“This place is magical.”
I stand still and watch her. You’re the magical one, I think.
Out loud, I say, “I thought you might like it.”
She turns to me abruptly. “So… is it true?”
“Is what true?” I wrinkle my nose in confusion.
“That you’ve never brought another girl up here?”
“I’ve brought girls to the Free Canary before,” I reply honestly. “But never up here.”
“Why not?”
I look around. “This place is… It’s about escapism. Only someone who’s a little lost, or a little sad, or a little broken can appreciate it. Really appreciate it.”
She raises her eyebrows. “So you’re saying I’m sad or lost or broken?” she asks. “Or maybe you’re trying to say that I’m all three?”
“Well…”
She smiles. “Well? Which one is it?”
“The truth?”
“Do you speak anything else?” she challenges.
I give her a knowing smile. “A little of all three.”
Her face falls for a moment. Automatically, I step towards her and grab her hand.
I don’t want her to pull away from me.
Not now.
Maybe not ever.
“That’s not a bad thing, you know,” I tell her, forcing her to meet my eyes. “We’re all a little broken.”
“Just some more than others, huh?”
I nod.
“You’re not wrong,” she says with a deep sigh that seems to reverberate through her slight frame. “Some days, I feel like I’m barely hanging on.”
“So then stop.”
Her eyes flash up to mine. “What do you mean?”
“Stop hanging on,” I explain. “Just jump. Free-fall into your life and see what happens. Maybe it’ll turn out you can fly.”
From the expression on her face, I can tell that I’m making sense to her.
“Free-falling sounds nice,” she murmurs. “But this is real life. There is a bottom at the end of the fall.”
“Well, if you can’t fly, then I’ll be there to catch you.”
The words breeze out of my mouth like I was always meant to say them. I don’t even stop long enough to think about what they might mean. If they’re trite or stupid or anything like that.