We are here.
CHAPTER 36
ROSANNA
“OH!” SADIE POINTS FAR IN the distance beyond our rooftop. The sky is illuminated in fluttery pulses. We watch until the pulses fade away. “I love heat lightning.”
“Same here.” I look up at the night sky, a shade I have come to recognize as New York City purple. Only three stars are visible that might not even be stars. I think they are planets. But an old sense of comfort settles in as a new song comes on and the people at our rooftop party talk, laugh, dance, and eat the snacks Sadie and I made this afternoon. The stars are still there even when I can’t see them. I don’t need them to guide me anymore. A bright new inner light is guiding my way.
“What did I miss?” Darcy perches on the edge of my lawn chair. Sadie is sitting in a matching chair next to mine. There is nothing fancy about our rooftop. It’s as old-school as a rooftop can get with its uneven tar patches, lack of vegetation, and random outdoor furniture apparently left behind when people moved out. A cheap pine deck chair broke when Marnix sat on it. He played it off like it was all on purpose. I love his sense of humor. Maybe Darcy and I will get to know him better, since Marnix decided to take the fall semester off to concentrate on his recovery.
“Heat lightning,” I tell Darcy.
“Damn. I miss all the good stuff. Do we—”
“Look!” Sadie yells, pointing in the distance again.
The heat lightning is back. We watch it throb and flicker, mesmerized.
“See that stripy lights building in Jersey City?” Sadie asks us. She points across the river to New Jersey. “The one with the slanted top and the purple and blue light stripes blinking?”
“Yes!” I say. “That’s so cool.”
“I have wondered what those stripes mean for years. Every night they’re different colors. Some nights they’re just solid white. Some nights there aren’t any lights at all.” Sadie’s face lights up brighter than the stripes. “Austin found out what they mean for me.”
“Zombie apocalypse warnings?” Darcy ventures.
“Close. They follow weather patterns.”
“I like the zombie thing better.”
“Do we what?” I ask Darcy.
“Hmmm?”
“You were asking—”
“Right. Do we have any more sugar cookies? Tomer wants to try one.”
I love that Darcy invited her fantasy apartment boy.
“All gone as of an hour ago,” Sadie reports.
Tomer is talking to Carrie, Jude, and Austin. It was cool of Darcy to invite Carrie. I loved Darcy’s “big city, small world” story of running into Carrie on the Upper West Side a year after they met on a train from Milan to Monaco. Carrie isn’t the only “big city, small world” example up on the roof tonight. It turns out Jesse is D’s friend from high school. I recognized him tonight from one time when I watched them playing basketball. I guess D didn’t realize Jesse lived in my building. In the apartment right below ours. Carrie says these kinds of connections happen all the time here, but that is incredible. New York really is a magical place for bringing people together, whether they are new soul mates or old friends reuniting on a random street corner years later.
Jude comes over to us. He lifts Darcy up and twirls her around in a circle. She giggles in delight. Then he gently puts her back down and kisses her. They walk hand in hand to where Mica and Brooke are dancing. This is Brooke’s last summer rooftop experience before she leaves for college tomorrow.
It’s funny how Darcy used to annoy me. Now I admire her. Darcy has been pushed, tested, and manipulated, but she has overcome every one of her challenges. Now she is stronger than ever.
Sadie sighs. “Could we be swooning any harder that Jarcy is back?”
“Jarcy?” I make a face at the weak smoosh name. “Is that the best we can do?”
Sadie thinks. “Dude!”
I wait to hear what she came up with. She doesn’t say anything.
“What?” I ask.
“Dude is their better name!”
She looks so excited she makes me laugh. Both names are pretty bad.
I inhale the summery scents of flowers from the landscaped rooftop next door. My stomach is trembling with nervous excitement for college. I am already overwhelmed by the new home I have made and the new people in my life. I am dazzled by how much I love my new home.
I used to think I would always be at the mercy of external variables. But although there are lots of things I can’t control, I can control my reaction to them. I can choose to not be afraid.
Vienna whoops when Beyoncé comes on. She grabs Jesse and they start dancing. They move in sync like they’ve been together for years. Everyone else joins in.
Sadie looks at me. “Want to dance?”
“I want to just watch for a minute,” I say. “But you should go.”
