There was about to a general cry of “Yeah!” amongst the girls but they were interrupted by a young and handsome man leaning over from his own table of three other guys.

“Excuse me ladies, but did I hear correctly? All of you are going to be going to the Empire State Building after you’ve finished eating?” He had quite a bit of an accent but it was pleasant and didn’t completely gnarl his words.

“Yes, you heard correctly.” Jenny responded slowly.

The young man sat up a little straighter and said, “Would you mind if we accompany you fine ladies there? You see, my brother and my two friends here are visiting me on a visa from Kazakhstan but I’ve only just got here 2 months ago myself and am yet very familiar with the area. If it’s too much of a bother then I understand.” He looked at Jenny hopefully.

Her grin was growing and she didn’t need three different nudges under the table to know to say, “It’s no bother. We’d love to have the company.”

The young man smiled with relief, reached over across the space between the tables and said, “My name is Eleusiz.”

An hour later the group of 9 was stepping out of the small, Turkish restaurant and on its way to the Empire State Building, each lady engaged except for the one that smiled and kept quiet a lot. The language barrier didn’t keep her friends at bay and they openly tried to cross that communication gap with hand gestures and tone of voice while Della kept her distance.

Later, when they actually reached the Empire State Building they each forked over $15 and climbed into a large elevator with a doorman. Everyone, except Della.

She told them she didn’t mind waiting for them to come down again and that she’d go to the café that was in the lobby in the meantime and just wait. She had her camera anyway and would be busy looking for good shots of the building from the ground up.

Her shutter closed a couple of times as she took pictures but it wasn’t long before she just sat down on a bench to wait. Thinking she’d take a couple of pictures of the crowd that was walking by in front of her, she pulled out her camera again and pointed around to find her next photo. She noticed the dark-haired man right away, walking towards her against the flow of people, through her lens and she pulled away from her camera.

They made eye contact yet again and he gave her a friendly smile, a small wave and slowed down to a stop once he reached her bench.

“Nice to see you again, didn’t expect it but it’s nice,” he said, grinning.

Della remained seated and looking up at him, said, “From the restaurant right?”

“Actually, 11^th grade gym class with Mrs. Taffety, but yes the restaurant too.”

Della blinked.

“It’s all right if you don’t remember me, I barely recognized you myself anyway, and I have excellent memory. It’s Steve, Steve Barton,” he stuck out his hand, which she shook slowly, trying really hard to remember his face.

“What happened to your gang of friends?”

Della pointed up at the Empire State Building. “Up.”

“Why aren’t you with them?”

She shrugged. “I don’t feel like it.”

“Are you afraid of heights?”

“…No…yes.”

Steve laughed a little, not mockingly but playfully. “It’s not as scary as you think. Why don’t you go up and see for yourself?”

“Because I’m scared.”

She noticed that he was holding a Canon camera bag.

“You can get a lot of great shots of the city up there. Way better compared to any of the shots you’d get on the ground here.”

She stayed quiet.

“If you want a picture that encapsulates the essence of New York City, then you’ve got to go where the view is. Come on, I’ll go with you.”

Steve held out his hand again.