“How’s Lea doing?” Ben asked.
“She’s got a way to go,” said Maura, “but she’s stronger than you think.”
The following hours oscillated between caffeine-and adrenaline-fueled highs and a strange mixture of anxiety and tedium. When the wails were at last heard in the waiting room, Maura was returning from a coffee run, and she paused as she came upon the scene: Terrell pouring champagne into paper cups. Sean and Nihal high-fiving. Chelsea jumping up and down, her heeled boots clapping against the floor.
It was then that Maura realized this group of strangers had remarkably formed a family. One that mourned together, when Hank died, and celebrated together, now, as Lea brought two lives into the world.
Maura placed the coffee down on a nearby table and snuck up on Nina from behind, hugging her and kissing her neck, leaning into the warm feeling of the moment.
“There you are!” Nina smiled. “You almost missed it.”
But she hadn’t missed it, Maura realized. What she had witnessed in the cab, what Lea felt for her babies, that was love, in its most pure and intense form. And Maura hadn’t missed out on that. Her arms, still bristling with energy, were, in fact, far from empty, wrapped as they were around Nina.
A few minutes later, the doors swung open, and Lea’s brother walked out. “A boy and a girl!” he declared, looking awestruck by the fact.
How auspicious, Maura thought, to be born on this day, when the world came together for one briefly luminous moment.
And the group of people in the waiting room—giddy with delight and a little bit of booze—welcomed the newborn twins into their fold, the newest residents of earth, the latest members in a world of unimaginable pain and unfathomable joy, the two poles never so far from one another.
When Maura had a chance to visit Lea’s recovery room, Lea looked up toward her, eyes brimming. “Thank you for being there,” she said.
“It was my pleasure,” said Maura, watching one of the twins rest in the nook of Lea’s arm, both of them equally exhausted, and equally at ease with each other. Maura could practically read the answer in the curves of Lea’s body, all inclining toward the baby, but still she was curious.
“Is it true?” Maura asked.
And Lea just smiled puckishly, as if privy to the greatest secret of all.
Spring
Amie
Amie had spent her whole life reading romance novels, fantasizing about love in her head. But seeing Ben at Nina and Maura’s wedding reception reminded her that life was never as neatly packaged as the stories bound in books or the dreams she conjured up herself. And she simply couldn’t turn away from Ben, without wondering forever what might have happened.
Even now, months later, she could remember every detail of their date. Ben had bravely asked her out again, just a few days after the wedding, and Amie had said yes. They met at the southeast corner of Central Park, still awaiting the season’s first snowfall, then made their way north past the pond and the zoo, gradually turning westward toward the lake. It was one of those rare days, in the early winter, when the sun blazed bright and the wind held calm, and Amie and Ben hardly felt the cold as they sat on a bench near the water, looking out at the dual towers of the San Remo rising above the bare trees, which Amie pointed to as one of the most beautiful buildings in the city.
“The Corinthian temples on top of the towers were actually inspired by a monument in Athens,” Ben said.
“You have a fun fact for every occasion.” Amie smiled.
“Mostly architectural ones,” Ben said. Then he leaned forward, raising a professorial finger and affecting a British accent. “Did you know there are nearly ten thousand benches in Central Park? And about half of them have been adopted.”
“I assume that ‘adopting’ a bench requires a sizable donation to the park?” Amie asked.
“About ten thousand dollars.” Ben laughed. “But you get to put a plaque on the bench that says anything you want, which is pretty cool.”
Amie turned around to see if their bench was also adorned with a plaque.
“Oh, these benches by the lake were some of the most popular,” Ben said. “They sold out years ago.”
Indeed, Amie found the words of E. B. White engraved in a thin sheet of metal atop the wood panel behind her: I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day.
In the weeks that followed their date in the park, Amie and Ben had done everything they could to savor their time together. Ben took her on a tour of his favorite buildings and landmarks, Amie brought him to all of her beloved bookshops. She joined him at the Strung Together event in Times Square, and he visited her class on Career Day, where Amie admired his ease with her students.