Free Ripped at the Seams by Nancy Krulik Page A

time.”
    â€œWell, in that case, you’ve got a deal.”
    â€œYou don’t mind if we take the subway uptown, do you?” Vin asked her.
    â€œNo, why would I?”
    Vin shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess you must have taken a cab last night and …”
    â€œOh, that was different.”
    Vin frowned slightly. “Yeah, I guess it was. Anyway, I’ll go change and get the picnic basket and I’ll be back in a flash.”
    Sami began to giggle.
    â€œWhat’s so funny?” he asked.
    â€œYou are,” Sami explained. “I never thought you’d be the type of guy to get so excited about classical music—or to own a picnic basket, for that matter.”
    â€œOh, there are a lot of things you don’t know about me, Sami,” Vin assured her with a mysterious look. “I’m just full of surprises.”
    As Sami slipped into her black cotton capris and white terry tank top, she hummed a bit of Beethoven’s Fifth to herself. There was none of the nervous excitement she’d felt the night before when she was getting ready for her date with Bruce. Instead, Sami felt calm and relaxed, the way she always did when Vin was around. He was her buddy. Someone to hang outwith, laugh with, and listen to classical music with. True, he could be a little overprotective at times, but that just made Sami like him more. He was kind of like her brother Al that way, always wanting to take care of her. Vin was sort of like a combination friend and big brother. Maybe that was why she felt so comfortable around him.
    By the time Vin returned to Sami’s apartment with his picnic basket, he was a changed man. He’d showered and shaved, and somehow managed to comb his unruly, curly brown hair into something resembling a hairstyle. “Ready to go?” he asked Sami when she answered his knock on the door.
    â€œSure,” Sami agreed.
    â€œYou don’t need to check your hair, or grab a lip gloss or anything?”
    Sami seemed confused. “Why would I want to do that?” she asked. “We’re just going to the park. I don’t need to get all made up, do I?”
    Vin smiled. “No. I think you look great just the way you are. Do me a favor, Sami?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œDon’t ever turn into a New York girl.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” she asked him.
    â€œI don’t know,” Vin answered. “It’s just that I think Elk Lake must be an incredible place.”
    Vin had been right about the sound system in Central Park. Despite the massive speakers set up throughout the Great Lawn, the acoustics in Central Park weren’t the greatest. And it didn’t help that the people didn’t exactly behave like they were in a concert hall. Many of the audience members spent a lot of time talking on cell phones, giving directions to late-arriving friends. Sami wished she had a quarter for every time she heard someone say, “I’m right near the ball field. Can you see me? I’m waving at you.” And as the evening went on and the bottles of wine emptied, many people in the audience grew giggly and restless. The few couples who’d made the brave attempt to bring babies to the concert found themselves scrambling to keep their offspring from crying.
    Still, Sami wouldn’t have traded theevening for anything. It was so thrilling being in Central Park, together with hundreds of New Yorkers, as the New York Philharmonic played music on the huge stage at the edge of the Great Lawn.
    Before she’d left for New York, Sami had heard all the horror stories about Central Park—her father had seen to that. He’d come home every night with some other urban myth he’d heard about the dangers that lurked in the park. Until this moment, Sami couldn’t have imagined ever being in Central Park after sunset. Yet, sitting there on this evening, with Vin at her side, she didn’t