Riley loves everything about New York City. She loves the life that it holds, loves to people watch and speculate about the lives they lead. She loves that it’s the city that never sleeps, the place where immigrants landed to start a new life, the embodiment of the land of opportunity. She loves the noise, loves to listen and discern every part of city life. She loves that the city is at her fingertips, just a subway trip away. It’s her home and she loves it and she never wants to leave.
Riley loves Maya more though.
Maya is a picture perfect product of the city, a poster child even. But sometimes she needs to get away. Sometimes the city is too much for her.
Riley always comes with her.
Sometimes it’s as simple as going up to the cabin upstate that Shawn refuses to sell, even though he lives in the city now with Maya and Katy.
Sometimes though, they have to get lost. Hop on a bus or a train and just go. They never end up far enough away that they can’t get back, because so far Maya has always wanted to go back, but it’s far enough away that they can pretend they’re in a different world. Their own little world, something they can mold and create and have just to themselves. New York City is home to whoever wants it. Sometimes Maya craves more control than that offers.
The trips aren’t just Riley indulging Maya though. She enjoys them just as much as her girlfriend. They are the perfect chance to get away from the prying eyes of her parents and their nosy friends (that they love dearly of course). They can have dates, just the two of them. As they discover new places together, they discover new things about each other. They create memories for just the two of them to share.
Like the ice cream shop tucked in next to a gas station that was almost as crowded as a shop on Broadway. They speculated where so many people could come from when there was seemingly nothing for miles. Maya suggested they were ghosts and the shop was really some kind of purgatory. Riley couldn’t finish her ice cream (which was indescribably good).
Or the movie theatre that was only showing foreign films. They watched a French romance and even with the subtitles only understood half of it. Maybe because they only paid attention to half of it…
Riley vividly remembers a park full of toddlers from some kind of play group. The swings were abandoned and she and Maya had a contest to see who could go the highest amongst the screams and laughter of children.
They didn’t have to do anything special. In fact, the more ordinary the setting, the more fun they seemed to have. Maya liked contradictions after all. What better contradiction then the city itself personified needing to get away from busyness and noise?
The city will always be Riley’s home and she knows no matter where Maya takes her she’ll always be able to go back. But she also knows that she would follow Maya to the ends of the earth and love every second of it.