“Oh, thank God. I never thought I’d be so happy to see hummus in my life.” She pounced on the plate and started stuffing her face.
“I don’t know how you can eat that,” Ryder said, making a face.
“I’d eat just about anything right now,” Rory said, her mouth full of carrot and hummus. Classy.
“I would rather eat another person than eat that,” Ryder said, pointing to the half-empty plate.
“You would eat human flesh before eating hummus?” I said.
He nodded. “Yeah. I would.” Nuts. That was nuts.
“You underestimate the deliciousness of Sloane’s hummus,” Rory said, practically licking her fingers.
“Oh, I don’t underestimate anything about Sloane,” Ryder said, and I coughed on my own saliva. Nice.
I kept working with my pasta. I knew I was stirring it too much, and it was going to get overdone, but I couldn’t look at Ryder at the moment.
He must have sensed that I was uncomfortable, so he started asking Rory about work, and she launched into everything she’d had to go through. At least the press wasn’t camped out in front of the building anymore.
“Poor Lilia. I should really start paying her more. Our website went down and none of the tech people could figure out what was wrong and she took about five minutes and it was fixed. I’m so terrified I’m going to lose her to the IT department. Or even another company. She’s the best assistant I’ve ever had,” she moaned.
“Um, what about the one you had before her?” I asked, meaning Lucah. We’d jokingly called him her “sexcretary,” but now he worked in a different department so they could date without getting in trouble.
“Oh, he was good, but he didn’t know how to code. That’s an invaluable skill at a tech company.” True story. Like sewing skills in the fashion world. I was sure there were plenty of designers who couldn’t sew and had somehow worked their way up, but it was rare. Your chances of becoming successful were much better if you could.
“I could learn how to code,” Ryder said. “I need more skills. All of the things I’m good at don’t make me employable.” Wasn’t that the truth? He and Rory had worked on his resume, but there wasn’t a whole lot to work on. His employment history wasn’t the best, and there was no way of sugarcoating that.
“How is your job, by the way?” Rory asked, finishing the last carrot. Ryder had gotten a part-time job busing tables at a local restaurant.
He shrugged. “It sucks ass. But money is money, I guess. And I don’t think I’m going to be working there forever.”
“So what do you want to do?” I asked.
He burst out laughing. “Fuck if I know. I always thought I wanted to be a rock star when I was little, but I pretty much suck at playing the guitar. My dumbass brother got all that talent,” he said, referring to Lucah, who could probably have a second career as a singer if he wanted. Boy had pipes.
“But you don’t have any idea?” I’d always known what I wanted to do. I couldn’t fathom someone who didn’t have at least some clue. How could you go through life without passion for something? Anything. I didn’t care what it was, but something.
He made a face. “Not really. Guess I should figure that out. My therapist is up my ass about it.”
I’d probably be reluctant to figure my shit out if a farting therapist was pestering me about it.
“Okay, we’re ready,” I said, interrupting any further discussion of the farting therapist. We got all the food together and set it on the dining table. I’d gotten custody of it when Rory had moved, which was good, since I’d been the one who picked it out. I wouldn’t let Rory leave me much else, though, since a lot of the furniture had been bought by her father. It was all super nice, and much too opulent for me.
Rory went down the hall to fetch Lucah, who I had the feeling was hiding until he had to come out. But when he finally joined us, he was much more upbeat and positive, and not nearly as surly or judgmental as he was just a day ago.
“You going to therapy tomorrow?” Lucah asked Ryder.
“Does a bear shit in the woods?” Ryder said. I snorted into my pasta.
“Hilarious,” Lucah said, but he was smiling.
“Yes, I’m going to therapy. You can stop asking. I’ll do my time,” Ryder said, making a face.
“This is really great, Sloane, as usual,” Rory said, changing the subject.
“It’s really great. I was skeptical, honestly. But it’s fucking amazing,” Ryder said.
“Thank you very fucking much,” I said, and he smiled at me in a way that made my stomach flip over like it hadn’t flipped in a very long time. Ryder made me feel like I was eleven again and had just discovered boys didn’t have cooties and were actually kind of nice and fun and made me feel things I didn’t understand and couldn’t put a name on.