Plans for the trip to New York came together quickly and excitement for the trip grew with each passing day. I took Abby shopping one day to buy her a new pink suitcase which she insisted on dragging behind her the whole way home.
Finally, the day dawned when we were taking off and I woke with a jump when Imogen poked me in the side.
"Wake up, babe. It's New York day." She whispered in my ear and I grinned, leaning closer to kiss her.
"I can't wait."
"Me either. Do you think Abby's up?" I pulled away a little to listen, my ears picking up tiny sounds coming from Abby's room.
"Oh yeah. She's up." I laughed and leaned in for another kiss. She accepted and ran a hand through my hair. "She'll be in here soon."
"She always is." Right on cue, the sound of running feet echoed down the hall and seconds later, the door flew open and Abby came flying in, launching herself onto the bed in a flurry of blonde hair and giggles.
"Mummy! Papa! Wake up! It's flying day!" She crawled on top of us, poking Imogen's cheek when she pretended to be asleep.
"Morning, princess. Did you sleep well?" I asked, holding in my laughter as I watched her continue her assault on Imogen's cheek.
"Yes! I dreamed about going in the big aeroplane and flying all around the world!"
"Well, we're not flying quite that far," Imogen mumbled, freeing her arms from the blankets and hugging Abby tightly. "Just a little way."
"Oh. When are we going, Mummy? When?"
"Soon, princess. Papa and I have to get up first and then we all have to have some breakfast, okay?"
"No..." She whined, pouting. I laughed and pulled her to my side of the bed.
"If we're really quiet, mummy might get up and make us some breakfast in bed," I whispered to her, loud enough that Imogen heard. "Would you like that?"
"Yeah!" She giggled but hurriedly cut herself off, looking over at Imogen hopefully. She grinned and rolled her eyes.
"I see what's going on here; I'm outnumbered!" She pretended to pout for a moment before leaning over to kiss us both and then climbed out of bed. She pulled the curtains open, causing the sunlight to stream into the room, landing on the pillow beside me.
"Mummy!" Abby complained, covering her eyes with her hands.
"Sorry, princess. Roll over. Then the sun won't be in your eyes." Imogen told her. Abby did as she said, cuddling into me. I held her close and made myself comfortable.
--------------------
"Nick, wake up." Imogen was shaking me awake and I blinked up at her. Abby was gone from my side but I could hear her clattering around somewhere in the house.
"What?"
"You fell asleep. I've got food for you before we go."
"Before we go? What time is it?"
"Almost eleven. We have to leave in half an hour."
"Half an hour?" I cried, sitting up straight in bed. "Why didn't you wake me earlier? I didn't finish packing last night."
"Hey, whoa. Calm down. I finished it for you. I know you don't sleep well on planes so I figured I'd let you get some rest now."
"Oh. Okay. Thanks." I breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing a little as Imogen laughed at me.
"You're such a worrywart." I pouted at her but took the bowl she offered me. It was filled with fruit and yoghurt. As I tucked in, Imogen sat beside me, just watching and occasionally kissing my cheek. "Just think; in a few short hours, we'll be in the City of Dreams."
"Mm. Visiting the Statue of Liberty, walking up and down the Central Park, admiring art at the MET..." I listed just a few of the things we'd planned to do when she had a few minutes to spare.
"Candle-lit dinner at a romantic restaurant..." She slowly walked her fingers up my thigh, making me shiver a little.
"If we can find a sitter for Abby."
"My colleague said she'll be happy to watch her for a few hours. All I have to do is return the favour in a couple weeks when she's planning a night with her husband."
"Sounds fair to me." I smiled at her and passed her the now empty bowl. "Let's go to New York."
The next few hours seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye and it wasn't long before I found myself in the JFK airport in New York, pushing a trolley piled with our bags while Imogen walked beside me, holding my hand with Abby perched on her hip.
"Oh wow." I breathed, giving Imogen's hand a squeeze. She looked over at me, and I let go of the trolley for a moment to hug both my girls.
"We're here. What do you think, Abby?" Imogen asked our daughter.
"It's pretty, mummy. Look." She pointed to a yellow taxicab parked outside.
"I saw. That's what's going to take us to our hotel."
"Why? I wanna go explore!" Abby pouted and tried to wriggle out of Imogen's arms but she held her tightly.
"It's going to be dark soon, baby girl. So we're going to find our hotel for the night and go to sleep. Aren't you tired?" I asked, trying to help.
"No." As she spoke, she tried to hide a yawn, making Imogen and I laugh.
"I think you are. Remember, we're here for two whole weeks. We'll have time to see everything." I promised her. She gave in then, resting her head against Imogen's shoulder as I tried to flag down a cab.
Eventually, we got one and managed to fit all our stuff in and we finally got to the hotel just as the sun was setting. Abby seemed to perk up a little more and skipped around mine and Imogen's feet as we talked to the woman at the concierge desk about our room.
"Abby, calm down please," I begged when she almost tripped over my feet for the thousandth time. I bent down to pick her up, hoping it would help but she just wriggled in my arms until I had to set her down again. "Other people are sleeping."
"But I wanna play, papa." She whined, tugging at the zip of her suitcase where she knew her toys were.
"Not now, princess. When we get upstairs you can play for a bit, okay?" Imogen tried to no avail. I just shook my head and turned back to the lady behind the desk.
"Here's your key, sir."
"Thanks." Imogen took the key card, "Uh, could we get a second key? So that we can both have access to the room if we're apart."
"Yes, yes, of course. One moment," She disappeared behind a door, appearing a moment later with a second room key. "Here you are."
"Alright. Let's head upstairs." I mumbled, turning to grab my suitcase. I didn't see Abby running by me and she crashed into me, causing her to tumble to the ground. "Oh, Abby..."
Her face crumpled and she burst into tears. I instantly felt bad for snapping at her and bent down to pull her up into my arms.
"I'm sorry, baby girl. But you've got to watch where you're going." I said to her, gently rubbing her back to calm her.
"S-sorry, Papa."
"It's okay. Does it hurt anywhere?" She sniffed and shook her head but still buried her face in my neck. I could tell I wouldn't be able to set her down anytime soon so I turned to Imogen to try and figure out how we were going to take all three suitcases up to our room.
"Ma'am? Would you like a cart?" The concierge lady pointed to where a bellhop was already headed over with a cart to put our bags in.
"Oh, thank you." I smiled at her, passing my carry-on bag to Imogen so she could set it on the cart.
Ten minutes later, we were up in our room and Abby was cheered up enough to have emptied her entire suitcase onto the floor. Imogen and I were sat on our bed, pouring over a brochure of things we could do tomorrow. She didn't have to do anything work-wise until the day after so we wanted to make the most of the time we had.
"I can't believe we're actually here," I whispered, leaning close to her ear. She smiled and turned to kiss me.
"Me either. But I'm glad I'm here with you, babe."
