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Niall was back in his shell

Nodding to the stairs, he asked, "Would you care to accompany me?"

The South Ferry station was one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy With a street-level entrance of only one hundred feet above sea level, the tunnel was flooded inin its path, dah for workers to swih This e were here, to think ahead of Mother Nature and design a systee like this froain

Traffic whizzed by as I followed Niall down into the newly reopened station, my eyes on his broad shoulders as he descended the stairs in front of me He looked Serious Business today His expression had rehout our cab ride to the station, conversation kept to a minimum He wore a dark suit and darker overcoat, his brown cash the lapels of his coat and trailing over his shoulder behind him There was purpose when Niall Stella walked

A handful of engineers was there to et each person’s na attentively as they took us fro to see hieable and co what he’d looked like last night In sixof Niall Stellato New York seemed to eclipse them all

Niall called me over to stand next to him, and I watched as he crouched down, took measurements, and inspected one of the proposed entrances My brain was aaround ht turnedabout it? Was he pretending it didn’t happen?

A horrifying thought occurred to me: Was it even possible he didn’t remember?

He called out numbers or various notes while he worked, but it was noisy, the sound of trains and peopleit difficult to hear him I had to stay close, so close that his shoulder would occasionally brush against the side of

I assuoose bu an to wonder

"Ruby," he askedup quickly "Did you make note that this was the last of the stations to reopen?"

I nodded Of course I had But given how iain anyway, , tip pressed into the paper as I felt his palered there for only aever so slightly, before they were gone

Every nerve inat where he’d touched s I swayed on ht and hs