Up High and Looking Down

                Della was never a big fan of heights. She was always too scared of the possibility—no, the certainty with which she felt that as soon as she reached the top, someone would inevitably and unceremoniously push her off the edge of whatever she stood on. So when Della’s friends invite her to go sky-diving or mountain hiking or to do touristy stuff like going to the top of the Seattle Space Needle Tower whenever they take their annual summer tours all over America, she had no qualms about being the one on the ground taking pictures of everyone having a grand ole time so many feet in the air. She liked seeing the happy and ecstatic looks on her friends’ faces (when she could see them) as they pointed at various sites in the distance. She enjoyed their windswept expressions and breathless chatter, and the way the air around them felt ever so slightly cooler after their descent.

                This year they were in the Big Apple for 2 weeks, staying at the Chelsea Savoy Hotel at a cool $115 a night, which, split amongst the 5 women, didn’t amount to much. They’d all just unloaded their bags at their room and were already out hitting the streets to find a good place to eat lunch. They asked a couple sitting on a bench where there was good food; 10 minutes later they were all sitting down to a table at Limon for some Turkish food.

“Oh I love coming to New York City, there’s always so much to do here!” Jenny, one of girls, gushed.

“That’s right you said you’ve been here with your family a couple of times right?” Anne asked as she spread her napkin over her lap.

“I hope this isn’t boring for you then because you’re probably already familiar with everything here…” a concerned Laurie angled her head.

“No, no I love coming to New York. Every time I come back I always get that renewed sense of…possibility,” Jenny grinned.

“Possibility? Possibility of?” Nancy asked as Della looked up.

Jenny sighed impatiently as she folded her menu and put it down. “Don’t be stupid everyone. The possibility of meeting someone, duh!”

A general “Oh!” arose from their table and Della turned back to her menu. As a familiar buzz of chatter started up amongst her friends, Della nodded along with the others as she picked at the sourdough bread rolls in front of her. She wanted to join in and participate, but for her lack of experience and understanding of the subject, she remained perfectly unnoticeable and boring on the subject. Meanwhile, she couldn’t help but glance every so often at the man sitting alone at his own, smaller table near the window of the restaurant, past the group of 4 guys that were sitting between her own table and this dark-haired person. She began to notice that he would look up at her, smiling politely and occasionally nodding very familiarly towards her. They accidentally make eye contact several times and after a while he began to make over-exaggerated gestures of embarrassment while Della laughed quietly to herself in amusement.

“So then Della, what do you look for in a guy?”

Della snapped to attention as she realized that all her friends were watching and waiting attentively. The food arrived and as the waiter began the task of passing out all of the steaming hot plates of food, Della reddened a little. She began to stutter through her answer, all the while avoiding eye contact with the man completely.

“Well…uh. I don’t think about that too often…” she looked around at her circle of friends; none of them were paying much attention to their chicken kebabs or dumplings. “But if I had to say, I guess…it would be the kind of guy that can make me comfortable when I’m in an uncomfortable situation.” She glanced over at the guy but he was walking across the small restaurant to pay his bill.

The girls nodded and made agreeable sounds at her comment.

“I think so too, that’s definitely important. You’ve got to be comfortable around someone you’re dating, otherwise how are you supposed to enjoy spending time together?”

“Yeah, I feel like in order for me to feel at ease then the guy needs to know how to step it up and take care of me…” Happy that she could partake in the conversation for once, Della momentarily forgot to regret not getting to talk to the dark-haired man before he walked out of the restaurant. She glanced at his back as he stepped out into the sunlight and crossed the street; face in hand, she sighed and returned to her conversation.

The smell of spices brought the girls back to their lunch and comments on the delicious food intermingled with gossip as each woman lifted her fork.

Jenny brought the subject back again, saying, “The most romantic place that I can think of is the Empire State Building! We should all go there, you know, to start off our trip here by paying homage to the City of Possibilities. Everyone okay with going there after lunch?”