New York State of Mind III

It was round 8pm when we finally arrived at our hotel; that is the last time I take a shuttle, I'd rather pay a little extra and take a taxi even if it is with Karen.  After we checked in, got to our room and freshened up I texted Mike to let him know I had arrived.  Karen and I grabbed our purses and hit the pavement, we were going to squeeze every minute out of this vacation and it was nice since we were staying in the heart of Times Square.   We strolled over and shoe shopped on Fifth Avenue, grabbed some food and started to pub crawl back to the hotel after a few hours.  It's nice going to Manhattan with someone who has already been there; I love enjoying the city without having to wait in lines or buy tickets for sites I have already seen several times.  We ended up at our favorite Irish pub and proceeded to make friends with the other people around us as well as the staff...six beer each in a hour and a half was way too much for either of us. 


We stumbled through Times Square making our way back to our hotel and I was already dreading the morning so I made a quick stop for Advil and water.  I tried my best to find the anti snoring strips for Karen because I knew when her head hit the pillow I wouldn't get five minutes of sleep, but my vision was blurry and I didn't want to have a game of drunk charades with the senior that works behind the counter. 


I popped my pills just before I crawled into bed.  We had a full day tomorrow of walking, shopping, eating and people watching, I wanted to make sure I was in top form.  I grabbed my phone and read my messages from Mike...from Long Island.  He advised me that he would be off at 4pm the day I arrived and would not need to be back at the pageant until noon the following day.  I could feel the butterflies creep up...or maybe it was all the beer.  I still had some fear that he was going to turn out like John and I wasn't prepared to have to deal with that again.  I could hear Karen already in the initial stages of her all night snoring and sent one last text before I buried my head in the pillows.  "Good night Mike, I'll text you when I wake...see you soon;)".  My phone lit up almost immediately, "Good night Natalie, I'm glad you're coming back soon just let me know the dates".  Shit!   Wrong Mike...