“Come on,Sadie.”
Sadie still hadn’t seen my message yet. I looked at the time; she was probably out withNick.
Kim: Are you not a fan of theimage?
Ryan: Leonard could do it better. He can doanything.
Kim: Yeah, but you knowwhat?
Ryan:What?
I had a feeling that I knew what she was going tosay.
Ryan: Russell pickedme.
Kim: That’s right. Not Leonard.You.
If Russell wanted to do that to me, he’s going to be disappointed because I wouldn’t be able to do it as well as Leonard. My phone lit up with Sadie’s picture.Finally!
“Hey,Sadie.”
“Hi, Ryan. Is that a picture that Russell sentyou?”
“Yeah,” I sighed and waited to hear her opinion. “Well, what do youthink?”
“Duh, I think it’shot.”
I let my head fall into myhands.
“Do you think Russell wants to do that tome?”
“I would say there is a very good chance of that,yes.”
“He’s going to be disappointed inme.”
“Why?”
“Because!”
“Ryan, you’re going to have to give me a better reason other than ‘because.’”
“Because I’m notLeonard!”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s just fine with Russell. He doesn’t wantLeonard.”
“Maybe he does.,” I mumbled and continued down the path of self-pity. “Maybe…maybe Leonard wasn’t available. Maybe he’s just killing time with me and waiting until Leonard isavailable.”
Nothing that came out of my mouth sounded good at all. It all sounded terribly depressing, and once I got going, I couldn’tstop.
“This is why I shouldn’t have gotten involved with someone,” I rattledoff.
“Remind me again, Ryan,” Sadie had a bite to hertone.
I had no logicalresponse.
“Ryan, don’t let the crap that your parents told you scare you away from Russell. I think you need to callRussell.”
“No. I just need to sort this out on my own. I can’t keep running to him every time I get down onmyself.”
