A Friend's Love Ch. 2
*** Thank you Mistressveronicalove for the editing***
"Where shall I be taking you today, sir?" The cab driver hollered to the back of the car.
"Eight-one-two Dragons Eye Drive, Henderson, please," Ryan replied promptly.
"Yes sir," the driver said as he started to leave the AirPort, "So what brings you to Vegas sir? Business? Pleasure? Family?"
"I grew up here and I'm moving back from college," Ryan replied.
"Oh, well then," the cab driver exclaimed, "Welcome home!"
Ryan smiled and subtly stated, "There's no place like it."
Ryan sat there looking out of the window the rest of the way, seeing the random Christmas decorations up around town. He sat there thinking about the question the driver had asked him. It had been so long since he came back to the valley. The years came and went while he was away and so much had happened while he was gone that he had suppressed most of his memories from his hometown.
He remembered everything, but with his new life in Ireland, he put those memories to the back of his brain after a while. There were still some things, though, that he couldn't put behind him. The thought of his parents still saddened him, not to the point of dwelling on it as he did all those years ago, but more of the sadness of missing them and seeing them. The thought of his friends and how they were doing was a comfort as he missed them and couldn't wait to reconnect with them. His Grandma was never just a memory to him since he emailed her almost every day and called her weekly to talk to her while he was gone.
But the memory of Jess, his old best friend, was a memory that had a different effect on him. He genuinely missed her while he was gone and though he never contacted or reached out to her once, the thought of her always popped up in his head. He knew he needed to see her eventually, but he didn't know if she would even be the same person he remembered or if she chose to really remember him. He understood that he changed a lot in the three and a half years he was away, so Jess might have as well, and that made him nervous.
Once he arrived at the house, Ryan paid the driver and unloaded both duffel bags from the trunk of the car. He made his way up to the front door, looking at the well-landscaped front yard, remembering how it hadn't changed one bit since he left. After ringing the doorbell and waiting, he heard a faint voice on the other side of the door shout, "Who is it?"
"Someone who hasn't seen you in almost four years," he shouted back through the door.
Ryan heard the knob and deadbolt on the front door unlock hastily, making him smile. The door flew open there stood Denise, in complete shock seeing her grandson.
"Oh my god," she yelled running at Ryan for a hug, "Ryry! Finally, you're home!"
Ryan wrapped his arms around her for a warm embrace as they had missed each other immensely. He could feel his grandma start to cry as he hugged her tight. Though they emailed daily and talked on the phone, it hit them much harder being able to see each other again in person. Feeling and hear her cries of joy brought a couple tears out of Ryan as well. He knew it was good to be back, it was good to finally be home.
"I thought you weren't coming home till next week after you went to your commencement," she said in between her sobs into his chest.
"I wanted to surprise you," he smiled, "I'll still get my new degree in the mail, I'd rather be home than stay there just for the ceremony!"
She took a step back to wipe her eyes, a gigantic smile across her face looking up at Ryan. "Well, let's have a look at you," she stated looking him up and down, "You have definitely grown up!" She put her hands on his much larger shoulders and patting his arms over his jacket. "I take it you were hitting the gym quite a bit at college?"
Ryan laughed at his grandma's comments, "Yeah, I wanted to get bigger after swim and wrestling so I started to lift more weights and I guess I got bit by the bug because I haven't stopped since!"
"Yeah, I'll say," Denise laughed, "You look huge! Oh please, come inside Ryry, it's cold as hell out here!"
They walked back into her house and as Denise closed and locked the door, Ryan hung his jacket up on the coat rack in the foyer. As he turned around, he was greeted with a glaring look from his grandma. He was curious why her demeanor changes so fast as he looked at her quizzically.
"What," he finally asked, trying to at least break the awkward silence.
"What in the hell..." Denise paused as she walked up closer to Ryan, "...did you do to your arms?"
She grabbed Ryan's wrists to hold up his arms and inspect the apparent sleeves of tattoos that he had decorated on his skin. Ryan completely forgot about the tattoos he had on his arms up until that very point. They had just become a part of him by then and the thought of people's reactions to his new ink completely left his mind by then.
"Oh yeah," Ryan stated, "I got my sleeves done after about a year at Trinity!"
