Page 73
Story: Surprised By Her
Ryan turned the car off and looked at me.
“I can take you anywhere else you want to go. We could go home, and I can talk to your mama about candles, or we could go to my place. If this isn’t for you today, I support you.”
I leaned over and kissed her. “I’m okay. How about we come up with a word that I can say and if I say it, you’ll take me somewhere quiet?”
“Kind of like a safeword,” she said.
“Right. Okay, now to come up with a word that wouldn’t sound weird if I just dropped it in conversation.”
“How about…how about if you say you want another negroni? That’s normal,” she said.
“Hey, that works. Let’s go with that.”
I put my hand on the door and pushed it open. Ryan joined me and then I realized that people were going to ask questions about us going in together.
“What are we telling people?” I asked, grabbing her arm. “About you and me, what are we telling people? I know we haven’t talked about anything, so I don’t want to have that conversation right now, but I just need to know what you want to do.”
Ryan put both hands on my shoulders.
“It’s okay. We’re friends, right? I mean, we can tell them we’re friends and that’s all anyone needs to know.”
Friends. The word stuck my throat and normally I wouldn’t have minded it at all, and it was a good answer. If we said anything else, people would have more questions that neither of us could answer.
“Friends,” I finally said, hating the taste of the word in my mouth. “Friends is good.”
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Layne said. “Both of you.”
“Me too,” I said. There were three times as many people as I thought were going to be here and I was doing my best not to fall off a mental cliff. It was only Ryan’s looming presence next to me, her body almost up against mine that kept me from completely crumbling.
“Help yourself to food and drinks and hop in the pool and have a brownie,” Layne said as someone else came over to say hello.
“Thanks,” I said and then I shared a look with Ryan. “Shall we get food?”
“If you’re up for it,” she said.
“I am,” I said, giving her the best smile I could manage. Ryan put her hand on the small of my back and guided me toward the food table. Mark was at the grill and he gave Ryan a huge hug and called the twins over. They left a group of other kids and ran to come give Ryan hugs.
“Auntie R, will we be as tall as you?” one of them asked.
Ryan leaned down so she was closer to their eye level. “Only if you eat your vegetables and listen to your parents and get really good grades.”
The twins rolled their eyes in perfect unison.
“Auntie R, we’re too old to believe that,” one twin said.
“Thanks for trying,” Mark said with a laugh as he added some fresh burgers to the grill. “The older they get, the harder it is to lie about things.”
“You’re not supposed to lie,” the girls said at the same time. They might wear different clothes and hairstyles, but other than that, they were so in sync. I wondered what that was like.
“I don’t know how tall you’re going to be, but there’s a good chance, since both your parents are relatively tall, that you will be too. Have you learned about genetics yet in school?”
They shook their heads.
“You will,” Ryan said. “For now, don’t worry about being tall. There’s nothing you can do about it anyway. You can be in charge of your clothes and your grades and how you treat others. Okay?”
They nodded in unison and she smiled.
“You’re my favorite nieces,” she said.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73 (Reading here)
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93