by Anna Premoli
But she was actually angry with herself for having let her friend drag her along on that double date. Kayla fancied Mike – God know why, but she did – and he wouldn’t go anywhere without his beloved best buddy, and that was why, for the sake of her friendship with Kayla, Amalia had been forced to sacrifice her evening. But after about half an hour of inane conversation, she had really had enough of the whole situation. Moreover, she was trying hard, and with little success, to stop thinking of that kiss from Ryan at the kindergarten. She hadn’t met many men in her life who were able to kiss her that way, and that was why she was having such a hard time forgetting about it. Her mind was so focused on the Assistant D.A. that she even thought that the waiter who brought them their beers looked like Ryan. He had the same eyes, she noticed – they were that same light green that she had thought was unique, but which clearly wasn’t actually all that rare.
See? There are plenty of people in New York with the same green eyes, she thought, so stop thinking about him now! In desperation, she raised her eyes to the ceiling while Jack continued to regale her with tales of his own importance – when she suddenly noticed the people at a table near the counter. The guy sitting with a pretty red-haired girl looked a lot like Niel. It was funny: now it wasn’t just the waiter who reminded her of Ryan, now she was even seeing his brother’s double. Amalia began to think that she was going to need a good therapist if those visions didn’t stop soon. Luckily, Manhattan was full of therapists – in fact, it almost seemed like the number of lawyers was somehow linked to the number of therapists…
“Sorry,” she said, interrupting Jack’s monologue, “I really need to go to the restroom.”
He was perplexed for a moment at her request, then nodded.
“Sure, of course…” he said, before moving aside to allow her to get past him and leave the booth.
She reached the counter and had the embarrassing feeling that everyone was staring at her. Was she just imagining it?
“Can I help you?” a pretty woman asked her, in a way Amalia thought was excessively kind. “What can you we do for you?”
“Err, I was actually looking for the restroom,” she answered nervously.
The young man behind the bar burst out laughing. What on earth was so funny about going to the restroom? The barman who had served her earlier elbowed him viciously to make him shut up.
“It’s that way,” the woman answered, pointing to a door, while the young man continued struggling to suppress his laughter. Amalia shook her head in disbelief and walked towards the toilet. The evening was getting stranger and stranger.
When she reached the door, she tried to open it, but it seemed to be locked. She tried again, but there was no way of opening it.
“Is anyone in there?” she asked, while knocking.
From behind the door, she could hear water running.
“Just a moment, please,” a male voice answered. And of course she thought it was Ryan’s voice.
“God, I must have completely lost my mind,” she said to herself. “I really need to find a good therapist – and fast.”
About twenty seconds later the door opened. Amalia lifted her eyes up and almost passed out when she saw him standing there.
“Ryan?” she asked in shock, before mumbling, “Nah – you can’t be Ryan. You’re just a trick my mind is playing on me…”
“Of course I’m Ryan, who the hell else would I be?” he asked in exasperation, seemingly not at all surprised to see her. “Are you saying you know so many people who look just like me that you don’t recognize me?”
*
Amalia decided it was best not to answer that. After her initial surprise passed, she found the strength to speak.
“What are you doing here?”
“What I am doing here? This is my parents’ bar, for your information. So the question is: what are you doing here?”
“Err – having a drink?” she suggested, completely taken aback by his grouchiness. “What else would I be doing in a bar?”
“And did you really have to choose my parents’ bar?”
He was questioning her in the same severe tone he probably used with suspects.
“I didn’t have a clue this was your parents’ bar! And I didn’t see the sign saying ‘Ryan’s parents’ bar – no trespassing’ outside,” she complained. “I live in the East Village, we went for a walk and we ended up here. What’s so wrong with that? Or do you want to appeal to the court against all of life’s strange little coincidences?”
He took a breath and tried to calm down. “There’s nothing wrong with it, of course. I’m sorry. It’s just… it’s just that this must be the worst evening I’ve had in a while.”
