To Find the Lie, We Must Discard the Truth

Veronica got home from studying at about four, giving her time to get ready for tonight. I already had everything set up at the restaurant for us. Now it was just about getting there.

“you about ready?” I ask. This was probably the tenth time this question was asked. It helped distract me from my debate with myself on whether to tell Veronica about Sky or not. well, not about Sky, but about the conversation today.

“This would go a lot quicker if you’d stop asking pointless questions Ryan.” Veronica replies, running back into our room and grabbing her shoes.

“that didn’t answer my question.” She balances on her left foot to slip the right on and then stands up straight in front of the mirror.

“ready.” She says, letting out a breath of relief.

I get off the bed and walk over to her, wrapping my arms around her waist. “hmm, I actually think I liked the red dress better.”

Veronica slaps me with her clutch, “you ass. I don’t care which one you like. My body, my choices.”

I roll my eyes. This is one of the similarities between Veronica and Sky. They’re both very independent, but in different ways. Which brings me back to my dilemma; to tell or not to tell?

“Ryan!” she snaps a finger in front of me and I go back to reality, “stop spacing out.” She orders and then leaves the room. I follow her and together we walk out to my car.

As we approach the Seclaras, I pull around to the employees parking in the back. Veronica gives me a strange look as I park the car.

“did you get a new job that I don’t know about?” she asks, eyeing the sign that reads ‘employees parking only’.

“just trust me, nothing bad is going to happen. And no, I didn’t get a new job.” She steps out of the car and takes my hand.

“is this another one of your ‘I’m Ryan Richards and I can do whatever the fuck I want’ stunts?”

“funny Veronica, real funny.”

“what, it’s true. You walk around like you own everything. Which I know for a fact you don’t because my family owns more than you.”

Well, I certainly didn’t plan on getting insulted tonight. “I don’t walk around like I own everything and we own more anyways.”

“yes you do and no, we’ve got the majority.”

I ignore her, not wanting to fight tonight. Sadly she took this as a victory on her part. We made our way through the stacks of plates and cookware, finally reaching the kitchen.

“ah, there’s my man!” Roy, one of the cooks who was also in a class of mine, came up and hugged me. well you know, man-hug. “thought you weren’t going to show.”

“I planned it, didn’t I?” I question and he just laughs. “Veronica, this is a friend from my business class, Roy. And of course, you know who Veronica is.”

“yes, I do believe you’ve mentioned her a couple thousand times.” He jokes and Veronica blushes a little. I squeeze her hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

she smiles, “you too.”

“Ryan, everything is set up like you asked. I expect that study guide come Monday though.”

“don’t worry, you’ll get it.”

With that, Roy went back to work and I led Veronica up a set of stairs to the roof. It was set up with a table in the center, two chairs on either side of it. White Christmas lights surrounded the area, giving it that candle-lit feeling. There was even a bouquet of Veronica’s favorite flowers, wild daisies.

She turns to face me, a grin playing on her lips, “like it?” I ask, pulling her closer.

“love it.” She stands up on her tip-toes to kiss me full on the lips. Her body instantly melted with mine and I wish we were back in our room than on a rooftop. I had to pull away before anything too serious happened.

We took our seats and waited a couple minutes for one of the waiters to bring us the food I had ordered, smoked salmon.

“I’m afraid to ask what you had planned for the whole day.”

“don’t worry about it. Nothing that big.”

“would you call this big?”

“not really.”

“yeah, so it was probably something spectacular.”

I lean over the table and give her a quick calming kiss. “It really wasn’t anything that great. The guys and I just put something together last night.” I shrug as if it was nothing though I knew if I told her the plans, she’d freak.

After the main dish and dessert, we just sat and talked about, well, everything. I fiddled around with the box in my pocket, trying to find the right moment but then chickening out.

“you know in a movie, this would be the perfect setting for a guy to propose. With the water in the background, stars above and the crescent moon.” Okay, now is the perfect time to ask her. I start to bring the box out but stop when she continues speaking. “But also totally cliché. I mean, it is Valentines Day after all and that’s just overly used to ask people for their hand in marriage.”

I stuff the box back into my pocket and change the subject. “so, um, I have something to tell you.”

Veronica looks at me nervously, “something wrong?”

“n-no. I don’t think so.”

“Ryan, what is it?”

“you know how you said your ex contacted you today?” I ask, trying to ease into it.

“well, yeah. Sorry again for ruining breakfast.”

“you didn’t ruin anything.” I reassure her. “it’s just…you weren’t the only one that was contacted by their ex today.:

“you mean Amanda finally tracked you down? The girls at school were waiting for that to happen.”

“uh, no, not that ex.” Her eyes widened and her mouth shut. Both of us just kept silent for what seemed like hours.

“Sky contacted you?” I nod, unable to talk yet. “what about?”

“I-it doesn’t matter.”

She stares at me as if I just broke her heart. “what did you guys talk about Ryan?” her voice sounding harsher now.

“why did your ex contact you?”

“don’t turn the cards on this one!”

“why not? I have just as much right to keep my conversations private as you do.”

“no you don’t.”

I raise my eyebrows, “are you seriously going to start telling me what to do? Plus there’s no difference between your ex and mine. They’re both in the past.”

“that’s a lie.”

“how so?”

“you love Sky, and you’re not even close to over her. Me? John is completely just a friend to me, like a brother.”

I run a hand through my hair, really not wanting to get into a deeper argument with her. “we’re leaving.” I say, standing up.

“what?”

“you heard me.”

“now you’re telling me what to do?”

“look, you can either come with me or not, but I’m out of here.”

She pushes her chair back roughly, the sound of it scratching against the cement echoes through the quiet night. “fine.”

Veronica stomped off, heading angrily down stairs and to the car. I picked up her jacket and purse, which she forgot, and followed. When I got inside, Ray looked at me worried, “I don’t even need to ask,” he comments.

I give him a sad smile, “every couple fights, right?”

“…right.” He goes back to his cooking, probably not wanting to lie for my benefit any longer.

The car ride home was silent. It was a nice silence, or awkward. There was a ton of tension between us in this silence. I hated it, but at the same time didn’t really feel like talking to her.

When he got back to the house, Veronica went straight upstairs. I went to the kitchen and put my keys away. As I walked back to the front to head to bed, I noticed her on the couch.

“What are you doing?” I ask, heading that way instead of the staircase.

“isn’t obvious?”

“so that’s it, you’re just going to sleep on the couch tonight because of one argument.”

“yes. That’s it.” She turns away from me and I don’t push it anymore.

I walk away and head to bed. It’s probably good I didn’t propose tonight, since obviously we have a lot of stuff that needs to be talked out.

But in the end of the day I can still smile because there is one thing I know: She’s safe.