FYH Chapter 24

FYH Chapter 24

New York State of Mind

BPOV:
I watched with laughter as Alice nearly tackled Edward to the ground. Then she turned on me and nearly squeezed the life out of me.
"ALICE!" Edward chastised her. "Let her go before you hurt her. Geez, we just saw you the other day you know."
"I know. But I missed you. So where are we going to first?"
"The hotel." I replied. "We thought that you two would want to drop your luggage and get freshened up."
"Sounds good to me." She answered as we watched Edward and Jasper go for the luggage. We had a hotel limo drive us here to make it easier in terms of the luggage and space in the car.
As Edward drove back to the hotel, I sat in the back and talked with my new sister in law. I was telling her about all the plans that we had for the week, from the shows that we had tickets for to the touristy things that we wanted to do. I told her that we had made reservations for all of us to go see the statue of Liberty.
"Wow. You have to make reservations to see the statue now?"
"Yes. Especially if you want to go up to the crown. It's reservation only and they only let 240 per day go up."
"What day are we going there?" She asked nervously looking at her husband who was quietly talking to Edward in the front seat.
"Actually, we made the reservations for the day after tomorrow."
"Oh, good!" She looked so relieved by that. I wondered what that was about.
Over dinner, Jasper and Alice told us the real reason that they came to New York. Wow. If it panned out the way that Jasper thought it would, it would be amazing for his career. But, I had to worry about Esme's reaction. Her last child was considering leaving her now. I did not fail to notice that since Edward met me, all three of her children had decided to leave Phoenix. Although, I had to admit that it would be rather nice to have more family near us after we complete our move to Maine.
Tonight, however, we were going forget everything and go hit a popular night club that the concierge told us about. The guys were adamant that no one was to wonder off alone. Even the guys were to follow that rule. It just wasn't considered safe and we were a little bit afraid of some getting mugged or attacked. We had a wonderful night of drinking and dancing and enjoying each others company.
The next morning we stumbled out of bed a little bit hung over. Edward ordered coffee and brought it to me in the shower. It these little things that he does that show me how much he loved me.
We met up with the others for a bit of breakfast. Jasper ate quickly and then with a kiss to his wife, he took off to meet up with his professor-friend. Since the weather was unseasonably warm today with near record a high 65 degrees, we all decided to take the opportunity to get some fresh air. We donned some light jackets and took off for quick shopping for some essentials before heading into the park. Apparently, we were not the only ones looking to take advantage of the nice weather. The park was crowded with other families.
We spread out the blankets that we just purchased and us girls sat around gossiping while Edward and Ben played with our new Frisbee. Jasper's meeting was only going to take a couple of hours so Alice texted him with our location so that he could join us when he was free. When Jasper finally joined us we ate the picnic lunch that we had picked up at a deli close to the hotel. After lunch we spent a couple of hours playing three on three football and then when we were tired we all sprawled out on the blankets and just talked about everything and nothing until the sun went over and the temperature started to drop and we were getting cold.
As we left the park, we all decided to go our separate ways until dinner. Edward and I wanted to stop by a one-hour photo shop and I knew that Alice and Jasper needed some time to talk before their dinner. They were going to meet with the department head of the professor that was attempting to entice Jasper into coming to NYU. So we really would not be seeing them for the rest of the evening. It was a good thing that our tickets to see Mary Poppins were not until tomorrow night. It was Alice's wish to see the show and Jasper would have been in the dog house big time if she missed her chance to see the live show on Broadway. The rest of us decided to just take in a quiet dinner and a movie.
If the goal of the evening was just to relax and unwind, I have to say we achieved it splendidly. After Edward and I retired to our room, we ran a hot bath in the oversized marble tub and relaxed together talking about everything that we wanted to see in Europe and discussing the issue of what we were going to do with our car. Neither of us thought it was safe to leave it in New York unattended for months. We finally decided to ask Alice and Jasper if they would drive it to Phoenix and we would fly there to pick it up after our overseas trip was over. Actually, that should make his family happy since that would bring the knowledge that they were guaranteed another visit after we returned to the states. Besides, we left our photo albums there because we couldn't bring them all onto the plane with us and it would give us the opportunity to retrieve them and any new ones that Esme made us with all the new pictures that I was hoping to send to her of us in New York, Europe, and Asia.
The next day we met up for an early breakfast before one of the hotel limos took to the dock to board the ferry that would first take us to Ellis Island and then off to the Liberty Island. Edward and I had arranged for us to take the rangers guided tour and then to see the movie on the history of Ellis Island. We still had plenty of time after all that before we were due at Liberty Island so we bummed around the gift shop for a little while. Edward bought me an Ellis Island snow globe and the official Ellis Island cookbook and I bought him a baseball cap and travel mug.