“No. I like watching our people with you.”
We have people here. I have people here.
Sadie and I watch our people dancing. Jude holding Darcy close even though it’s a fast song. Austin doing disco moves to make Sadie laugh. Vienna and Jesse stealing the show. Mica, Brooke, Marnix, Tomer, and Carrie having a dance off. My heart swells with happiness and gratitude that I am not alone in my dream city. Anything is possible in New York City. Even things they told you were impossible.
Sometimes when I talk to family or friends back home, I can tell they don’t understand about the magical energy of New York City. Some people don’t understand how I knew this was my true home years before I got here. Or the way this city makes me feel alive every single day. That’s okay. I don’t expect them to. But I try to explain it like this: It’s like that feeling you get when you meet the love of your life. You can feel that way about a place, too. It’s a feeling that means you are home. I don’t know when I will fall in love again. But I know that I will be forever in love with New York City and the infinite possibilities it brings.
Darcy dashes over to us holding three cups of watermelon juice. She perches on the edge of my chair again and gives cups to Sadie and me.
“Toast time!” she trumpets.
We all raise our cups.
“To girl power,” Sadie says.
“To sisterhood,” Darcy says.
“To city love,” I say.
This toast feels like another pact to me. This time, our promise is to move forward together.
We are all those things. And there is so much more to come.
To us.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AS I WRITE THESE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS in August 2016, I am celebrating my 20th New Yorkiversary. I moved here in the middle of a blizzard on January 6, 1996, to start grad school at New York University, determined to turn my big dreams into reality. Twenty years later, I am living the life I envisioned all those years ago. That’s the magic of New York City. Anything is possible.
Taking on a trilogy is an enormous endeavor for a publisher, and I am forever in love with the HarperCollins team who made the City Love trilogy happen. My legendary editor and publisher, Katherine Tegen, is a role model for creating a dream life. My rock star publicist, Rosanne Romanello, works it and owns it like a boss. Thanks to Alana Whitman, marketing genius, and Lauren Flower, professional book pusher. Erin Fitzsimmons designed the most gorgeous covers for this trilogy. And the Epic Reads group is actually beyond epic. These fierce and fabulous women of the publishing world brought City Love, Lost in Love, and Forever in Love to life. It has been an honor to work with them for the past three years.
Infinite thanks to my readers for making this life possible. You are why I write.
Heart-kiss emojis to the librarians, teachers, bloggers, and everyone else who spread the city love with warm fuzzies about this trilogy. You connect readers to books, and for that I am forever grateful.
My fiancé, Matt, and his family have opened a new chapter in my life, a chapter I had never read before but always hoped would be part of my story one day. Go, karma.
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The sparkly city lights who influenced this trilogy over the years deserve to be showered with glittery confetti. Jim Downs, plaque pact partner. Mike Ippoliti, Anton Yarovoy, and Laila Dadvand, High Line enthusiasts. Joe Torello, who works the Feast of San Gennaro like nobody’s business. Kara Doyle, whose positive energy, killer choreo, and dedication to fitness for life inspire me every day. Stephen Venters, who had plans with me to go to the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Tim Stockert, for driving the U-Haul that moved me from Philadelphia to New York in that blizzard. And of course, New York City, my first and forever city love.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by Jayd Jackson
SUSANE COLASANTI is the bestselling author of When It Happens, Take Me There, Waiting for You, Something Like Fate, So Much Closer, Keep Holding On, All I Need, Now and Forever, and the City Love trilogy. Susane has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from New York University. Before becoming a full-time author in 2007, Susane was a high school science teacher for ten years. She lives in New York City. You can connect with Susane at www.susanecolasanti.com.
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BOOKS BY SUSANE COLASANTI
THE CITY LOVE TRILOGY
CITY LOVE
LOST IN LOVE
FOREVER IN LOVE
CREDITS
Cover art © 2017 by Gustavo Marx/MergeLeft Reps, Inc.
Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons
COPYRIGHT
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
FOREVER IN LOVE. Copyright © 2017 by Susane Colasanti. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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ISBN 978-0-06-230776-7
EPub Edition © June 2017 ISBN 9780062307781
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FIRST EDITION
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Susane Colasanti, Forever in Love
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