Page 335 of Untouchable

"This isn't so bad," Parker says, smiling and looking around. Harp agrees: the area that they first step into is large and enclosed enough that it's almost easy to forget where they are. Even though they've only caught the third or fourth elevator up of the day, the platform is already thrumming with sightseers. Again, Harp scans the crowd, hoping not to see anyone he recognizes.

But no, there’s no one. And Harp knows that he’s gotten them there right on schedule.

He still needs to get them to the next floor up before he can actually start the ball rolling on his plan, and all Harp can do is hope that everyone else arrived on time and is in place.

He doesn't want them to have to rush up yet, though. Let him see the sights for a moment, Harp thinks. Let me take a minute to look around myself. I never want to forget this day—this moment.

* * *

“Wow,”Parker says softly. He cautiously approaches the railing, as if at any moment, the floor might tilt violently, sending him sliding off the edge and to his doom. The floor, though, remains as sturdy as ever, and after a few deep breaths, Parker feels the worst of his vertigo abating. He grabs onto the railing, holding on with white knuckles, but when he really looks, he forgets everything else. The city, ancient and unfamiliar and golden-soft in the autumn light, unspools before them, stretching on and on and on. It’s so different from Mink Creek, nestled in the base of the mountains. Here there is only light and air and clarity.

He wouldn’t want to live here forever, of course—Parker needs the mountains, needs the constant embrace and protection they seem to give, but this is incredible, too, in its own right.

Parker glances over at Harp, who is watching him carefully.

“This is—this is—wow,” he says, grinning.

* * *

"You're wow," Harp says.

He kisses Parker on the back of the neck before sidling up to him, and deja vu slips over him from earlier this morning when they'd done the same thing, barely covered and just a few stories up from the streets of Paris.

This, he realizes, is something much different.

After all: it's Harp's first visit to the tower, too. Harp had completed what felt like endless research about what it was like inside the Eiffel Tower in order to prepare him for this day—but nothing had prepared him for this moment in time, seeing something absolutely unlike anything he's ever seen before and doing it by Parker's side.

Harp realizes that his hands are shaking, so he puts one firmly on the railing and one on Parker's waist.

It's now or never,he realizes.

Harp feels like he's about to jump off the tower—not put his plan into action. But he isn’t, he realizes.

He's doing the best thing he's ever done in his life. If there wasn't the possibility to fail spectacularly, it wouldn't be worth it. And every risk he's taken so far for Parker has been beyond worth it. I know I'm right about this, Harp reminds himself.

"I want to take a thousand pictures," Harp says with a voice that's only barely holding itself together, "but I really want to do it upstairs at the best observation deck. Whaddya say?"

* * *

“Oh,god, do we have to take another elevator?” Parker says with a laugh.

“No, this time it’s just stairs,” Harp reassures. Parker slips his hand into Harp’s—they’re always touchy-feely, but for some reason, today especially Parker can’t seem to stand even a moment without being in contact with Harp.

He lets himself be led to the stairs to the next floor. Parker glances around at the other tourists crowding around, taking in the view. He wonders who they are, where they’re from. What their stories are. He wonders if any of them could possibly be even a fraction as happy as Parker feels right now.

* * *

Harp feelslike he's in a dream as they take the final stairs up.

He'd never in a million years imagined that he could have this moment.

After all: he'd tried marriage and he'd blown it. Harp has already had the heart-stopping moment of asking someone to marry him, has already gone through the motions of being a groom and then a husband.

But everything is different now.

Harp and Cherry had loved each other in their own ways. It hadn't been the right match—they should never have promised to spend their lives together. It had been the fulfillment of an assumed eventuality, not of their hearts' dreams.

And so somehow this feels like the first time Harp has ever done this because in many ways it is, he realizes.

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