Winning Back Ryan (29 page)

When the show ended, I glanced at the time.

              “So, let’s watch the commercial now,” I said to Brian.

             
He sighed, hesitating. “Alright.”

With a few minutes to spare, I walked into Brian’s closet, taking clothes out to wear. He fast forwarded through the television show that it would air on.

              “Okay, here we go.”

             
He pressed play, and I watched, trying to remain emotionless. The blonde haired guy in his twenties had his arm around a girl with curly hair. I realized with surprise that they were a Brian and Annie look-alike. They were at a bar watching Ricochet play, and the band played the song.  A voice said, “In life, many things can change.” Suddenly the girl switched out to five different other girls. Then the guy switched out, too. The last image was the original two together. 

             
“But with the all new Camerix Camera, you can capture all of the moments that you want to.” The guy then held up a camera, taking a picture of the lead singer, Rich. “So you can say you knew that band before they blew up.” The camera zoomed in on the picture he just took, showing perfect clarity.

The guy then put his arm around the girl as they started dancing to the song.

              “Camerix Cameras can be found in most local retailers.”

I turned to Brian who looked like he was going to be sick.

              “That was incredible!” I exclaimed.

             
“Really?” he asked, as I watched him blow out the air he held. He clearly thought I would be angry that the two actors looked similar to us. I wasn’t; I was touched.

             
“I can’t believe that you were able to pull this off on such a low budget,” I said.

             
He laughed. “I called in
a lot
of favors. It was your idea of trying to talk people into working gratis that helped me stay in budget. We have a lot of friends who need some exposure.”

             
“They have to be pleased with this at work,” I said.

             
A small smile graced his lips. “They are. I’ve already been given my next assignment with no supervision.”

             
“So, you were right. It was a test,” I said. He smiled, nodding.

             
“I’m so proud of you!” I exclaimed, taking his face in my hands, kissing him on his lips.

As I pulled back, his phone rang. He jumped out of bed, running out of the room to pick up the phone.  He placed the call on speaker phone as he walked back into the bedroom.

              “Brian, it’s Rich! I can’t believe it! Ricochet looked awesome! You did everything you said you would. I can’t thank you enough, man.”

             
“You should really thank Annie. She suggested you to me. I would have never known about your band without her.”

             
“Well, tell Annie that she’s a class act. We gotta go. You’re the man, though!”

Brian hung up the phone and as soon as he went to place it back down, it rang again. This time it was his mother and father on conference call.

              “I’m sorry,” he mouthed.

             
“It’s okay, talk to them. I’m fine,” I whispered back.

He patted his chest, and I rested my head on him while he continued talking. I fell asleep a few minutes later.

             
I realized Saturday morning that if I was about to go out drinking I needed to seriously work out. Brian explained the math to me while showing me the meal program. If I wanted to eat more calories, I needed to burn more, which was why all of those professional athletes ate like five pizzas a day (lucky bastards).

             
I called Maverick seeing if I could come in for a second session this week. He allowed it, so I found myself at noon punching the ever loving daylights out of a leather bag.  I really enjoyed kickboxing. It was great for releasing pent up frustration.

             
I called Max before leaving the city to make sure that he had been invited to the bar with us tonight. I didn’t think he’d come since there were much better places to go to in NYC, but he wanted to be with us. He invited me over his apartment, and I explained that I was sweaty from my workout. He told me to come anyway.

             
Max’s apartment was amazing. First off, I didn’t know that apartments in New York actually came this big. It had exposed brick on the interior, mahogany hardwood floors, granite countertops everywhere, top-of-the-line appliances, including a double oven. I slid my fingertips over the handle.

             
“The things I could bake with this baby,” I murmured.

             
“Alright, stop trying to make love to my stove, and tell me what’s new.”

             
I told him everything that happened with Brian and Ryan. We lounged on his gorgeous brown leather couches. They were so comfortable, I never wanted to move.

             
When I was done talking he asked, “Can I be honest?” I nodded my head. “I think Brian is a great guy. I think he’ll be able to love you unlike any other man because he just knows so much about you.” I nodded again. “He very well may wind up being ‘the One.’” I bit my lower lip. “Are you ready for that again? You just got out of a two year relationship. Are you ready to get back into something serious again?” I bit my lower lip harder. “Honey, there’s nothing wrong with saying. ‘no.’ You already told Brian that you weren’t ready to start something, and that you didn’t want him to wait for you. You were being honest and upfront with him. What he does is his choice. You have no reason to feel guilty at all.”

