“I guess,” I replied.
“See you at six again?”
“Yes,” I said and then hung up. I looked over to his office.So, a regular, romantic date night at Cappello’s.The pigeon in the box suddenly gave a loud coo and I looked down at it.
“I know,” I said to him, “I wouldn’t have guessed it either.”
Fifteen minutes later, I found myself back in his car with my pigeon. This was starting to feel oddly familiar—him driving me around like this. But this time I was alone in the car.
I looked around, wondering where he’d gotten to and when he was coming back. And then suddenly, he appeared from behind the building and my heart skipped an actual beat.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
Ryan
Wheeling the bike was difficult, what with the broken wheel, and he suddenly wondered if returning it in this state wouldn’t get her into more trouble with her clearly unstable-sounding neighbor. He looked at his watch.Shit!Dinner was in fifty minutes. Did he have enough time to take this thing past a bike repair shop, put on a new wheel, take it to her house and get home with enough time to fetch Emmy for dinner? Probably not. But then he looked up at his car and straight into her face. She was in the front seat, and she was beaming at him. Her smile was different this time, not like those fake-looking smiles she gave him around the office. This smile was real—big, wide and warm—and because of it, he knew he had to do this for her, even if it meant pushing his dinner back by half an hour.
Mind you, Emmy probably wouldn’t be upset. In fact, it wasn’t like she seemed to care about or enjoy their regular monthly dinners anyway. When Rachel had been alive, they’d had a regular dinner together once a month, before she’d gotten sick. Since her death he’d felt the need to keep it going. But it wasn’t like it used to be. The three of them used to laugh and talk together, but now it was full of sulky silences, a lot of moaning, and her eyes were usually just glued to her phone. But he was determined to keep the tradition alive; if he let it go, it felt like he would be letting another part of his sister go, and he wasn’t ready for that. He dropped Emmy a message, informing her of the time change. She replied with an emoji he didn’t understand.
The bike was heavy and cumbersome and a huge mission to get into the back of his car. But he managed, despite breaking out in a sweat. God, he was unfit. He needed to get back to the gym, not that he had time to do anything for himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done something just for himself. Gym was a luxury, not a necessity. He climbed into the front seat and took his jacket off. He’d normally never look this casual around an employee, but he seemed to be breaking a lot of his usual rules when it came to Doris.
“Where did you find it?” she asked, turning in her seat.
“The gardener had it locked in the shed around the back of the building.” He started the engine and pulled out.
“Thanks so much.” She sounded genuinely happy. “I’ve been avoiding my neighbor for days.”
“We need to take it past a bike repair shop to fix the wheel,” he quickly added, as he drove off in the direction of town. He’d already googled the closest one, and luckily it was conveniently situated.
“No, you don’t have to do that, I’m sure he’ll understand . . .” She tapered off. “Okay. He’ll be angry, but I’m sure he won’t kill me . . .” She tapered off again. “Okay, maybe he’ll try and kill me, but I’m sure I can fight him off, or—”
He cut her off quickly. “Do you know how ridiculous that all sounds?” He was angry now. She shouldn’t be living in a place where the neighbors could potentially inflict bodily harm on her. “You really shouldn’t be living there,” he concluded.
“It’s not like I can move right now.” The cheer in her voice was gone; instead, it was replaced with something that sounded a little mournful. “It’s all I can afford.”
“Well, when you calculate what your salary needs to be, make sure the number is sufficient for you to afford a place in a less murderous part of town.”
“Huh?” She sounded surprised, and quite frankly he was a little surprised too.
Why was he doing this?
“It’s simply a matter of employee wellness. I would be concerned if any one of my other staff members were living in a place that seemed detrimental to their health.” He quickly covered, although that wasn’t true, at all. He didn’t know where any of his other employees lived, or gave a shit where they lived for that matter. But for some reason that he didn’t like, Doris’s living arrangements were really starting to irk him. He let out an involuntary sigh that he wasn’t even aware he’d made until she pointed it out.
“You sigh a lot,” she suddenly said.
“Mmm, it’s a recent development,” he muttered, half under his breath.
“What’s caused it?” she asked innocently. Clearly, she was unaware that she was in fact the cause of it.
He shrugged, and was grateful that the bike shop came into view. This was not a conversation he felt like having with her.
They stood in the shop waiting for the man to put a new wheel on. He looked around at the bikes and felt his stomach contort. There was a cute pink bike with ribbons hanging off the handlebars. He remembered his sister having one exactly like that when she was younger. They used to insist on getting the same birthday presents, and that year she’d gotten a pink bike, and he’d gotten a blue one. They’d thought they were so cool, riding up and down the street all day, late into the evening, until their mother called them in for dinner. Riding his bike with his twin was definitely one of his favorite childhood memories.
He felt a salty sting in his eyes and quickly looked away, turning his back on Doris.Shit, what was happening to him?It was coming up to the anniversary of Rachel’s death and he’d been thinking and dreaming about her more than usual. And he’d definitely been feeling more emotional lately. He took a deep breath and tried to steady himself; he didn’t know why seeing the bikes had affected him so badly. He clenched his jaw and tightened his fists at his side.
“Are you okay?” Doris’s voice made him jump. He hadn’t realized that she’d noticed anything.
“Fine!” He turned around quickly. He pulled himself together in seconds and assumed his usual upright pose. He was used to stuffing his emotions down. One of his biggest fears was that one day they would all come out and he wouldn’t be able to contain them.
