Page 19 of Finding My Forever

She shot me a questioning look. “Super high standards?”

I laughed. “Not quite. I actually have pretty low standards when it comes to food.”

Her eyebrows scrunched giving away her confusion.

“I’m gluten intolerant. Chinese food is hard for me because the meat is usually breaded and there’s soy sauce in most dishes.”

Sophia began nodding. “Do you have Celiac?”

Most people guessed that and part of me wishes that was it. It was easily explained and usually accepted by people.

“No, I have an autoimmune disease. My body is naturally pretty inflamed, so when I eat gluten, the inflammation gets worse. I’ll get migraines and my joints will swell up.”

The doors open and we stepped out on our floor. She looked at the wall where the room numbers and arrows were painted on the walls before taking the hall to the right. I followed her to the first room on the left. She slid our room card and the small light on the handle turned green. With a small push, the door opened to reveal a sleek, modern room.

“Yikes! So, no Chinese. What are some places that you can do?”

She dropped her bags on the far side of the room next to one of the full beds and gestured for me to take the other.

I let out a small sigh. She was being cool about it. It wasn’t uncommon for people to challenge me about my condition. Some said I was faking it. As if I would choose to not eat the same cookies, bread, and pasta as everyone else. It’s inconvenient, to say the least, and an accidental exposure would leave me in bed for at least one day with a painful migraine.

“Mexican is pretty easy for me. Some Thai food. I can always get a burger without a bun.” I stopped talking when she pulled out her phone and began typing. It was the first time she blatantly ignored me so I didn’t know how to take it.

After a few more seconds, she turned her phone to show me a webpage. “I found a blog with a long list of gluten-friendly places in the city.” She turned it back to her and kept scrolling. “I actually know of a few of these. You’re in luck, girly. Looks like you’re in the land of gluten-free.”

I laughed and sat on my bed. She was being so nice about it. Even my friends back home had a hard time accommodating me, not that I often asked them to.

“That’s really nice of you, thanks.”

She glanced up from her phone long enough to roll her eyes. “What else would I do? Let you starve or have you bedridden for the week? That would suck for me.” She looked back at her phone and smiled. “The place across the street, Shake Shack, has gluten-free buns! How do you feel about a burger? They also have the best shakes there, obviously, it’s what they’re named after.”

“That sounds amazing.”

“Perfect. We can walk around a bit before or after we get food, too.”

I stood up and pulled my suitcase onto the bed. “I’m going to change into some better shoes first.”

“Good idea. We’ll be doing a lot of walking so I hope you came prepared.”

I held up a pair of black and white sneakers.

Sophia smiled and held up a similar pair in all black.

“Let’s get going.” We changed quickly and were back at the elevators within minutes of us arriving.

“Should we see if anyone else wants to come?” I hadn’t heard if Greg had told us to meet anywhere. I probably should have paid better attention earlier, but the sights and sounds of the city were so distracting.

“I didn’t get anyone else’s number yet. Greg told everyone to meet in the lobby tomorrow morning at eight. We can get them then and see if anyone wants to come with us.”

We walked back through the open first floor. The lights were dimmed low with neon lights added for colorful pops. The live band was still playing but the tempo was more upbeat. It seemed like in the short time we were upstairs the hotel decided it was officially nighttime. We headed down the stairs and out the doors, joining the crowd on the sidewalk.

“Left or right?” I looked to Sophia for guidance. She had a wide smile on her face.

“Left.” We merged into the crowd, walking in that direction, and she turned at the next street. I followed close behind and gasped when I realized where we were. From here I could see the bright lights of Time Square. We walked past not one, but three theaters that housed Broadway shows.

“We have to go to one.”

“We will. There’s a place we can get cheap tickets for shows on the day of. We’ll go there on the day we want to see one.”