Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Do you think we could get up to one hundred and three?” Shawn asked his lawyer.
The lawyer looked amused. “Let me see if we can arrange that.” He walked over to the receptionist. “Can you call management and see if we can get them up to the balcony on the one hundred and third floor?”
“Sure thing, Mr. Russell.”
So that was his name.
Mr. Russell turned to Shawn. “I’ll get those documents updated and ready for your signature when you return.”
The man left, and the receptionist was busy on the phone, so I asked Shawn the question. “What’s on the one hundred and third floor?”
He flashed me a bright smile. “Most people go to the eighty-sixth. The iconic location of the outdoor view atop this building. Then there is the one hundred and two, which is glassed in and smaller. But one hundred and three has a secret view. Only a select few get to go up there. Likely, if they let us, we will be the only ones, and it’s outdoors. Trust me, you’ll love it unless you’re afraid of heights.”
His excitement was palpable, and I didn’t want to spoil it. “I’m a little scared of heights.” I also wondered, since he knew about it, had he been one of the few who had seen it before?
He took my hand. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want, but give it a try if they let us.”
Shortly after, a woman entered the lobby and spoke to the receptionist, who pointed us out. “Are you ready?” she asked, looking amused.
“Ready as I can be,” I said a little warily. One hundred and three floors from the ground seemed daunting and a real test of my fear of heights.
We followed her to the elevators. One opened, and it was empty. She used a card and a key to access a hidden panel and set our course to the one hundred and second floor. The elevator wasn’t gentle in its assent, something I hadn’t noticed the first time. We were from the seventy-eighth floor to the one hundred and second in the blink of an eye. The doors didn’t immediately open. She spoke on her phone using code words before she hit the button for the door to open. She waved us out first before, seconds later, she appeared. The area was empty save for a security guard, and she ushered us to a black door off to the side. Using her card again, the door unlocked, and we were quickly hustled inside a small corridor.
In front of us was a steep metal stairway where she waved us to go ahead. Shawn, being the gentleman he was, offered for me to go first. With my heart in my throat, I moved ahead, not wanting to get into a back-and-forth with Shawn as to who should go first.
I waited at the top for the others to join me before the woman took us through another door. The cramped room we entered was filled with equipment and pipes. A door with a window insert was the only outside view, and through it, I got my first view of how high we really were.
My face must have turned green because an amused Shawn took me in his arms and murmured, “We don’t have to go.”
Though my brain fought me on the idea of stepping outside, I told myself the owners of this building wouldn’t allow people up there if it wasn’t safe. All I had to do was follow the safety directions. I sucked in air and pulled up my big-girl pants even though I was shaking on the inside. Hadn’t Shawn said this was a secret view? I took his hand and let him lead me forward.
“The area is tight, and the railing is short, so be careful,” the woman said as she opened the door.
Wind rushed in and I saw what she’d labeled a railing. It was knee-high with a bar set on top you could hold on to. Shawn went first, and I tightened my grip on his hand. The balcony, if you could call it that, was a two-foot-wide walkway. Though breathtaking in every sense of the word, panoramic views of the city’s skyline captivated me. It felt like we could see the entire country from up here and possibly touch the clouds. We had a view of the world from an entirely new perspective.
Shawn started pointing out things like the Statue of Liberty. It was when he pointed down and I made the mistake of looking that I swallowed my tongue.
“That’s the eighty-sixth floor,” he said. The people looked like ants. Then again, they were nearly twenty floors below us. “How about a picture?”
He brought out a phone before I could protest him releasing my hand. I was sure the wind gust would lift me up, and I’d be done for. His giddiness and capturing my fear in his lens made me want to throttle him until he pulled me close, put his mouth on mine, and all my fears disappeared. I wasn’t aware of how he maneuvered us to capture picture after picture as we made our way around to see everything. He videoed some of it and promised to send me all the pictures.