I take the phone away from my mouth. “Dave has Ryan’s phone and I have no way of reaching him.”
I sit immobilized as my own words start to sink in. There is no way for me to talk to Ryan now and I’m beginning to have visions of myself curled up in bed, chewing the ends of my hair for the remainder of the week. Adam grabs the cell phone out of my hand and talks with Dave. All I can hear is his one-sided version of their conversation.
“Hi, honey, yes.” Adam looks over at me. “She is… okay… okay…
Biggest Loser
… love you.” Click.
I’m shaking my head in dismay, looking for him to quickly relay any information that will put me at ease.
“Dave wanted me to record something for him,” he says and hands me my phone.
“Adam!”
“Sorry! Well, your sour love muffin clearly doesn’t have his head on straight given all that you’ve put him through, and he left his phone in Dave’s car, as you know,” he says.
I close my eyes and breathe deeply through my nose. “What now? He has no home phone either.”
Adam folds his hands on his lap again. “He’ll have his phone back tomorrow afternoon and you’ll talk to him then. Why don’t you just shoot him an email?”
“I don’t want to. I need to speak with him.”
Panic sets in as I’m internally fuming and cursing everything and everyone that has led me to this point in my life. First and foremost Marc, who should be punished for behaving so irrationally. Ryan is no game player; he did nothing to deserve these feelings of betrayal and uncertainty… all on the day he introduced me to his mother! I clutch my stomach and Adam comes around the desk to comfort me.
“Kat, I think you’re overreacting. I can see it in your beady, little, short person eyes that you’re about to turn this into a disastrous event for yourself. So let’s just gather our things, head back to my house and order sushi,” he states. “We can have a sleepover if you’d like,” he suggests. “I’ll even let you use Dave’s La Mer.”
“I think I should go over to Ryan’s apartment,” I blurt out. “I have no other way of reaching him and I can’t let him leave town like this.”
Adam looks at me with pity for a moment while he ponders what I’ve said. “Okay, if that will make you feel better, then you should,” he says.
“Will you come with me?” I ask.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he says smiling. “Can we still get sushi after?”
“Yes.”
It’s almost five thirty as Adam and I leave the office and head over to Ryan’s place. Earlier in the day I could barely get up the nerve to text him again, let alone stand before him, begging forgiveness. But I have convinced myself that if he gets on that plane with our last conversation being the one we had on Sunday, I am guaranteed to make this a disastrous event as Adam has predicted.
Adam decides to drive, leaving me to obsess in the passenger seat about what I can say today that didn’t come across on Sunday. Will I have the strength now that I didn’t have when I made my initial plea?
Adam’s voice is a welcome distraction. “Alright,” he starts. “Just go in there and be clear and sincere. But no water-works, please, Kat. It makes you look like a spineless, defensive woman with something to hide.”
I glare at him as he continues.
“I’m serious, tears are not your friend—I am. And I’m telling you that sobbing is not going to work with him.”
“Thanks, but I don’t exactly have the control over my emotions that you would like me to. I don’t like being a blubbering fool any more than the next person,” I sigh. “I promise to do my best, though.”
“That’s ma’ girl.”
“Are you just going to wait down here for me?” I ask.
“Not all night,” he says. “So if you think you’re going to be more than five minutes, text me.”
“Five minutes?” I shake my head. “I’m not delivering a pizza.”
“Just text me if you’re
staying
,” he reiterates.
“Fine, pull over up here on the right.” I indicate with my finger.
Adam pulls the car to the curb and leans over to give me a kiss on the cheek. “Go get him.” He claps.
“Thank you, I love you,” I say.
“Go,” he says and shoves me out of the car.
I walk into the lobby and head toward the door buzzer. I feel the buzzer judging me as I stand there, so I push it extra hard.
No answer.
Don’t toy with me, buzzer. I press harder.
Nothing.
I press the hang-up button nearly forty times and try again.
