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Neither of us were masters of table tennis, so we quickly learned quite a few facts about each other.
I learned that Ria studied psychology at college but didn’t finish her degree, that she’d once had a boyfriend who was a drug dealer, and that she had actuallyapprenticedin tarot at one of those back alley parlors you’d see advertised on faded signs.
Ria learned that my birth surname was Jones, that I participated in fencing, tai chi and occasionally horse riding (she called these ‘rich people sports’), and that my best friend at school had been a goth named Winifred who still wrote to me occasionally from where she still lived in our home town.
As with Sylvester, the fact she found the funniest was that I’d been a jock in high school.
“No way!” She set down her paddle in surprise.
“Ask Sylvester, he’s got photos saved somewhere. Made a mistake showing him those.”
“But your best friend was a goth, you said. And you’re such a nerd.”
I was indignant. “Excuse me!”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, no, you’re not, obviously, you’re devastatingly handsome and incredibly wealthy. But you do wear glasses. Oh, here’s a free fact – I do, too, sometimes.”
“Really? What are your glasses like?”
“Large. Round.” She winked at me. “Got to add to that big-eyes mystic vibe.”
I nodded, imagining it. “Please, wear them to one of our dates.”
“In exchange for getting to see your jock photos. These I have to see.”
“Alright. It’s a deal.” I grinned. “Oh, I’ve got a free fact for you, too. My vision’s not terrible. I could easily get laser eye surgery and not have to deal with glasses ever again. It’s just that I strongly believe – and Mandy, my COO agrees – no one would respect me as the CEO of a huge tech company if I didn’t wear glasses.”
She swept the back of her hand tragically across her forehead. “Oh, the troubles of being painfully good-looking.”
I smirked. “You think I’m good-looking? Don’t think you’ve mentioned that before.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t think you’ve called me ‘breath-taking’ ever, either.”
When the game finished, Ria needed a brief sit down. She was looking paler again.
“Are you alright, Ria? Do you need to go home?”
She nodded. “I think the ping-pong took the last energy I had left. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“It could just be tiredness. That does happen, you know.” I should know. I frequently felt ill from lack of sleep, and rarely stopped to rest, pushing through it instead. “Let’s say our goodbyes.”
I led us to my brothers’ table, where they protested at my departure.
“We’ve barely seen you!” Sylvester threw his arms up dramatically, while Winston smirked next to him and raised his eyebrows in my direction.
I hugged each of them in goodbye. “Soon, my brothers, soon.”
Elsie and Ria were chatting somewhere slightly apart from our table. I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I hoped good things about me.
I dropped Ria off, staying in the car with her to make sure she got home safely. And, like a gentleman, I walked her to the door and said goodnight with only the briefest of kisses. I wished I could have lingered, but I figured she just wanted to crawl into bed. I wasn’t a pushy kinda guy.
But in the car all the way home, I did torment myself by imagining what I might have done if I had indeed lingered.
RIA
It had been nice to meet the Brock brothers, sans Apollo, but it was also kind of weird. Elsie, Jude’s wife, had been watching me carefully all evening. What she had said to me at the end of the night kept coming back to me.
I had chatted with Elsie a bit while the brothers were chiding Forest for leaving. At the end, Elsie had put her hand on my shoulder. “I like you, Ria. You seem nice, and fun. But there’s something odd going on here. Just... be careful, okay? The Brock brothers – I love them all, obviously, besides Apollo – but they do lead quite twisty lives.”
