Page 169 of Broken Brothers

“Layla,” I said, almost breathlessly.

“Relax,” she said with a smirk. “I’m not doing this to arouse you.”

She then rested her head on my shoulder.

“I’m doing this to show that I care about you.”

She looked up to me and I swear that her eyes had never looked more hopeful and more wanting. But it wasn’t the kind of intense, heated craving that came only in spurts of extreme arousal. Instead, it felt more… like love, if I was to be totally honest and sum it up in a single word.

I did the only thing that seemed right in that moment. I kissed her, and I kissed her with gentle tenderness and love.

Yes, the flame of arousal dissipated somewhat in the moment, in large part because I was no longer focused on getting laid. But though the intensity might not have been as erotic, the feeling was more rewarding. I wanted more of this, I realized.

I just had to make sure nothing would interfere with it.

Layla finally pulled back and rested her body on me, looking up at me with a tender smile.

“Better, huh?” she said.

“It’s the rare moment in which the sequel is better than the original,” I said, drawing a laugh and another kiss from Layla. She scooted back just a hair, but that had nothing to do with creating distance and everything with being able to better see me.

We talked as friends and lovers did then, trading jokes about our past, our future hopes, and what life looked like these days. There was no real hint of sexual tension, because we knew it was there if we wanted it at any second. I could have given her a look or vice versa and the two of us would be on each other in a heartbeat, giving each other a lot more than handjobs under the table.

We stayed at that bar for about an hour and a half, and though Layla did touch my thigh a few times, it never ran the risk of being anymore sexual than the act itself. In a word, it felt right.

After Layla closed her tab, she motioned for me to follow her back to the limo, waiting for us outside.

“You really went all out,” I said more admiring her than teasing her. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she said with a pep in her voice. “We’ve got one final destination left.”

“Oh, snap,” I said. “Let me guess. If this is the story of places we’ve been to before…”

“Oh, don’t worry, you don’t have to continue down that road,” she said. “This is something new. Consider it a personal gift from myself to you. A way to not just create new memories, but to go to new places.”

“Ah.”

“It is something you have seen many times before, though. Just not from the perspective that you likely would think of.”

My mind raced through the many possibilities this could include, but I decided that some surprises were best left as, well, surprises. Layla had done such a marvelous job of making this date so good that I didn’t want to guess it.

For the duration of the ride, though, she simply cuddled against me, leaving me silent and my thoughts wandering to what it could be anyways. One of the bridges? Broadway? Some special diner near Hunt Industries?

Wherever she took me, I didn’t care. It could have been the Mets stadium for all I cared. It could have been Staten Island. Hell, it could have even been somewhere in New Jersey, and that wasn’t an easy thing for a New Yorker to say!

Finally, the limo stopped. I got out first, holding Layla’s hand, and stared up at our destination.

And up.

And up.

And up until I realized that from my vantage point, I wasn’t going to be able to distinguish the top of where we were. But from everything around us, I knew where we were.

“Empire State Building, huh?” I said.

“Best views in the city.”

“Isn’t it closed?”