“What? Because you saw me?” she asked, slightly offended.
Ryan raised his eyes up to the roof.
“No, damn it!, that’s not what I meant! God, I can’t seem to say anything right lately. No, of course I didn’t mean seeing you ruined my evening! It has nothing to do with you. I think I am having a few problems, and I’m sure I’m going to have even more of them now…” he confided, pointing to the bar, where the whole family had assembled to observe them. And now they weren’t even trying to hide their curiosity!
“Wow, there’s a lot of them,” she commented sympathetically.
Ryan couldn’t help but laugh.
“Sometimes there are really way too many of them,” he admitted. Then he turned his eyes back to Amalia, who was wearing a fitted woollen dress with a swooping neckline and a fabulous brooch on one side. If he had seen a brooch like that on any other woman, he would have assumed it was just costume jewellery, but Amalia was Amalia, so he was absolutely certain the diamonds were real.
“You look… nice,” he admitted, almost unwillingly.
She smiled at him. “Thank you.”
“Are you here with someone?” he asked, pretending that he didn’t know.
“Yes, I’m with Kayla, her current sweetheart and his best buddy,” she revealed unenthusiastically. “What about you?”
“I’m on a date. With a girl.”
Amalia tried not to look too shocked by the revelation. “Oh, right. Sure. Well, in that case, I’ll leave you to your date,” she said quickly, trying very hard to ignore the sudden empty feeling.
Apparently forgetting your meals and not eating was really bad for her stomach… “Ok, bye now, see you later,” she said to get rid of him before disappearing into the toilet.
Ryan didn’t know what to do next. He noticed that she had forgotten to lock the door. He looked at the handle, then at the counter, where the whole family was still observing him, then again at the handle.
“What the hell…” he said angrily, opening the door with determination, stepping inside and closing it behind him violently. Amalia was by the sink, washing her hands and started at the sudden intrusion.
“Did you forget something?” she asked. Her heart was pounding, partly from the shock and partly because Ryan always seemed to have that effect on her lately.
“Yes, I did forget something – I really did,” he answered, while approaching her with long strides and grabbing her wrist. Amalia put up no resistance and found herself enveloped in, and overwhelmed by, his embrace. In a matter of seconds, Ryan’s lips had planted themselves on hers, and immediately afterwards made them their own. They staggered in their embrace until Amalia’s back banged against the bathroom door.
“Oh my God, I’m sorry,” he said, mortified by the frenzy that seemed to have possessed him.
Amalia couldn’t help laughing. “Instead of apologizing, why don’t you carry on with what you were doing a few moments ago?”
She put her hands round his neck and started caressing it, before moving them up to his hair, which was much silkier than she had expected.
They separated from each other for a moment only to breathe with some difficulty.
“My family are going to tear me to pieces for this,” he whispered, while kissing her neck.
<
br /> “Hmmm…” was her reply.
“You make me completely lose my mind,” he said accusingly, while caressing the leg she was using to hold him tightly to her.
Amalia didn’t reply, she took his head in her hands and re-united the lips that were unwilling to waste any more time in pointless pleasantries.
They were getting dangerously close to the point of no return when they were interrupted by someone knocking at the door.
“Ryan? Is everything alright in there?” asked his brother Finn from behind the door. “If I were you I would get a hold of myself and come out before Mum calls a priest. I’m sorry to inform you that you’re about two minutes away from a phone call to Father O’Connelly.”
“Jesus…” mumbled Ryan, interrupting his kiss. He banged his head against the door again and again, without releasing his grip on her. “I’m going to need more than two minutes, Finn,” he pointed out.
Amalia extricated herself from their embrace and, after a quick glance at his crotch, burst into laughter and said, “Yeah, I can confirm that he’s going to need more than two minutes.”
From the other side of the door, Finn sighed.
