"I grew up in the middle of nowhere, too," he tells her. "Colorado. It was beautiful." Even now he misses it, because for all he does love New York and so many of the other cities he's spent time in, his best memories are the ones he has of his childhood.

His parents had been good people. Kind and loving. They'd both died too young, far before John was ready to let them go, but at least he'd had them for a time. He knows that's more than a lot of people can say.

"But it wasn't New York," he adds as they arrive at the pizza place and he opens the door for Karen to go inside ahead of him. "And I certainly couldn't get sushi in the middle of the night or find someone still busking at three in the morning."