I was an emotional teenager enchanted by her crush: the way the early morning light hit the sidewalks, the sight of a yellow cab, and the endless cereal options at my corner bodega all filled me with glee.

as Renzo came down and emerged from the slow elevator looking more like New York City than you or I could dream of in our philosophies. This was why I had such a crush on him.

what he saw from the esplanade in front of La Bonne Mère was quite breathtaking: looking north, the Vieux Port, and the old quartier of Le Panier; looking west, the stylish nineteenth-century villas of Le Roucas Blanc, and the beaches of the Prado; and to the south, a ripple of tiled rooftops leading to the shimmering sweep of the sea.