Page 87 of Electric Touch
“We’re allowed to nap in the day though, right?”
“No, that’s cheating. It’s about making the most of the time in between the suns rise and fall. And why we are supposed to go to sleep early.”
He grins, then pulls me against him. “Well, I hope you have plenty of plans to keep us occupied.”
“They do not involve being naked and horizontal.”
“I can fuck upright fully clothed.” I slap his chest and it rumbles as he laughs, but I say nothing of my plans.
“Go to sleep.”
We’re groggy as hell when the alarm goes off at four AM. I turn on the light to stop us from going back to sleep. Nash gets out of bed and heads to the kitchen to make us coffee while I take a quick shower. Once I’m dressed, he takes his turn.
We grab our things, and the giant thermos and head upstairs to the roof. He’d scoped it out the day before to make sure we could go up there. Otherwise, our plans this morning would have been different. We could watch the sun rise from anywhere, but I wanted it to be high up.
I’d initially thought of the Empire State, but not even Nash could pull enough strings for that to happen. Someone from BreakNeck might handle it for us, but I don’t want to involve anyone else.
After he’d been up to check, he said there was a clear view to where the Hudson empties into New York Bay. He’d even taken the time to study where the sun would rise. I know which direction we need to face, but I love he figured it out for me.
Nash leads me out onto the roof and I’m surprised at what I find. There are cushions and blankets laid out on the ground. Even though it’s the tail end of summer, it isn’t warm at four thirty in the morning. He leads me over to the little nest and we get settled.
We’re both too tired to talk too much. Nash sits down and guides me between his legs, resting my back on his chest. He wraps his arms around me and places his chin on the crown of my head. We sip our coffee in silence and watch as the first light of dawn breaks on the horizon. It isn’t an unobstructed view, there are lots of buildings surrounding Nash’s, but we can see the horizon line. It would have been better to go to an open space, but I prefer this.
The few stars that were still visible in the dark indigo sky fade away. The warm orange glow of the sun swallows the darkness. I marvel at the purples, pinks and oranges as the buildings of New York take shape, casting shadows around us. I’ve never truly taken the time to appreciate the beauty of the sun rising. A new day being born. I choke up as I think about how many sunrises a person can actually see in their lifetime. Some see far too few.
As if he can sense I’m emotional, Nash holds me a little tighter.
The sun grows brighter and stronger as it rises off the water. It gets harder to look. Nash surprises me by handing me some sunglasses.
I laugh as I take them. “You thought of everything.”
“I did a little research,” he shrugs as I sit forward, pulling slightly away from him. He wraps my blanket around my shoulders. “It’s amazing what you can learn when you think about the world around you.”
I like he feels that way. We watch the rest of the sunrise in silence. The remaining colours of the night finally swallowed up by the start of a new day. I turn around to face him and cross my legs, finishing my coffee. He’s still staring ahead.
“Well, that was amazing. I have so many song lyrics in my head right now.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, hang on a sec.”
Nash takes his phone out and I watch as he opens his notes app and starts tapping away. I can’t see what he is writing, but he works for a solid five minutes. I switch between looking out at the city as it wakes, and the look of concentration on Nash’s face. When he’s done, he puts his phone away.
“Not going to let me see?”
“Nope.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re just ideas, it’s not a song yet. When it’s written, if you’re good, I’ll let you see it.”
I arch a brow, but he isn’t giving in. “We’re gonna need more of this,” I hold up the thermos.
“Nah, we’ll be fine. The sun sets at ten oh eight,” he says, looking at his watch. “So that is…”
“Seventeen hours and thirty-two minutes.”
“You didn’t even give me a chance, Professor,” he makes a face at me. I shrug, silently saying, ‘I can’t help it.’ “That doesn’t seem so bad. We got this. So what is first on the agenda?”