"Ryan...I know you said you got a tattoo while you were there, but you never told me you ended up getting so many. God, I hate tattoos. Why did you go and muddle up your skin with ink, these make you look like a thug."
Ryan laughed at her comment about him, a complete nerd, being a thug.
"Why are you laughing at me?" Denise chuckled but still sending a serious vibe.
"Look at each arm closely Grandma," he paused as she put on her glasses to look at them, "You may notice they have a little more meaning than looking like a thug."
She began to inspect his right arm, looking up and down from shoulder to wrist. She looked back at Ryan and smirked at him as she moved to inspect his left arm. She looked all-around at the intricacy of the art and the images up and down his arms. After she absorbed her fill of his work, she took off her glasses and smiled up at him.
"I get it now," she paused as she gave him a hug, "You know your parents hated tattoos as well, but they would have thought that was a really good tribute."
Ryan smiled at what she had said to him. He knew his parents hated tattoos more than she did, but it was nice to hear her think they would have liked the work he had done.
"Thanks, Grandma," he said looking down at his arms, "Getting these really helped me finally grieve that last little bit I needed to let them go."
"Oh really?" Denise replied.
Ryan walked over with his grandma and took a seat on the couch. "Yeah, it really did. I know I grieved in the hospital, and at the funeral, and especially for those couple months after the funeral. But when the anniversary of their car wreck came, I was still new in Ireland, didn't know that many people, and it started to build up again. Then I realized that I needed something, something to remember them by, and something to make me feel like they are still with me somehow. So I contacted a couple tattoo shops and artists and told them what I wanted and one artist was really into what I wanted. Apparently, she lost her parents a few years ago as well, so she wanted to do all of my work. It took a while to finish, but I'm happy as hell I went through with it."
"Well if you're happy with it..." Denise replied, "Then I like it!"
..........
"How may I help you?" the receptionist asked Ryan as he walked into the lobby.
"Hello, Emily," he formally replied walking up to the reception desk, "I'm here to meet with James Larsen, It's me, Ryan Taylor."
"Oh my god, Ryan?" The receptionist asked, "Oh my, I haven't seen you since...since the funeral! It's so good to see you!"
She got up to walk around the counter to give the young man a hug. Ryan tried not to, but he couldn't help but notice just how good Emily looked since he had last seen her. She had on tight dress slacks with a white blouse on that almost looked like her flawless curves were going to burst through. She had long, straight, red hair that ended just below her shoulder blades and eyes as blue as sapphires. Ryan didn't feel too bad looking at her like that since she was only ten years older than him and she clearly liked to look good in those clothes.
"My goodness Ryan," Emily said as she hugged him, "You've grown up!" She stepped back and looked him up and down, from head to toe, "And you look great in that suit! Let me give him a holler and...you know what...go surprise him actually. He's on the phone with one of his golf buddies so you go on up and barge on in!" She smiled at him, knowing full well that he was going to be joining the company.
"Thank you, Emily," Ryan smiled back as he headed toward the elevator, "and you look amazing as well!"
Ryan felt nervous as the elevator took him up to the third, and top floor of the building. He knew what the two of them were going to discuss as they had discussed over the phone when Ryan was finishing up his last semester. But something about seeing James face to face again, after he and Jess shared the night they did, it cast a tiny shed of nervousness inside of him.
That nervousness completely left him as he entered James' office and was greeted with a startled grin and a "Holy shit, Ryan, you're finally here! Dan, I'll have to call you back...my new partner just arrived!"
James got up and rushed over to give Ryan a handshake followed by a giant bear hug. Ryan may have grown immensely in his years at college, but James still stood a few inches taller than him and was a much larger man than he, though it was mostly attributed to eating delicious foods and too much time at the office rather than muscle.
"It's damn good to have you back here son," James said as he walked toward the couches in his office, "Come and take a seat man, can I get you anything to drink?"
"Well if this meeting is going to go as I hope it is," Ryan paused chuckling, "Then, can I get a Scotch?"
"Of course my boy!" James exclaimed as he made his way to the decanters resting on top of his credenza. "What scotch do you want? You remember the list of what I like to keep right?"
