Page 51 of I’d Be Honored

After three hours of back-to-back episodes, Maddie stretched and shifted out from underneath Hayley.

“Where are you going?” Hayley asked sleepily, watching as Maddie reached for her long trench coat.

“It’s getting late, so I thought I should head out.”

“Stay,” Hayley breathed. Her voice sounded thin and brittle, as if it had come from someone else entirely.

Maddie went still, her eyes going wide, but then she nodded. She put her coat back on the chair and reached for Hayley instead.

Side by side in her queen bed, Hayley extended her hand, fingers trembling slightly before resting on Maddie’s arm. She inched closer, pressing her chest to Maddie’s back. Her pulse raced as she settled in, holding on to Maddie like a life raft.

She couldn’t tell how long they stayed like that, matching slow, deep breaths.

“Maddie, are you awake?” Hayley whispered into the quiet darkness after a while.

“Mm-hmm,” Maddie hummed into her pillow.

“Can I take you somewhere?” Hayley felt suddenly wide awake, and there was only one place she wanted to go.

Maddie shifted, looking back at Hayley, and murmured, “Anywhere.”

FOURTEEN

MADDIE HAD BEEN CLOSE TO SLEEP when she heard Hayley’s soft voice whisper into her ear. She was reluctant to move, afraid to disrupt the fragile new territory they had wandered into. But if Hayley Maddox wanted to show her something, who was she to say no? Maddie would follow that woman anywhere.

That’s how she found herself standing outside of a towering Art Deco building on the Upper West Side of New York at one-thirty in the morning. Maddie tilted her head up, craning her neck to see the top, before looking back at Hayley.

“I’m all for breaking and entering with you, but are you going to tell me what we’re doing here before I commit a felony?” Maddie’s hands were curled in the front pocket of her hoodie as she tried not to make any sudden movements.

“Breaking and entering is only a misdemeanor,” Hayley noted casually. “Unless you steal something, of course.”

Maddie felt her eyes go wide.

“You’re cute.” Hayley grinned. She waved a keychain in front of Maddie before pulling open the glass door. “Hey Bob,” she greeted the security guard, who gave her a one-handed wave.

Hayley scanned the key fob in the elevator. It carried them higher and higher, and Maddie watched as the floor numbers continued to climb. When the silver doors finally parted, Maddie stepped straight into the night sky, surrounded on all sides by shimmering stars.

Hayley intertwined their fingers like it was suddenly the most natural thing in the world.

Maddie stood rooted in awe. She could see out over every building for miles, window lights forming their own unique constellations against the darkness. Below them, she could make out the dark sprawl of Central Park and the glittering ribbon of the Hudson River.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Maddie whispered reverently.

She looked over to find Hayley leaning on her elbows against the short wall, her head tilted slightly to gaze at Maddie with a soft smile. The moonlight made her look younger in a way that Maddie couldn’t quite pinpoint, and her eyes were lit with a warm, fierce adoration.

“I grew up here,” Hayley offered. “My dad still lives in the building.”

Maddie just watched her silently, waiting.

“I’d come up here to escape whenever I needed a break—from school, from the city, from… my family.” Hayley went quiet for a moment, turning to face the dark sky. “Sometimes I still do when I feel overwhelmed with work. It’s peaceful, you know? Kind of makes me feel like I’m the only person alive.” Her voice was thick with a deep sadness that made Maddie’s chest ache.

Maddie searched for something to say, something that wouldn’t send Hayley back behind her walls.

“I bet you kissed a lot of girls up here, huh?” she teased lightly, bumping Hayley’s shoulder with her own.

Hayley glanced down at their hands, resting on the concrete ledge with their fingers threaded. Her lips curved up as she shook her head. “I’ve never brought anyone up here,” she admitted, meeting Maddie’s eyes. “Just you.”

Maddie inhaled slowly, taking in the late-night summer air and the faint smell of Hayley’s perfume. She wanted to remember every detail of this moment.