“You don’t look fine! What happened?” Ty asks, looking to me for the answers.
“It’s a long story,” I tell him, not wanting to rehash everything, but knowing that I’m gonna have to, because Ty and Vin are not ones to let shit go. “Come on, let’s go into the office.”
I gingerly lower myself into the chair behind my desk, while Ty and Vince lean back against the wall facing us and I begin to tell them everything.
They listen to me with rapt attention, neither of them interrupting while I tell my story.
“I fucking knew something was up, man.Fuck.” Ty runs his hands through his hair before bringing a fist down hard onto the filing cabinet beside him. “It was that call I took for you a couple weeks back wasn’t it? The one asking about the money? That was Donovan?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you tell us, dude?” Vince asks. “If it was money you needed, we could have found a way. We could’ve helped. You know me and Ty have always got your back.”
“Which is why I didn’t tell you, not even Amy knew about the money. I didn’t tell you ‘cause I wanted to keep you out of it. It was my shit to deal with.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, man. We’ve been together for years, that counts for something. You may be our boss, but more than that, you’re our friend. Your shit is our shit. We’d give anything to help you, man, you know that. We love you, Lo.” Ty says with a warm meaningful smile.
“I love you crazy bastards, too.” I flick my gaze to Vin, “So tell me more about this dude in a dress?”
Ty sniggers and Vin shoves him in the shoulder, knocking Ty off balance. Turns out that when Vin and Ty went out last night, Vin saw a girl sat at the bar and went over to work his charm on her, and it took him all of an hour to figure out that it was in fact a guy. After we’ve teased Vin a little longer, Ty and I turn our attention to the empty spot where the GTO stood just yesterday.
“What will you do?” Ty asks. “This can’t be it.”
“I’ll go to Graham, An old friend of Amy’s dad. He’s a cop. He might be able to help track it down.” I can’t stomach the thought that we’ll never get the car back.
“We’ll help. Vin and I can make a few calls, see if anyone’s seen a ’65 GTO with the best damn paint job you’ve ever seen.”
It hurts to laugh, but I don’t care. “You did a great job, man. Seems kind of pointless now though. The car could be anywhere by now. I hate that I let her down.”
“You didn’t. Amy gave up the car to save you, that counts for something. That girl loves you, even Stevie Wonder could see that she loves the fucking bones of you. You didn’t let her down, man.”
“I’ve never loved anyone or anything as much as I love her.”
“I’m glad that after all these years you’ve finally found someone. I know Vin and I tease and joke about being tied down by a girl, but isn’t that what everyone wants? The love a good woman? A family? A home? I know I sure do.”
“And you’ll find it.”
“I had it once, you know? Had the best damn girl a guy could wish for and I fucked it all up.” He shuffles from one foot to the other uncomfortably, I’ve never seen him like this in all the years we’ve worked together. I guess he just hides it well.
“What happened? Where is she now?” I ask.
He shrugs. “I didn’t fight hard enough for her, I let people get in the way of us, our happiness… but she’s better off without me in her life anyway. She lives here in Chicago, it’s been years since I’ve seen her, but for what it’s worth, I hope she’s happy.” He goes quiet and I get that he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore, so I don’t press the subject any further.
Ty and I have always shared a bond, we just seem to get each other. Vin is always so loud, living a hundred miles an hour and not taking life seriously, whereas Ty is calmer, collected with a strong and level head on his shoulders, and now I understand why in the years that I've known him, I've never seen him with a woman. He's still madly in love with the girl he lost years ago.
“Don’t give up on her, man,” I say. I pat him on the back and he gives me a weak smile.
“I think it’s a little too late, Lo. It’s been years, we were just kids then.”
“It’s never too late,” I tell him.
∞∞∞
Just as I’m about to head home, I get a text from Amy telling me to go to her house. It’s vague and it has me a little worried. When I get there, Madeline answers the door, her eyes red and puffy as if she’s been crying.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
“Amy’s in her room.” She shuts the door behind me and says nothing else as she makes her way in the living room.
