Shoulder to Shoulder

Their first few days in New York passed by splendidly. They hadn’t done much of anything, just enjoying their surroundings and losing themselves in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.

The New York morning was bright, the sun’s rays covering the city in a warm, golden glow. At present, Elena was trying to get Juan to tell her what they were doing that evening, he’d divulged that he had something planned, but wasn’t giving her exact details.

“Come on Juanin,” Elena drank some of her Mango and Passionfruit Frappucino. “Are we going out to dinner?”

He shook his head, dusting his trousers, ridding them of the crumbs from his bagel. “Well, actually,” he stopped. “We are going to dinner, but that’s not the main thing that we’re doing.”

“So, I need to dress up? Or dress down?”

Juan pondered the options for a second, running his hands over his beard and looking off into the distance. “In the middle. Not necessarily dressed up, but not too casual either.”

Elena chuckled in frustration; she desperately wanted to know what he had arranged.

Before Elena could ask anything else, Juan took her hand, and led her outside into the street. “We’re going on a bus tour today!” he said excitedly as they came to a stop, waiting to cross the road.

As he said this, the lights changed, displayed the green walking man, so the pair crossed the road. The buzz of the city around her was something Elena had only ever felt before in London. She loved the sounds of thousands of people around her living their lives. In big cities, you were never far away from someone who had just gotten their dream job, someone who had just met the love of their life, someone was on their honeymoon – cities bound people in the way that no small village ever could. Although there are millions of people, the city itself brings you all together, whether you want it to or not.

They rounded a corner and before them waited a double decker red bus. Luckily, due to the good weather they were able to sit on the top deck of bus. Adorning their sunglasses, they sat and awaited the beginning of the tour while other passengers boarded.

“Are you having a good time?” Juan asked, moving one of Elena’s more persistent curls back behind her ear.

Her grin widened. “Of course I am, this really is the best holiday I’ve ever been on, and we’ve only been here for 3 days! I love this city so much, thank you for doing all of this.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek, taking his hand.

“You’re more than welcome, this is your birthday gift, of course I had to make it special.” Juan’s voice was soft.

“Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Gray Line Sightseeing tours, I’m Abbie, your tour guide this afternoon. I hope everyone’s having a fabulous day!” Abbie was tall, and had her tight copper curls tied up in a haphazard bun on the back of her head. Her congenial smile reminded Elena of her primary school teacher Mrs Haversham. She Elena’s favourite teacher, she had a way of helping you understand things without making you feel silly.

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Later on that night, when they were back in the hotel, they were getting ready to go out. Well, more like Elena was getting ready to go out – Juan was sitting on the bed, watching the La Liga season review that happened to be on the TV.

“Whoop de doo, Messi scored two goals, and Ronaldo scored a hattrick. Come on,” Elena threw a towel at Juan, and it landed directly on his head, covering his eyes. He slowly moved it out of his line of vision just in time to watch Falcao score a goal. “You’ve seen this all before. You said we had to be ready by 5, its 4:20 now. Get your butt up, Mister!”

Slowly he lifted himself off the bed, giving Elena his best puppy dog eyes. She grinned at his attempt to soften her up. “It’s not going to work, Juan Manuel. Now go and have a shower!” her voice held a faux stern tone as she pushed him in the direction of the bathroom.

Rifling through her suitcase, Elena had a tough time choosing what to wear, Juan’s description of the dress code hadn’t exactly been very informative and she didn’t want to get it wrong. Just as she was about to give up, Elena spotted an orange blouse near the bottom of her case. Seeing the top sparked a barrage of ideas in her mind and she began to search for her beige chinos.

“Whoa.” Juan muttered quietly on his return to the bedroom of their suite. Elena had carelessly been throwing clothes behind her while the search for her trousers continued. Tiptoeing over the various garments so he didn’t put his wet feet on any of them, Juan successfully managed to get to his own suitcase and pick out a powder blue button-up shirt, and some dark blue chinos to wear.

No less than five minutes later was he dressed and ready to go, spritzing cologne onto his neck as Elena looked at him dumbfounded.

“How do you always do that?”

“Do what?” He replied unsure of what his girlfriend was talking about.

“Be so organised and, just…” she trailed off. “…perfect!” He chuckled at her comment and walked over to her, taking the shirt from where it laid on the chair. “So you’re wearing this, yes?” he questioned. Elena nodded, still searching for her chinos, she was beginning to think she’d neglected to bring them.

“What are you looking for?” He asked, moving over to the device that steamed clothes, so he could get the creases out of the top. Elena watched him, as he did so carefully, the mirror near him steaming up in seconds.

“My chinos,” she replied blowing some hair out of her eyes. “The beige ones…”

“You mean the ones you put in my suitcase because you couldn’t fit them in yours?” He replied without turning around to face her, still steaming her top delicately. Elena slouched down onto the floor, she could hardly believe that she had forgotten.

Once she’d retrieved them from his suitcase, she kissed his cheek in triumph. “Thank you!”

With only a few minutes to spare, Elena slipped on her clothes and found her brown wedges, going for a smart casual summer look.

“Come on, let’s go.” Juan said, picking up his phone, taking Elena’s hand and leaving the suite.