Bitter (wlw) (teacherxstudent)

thirty-eight

Sam really did mean it when she said she'd make sure to have enough free time in the next few days.

The next Saturday the good weather convinced us to go back to Central Park and have a relaxing day there, also allowing me to explore the areas that weren't accessible last time due to the snow. And to also take my mind off the fact that I was going out with Mei and my co-workers that evening.

As we were getting ready Sam realized that I'd never visited the "non-touristy" spots and neighborhoods in Manhattan, so she insisted on taking me there first. What was supposed to be a relaxing day transformed into walking more than I'd ever walked in probably the past year, at least.

But I really didn't mind, though. I enjoyed seeing Sam's guided tour side, I had no idea where we were most of the time but I trusted her on that aspect.

"Do you ever get tired?" I joked as she told me, like, the twentieth anecdote about some artist that used to live in the area we were walking in.

"I mean, we just stopped for lunch like an hour ago" she stopped. "But if you wanna stop again we can"

"It's okay, just kidding. Keep on showing me all of your hidden spots, it's really gorgeous here" I squeezed her hand.

"It really is" she resumed walking. "Please do tell me if I get annoying with all of my anecdotes. I enter my professor mode whenever I have to show people places they don't know"

"You could be reading my shopping list and I wouldn't find it annoying" I laughed. "Plus, you know that your professor mode is one of my favorites"

"Oh, I know" she chuckled.

We ended up walking for another hour or so before heading to the High Line park, a place I'd actually been curious to visit ever since I'd moved to New York.

There were more people than I thought, so finding a seat along the river became a more difficult task than expected. Luckily it was all accompanied by Sam's explanation of how the park was constructed less than twenty years before, on a former New York Central railroad or something similar.

"Can we stay here 'til sunset? It's in like less than two hours anyway" I asked as we finally sat on a wooden reclining seat.

"Gladly. But don't you have to go out this evening?" she scooted closer to me.

"Yeah. But I'll make it on time. And I'm sure they won't mind if I'm slightly late" I rested my head on her shoulder.

"If you say so. It's really pretty here, isn't it?"

"Yeah, really pretty" I said looking directly at her, wondering if she'd notice I was actually talking about her.

"Stop it" she laughed as she looked down. "I could say the same, though" she pecked my lips.

"I'll never stop saying how good you look" I giggled. "But yeah, this place is so nice. I'm happy you took me here"

Life felt pretty great in that moment, to be honest. I was watching the sunset cuddling with my amazing girlfriend, who I was really in love with, after a day of walking through New York city with her, and not worrying about what other people would think for even a split second.

I was really sad about having to leave after a while, but it was starting to get both dark and cold so we didn't have much choice. And I had to get ready to go out.

I couldn't be bothered to go back to my flat to get changed and everything, I luckily had clothes at Sam's place so I could just get changed there.

Since we were going to somewhere further away from where we all lived, we'd agreed to carpool as Sarah was available to drive. I received her text saying she was leaving as we'd barely stepped into the apartment, so I had to do everything in a rush.