This was so unfamiliar. Ryan Stark never seemed uncertain. Never seemed at a loss for words, and certainly never sounded like this.
“I thought that . . . that . . .” He paused and took another step into the room. “Well, you know how you need to buy something?” he asked.
She stood up from her bed. She was tall—it must be a family trait. “Huh?” She looked confused.
“You know,” he said. His voice had taken on a strange high-pitched tone and he was flicking his eyes around the room as if he was embarrassed.
“What?” she asked.
“That thing you wanted to buy but couldn’t get that time because—” He persisted with this vague description and I rolled my eyes. We would be here all day if this continued.
“I think the word he’s looking for, rather unsuccessfully, is abra,” I said with a smile and then winked at the teenager.
She looked at me blankly, as if she didn’t quite know what to make of me. And then her face softened slightly and I saw a small smile grace her lips.
“Yes. That!” he suddenly said. “Thank you, Doris, for clearing that up.” He sounded stiff and formal—damn, it was cute—and I smiled a little more. “I thought that maybe you and Doris could—”
Her eyes widened and her jaw fell open. “What? You want your assistant to take me bra shopping?” she mocked.
Oh God, now that she put it that way, it sounded bad.
“Well, I just thought that, since I can’t do it and Grandma couldn’t and since Doris is a woman, like you, well, she is somewhat older obviously, but she is younger than Grandma and although I’m sure it’s been a while since she bought her first bra . . . uh . . . she is wearing a balconette bra at the moment, which I did google, by the way, but I thought that—” He stuttered and stumbled over his words and it only made the whole thing worse.
Emmy was red with embarrassment and if I didn’t do something to salvage this situation, it was going to crash and burn.
“Okaaaayyy!” I jumped in front of Ryan and put my hand over his mouth. “That’s enough,” I said and then started pushing him out the door. “Out. Out.” I managed to get him out and then, as soon as I had, I closed the door and looked at Emmy.
She stared at me in shock. “Did you actually just do that?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I think so.”
“You just pushed my uncle out of the room?” She smiled again. “You shut him up with your hand!”
I nodded. “I guess I did.”
“Oh my God, I hope you know you’resoooogetting fired for that.” She sat back down on her bed and her smile faded. “I’m not going bra shopping with you, by the way.” She turned her back on me, shutting me out.
I stood and looked at her for a while. Her bravado was transparent. The angry teen act she had going on, much like her uncle actually, was just a mask she was hiding behind. It was so obvious.
“I lost my mom too,” I said after a while.
She turned around and looked at me.
“A year ago,” I continued. “It was the worst day of my life. I still remember it as if it were yesterday. I woke up that morning and had a mom, and then when I went to bed that night, I didn’t. She was just gone. And I couldn’t wrap my head around it, you know. How one minute she was there and the next she wasn’t. People don’t just disappear like that, well, they’re not supposed to anyway. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t. But there was nothing I could do to bring her back.”
Our eyes met. I could see hers were shimmering with tears. I walked over to the bed and sat down next to her, but not too close. “Look, if you don’t want me to go bra shopping with you, I totally understand. I mean, trust me, this is as weird and awkward for me as it is for you. We don’t even know each other. But, if you’re cool with it, I’d be happy to go with you and try to help. I can’t guarantee I’ll be any good, but I’m sure I’d be better than Ryan, who can’t even say the word bra.”
There was a long silence and I could see she was considering this carefully. Slowly, after a while, a small nod started. “Okay,” she said softly.
“Okay?” I repeated.
And then she turned and met my eyes again.
“How does my uncle know you’re wearing a balconette bra?” she asked.
“It’s a very long and rather dramatic story,” I said quickly. “I’ll tell you in the car.”
We both stood up and walked towards the closed door. “Shall we?” I opened the door only to see Ryan scramble to the other side of the corridor.
