Page 27 of The First Time

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you literally can’t stand still and keep looking over at the stairs. Come on, let’s go.”

“It’s only a couple hundred stairs,” I tell her as I lead her to the stairs. “We’re young. I’m sure it’ll be fine. They said it’ll only take five to ten minutes if we climbed the stairs. How bad can that be?”

I’m eating my words within a couple of minutes. It’s definitely gotten me huffing and puffing as my thighs are screaming at me. But I’m used to my muscles screaming at me to stop but pushing through to get the work done.

Layla, however, is not.

“These mother fucking piece of shit stairs,” she curses for the hundredth time behind me. “Why the fuck did you make me do this?”

“It was your idea,” I say through breaths.

“I only did it for you,” she huffs out.

“I didn’t ask you to. I’m sure we’re about halfway. It’ll be over soon.”

“Oh my god! Only halfway? I’m gonna die. There’s literally no way I’ll make it.”

I chuckle to myself, careful to hide it from her so she doesn’t kick my ass when we get to the top. She’s being a bit dramatic.

By some miracle, we get to the top, following a whole lot of cussing behind me. I turn around to see Layla with her hands on her knees.

“Give me a second,” she pants. “Okay,” she breathes deeply. “Okay, I’m okay.”

I smirk. “Let’s go.”

As soon as I step foot onto the roof, my entire body breaks out into goosebumps. The view is even better than I thought it would be. You can see all of Milan from up here. The Italian Alps are off in the distance, far beyond the city, but still visible from up here.

The entire cathedral is made from Italian marble. The pinnacles are intricate and appear to reach into the clouds, with large statues on top of them that seem to defy gravity.

I turn around and realize Layla has her head down.

“Don’t you want to look at this? It’s amazing, Freckles.”

“Ummm, I might have forgotten to mention I’m afraid of heights.”

“What?” I close the distance between us. “Why did you agree to this?”

She shrugs her shoulders, face still looking down. “You just seemed so excited. I figured you wouldn’t do it if I didn’t.”

Her admission does something to me. I can’t believe she did this for me. She’s clearly petrified. I can see her legs shaking.

I reach my hand out for hers. She doesn’t hesitate in latching onto it. Another sign that she’s terrified.

“Like…do I think you’re going to throw me over the edge? No.”

I sigh. “I guess that’s a good enough answer. You at least trust that I won’t murder you. I’ll take it.”

With her hands in mine, I try to move forward, but she’s frozen in place. Instead of leading in front of her, making her feelalone behind me, I position myself behind her and wrap an arm around her waist.

“First,” I lean in and whisper in her ear, noticing her body shiver in response. “Look ahead. We don’t have to move yet.”

She follows my instructions. “Just look at the length of this church, Freckles. It’s breathtaking. It’s all made of marble. Can you imagine lugging this material on whatever boats they built six centuries ago?”

“Wow,” she exhales. “It really is amazing.”

“I heard someone downstairs say that they started building this in the thirteen hundreds. I wonder what their vision was back then or if they had any idea what it would become one day. It took six centuries just to finish it.” I look down at her. “You think you can walk a little further? I’ll hold onto you the entire time.”

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