Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
“New Jersey certainly made both of you hungry.” Anisha looked from Ryan, who was on his third bowl of soup, over to Allie, who was just finishing her second.
Allie nodded. Her cheeks were warm from the soup and the general good feeling of being back in Ryan and Anisha’s apartment after the long day. She was just about to suggest that they all move over to the living room and maybe play Scrabble or something when Ryan dropped his spoon into his empty bowl.
“Dang, that was good.”
“It was,” Allie agreed. “Anisha, I would bathe in that soup.”
“Speaking of bathing…” Ryan stood up. “I’ll do the dishes later, okay? I need to have a shower.”
Allie laughed. “You feel that the Top Drawer left you with some uncleanliness you just can’t shake?”
“Naw.” Ryan’s cheeks went slightly pink. “It’s just, I have a date tonight.”
Allie felt as if she’d been hit over the head with a blunt object. She stared straight ahead for a moment and then, with effort, regained her composure.
“A date . Cool.”
Anisha waved her hand at him. “Don’t worry about the dishes. Allie and I will manage it on our own this once.”
Allie’s brain felt like an engine struggling to turn over. Why shouldn’t he have a date? He wasn’t dating her . He didn’t want to date her, obviously.
Say something. Something nice .
“So…where are you going?”
Better than Who is she?
Ryan looked at her, puzzled. “Everything okay? Your voice sounds all weird.”
She cleared her throat in a way that could only be called aggressive . “I’m fine, sorry, just had a…throat thing.”
“Ah.” Ryan pushed in his chair. “We’re going to see that new documentary about the Velvet Underground and then probably go get a drink or whatever. She’s coming to pick me up at seven thirty. Chivalrous, huh?” He laughed.
“Velvet Underground.” Allie nodded and put a Herculean effort into keeping her voice neutral. “That’s supposed to be a good one.”
“Yeah. Sheila’s interning for the podcast for a few months. She wants to be a music journalist. She seems pretty cool. No idea why she agreed to go out with me.”
She helped Anisha clear the table, and Ryan disappeared into the bathroom.
As Anisha scraped the dregs of food from the dishes, they heard Ryan start singing loudly in the shower. Allie had never heard him singing at full volume, without any music or accompanying voices. It allowed her to really appreciate the steady, warm tone of his voice.
“Damn, he’s good.” She looked at Anisha, who looked up from her soup to nod enthusiastically.
“That’s what I always tell him.”
Allie paused to listen more closely. “What’s he singing, anyway?”
Anisha laughed. “Church songs. You can take the boy out of Alabama, but you can’t take the church songs out of his repertoire.”
Allie listened to Ryan sing about how Jesus’s light was filling his soul until she heard the water, and the song, stop. Only then did her thoughts return to the reason why Ryan was cleaning up in the first place.
“He never tells me anything about dates. Does he talk to you about who he’s seeing?” She tried to sound as if she was just making conversation.
Anisha nodded. “He tells me a little bit, but no real details. Honestly, no disrespect to these ladies he goes out with, they’re all smart and nice and all that. But I’m not putting the mental energy into knowing anything about them until I think one of them is actually going to stick around.”
Allie took a moment to mull this over. “Really? None of them last?”
Anisha shook her head. “I think he gets scared that any relationship he’s in will end in him getting abandoned. He’s developed this super destructive tendency to bail really quickly on any relationship that might be going well, just because he’s trying to beat them to the inevitable end.”
“Huh.” Allie busied herself rinsing glasses under the tap.
“Anyway, as deep dark sexy secrets go, his is pretty benign.” Anisha laughed. She turned down the burner under the soup pot. “I was actually worried that he might be trying to date you.”
Allie’s head snapped up, and she stared at Anisha. “Worried?” Her pulse pounded in her ears.
“I mean, because I like you hanging around!” Anisha quickly clarified. “I didn’t want him to scare you off with his weird baggage.”
Allie laughed, slightly louder than she meant to. “Well, no worries about that.”
Before Anisha could say anything else, the bathroom door banged open, and Ryan walked out, his bulk concealed by a large purple bathrobe. His usual good smell was strong enough to compete with the waning fragrance of lemongrass and ginger that still hung in the air from their dinner.
Anisha whistled at him. “Is that what you’re wearing on your date? I hope so.”
Ryan rolled his eyes and didn’t bother answering her as he entered his bedroom, closing the door behind him. A few minutes later, he walked back into the main room, looking slightly more put together than Allie was used to seeing him. His jeans were freshly washed and a blue so dark it was almost black. He wore a gray cardigan over his usual denim button-down, and his hair was neatly combed. Allie swallowed hard and averted her eyes.
“So, I finished the basic bed tracks for ‘Borderline,’?” Allie said, awkwardly grabbing at conversation topics as he laced up his boots and pulled on his jacket.
“Oh, awesome!” Ryan smiled. “I have a few days off coming up. We can get together sometime next week.”
“Perfect.”
“I mean, unless…” Ryan looked away. “Unless this date goes really well…” He looked back up at Allie and fixed her with a questioning look that she couldn’t quite decipher.
Does he want me to be…upset?
Anisha joined them near the entryway, wiping her hands on a tea towel. Her lips pressed together in a thin line. “You’re ditching Allie for a girl you haven’t even been out with yet?”
“I’m not ditching Allie . Take it easy. I’m just being optimistic about my date.”
Anisha looked away from him and shook her head. It was the first time Allie had seen any kind of conflict between them. She felt mild panic, like a second grader whose mom and dad were sniping at each other at parent-teacher night.
“Optimistic? Or ridiculous?” Anisha squinted at him, suspicious.
“Same difference.” Ryan smiled at his roommate, and Allie felt the tension start to fizzle. He turned to her. “Allie, I give you my word that I will come record with you on Tuesday. Even if Sheila is begging me to take her to Bora Bora for a romantic getaway.”
Anisha gave a loud snort and then started coughing. Ryan rolled his eyes again.
A knock on the door jolted Allie from her position leaning against the wall.
Ryan looked at them. “Could you two get out of here? Last thing I need is two nosy chaperones watching me leave with my date.”
“Come on.” Anisha hooked her arm through Allie’s. “Let’s go hide in my room. Wouldn’t want to interfere with Mr. Romance.”
Allie forced out a laugh and gratefully followed Anisha into her room.
Never had she been less eager to meet a person than she was to meet Intern Sheila.