             
“Really?” I asked feeling like a sudden weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

             
“Really,” he replied. I sighed in relief. “What you need is a one night stand.” I raised my brow in response. “Have you ever had sex where you just didn’t care? Didn’t care how you acted or what you did, because you didn’t ever have to see the person again? It’s very liberating.”

             
“You’re saying that I should have sex with a random guy, be totally uninhibited, then just leave the next day, and never talk to the person again?”

             
“Well, if you never want to have sex with him again then yeah, don’t call. Think of him as your rebound guy. As far as Ryan goes, you need to find a way to move out of that apartment. As long as you’re living there, you’ll be forced to stay in contact with him. You won’t be able to move on, and he’ll keep trying to get back together with you because he’s a selfish bastard.”

             
I sighed. “I’ll talk to the landlord on Monday.” My phone rang and I pulled it out of my pocket. “It’s Ryan,” I told Max. He shook his head. The call finally ended unanswered. He called back, however, four more times, so I finally turned the phone off.

             
“This,” Max said, “is becoming stalkerish.” I frowned at his comment.

             
I laid back, waving him off, as I relaxed on his couch. “I can’t do one night stands.”

             
He crossed his left leg over his right. “Why not?”

“Because for me sex is not just about the physical.
It’s an emotional connection, too. I can’t just sleep with any random person. I have way too many body issues, and I’m all kinds of fucked up behind the bedroom door,” I admitted.

             
Max seemed to ponder my words. “Then the answer is Ben.”

I glared at him as though he had lost his mind.

              “What?”

             
He rolled his eyes, smiling. “Oh, come on, Annie. The guy can be a complete ass one hundred ten percent of the time, but even I wonder what it would be like to spend a night with him.” I glared openly. “He’s crazy about you so you know he’d treat you right. You trust him, and he’d rock your world.”

             
I shook my head. “I think that’s a road I should not travel down. Ever.”

             
He crossed his arms, his face turning serious. “If you were in a relationship with him, he’d take care of you - emotionally, physically…” he paused, his eyes watching me intently. “Financially.”

             
“This conversation is over.” I demanded. “Next topic.”

             
He raised his hands in defense. “Sorry, I forgot none of us ever had to worry about important things like money.”

             
I scoffed at him. “Of course I have to worry about money, or did you forget that I make the least out of all of you?” I shook my head, wrapping my arms around my body. “If I was ever with him, it would not be because of the money. It’s because I wanted him. Period.” I crossed my legs and arms. “Besides, could you ever see me handing him over bills saying, ‘Ben, honey, could you take care of these for me, please?’” I scoffed. “Maybe when pigs fly. I have way too much pride.” He sighed loudly and we sat there quietly for a moment. “And can I ask when the hell this all happened? One day I have four guy friends and am dating Ryan.  Then, like literally the next day, Ryan is accusing me of emotionally cheating on him, and I find out that Ben and Brian undress me with their eyes frequently. What the fuck!”

             
He chuckled. “It has been an interesting week for you, hasn’t it?”

             
“A little too interesting,” I groused.

             
He sighed, changing his crossed legs. “Brian is easy. That was from the very beginning. The first night you met him was a date, right?” I nodded. “Yeah, he was yours that night. Ever since then, he has been trying to scare every single man away from you that even looked at you with interest. Ryan was the first one who wouldn’t back down.” I shook my head. I didn’t believe it. “Annie, when we met you, he gave us all death glares, telling us that you were his and if we even attempted anything he was going to pound us into the ground. Brian is a great guy. He’s a total gentleman around you, and he’s a generally nice guy. But, when it comes to you, though, we all know that he’s always been a little psycho. Let’s just say that you missed a lot of the ‘behind the scenes stuff’.”

             
“And Ben?” I asked, still unsure what to make of the comments about Brian.

             
“That’s a tricky one. Ben started out purely as a friend. Since you didn’t grow up in New York, you don’t really understand the extent of being a Hurley. I remember while growing up seeing pictures of him in the newspaper, the pressure was intense as his father’s first son. But, in all of those pictures, Annie, the one thing that always stood out to me was that Ben was always alone. Then you came along. You had no preconceived notions about who the Hurleys were; you didn’t kiss Ben’s ass, nor did you condemn him. You judged him solely on his actions alone, and then you befriended him, telling him that he was good enough. He stuck by you out of pure loyalty. I remember times when Ben would talk to me worried that you weren’t dating or showing any interest in guys. He was concerned about Brian scaring everyone away. Thought it wasn’t fair for you. He honestly just wanted you to be happy. Looking back now, it was kind of….” Max seemed to be searching for the right word and after smirking, settled on, “sweet.” I stared at him blankly. “And then about halfway into our third year, he changed. I don’t know what set him off exactly, but you were dating Ryan, and you two seemed to be getting serious. We were all at a party and Ben just kept worrying if you were alright, if you needed anything. The more he drank, the more he talked about you. George and I realized it then. We thought it would go away after nothing came of it. But, it’s just gotten more intense.”

