Ryan: I just wanted to say hi.
Why wasn’t he replying? He was probably with her. She was probably doing all of the things that I couldn’t. I was supposed to go to a party with Russell tomorrow. Would we still be going or was he going to take her?
Ryan: Never mind. You don’t have to reply. I’ll catch you later.
See, this would be a mess if I had moved in. I’d already be out on the curb in a box with “broken man” written in marker on the cardboard. Thankfully, I hadn’t moved in. Just as I stopped staring at the screen and began to set the phone down, a text came in.
Russell: Good afternoon, my boy.
That was it? Was he playing with her? Maybe getting his needs met since I can’t do it.
Ryan: Sorry to have interrupted your afternoon.
Russell: You didn’t. You made my afternoon with your text.
Had I? Or was he just saying that?
Ryan: Okay. Well, I’ll let you get back to whatever it was that you were doing.
Russell: Answer.
Shit.
I stared at the picture of his SUV as it appeared on my screen. I’m such an idiot. Now he’s really going to be mad. If he didn’t have enough reasons to leave me before, he had it now.
“Hello,” I said into the phone.
“Where are you, my boy?”
“Home,” I snapped.
I looked around at my crappy couch and barren walls. How had I never put anything up on the walls? I’d spent ten years here and it looked like I had just moved in.
“Just in my shitty house. Where are you?” I returned the question. My tone sounded bad. I needed to try and calm down.
“Well, I’m sitting in my spa, wishing you were here with me.”
Oh.
“Alone?” I asked.
During the brief silence I could hear water bubbling and moving in the background. His light laughter reverberated through the phone.
“Of course I’m alone, Ryan. What have you been thinking about?”
“Nothing,” I lied.
“Clearly you have things on your mind.”
I was slightly annoyed by that comment.Clearly.Clearly, I had stuff on my mind? Oh really?Sometimes I hated the psychology background he had, and it became evident in my next comment.
“If you’re so wise and keen as to what’s going on in everyone’s mind, why did you waste your time developing software and not do something with all that psychology shit?”
I could hear him rise out of the water, as if he stood up. And for whatever reason, that audible motion made my heart race.
“I use the psychology every day, my dear boy. Developing software is my passion. You are my passion. Neither, are time wasted. So, since you’re not going to offer up as to what’s on your mind, I will volunteer what I think you’re thinking about.”
“Go for it.”