Still nothing.
Much to my own surprise, I start banging on the buzzer demanding to be let in.
“Jesus, Mary, and Josephina!” Adam shouts from behind me as he barrels through the glass lobby doors. “What are you doing?”
I turn to him with a fury in my eyes that would make Glenn Close quiver. “It’s not letting me in!”
Adam puts his hands up slowly like he’s about to talk someone off the ledge of a building. “Step away from the buzzer,” he whispers strictly, then walks up to it himself and tries to ring Ryan’s apartment.
No answer.
“He’s not home,” Adam concludes.
“Try again,” I say and attempt to press the buttons.
“Away from the buzzer!” Adam yells.
He tries the buzzer one last time and there is still no answer.
“He’s obviously not home. Either that, or he has a closed circuit camera allowing him to witness your lobby tantrum—wherein, he’s made the correct decision not to let you up.” Adam grabs my hand. “Now let’s go before you chain yourself to that hideous couchette from Ikea in the corner over there.”
“Where could he be? He’s leaving in the morning.” I follow behind like a kid being dragged out of the mall.
“The boy has a life, my dear, and he’s politely asked you not to screw with it for a few days and you can’t even give him that. So, I let you come here—it didn’t work out—now it’s my duty to get you home and keep you under surveillance before you do something to ruin things for good.”
I rub my forehead with my free hand. “I’m going crazy. This is not like me. You know that, right?” I look to him for reassurance.
“Yes, little darling,” he says, more appeasing than convincing.
“Seriously,” I continue. “I am desperate for him. I can feel it. And everything was fine until Marc ruined it.”
Adam stops me when we reach the car. “Kat,” he begins, and places his hands on my slumped shoulders, “yes, it’s beyond unfortunate what went down on Sunday. But I think maybe Ryan wants you to take ownership of your fault in this debacle, and not just Marc’s.”
“But I did. I explained everything to him, and said above all that I was most sorry for having lied to him.”
“I know, but maybe… and I’m just guessing here… maybe he sees himself in Marc’s shoes somehow? Maybe he feels sorry for Marc and thinks you were too hard on him.”
“What are you saying?” I ask for clarification.
“I’m just saying that sometimes people pay attention to how you treat other people. Maybe he’s bothered by how you ditched a guy who proposed to you and ran to him instead? I honestly have nothing to back it up.” He shrugs. “Just a theory.”
What Adam is saying isn’t entirely off base. But why wouldn’t Ryan have just told me if that was the case? He simply said I should take some time and figure things out. He’d said that he spent the evening thinking about it, but what does that mean? Crap! Where is he? How could he not be home at a time like this? Doesn’t he need to pack?
I wrap my arms around my mid-section and rest my head on the glove box as Adam drives off to pick up the sushi. I’m doing everything I can to convince myself that I have no other choice but to wait for Ryan to get his phone back.
Just as we pass the corner of Clark and Division, I spot Ryan’s parents walking into Walgreens. “Stop the car!” I scream.
“Why?!” Adam yells back, startled.
“I just saw Ryan’s mom and dad walk into Walgreens, turn around!”
Adam pulls over and nearly gets rear-ended as he abruptly stops the car. “What in God’s name do you think you’re going to do with his parents?”
“Maybe they know where he is? Maybe he’s meeting them for dinner? I remember his mom saying something about getting together for dinner with him before he left,” I say. “Please turn around.”
“And then what?”
“And then I’m going to nonchalantly walk into Walgreens and bump into them,” I tell him.
“Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage for the night? It’s not like Ryan couldn’t get in touch with you if he wanted to.” Adam goes for the jugular.
“Thanks,” I growl. “I realize that, but please allow me this one last psychotic scheme and I promise to behave from here on out.”
He shakes his head. “The things I do for you,” he mumbles and turns the car around. Adam parks the car obnoxiously right in front of the entrance to Walgreens with two of the tires up on the curb. “Hurry,” he says.