By then we were all getting hungry so we set off for the ferry knowing that that there was a snack shop on board. By the time that the ferry docked at Liberty Island, Edward and I were ready to attempt to find a way to throw Alice and Angela from the crown of the statue. They had decided that the ferry ride was the perfect time to tell any and every embarrassing story about us as we were growing up. It was not that Edward hadn't heard most of these stories already from me, it was that Alice and Angela were not even attempting to be discreet and several times I caught strangers at other table listening in and laughing at our expense. I knew I was not being paranoid because those people were looking right at us, not even trying to hide the fact that they were eavesdropping. I really do not think that either realized how loud they were being until Jasper noticed and told Alice to take it down a notch.
We probably should have been mad at them but we decided it would be more fun to get even instead. We also decided to be patient and bide our time until we could find the most opportune time for revenge.
By that time, we were at Liberty Island anyway. We checked in and we were put with the group that was about to be escorted to the crown. I will tell you that I am glad that I wore my sneakers because that was a hell of a lot of stairs to climb. By the time that we got to the top, Edward and I were laughing, it looked like we had gotten our revenge without even trying. Alice and Angela were so winded that they had to sit down immediately to catch their breath.
"Maybe if either of you had shut your mouths once at lunch you would not be so winded now. We all conserved our air and look at us. We are just fine. That woman over there looks about ninety years old and she's breathing just fine" Edward smirked at his older sister and pointed out and older woman who indeed looked to old to be about ninety and was currently looking over at Alice and Angela, who were still gasping for air, and was shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
"Oh fuck off." She wheezed back at him causing us to laugh harder. After the windy girls finally caught their breaths we rejoined the rest of the tour and got our first views from the crown. It was both breathtaking and scary at the same time. The view of Manhattan Island was amazing. For the rest of the afternoon, Edward and I filled up a whole memory card with pictures of the view and pictures of all of us inside the monument and outside of the monument as we made our way back down. We stopped that gift shop and picked up little Statue of Liberty figurine and we all got matching sweatshirts.
We made it back to the hotel that after with just enough time to shower and change. We did not really have a whole lot of time for dinner before the show so we decided on a quick meal of Thai food near the theater.
I had always loved the movie "Mary Poppins" growing up, of course, I am a Dick Van Dyke fan, but seeing it performed live, was an experience of a lifetime. After the show we stopped at the hotel bar for some drinks before we went to bed. I really wanted to make love to my husband tonight but I was so tired that I stole the t-shirt to Edward's pajamas when he turned his back for a moment, leaving him with only the bottoms. I just crawled under the covers and fell right sleep making myself the promise that I would jump him first thing in the morning.
EPOV:
All I did was turn my back to turn on the TV to find a movie for us to watch and the next thing I know half of my pajamas are gone and my wife is fast asleep in the bed. I sighed, I had wanted to snuggle just be alone with her for a bit, but I guess that was not happening tonight. So, I grabbed my journal and started writing. I was making a lot of headway in my book lately.
I was woken the next morning by my wife kissing me and running her fingers through my hair.
"There you are" she giggled, "I've been trying to wake you for almost ten minutes."
"Sorry, my love, late night last night"
"Well, then I am sorry for waking you so early, lover boy."
"Don't be sorry. I'm not." I that t-shirt of mine that she stole off her before those words were out of my mouth and needless to say, we didn't make it to breakfast this morning.
When we finally did manage to meet up with everyone else, we decided to head of to the Museum of Modern Art. We just spent the day casually walking around the museum. I had stopped to look at one painting when my sister came up to me, wrapped her arm around mine and laid her head on my shoulder. But it was the words that came out of her mouth that shocked me more than her little display of affection towards me.
"We decided that Jasper is going to accept the research position. We are moving to New York."
"Wow. I wonder what Mom is going to say."
"I don't know. That is all of us now. I am going to wait until we get home to tell her to her face though."
"Is that why you agreed so quickly to drive the car back to Phoenix for us? Putting of the inevitable a little bit?"
"Damn straight, little brother!"
"But, you will be closer to us and Em and Rose and the baby."
"I know. That is one of the reasons that I agreed to this Edward, I want all of our kids to be really close."
"I do too, Alice. I do too."
We ate lunch in the café at the museum before taking off to spend the rest of the afternoon resting at the hotel. It was New Year's Eve and we were going to ring in the New Year at Times Square. This would be the first new year that I could remember that I actually could look back on the year that past with fond memories and could actually had hope for an amazing new year.
A/N:
Look for the outtake that I am posting tonight. Thanks to a reviewer who inspired me to write a little outtake from Angela's POV. It's a little taste of Bella and Angela before she left Forks. I have a couple of new plot bunnies running through my head. I am hoping to get started on them soon. We will be leaving New York soon and heading off to Europe.