That morning was cool a bit drizzly out. I could not wait to see Nick, and the anticipation was one of beautiful proportions. Growing up, Nick and I were inseparable. Since the age of 10, very few days of my life were spent without talking to him for hours on the phone. When we turned 20, Nick had moved to Wilmington, NC to be on the show Dawson’s Creek, and a few years later, headed to New York City to pursue a career in acting. He has visited NC and stayed with me at my house for a week, but we hadn’t seen one another in about 2 years.
I was pretty certain Samuel and I had made it to the appropriate stop, and we exited the train. I shot a text to Nick and soon saw him walking toward us, just a half a block away. I ran and hugged him for as long as I could, and he wished me a happy birthday. What a way to spend my 31st!
I introduced Nick to Samuel, and we all three went strolling through China Town, in search of random knock offs and such. I will never forget that day. The bug had bitten me, and the bite was a hard one. Nick immediately called it. “Once you’ve been bitten by the New York City bug, you’re never the same”. True words.
I was getting comfortable, already. Not surprising, because it wasn’t hard for me to adjust to a new place, but this was so very different. The atmosphere, the energy, and the people? And don’t even forget the food...
This place was mine, already.
Some hours ticked by, and Samuel and I needed to head back to our hotel. We had scheduled a cab to take us to the airport, and I still needed to pack up my last few purchases from the morning.
We met back up with our group, grabbed our luggage, jumped into our cab, and away we went. I cried when I left that city. When I said goodbye to Nick. When I knew it was where I was supposed to be, yet I was going “home”.
The rest is all just boring travel antics. A delayed flight, an intoxicated man sitting behind of me on the plane, and arriving home, still feeling like life was all a dream. All I could wonder about was, how would I find a breakfast omelette the next morning in our little southern town? Apparently, Samuel was thinking the same thing. The following morning, he showed up at my apartment and asked if I had eaten breakfast, yet. We managed to find a diner down the road from my apartment that wasn’t half bad. But, oh...it was still not even the same.
Two months later, I changed all of that. Somehow, my hearts desire became my reality.
