Off Sides

snickers and the rest of her girls all titter over her jibes.
    “What do you want to order, Angeline? Make it quick.”
    She ignores me but leans toward me conspiratorially. “Between you and me, Danny, I’m not sure you were good enough to keep Ryan interested between the sheets. He’s an animal, you know. We were at it all afternoon.”
    Before I could respond, I hear, “That’s a fucking lie, Angeline.”
    My heart doubles in speed as I hear his voice. Turning slowly around, I drink Ryan in as he stands there with his hands clenched and looking like he wants to murder Angeline.
    He’s wearing faded jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt. He has on his old, ratty Chuck-T’s that I adore. He has a baseball cap on and the ends of his long hair are sticking out at adorable angles. I almost burst into tears looking at him.
    I turn to glance at Angeline and she looks green in the face. In a million years, I guarantee she never thought Ryan would be in earshot of her lies.
    Ryan closes the distance to the table and looks down at Angeline. “This is the one and only time I’m going to say this. And this goes for all of you sitting at this table.” Ryan pauses and looks at each person. “If I so much as hear of anyone saying another bad thing about Danny, I will personally take it upon myself to have you blacklisted from every organization at this school. Furthermore, I will use the power of my family and our vast resources to ruin every one of you. There won’t be a place you can hide from me. And just so everyone is perfectly clear, I did not fuck Angeline this afternoon, nor would I touch her with a ten foot pole again. Please make sure that is spread around. There is only one woman I want to touch. Because she’s the one I love.”
    Ryan spins from the table and stalks over to me. My mouth is hanging open and he never pauses when he pulls my head to his and crushes his mouth to mine. I know I should pull away but I can’t. I love him too much. I’ll worry about the consequences of this later and hope Ryan’s mother doesn’t find out about this.
    Ryan’s arms snake around my waist and he pulls me to him tight. My arms go around his neck and I hold on for dear life while he kisses me like there is no tomorrow. Then abruptly he pulls away. He looks me dead in the eyes and says, “I love you, Danny. And I can tell by that kiss you still love me. We’ll talk after you get off work.”
    I watch astounded as Ryan goes up to the counter and sits down. He apparently is going to wait here until my shift is over. I know I should be panicking that he wants some type of confrontation tonight, but I am numb from everything that has just transpired in the last thirty seconds.
    Turning my back on Angeline’s crew, I walk to the other side of the counter and pull out a coffee cup. I fill it up and push it in front of Ryan. He doesn’t say anything. I glance over and see that Angeline and her friends are leaving, noticeably a lot quieter than when they had arrived.
    ***
    Taking my apron off, I walk up to Ryan. “I’m done.”
    “Can I give you a ride home and then we talk?”
    My gut instinct is to decline because I’m terrified his mother will find out, but I owe him the time to talk. I should have given it to him before now but I’ve been so afraid his mother would find out. I wouldn’t put it past her to have hired a damn private investigator to keep tabs on us.
    “Sure.”
    The ride to my place is tense and silent. As we walk into my apartment, I quietly say over my shoulder, “Thank you for getting Angeline to back off of me. It was getting harder to keep my cool.”
    “It’s no problem. Cameron came to me last night and told me what Angeline was doing. It was best that I confronted her and try to put a stop to it.”
    We sit in the living room, on opposite ends of the couch. Ryan is leaning back, looking extremely comfortable. I’m wound tight and ready to bolt.
    “I miss you,” he says to me.
    I can feel the burn of tears and I swallow hard to tamp them down. “Ryan...please don’t...”
    “And you miss me, too.”
    He says it so matter-of-factly, like there’s no room for argument. He knows me well but I decide to act incensed. “You have quite an ego to presume to think I miss you, too.”
    He laughs at me. Full out, gut busting laughter. I cross my arms and just wait for him to finish. After he finally winds it down, he looks at me with amusement. “We’re ending this farce tonight, Danny.