. I wanted to be right on time to meet Stevie.
Because she was going to be there, I told myself as I hurried toward the clock, half running.
Wasn’t she?
CHAPTER 27
Stevie
The taxi line outside Grand Central was deserted. I passed it as I hurried toward the door and pulled it open. I glanced at my watch, then started to walk faster.
Past the entrance to the subway, past the closed bakery, making the left turn before Hudson News, still open. Grand Central wasn’t bustling the way that it had been late this afternoon, when it had been peak commuting time. There were a few people walking next to me, and one guy leaning against the wall outside the room of Metro-North ticket kiosks, yawning as he looked at his phone. Even the central area was more deserted, which meant it was easier to see the clock right there in the center.
I looked up at the clock just as the minute hand ticked over to 11:11.
My heart hammering, I started to walk around the clock, which was big enough that you couldn’t see the other side of it. And though I couldn’t see Kat, that didn’t mean she wasn’t there.
Had I been crazy to think that she would be here? That she was sorry too, that she’d missed me tonight as much as I’d missed her?
And when I was starting to lose hope, when my stomach was starting to plunge with disappointment that maybe I’d been wrong about this, when I was on the opposite side of the clock from where I’d started, I stopped short.
There was a girl in a long navy coat. She was tall, with fine blond hair. Her back was to me and she was shifting her weight from foot to foot and I could tell, without even looking at her face, that she was nervous.
And for once in her life, she was early.
I wanted to run up and hug her, but Grand Central Station, late at night, is not the best place to do that, and there was no need to give my best friend a heart attack, not when I’d just found her again. “Kat,” I called, and she spun around. Surprise and happiness passed over her face one by one, erasing the worry that had been there.
“Oh my god!” she yelled, and ran toward me, pulling me into a tight hug.
I hugged her back, laughing even though I didn’t know why. I felt like I could finally let out a breath I’d been holding all night. “Hi, frond.”
“Hey, frand,” she said, and I could feel her laughing as she pulled back from me. “You came!”
“Of course,” I said, smiling at her, on the verge of crying—which was ridiculous, since I’d spent far too much time doing that tonight already. “So did you.”
“Our contingency plan!” She was smiling wide, like she was as happy to see me as I was to see her.
We had shown up for each other. I knew we had a lot to catch up on and things we needed to say, but for the moment, that was enough. More than enough.
“I’m so sorry, Stevie.” Kat’s words were tumbling out like she couldn’t say them fast enough. “I never should have lied to you about the play. I never should have chosen the play over you, and I’m sorry about the phone, and everything I said. I didn’t mean it, any of it—”
“I’m sorry too,” I said. And then we were hugging again, and Kat was wiping her nose and none of the people passing through Grand Central