“I’d rather not know all the details, if you two don’t mind. But I think I know a very efficient way of solving this problem: Ryan, Mum wants to know if Amalia would like to join us for lunch tomorrow,” he said, as though it was no big deal.
“Oh, God, no!” snapped Ryan immediately.
They could hear Finn laughing. “Hey, you got yourself into this mess, buddy. And, by the way, Niel wants to know if he can take Ireland for a drink somewhere else. Apparently, unlike you, he doesn’t want to put on a show for our parents’ entertainment.”
“That bastard…” Ryan whispered, approaching the tap to splash his face with some cold water. For the second time in fifteen minutes.
Amalia observed him for a second, not knowing exactly what to think about what had just happened. Ryan seemed quite upset. And, well, he had just done something pretty surprising, for him.
“Maybe I should go out first…” she proposed.
Ryan lifted his head to look at her.
“It’ll take them about half a second to realize that we were making out. Your lips make that very clear.”
“I’m sorry to disagree with you, but we should consider ourselves lucky if they think you were only kissing me and nothing more,” she said with a laugh.
He sighed in resignation.
“Ok, go then. But don’t let them stop you, please! I will be with you in… in a few minutes.”
Amalia ran her hands through her hair and headed towards the door feeling quite self-confident. She pulled it open, trying to avoid thinking about what was awaiting her outside.
Finn was still hanging around.
“I’m Finn, by the way – nice to meet you,” he said, holding out his hand.
Amalia shook it with conviction. “So those really were Ryan’s eyes,” she observed with surprise. She felt almost relieved, because it meant she hadn’t completely lost her mind – yet.
Finn wasn’t offended, though.
“Actually, they are my grandfather’s eyes – I guess Ryan and I just sort of share them,” he revealed.
“Well, I think I should get back to my friends now…” Amalia said, to justify trying to escape from him.
“Of course,” he said, holding out his hand in the direction of her table. But to get there, she had to walk past the bar, where the rest of the family stood waiting to see her parade past them.
“I’m a little bit scared,” she confessed to Finn, who was still standing there.
Luckily for her, he showed some pity and said, “Come on – I’ll come with you.”
As they walked in front of them all, Amalia smiled as you might to any unknown person. They returned the compliment, although they were terribly disappointed not to be able to question her. When she reached her table, Jack stood up to allow her to take her seat. It seemed he hadn’t noticed anything strange at all – on the contrary, he resumed his monologue from the point where he was interrupted. Amalia didn’t look annoyed any more. His continuous talking freed her up to enjoy the scene developing in front of her eyes: Ryan, who had finally made it out of the restroom, was holding his hands up as though he was refusing to answer his family’s invasive questions. He went to the small table where the man who not only looked like Niel, but actually was Niel, had taken the red-haired girls’ coat and was helping her into it. It looked as though Ryan was apologizing to her, and a few minutes later, the red-haired girl and Niel were leaving the bar together. Ryan sat down at the table and stared at Amalia while he finished his brother’s beer. His eyes were so intense that she blushed.
She was so distracted she hadn’t noticed Jack edging closer to her again, daring even to put an arm around her shoulders. Ryan’s reaction to that gesture was almost immediate: he stood up and practically marched over to their table.
“Good evening, everybody,” he said, looking at Amalia. His tone was anything but friendly.
Not without a struggle, Kayla managed to separate herself from Mike and raised her eyes.
“Oh, Ryan, it’s you,” she said in a tone that to Amalia didn’t sound surprised at all.
“What does she mean with ‘oh, Ryan’?” she thought angrily. Then she remembered that the choice of bar had been Kayla’s decision, and, after putting two and two together, she decided it was highly unlikely that her friend had chosen it completely by chance from among the thousands in Manhattan. She was a journalist after all, and she had all the means necessary to obtain certain information.
Jack was wise enough to feel intimidated by Ryan and quickly took his arm from Amalia’s shoulders – but, apparently, not quickly enough.