             
“That does explain why all of the sexual jokes and references and what not started about that time and have progressively gotten worse,” I commented.

             
Max nodded. “He’s just completely sexually frustrated around you. He doesn’t know how to just be your friend anymore without wanting you.”

My head hit the back of the couch as I muttered a curse word. I let out a long sigh, and we remained quiet for a while as I processed all of the new information.

              Finally, he asked, “Do you think less of me for hiding that I’m gay?”

             
“Less of you? No.” I shook my head.  “I just wish I had known sooner. Think of all the fun that we could have had!” I thought back to our time in college together, however, and asked, “So, you weren’t really dating Beth, were you?”

             
He shook his head. “She really wanted Todd, and I needed a cover, so it worked out well for both of us. Todd started noticing Beth after I started ‘taking her out’.”

             
I nodded to Max that I understood. “You should have picked me over Beth. I’m a lot more fun to fake date.”

             
“I agree,” he replied, cracking a smile. “So,” he said, moving from the opposite couch he was sitting on to come sit next to me. “What else is on your mind?” I told Max that I wanted to buy Brian a gift for his first commercial to celebrate. When he asked what, I explained that I was unsure, but that I wanted it to be something meaningful. He suggested thinking back to anything Brian had said that he wanted. I told him I couldn’t without some more caffeine. We rose off the couch, entered the kitchen, and he started brewing me a latte. The espresso beans smelled heavenly from the bag.

             
As I listened to the gurgling sound of his espresso maker, I scoured my mind trying to come up with something. I ran through the last twenty times I hung out with Brian and nothing came to mind. So, I searched further back.  With the latte in my hand, I remembered a conversation almost a year ago where Brian complained that he couldn’t get into any of the decent golfing places. He missed golfing with his dad.

             
“Max, your family wouldn’t have any connections with a country club or a golfing place would they?” I asked.

             
He smiled. “I just so happen to have ten passes for golfing at the most exclusive country club in N.Y. I’ll give them to you for free if you keep going on fake dates with me.”

             
I chuckled. “I like it from behind,” I said.

             
He winked back. “So do I.” As I almost snorted out the sip of espresso I just drank, Max continued, “You’re going to have to give me details.”

             
“Such as?” I asked coughing down the coffee.

             
“Like little intimate things that only a boyfriend would know,” he explained.

             
“I don’t think we have to be there yet. We just got into a relationship, right? Everything is still pretty new, so most guys wouldn’t know most stuff yet about a girl. I guess for now you could say that I love when you take me to art museums.”

             
Content with my answer, Max and I chatted for a while longer, and I warned him about what Ryan had said to me, believing Max was gay.  I also asked him to call Brian and tell him what he planned to do, explaining that it wasn’t real. After several more hours, I thanked him for helping me out with Brian’s gift, then headed back home to start getting ready for the evening.

             
As I took the mail out of the box, I smiled seeing an express delivery package. Opening it, I felt my cheeks turn bright red as I pulled out the book.

Spank Me Tonight: BDSM for Beginners

I pulled out the note and read:
Perhaps I’d act more like a gentleman in public if you’d let me bend you over and spank your bottom red in private, Princess.

             
I felt my mouth unhinge, dropping down wide. I shoved my mail and the book into my pocketbook. I turned around and marched out of the apartment building towards the nearest book shop. This taunt could not remain unanswered.

I smiled at the register while making my purchase:
Why He’s Not Boyfriend Material: The Kinds of Men Women Should Stay Away From

Afterwards, I walked to the post office and purchased a card, writing:

You’re page Ninety-six. The very worst offender.

~Princess

Afterwards, I purchased an envelope and stamps, sending the book out.

             
On the way home, I walked to the nearest pharmacy and purchased a Congratulations card, USB drive that could fit on a keychain, and a decorative pre-made bag. I placed the golf passes into the card before sealing it, placing everything else into the bag. I left the pharmacy, making my way for my apartment.