“What kind of restaurant are we going to?”
I smiled. “One that’s a surprise.” I put my arm around her shoulders, pulling her next to me. With my lips pressed against her cheek, I watched her stare through the window, the expression on her face as though she were seeing the city for the first time.
Maybe that was the case.
But I wanted to believe it was the happiness she was feeling that was putting that look in her eyes.
As the driver maneuvered through the traffic, I checked my watch. Every detail about tonight mattered, each part needing to mesh in order for it to come together the way I wanted. The good thing was, we arrived on time, and confusion filled Pearl’s eyes as we pulled up to the residential building.
I handed the driver enough cash to cover the fare and tip, and I led Pearl to the entrance. A friend of Dylan’s was waiting by the door for us. I thanked him as he opened it, and I brought her to the elevator, pushing one of the buttons once we were inside.
“Who was that guy, and where are we going?”
I squeezed her fingers. “That was a family friend of Dylan’s. As for the rest, you’re going to find out soon.”
Once we reached the highest floor, I took her down the hallway and into a stairwell, climbing a short flight. At the top was a locked door that I’d propped open when I was here earlier, and fortunately, no one had closed it while I was gone.
“What is this …” Her voice drifted off as I took her onto the roof and she realized what she was looking at. Her free hand flew over her mouth, her eyes wide and a little watery. “Oh my God, Ashe.” She slowly took in the entire space, her stare eventually returning to me. “I don’t even know what to say.”
I held her waist, pulling her in front of me. “Rumor is, you’re turning twenty-one in a few days, and since you have to work on your birthday and I knew you wouldn’t want to go out and get wasted, I planned this.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “How did you know when my birthday was?”
I grinned. “I asked Erin the last time I was at the bar.” I turned her once more to face Boston’s skyline just as the sun was setting through the high-rises.
Dylan and I had come here a few months ago for a party, and it was one of the coolest spots I’d ever been to in the city with a view that couldn’t be beat. When I’d started planning Pearl’s birthday, I had known this was where I had to bring her.
In the center of the roof, I’d set up a table covered in candles, and rose petals were sprinkled on the floor and around the rim of the balcony. A small stereo in the corner played music. A cooler off to the side held tonight’s dinner. And the backdrop was Boston—every dip of architecture, every rise, every noise it had to offer.
“Ashe …”
I held our linked fingers against her stomach.
“I’m truly speechless.”
“Happy birthday, Pearl. I hope this is one you’ll never forget.”
“Never.” Her voice softened. “Ever.”
The sun lowered below the buildings, leaving the most colorful sky behind.
I slowly faced her toward me again, gripping her cheeks to kiss her. “Do you want to eat?” When she nodded, I helped her into her seat at the table and then reached into the cooler. “I got us some sparkling apple cider. I hope that’s okay?”
Her eyes were even smiling. “It’s perfect.”
I opened the bottle, took out two champagne glasses, and began to fill them. “As for dinner, cooking isn’t my specialty, so I grabbed something I thought you would like.” I placed the first to-go box on the table. “There’s this restaurant in Chinatown my parents have been taking me to since I was a kid. The food is going to blow your mind.” I set down several more cartons in the center. “I didn’t know what you’d want, so I guessed.”
“I love it.”
I laughed; she was so cute. “You haven’t even tried it yet.”
“I don’t have to. I’m just in love with all of this.” She put her hand on my arm. “No one has ever done anything like this for me.” She took one of the petals off the table and held it to her nose. “I’m overwhelmingly blown away.”
“That makes me happy to hear.” I handed her a set of chopsticks and opened the cartons, pointing to each one as I described them. “There’s chicken in here, beef over here, and pork in this one.” I set two more containers down, lifting the plastic lids. “Here are two different kinds of rice because you can never have enough fried rice, in my opinion.”
I dropped spoons into all of the dishes and began to serve myself, signaling for her to do the same. She took a little from each, adding a large pile of rice on the side.
“Here are some extra sauces.” I placed a handful of the small, plastic sleeves onto the table. “There’s duck sauce and soy and hot mustard—whatever you like.”
She watched me open the corners with my teeth, pouring all three kinds onto my plate, and she did the same, eventually taking a bite of the beef.
“Wow. This is something else.”
I filled my mouth with some rice. “Oh, man, I know. When Dylan and I were kids, our parents would take us there once a month. Both our families would pack into Dylan’s mom’s caravan, and we’d drive there together. Dylan and I would eat so many bowls of crispy noodles that we were sure they would start charging us for them, but they never did.” I added another heaping spoonful of rice to my plate. “Now, whenever one of us goes home, my parents always bring us there.”
She took in a mouthful of pork lo mein. “Tell me more.”
I added another packet of hot mustard to the rice and mixed it into the chicken. “Dylan and I were rowdy when we were younger, always getting in trouble. We didn’t cause harm or anything like that, just reckless, fearless kids constantly looking for an adventure.” I laughed as I thought of some of the shit we used to get into. “I remember this one time in the middle of winter, we’d just gotten a huge dumping of snow. We added some slush to our snowballs, making them icy, and we were playing dodgeball with the cars driving down the street.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I told you, reckless. Anyway, it was Dylan’s turn; he wound up and threw too high, and it hit the windshield. The glass didn’t break, but the driver slammed on his brakes and came running after us. We were stupid enough to do it in front of my house, and while we took off, he rang my doorbell and ratted us out to my mom.” I shook my head. “Man, we never did that again.”
“Your parents were pissed?”
I laughed. “Little bit. I think we were grounded for months over that one.”
“Tell me about one of the hard times.”
Her interesting questions constantly made me think.
“My grandfather died the spring of my sophomore year, my grandmother three months later. They’d lived about an hour away in Brockton, and I had been really close to them. Dylan and I would spend a lot of our weekends there. When they passed away, I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t even close my eyes.” I wiped my mouth with my napkin, staring at my plate. “During those nights, I’d sneak out and go to Dylan’s. We’d watch a movie, and eventually, hours later, I’d fall asleep. But he would wait until he knew I was sleeping, and then he’d go to bed—never before me, not even once.”