Free New York for Beginners by Susann Remke Page A

elevator and looked at her expectantly, like a man looking at a giant cake at a bachelor party, hoping an attractive, naked girl will jump out.
    I should really give him a piece of my mind, Zoe thought. She should ask him what exactly he had been thinking during their encounter. But what if he actually hadn’t been thinking about anything? Zoe felt a little like a wife who suspected her husband of having an affair, but would rather not check his phone or emails in case it turned out to be true.
    The elevator started moving. There wasn’t a lot of space for the two of them. Zoe didn’t know what to do with her hands or where she should look. McSlimy smelled exactly like McNeighbor, which didn’t help her situation. She briefly considered the benefits of pushing the emergency button. But in American movies, when people pushed the emergency button the elevator always got stuck between two floors, and until help finally came, the stranded couple always had sex with each other—which really wasn’t an option in this case.
    “And how was your day, Mr. Fiorino?” Zoe asked, pulling herself together. She tried her best to look bored—and above all, to avoid his gaze. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a smile cross his face.
    “Fine, thanks,” McSlimy answered. “I was neither in danger of choking on a blueberry muffin nor of missing the CEO’s visit.”
    Zoe stared intensely at the illuminated display, watching the torturously slow countdown of the floors. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to speed up the elevator by sheer force of will. Then it shuddered, and they were suddenly on the ground floor. The elevator opened into the lobby, and Zoe stormed out.
    “Don’t play with fire, Zoe!” Tom called out after her. Without turning, she knew from his voice that he was highly amused. She finally made it out to Lexington Avenue. A honking yellow school bus followed by a shrieking fire engine thundered past. And angry tears flowed down her cheeks.

7
    The next morning, Zoe really didn’t want to return to the scene of her humiliation and face the people who had been witness to it. She seriously considered staying buried under her blanket and not getting out of bed.
    Maybe the whole concept of turning her life upside down, of “being foolish,” was nothing but terribly naive. Audacity and spontaneity weren’t exactly personal strengths of hers.
    She was more of a serial offender. A serial monogamist. Ever since she became interested in the opposite sex, she’d always been in a serious relationship. One after another. She had actually never been single for very long. A few weeks, maybe, in between men. She had always thrown herself into every relationship wholeheartedly, and, if she was being honest, had defined herself in terms of the man she was with.
    With the outdoor freak, she had mountain-biked and gone on two camping trips in Canada, even though the first time her back had hurt from sleeping on the thin foam mat. She’d encountered about two million mosquitoes, but hadn’t seen even one black bear. Then there was the clubber, who took her to raves in Ibiza, where they drank through the nights together. Zoe would rather not think about what they’d smoked. Basically, she wasn’t interested in drugs, but their consumption just seemed to be required to fit in with certain social circles.
    And Benni? She could just talk to him so easily. He read real books, was always ready with a fitting quote from Hegel or Kant, and dreamed of opening a literary salon, like in the Gründerzeit of nineteenth-century Berlin. Benni was also surprisingly civilized and well educated.
    For the first time in her adult life, Zoe was actually solo, and maybe a little lonely. And she was afraid of her own courage.
    Her gaze fell on the tattered little book on the floor next to her bed. Maybe Eros’s holy scripture would shine a light on Zoe’s life, since her future prospects were so nebulous at the moment anyway. The pages were