Page 13 of Promise Me Sunshine

He eyes me for a second and then follows me down the stairs. “I…wasn’t going for a jog.”

I take stock of his running shoes, athletic shorts, sweat-wicking shirt, and yup, there is even a compression sleeve thingy over one calf. “Uh-huh. Sure. Then what were you doing?”

I swipe through the turnstile and talk to him, walking backward.

“I…was going to ride this train.”

I stomp my foot as he swipes through as well. “I’m seriously fine! No concussion!”

“That’s great.”

The train comes squealing into the station and I jump on. Miles does too, crossing his arms and sitting opposite me.

I glance up at the train information sign and realize wryly that in my hurry to get away from Miles I’ve jumped on the 1 train. Which means that once again the universe is chewing me up and spitting me out at the Staten Island Ferry.

We ride in silence and at my stop I stand up and spearhim with my eyes. “Thank you andgood night.” Before he can say anything else, I jump off the train and run above ground. The August night is dense with heat but as I get closer to the water, a loosely cool breeze beckons me to the ferry.

Well, it’s a nice night to watch the Statue of Liberty pass twenty-two times in a row, I suppose.

I get settled in a seat away from the crowds and clutch my bag to my chest. To my utter shock, considering the altercation I’ve just had, sleep starts to descend. I nod off and then wake up back at Manhattan. I must have slept all the way through the Staten Island port and back. I nod a bit more while we head back to Staten Island. But then an interesting man catches my eye. He’s got a leather jacket and velvet pants. He’s leaning against the railing of the boat and tossing a baseball up and catching it. Tossing it and catching it. The fourth or fifth time, he fumbles it and it skips off his hands and over into the water. He and his friends burst out laughing. He’s got a charming smile. I bet it’ll look great on our Christmas card one day. We’ll put our twin girls in matching velvet pants, just like those, and in fifteen years or so, he’ll get down on one knee and ask me to renew our vows.

I close my eyes again when I feel the ferry leave the dock. A shadow darkens my eyelids as something blocks the overhead light.

“Why aren’t you getting off the ferry?” a man’s voice says from right in front of me.

“Oh, myGod!” I jolt backward, scrambling my bag up to my chest. “Miles?You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

I’m clutching my heart attack. He purses his lips but doesn’t say anything.

“You scared the shit outta me!” I assert.

“Good,” he says, and crosses his arms over his chest.

“What?”

“I said it’s good that I scared the shit out of you.”

“Why would that be a good thing?”

“Because it shows that you’re at least partially sane if a man approaching you on the Staten Island Ferry in the middle of the night scares you. Now, why aren’t you getting off?”

I scrunch up my face and take a page out of his book by simply not answering his question.

He makes a frustrated noise in the back of his throat, and after a moment he plunks into the seat beside me. “At first I thought you’d just fallen asleep and missed your port. But then I realized you were awake and riding back and forth.”

I lift my pointer finger into the air. “Hold the phone. You thought I was asleep and missed my stop and youdidn’t wake me up?”

He shrugs. “You seemed tired. I wasn’t going to let you miss it a second time. Tell me why you’re riding back and forth.”

I lay one cheek on top of my bag. “What do you even care?”

His eyes sweep across me and a change comes over his face. He’s making an expression I haven’t seen him make before. It almost makes him look like a human person with feelings and a backstory.

“Look…I know we’re pretty much strangers…but I’m worried…”

About me? He doesn’t elaborate.

I squeeze my eyes closed for a moment, cheek still on my bag.

---