Page 134 - In Five Years

Chapter Twenty-Three

“We can’t go far,” I say. I’m practically running to keep up, he’s moving so
quickly.
“We’re not,” he tells me. “Just up. Here.”

We’re at the back entrance of a doorman building on One Hundred First
Street. He takes an ID out of his wallet and swipes the key fob. The door opens.
“Are we breaking and entering?”

He laughs. “Just entering.”
We’re in what appears to be a basement storage unit, and I follow Aaron
through rows of bikes and giant Tupperware containers with out-of-season items

into an elevator in the back.
I check my phone to make sure I still have service. Four bars.
It’s a freight elevator, old and lumbering, and we shuffle our way to the

rooftop. When we step off, we’re greeted by a tiny stretch of grass surrounded
by a concrete terrace and beyond that, the city splayed out before us. There’s a

glass dome behind us, some kind of party venue.
“I just thought you could probably use a little bit of space,” he says.
I walk tentatively toward the terrace, run my hand along the marbled
concrete. “How do you have access to this place?”

“It’s a building I’m working on,” he says. He comes to stand beside me. “I
like it because it’s so high. Usually buildings on the East Side are pretty squat.”

I look at the hospital, dwarfed below us, imagining Bella lying on a table, her
body splayed open somewhere inside. My grip on the concrete tightens.
“I’ve screamed up here before,” Aaron tells me. “I wouldn’t judge if you
wanted to.”

I hiccup. “That’s okay,” I say.