“Will you take your hands off her?” Ryan asked him, very rudely.
Jack looked at Ryan first, then at Amalia. “Is he a friend of yours?” he asked, a confused expression on his face.
“Er, yeah… something like that…” she confirmed.
Jack was an idiot for sure, but he was not so much of an idiot that he didn’t understand the situation, especially since the guy in front of him was at least six inches taller than him and weighed about twenty pounds less.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have to make an urgent phone call,” he said, and made for the door.
At that point, Kayla nudged Mike violently and said, “I guess we’d better get going too, I am pretty tired,” without even trying to pretend she wasn’t lying.
Amalia stared at her incredulously.
“Ryan, you can take Amalia home, right?” Kayla asked him, and as if she hadn’t done and said enough, she even gave him a wink, making Amalia almost want to crawl under the table in embarrassment.
“Of course, no problem,” he said, while he watched Kayla and her partner put their coats on and leave the pub in a flash.
Once they were alone, they stared at each other in silence for a while. “I think we were set up,” she said seriously.
“Yeah, I think so too,” he answered, confirming her suspicions. “But we can’t stay here any longer. That lot will soon start climbing over the bar and rushing over here to ask us questions.”
“Oh, God,” answered Amalia. “But we can’t just run away like two kids!”
“Well, actually,” Ryan admitted, “that was exactly what I was planning…”
“Maybe we could just be faster than them. Listen, let’s put our coats on, and when we’re about to leave the pub, you introduce me to all of them. It’ll be a quick, clean job and it won’t be too painful.”
He looked at her skeptically, but didn’t reply. They put their coats on and went over to the bar to say goodbye. “Mum, Dad – Amalia and I are going. But I thought I would introduce her to you properly before we went. Amalia, this is my dad, this is my mom, and these two clowns are my brothers Kieran and Finn, whom you’ve already met. Everybody: this is Amalia,” he said abruptly. “And now we’re really going.”
They were almost out of the door when Ryan heard his mother shouting: “Remember we’re all having lunch together tomorrow!”
He shuddered at the idea and lifted a hand to wave goodbye. He really didn’t understand how on earth he could have thought that moving so close to his family was a good idea.
16
They walked along a long stretch of Third Avenue, chatting about everything and nothing in particular, until they reached the corner of Fourteenth, and then they turned towards First Avenue.
“So how come you live in the East Village?” Ryan asked. Since they had left the bar, he had tried very hard to keep her at a safe distance.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Amalia asked him, seriously curious about his answer.
“I’m not saying they haven’t cleaned it up, of course. But it’s still a pretty colorful district.”
“On the contrary, it’s a very quiet area. Living here you can enjoy some peace and quiet while still being quite close to the action of the city. Which is great, don’t you think? And moreover, my parents took my decision to move here really badly, and the sight of their miserable faces was priceless. I’ve never been more satisfied with a choice I’ve made,” she admitted. “Also, I’ve apparently made a profitable investment. They say the value of my apartment’s gone up quite a lot over the past few years,” she attempted to joke about it.
“Oh, sure – you probably have quite an army of financial consultants telling you when and how to invest your money.”
“I was joking, Ryan. I found and chose my place all by myself. And it all happened by chance, anyway,” she continued, serious this time. She sighed, trying not to lose her patience.
“Sorry,” he said, looking round at her.
“What are you apologizing for? Your prejudices? I know you can’t help it, it’s just who you are. Anyway, I’m sorry that your blind date was a failure.”
Maybe talking about less worldly subjects than property values was a safer bet, she thought.
Ryan laughed. “Poor girl. Luckily Niel was kind enough to save her evening. I’m afraid my reputation is forever ruined after today. When they hear her story about what happened, no girl will ever want to go out with me again. But I’ve only got myself to blame – it was a stupid idea, and I knew it right from the get-go. But it’s true what they say: every cloud has a silver lining, and at least you got rid of that idiot.”