They talked amiably about the stores and restaurants they passed. When they got to Boerum Place, Paige led Josh to the right, up the street toward Borough Hall. “Your brother-in-law used to live near here,” Paige said.
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. He told me he liked to take his dog to the Promenade. That’s a big cobblestone area right on the water that has a pretty good view of the Brooklyn Bridge and lower Manhattan. The view is great, but it’s right above the highway, so it’s loud. And I know a place with a better view of the bridge.”
“Cool. Lead on.”
As they walked, Paige pointed out various landmarks they passed: Borough Hall, the courthouses, a small farmers’ market in the plaza in front of the courthouses, a hotel she’d used for a corporate meeting once.
And as they neared their destination, Josh looked around, amazement on his face. “Is your better place to view the bridge, the actual bridge?”
“Perhaps.”
The entrance ramp to the Brooklyn Bridge looked like a tangled knot of roads, but Paige knew this route very well and led Josh to the walkway. “I don’t want to go all the way to Manhattan, so I’ll just lead you to the first tower. It’s worth it, though. Come on.”
The bridge’s famous arches soared in the distance as they approached. Josh looked around him as they walked as though he’d never seen anything so amazing. It was a warm spring day and lots of people were out, so the walkway was crowded and they learned quickly that they had to be on guard for bicyclists who seemed disinclined to slow down or alter their routes so as not to hit pedestrians.
They paused at the tower and Paige pointed out that they could see the Manhattan Bridge on one side and the Statue of Liberty in the distance on the other. The skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan seemed to rise up from the base of the island like giant porcupine spikes. This view always awed and humbled Paige, and she’d wanted to share it.
Josh seemed happy to linger there for a few minutes to take it all in.
“I’ve seen photos,” he said, “but I had no idea. The scale of this is so different in person.”
Paige watched his face for a few minutes. She loved how impressed he seemed by the view. She loved that they’d already spent a few hours together and had not run out of things to talk about.
Did they have a future? Paige could see other Sunday afternoons spent together, when she showed him other parts of Brooklyn. They’d merely brushed against the surface today.
But really, making a mental list of places they could visit was like an elaborate excuse to keep seeing Josh, something she definitely wanted to do. Which meant they’d have to tell Lauren eventually, something Paige wasn’t quite ready to think about. So she shoved it aside.
“If you walk the whole length of the bridge, it’s about a mile. You end up near City Hall Park on the other side. I’ve done that walk when I’ve had business in Manhattan, just because I think the view is really cool. People always ask, ‘Why don’t you take the subway?’ when I tell them that, but this is why.”
“Yeah, this is really cool. Thank you for showing it to me.” Josh took Paige’s hand and wove their fingers together as they leaned against the tower so pedestrians could get around them. Paige squeezed his hand, but she focused on the view for a moment. Josh was right, this scale of the city seemed different from this view, more awe-inspiring, like a reminder that it wasn’t just the dingy subway or their apartments or the shops and restaurants on the ground level.
“Shall we move on?” Paige asked.
“In a few minutes.”
* * *
Josh’s calves and feet were starting to burn a little, but he didn’t care.
After the Brooklyn Bridge, Paige had taken him on a mini walking tour of the historical parts of Brooklyn Heights, and Josh had enjoyed looking at all the old houses. She had been right; some little pockets of the neighborhood looked like they must have in the nineteenth century.
Paige explained as they walked south toward Whitman Street that this was but one corner—an affluent, gentrified corner, to be sure—of Brooklyn. She rattled off the names of various Cat Café employees and which neighborhoods they lived in and what those neighborhoods were like.
“We’re not going to the Cat Café, are we?” Josh asked.
“No. You’ve been there, you know what it’s like. Also, Lauren still doesn’t know about us.”
“Right. I was gonna say.”
Paige took an abrupt left turn, so Josh followed.
“Do you object to Lauren knowing?” he asked.
“Not…exactly. I’m worried about how she’ll react.”
“Why?”