“I’ll be right back,” I assure him and hop out of the car.
After a quick spin through the revolving doors I begin my search for Ryan’s parents. I thoughtfully grab a basket so it looks as though I have a legitimate purpose for being there; however, the absence of my purse, which I left in the car, may prove detrimental to my plan if I’m forced to confront them at the checkout counter. I start to head toward the pharmacy, believing that’s where they might be, but there’s no sign of them there. I slowly make my way through the back of the store peering down every aisle. Just as I pass the deodorants, I spot Ryan’s mom and dad one aisle over in greeting cards. I take a quick step backward, out of their view, and think up a contrived greeting of my own.
“What a pleasant surprise,” I squeal and round the corner.
Both their heads spin to face me. “Well, hello, Kat, how nice to see you,” Judy says. “Do you live nearby here?”
“No, actually my friend is in the car and I just ran in to get some… uh… paper towels… and cheese,” I say with determination.
“I see. Well, we’re just grabbing a thank you card and heading over to some friends for dinner,” she says and then gasps. “Oh no! Harvey, we forgot the bottle of wine. It’s on the table in the front hall.”
“How about I stick a check for eight dollars in the card then?” Harvey jokes.
“Well wouldn’t you know it,” Judy shakes her head, ignoring him.
“There’s a liquor store two doors down,” I advise.
“Yes, yes, but I hate to buy another one. Oh, well, it’s no big thing.” She shrugs. “What is my son up to tonight?” she poses the question of the hour.
I don’t want to let on that I have no idea what her son is doing, so I stall by dropping my empty basket. “Whoops! Sorry about that.” I go to retrieve it from the floor. “Ryan is packing, I think, for Vegas.”
“Ah, yes.” She smiles proudly. “I’m sure he told you that I bullied him into coming to Palm Desert afterward?”
Whenever you’ve just broken up with someone, the last thing you want to hear are sentences that begin with “I’m sure he told you.” I do my best to wipe the dumbstruck look from my face and recover nicely from this new information.
“Palm Desert? Oh, yeah, he did say something about that. For some reason I thought that was next month?”
“No, no, he’s meeting us there after his work in Vegas, for Harvey’s cousin’s birthday. I wish you could join us,” Judy offers up.
She wishes I could join them? Was I invited? Had Ryan declined for me, or was she simply tossing out a conversational gesture. More concerning is that Ryan is now going to California after Las Vegas. My skin is getting warm and Harvey is getting impatient.
“Well, have a great time on your trip,” I say to both of them. “How long will you all be out there?” I inquire, hoping to get a few more details before Harvey pulls the plug on our conversation.
“We’ll be there for two weeks; Ryan can only stay for one, as you know.”
I nod with great certainty. “Well, it’s wonderful to see you both. Hopefully we can run into each other when you get back.”
“You too, darling,” Judy says and follows Harvey toward the front of the store.
I can only imagine that the horn I’m hearing outside is Adam. I drop my basket again and head to the exit, making sure Ryan’s parents are nowhere in sight. Adam is just about to honk again as he sees me spinning through the revolving doors.
“Didn’t you get my texts?” he questions me.
“I left my phone in my purse… in the car with you, moron,” I say as I get in and slam the door.
“Dammit, I wanted a Vitamin Water,” he says. “So what happened?”
“Ryan’s not coming home on Sunday. He’s meeting his parents in California after his Vegas trip,” I say and toss my head back.
“He is?”
“Yes, his mom just told me. She actually assumed I knew, which was highly embarrassing, but then she told me that he’s spending a week there with them.”
“So big deal, he’s coming back eventually and he’ll have his phone tomorrow,” Adam says.
“It is a big deal! I can’t get a hold of him, he won’t contact me on his own, and he’s planned a vacation and didn’t even bother to let me know. He’s so over it,” I moan.
“He’s not over it, Kat, and you will talk to him tomorrow night.”