The Forever of Ella and Micha

to go sightseeing. The sidewalks are packed and the traffic is practically at a standstill. It’s midafternoon, but chilly and the buildings are so tall, hardly any sunlight hits their lower sections or the sidewalks.
    Ella has on a hooded jacket and fingerless gloves, but she shivers from the cold as she sips on her coffee.
    “Are you cold, baby?” I ask, pulling my hood over my head.
    She nods with the coffee close to her lips. “I think I might have gotten a little too used to the Vegas weather.”
    I step up behind her and rub my hands up and down her arms a few times, building warmth from the friction. “Imagine how bad it’s going to be when we go back home for Christmas. Star Grove is like twice as cold as here.”
    She drinks her coffee as I encircle my arms around her, maneuvering us through the crowd. “I don’t think I’m going anywhere for Christmas.”
    I return to her side and capture her gaze. “What do you mean you aren’t going? You can’t stay at the campus by yourself for three weeks.”
    “I don’t want to go back to an empty house, Micha,” she says. “And I won’t be by myself. Lila’s not going home either.”
    We stop at the crosswalk and wait with the crowd for the light to change as traffic zooms by.
    “You can stay with me,” I offer. “I would even give you my bed.”
    She looks at me crossly. “Just like how you got us two beds in the hotel room?”
    “Hey, my dad booked that room,” I say as she picks some pieces of her hair out of her mouth. “It’s not my fault.”
    “Yeah right?” She rolls her eyes. “How convenient for you.”
    “It’ll be very convenient for me.” I am treading on thin ice. “That way if I’m feeling really hot and bothered I can just get you to put your leg over me and you’ll let me feel you again. You know, you’re kind of naughty when you’re in a dark room.”
    She glances at an older guy with thin hair and glasses who is listening to our conversation with a big grin on his face. “That’s not what happened,” she says.
    I target an intimidating gaze at the pervert and he quickly turns around. “That’s exactly what happened, pretty girl, and you know it.”
    She gulps her coffee to obscure her mortified expression. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    Threading my fingers through hers, we walk across the street with the mob of people and stop on the other side to take a look around.
    “Did you want to go anywhere special while we’re here?” I ask. “Central Park? We could go ice skating?”
    Her head tips back as she shields her eyes and stares up at the Empire State Building stretching toward the sky. “I want to go up there.”
    My chest constricts as the memories of her on the bridge rush through me: her standing on the beam over the water, ready to throw away her precious life.
    “Are you sure?” I check, releasing a slow breath. “Because there’s a ton of stuff we could do.”
    Smiling, she yanks on my arm. “Yes, now come on.”
    I shove the memory out of my head the best I can and reluctantly allow her to lead me across the street, because I’d go anywhere with her, even if I don’t want to.

Ella
    We have to wait in line to get on the elevators, but it takes us up to the top fast and gives me a little bit of a head rush. When the doors open, we step out and my stomach rolls with my nerves. Tossing my empty coffee cup into the trashcan, I head for the lookout area, which is blocked off by bars.
    Micha tags along with me, even though he doesn’t want to be up here. It makes him edgy, so I entwine my fingers with his as I peer through the bars and down at the lively city below. It’s getting dark and colorful lights sparkle for miles. That’s when it crashes into me, like the wind has been knocked out of me, the same helplessness I felt on the plane.
    Micha senses my uneasiness and his arms enclose around my waist. “Take a slow breath and just relax and enjoy the scenery.” He smothers my neck with kisses until I settle back down.
    “It’s beautiful,” I whisper. “Like really amazing.”
    He sucks on the sensitive spot below my ear, before moving his mouth away. “It is, isn’t it.”
    Shivering from the cold and his touch, I lean back against him and he rests his chin on top of my head. “And it’s real.”
    Not many people would get what I mean, but he does and his arms constrict around me. People wander around us, but I remain still, discovering what it feels like to