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“Kostya’s fiancée is her best friend. Lark said that she would probably come around, but shit, Carmen, I don’t know why she dumped me in the first place. When I talk to my friends and tell them some of the conversations Amy and I have had, they agree that she’s worth waiting for.”
“Okay,” Carmen said really slowly. “I’m not sure how much help I can be, but you know the family motto.”
“Yep, one for all, and all for one.”
“That’s it, Ryker. So I will give you all the girly advice that I can. Tell me about her.”
“Amy and I have only met one real time in person. It was when we were doing kind of an undercover reporter-type thing for Kostya’s fiancée, Lark. I told you about her being a reporter, right?”
“Yep you told me about Lark. But what’s really important is that you’re ga-ga over a girl you’ve only met in person one time. Sounds logical.” Carmen said sarcastically.
“Quit busting my balls, Carmen, and listen. Amy was amazing. She was the total opposite of any woman I’m normally attracted to.”
“So, she couldn’t carry on a conversation, she wasn’t nice, and she wasn’t beautiful.”
“Cut it out. She’s a goddess, funny as hell and a great listener, later on when we were talking on the phone and I really got to know her, I found out she would give you her last dollar if she thought you needed it more than she did.”
Carmen sighed. “She sounds like someone I’d like to meet.”
“That was the problem. We’d been talking on the phone for months. I’d been pushing to go up to D.C. to meet her, but her job was more of a pain in the ass than even mine, if you could believe it.”
“Now that’s really saying something,” Carmen commiserated. “What does she do?”
“She is a restaurant manager, and from what her friend says, she’s one of the best. She’s under the thumb of the chef and his bitch of a wife, and they use and abuse her, not that you’d ever hear her say it. Hell, Carmen, she wouldn’t say shit with a mouth full.”
Carmen giggled.
“So, here I am, trying to figure out her days off so I can go up and see her, then Mom’s birthday weekend comes up, so I ask her if I can take her with me. That’s when everything changes.”
“What do you mean everything changes?”
“I mean she stops taking my calls, won’t answer texts. Everything. Total blank.”
“That doesn’t make any sense, Ryker.”
“I haven’t been able to think what in the hell I could have done that would have been so wrong that she would have just ghosted me like that.”
“Nothing? You’ve got nothing?”
Ryker cracked his neck. “Well, maybe something. Okay, here goes. Up to that point, Amy and I really didn’t talk about our pasts. I mean our family and childhoods, we breezed over that. We talked about our friends, what was going on at work. Her mostly. I’d tell her fun shit about how Mateo had biffed it at the obstacle course, shit like that. Later it got deeper than surface, we talked about what each of us wanted out of life. Hell, Sis, she even got me telling her where I wanted to go in my career. I hadn’t even realized that I wanted to retire after my twenty. How could I have not known that? But she got it out of me.”
“I have to reiterate, I want to meet this girl.”
“Exactly. But I’m not sure you’re going to get to, what with the ghosting and all.”
“Ryker, big brother, why are you thinking she’s not talking to you?”
“I mentioned our family. I’ve mentioned our family before. I told her how much the two of you, and Julie, would get along. I told her how much Mom would love her. So she knew I was psyched to have her eventually meet the McQueen menagerie. On our last call I invited her to Mom’s birthday. She agreed to go. The last time I talked to her on the phone.”
Carmen sighed. “Let me guess—it wasn’t the last time you talked to her.”
“Fuck no. After the party, and her blowing me off for weeks, I headed up to D.C. to her restaurant.”
“Oh Jesus, I don’t want to hear this, do I?”
“Probably not. None of the guys have been impressed so far.”
“Good God, Ryker, what in the hell did you do?”
