Ricky put his phone down, clearly frustrated. He had tried texting Amy to try and confirm their meeting for tomorrow. She had called him two days after they awkwardly bumped into each other at Henry and Alice's engagement party.
She had asked if she could pick up John to spend a few hours with him, since she was free all of that day. Since Amy has spent most of her summer working on her apartment, John stayed mostly with him and Adrian, except for weekends and a few weeknights here or there whenever Amy felt like taking a break from the hard labour. He hesitated at first telling her that they had already paid for him to spend two weeks at a soccer summer camp. The meeting hasn't been brought up since the night of Alice and Henry's party. She then offered to pick him up from camp, and promised to take him home shortly after dinner time. Ricky couldn't argue with that. Letting Amy pick up John was one less responsibility he had to worry about, and John was going to get to spend time with his mom. It was really a win, win.
After Amy had dropped him off that night, she called him a few hours later asking him if he was still willing to meet up to discuss who was going to get John when.
"We can go through it formally through a mediator if you feel more comfortable with that, or we can try and discuss it on our own, between the two of us", she had said over the phone.
Ricky knew he couldn't avoid this. Maybe it won't be as bad as he thinks, but if Amy thinks she's going to get full custody of John again, he would certainly fight it every way. He also thought they should at least meet up first, and try to settle it between the two of them and see how things went from there. She agreed and they settled on a time for the next day.
The next day however, he had called her to say that he had just left the office and was on his way to meet her at the coffee shop but the call went straight to voicemail. Five minutes later she texted back telling him that she was 'sorry, but something important came up and won't be able to make it for tonight'. He remembered being frustrated. She couldn't call him to let him know that? Or at the very least, pick up the phone when he had called her? And what was more important than John? She was the one who insisted they get the arrangement sorted out before he started school again. Instead she replied by sending him a vague text, not even offering up an excuse for not being to make their meeting. He was so mad he didn't even bother replying to text. Instead went straight home and vented to Adrian, who just sat and listened and looked equally annoyed for both him and John. "First she takes off for four years, expecting you to raise your son together on your own, in her absence and now she can't even make it to a meeting? Unbelievable" Adrian had said, as she rolled her eyes just at the thought of Amy Jeurgens. She had been here a few months, and frankly she was already sick of having to deal with her all the time.
Now here he was a week later, trying to get a hold of Amy to see if they were still on for their rescheduled time. Suddenly he heard his phone beep, indicating that he had just received a message. 'Finally' he thought, as he hastily picked it up. To his disappointment however, it wasn't Amy but a colleague from work, to give him some details about a completely different kind of meeting tomorrow, which had something to do with a big project his team was working on. He was already stressed enough about that and this thing with Amy wasn't exactly what he needed right now.
The next day he still hasn't heard from Amy. Against his better judgement, he decided to see if he could find out some information on George. Or at the very least, see if maybe George could get her to at least contact him. This situation was starting to stress him out and he just wanted to get over it. He thought about just ignoring it. After all, unofficially he already had custody of John. It was Amy that should be reaching out to him, not the other way around. But he knew Amy and he knew better. If it didn't get resolved now, they would have to deal with it again later, and later would probably mean things could get messier and out of hand. It's best to nip this in the butt before it gets to a place neither he nor Amy (so he would hope) got to. Amy had taken him to court before, and lost. But he couldn't take the chance again of having to go through the courts and having them decide what was best for their son. As far as Ricky was concerned, in most cases, it was the parents who should decide and not the law. He didn't want the courts to tell him when he should have his son and when, and while it seems he didn't know Amy anymore, surely she wouldn't want that as well.
Ricky walked out of his office building towards his car. He pulled out his cell phone to call George. It went to voicemail. He was probably at the restaurant. He checked the time. It was still early so hopefully they were in between the lunch and dinner rush and he wouldn't be bothering George at a busy time.
"Geoff's Restaurant" A perky young female voice answered on the other end.
"Hi, I'm just wondering if George, the owner is there"
"Hold please"
Ricky waited a few minutes.
"George speaking"
"Hey George, it's Ricky. I'm sorry to bother you but I was just wondering if you could pass on a message to Amy from me. We were supposed to meet up last week to talk about arrangements for John but she cancelled and now I can't seem to get a hold of her"
"Really? That's weird" George started "I haven't seen her since last week either. She's moved into her new place a few weeks ago and I figured she must have been pretty busy. Also to be honest I've been at the restaurant almost 24 hours, It's getting busier now that people are trying to take advantage of the last remaining patio season"
Ricky suddenly felt bad for having dragged George into this mess with Amy. Of course he was busy at the restaurant. He knew this. They were always busy in the summer and busier now, like he said that people were trying to make the most of the tail end of the summer months.
"Ok, thanks George. Really sorry to bother you at work. I shouldn't have bothered you with this"
"Listen it's no problem. I find it a little strange though. I know Amy is not always the easiest to get along with sometimes, but I don't know when it comes to John, she's pretty on top of things" George said
It was true. Amy was a type A personality, and If there was only one thing Amy could be anal about it would be about John. Whatever reason Amy had must be really important. Maybe she was interviewing for new jobs? Still that didn't explain the way she just blew him off, interviews didn't exactly last the whole day, or the fact that even George haven't heard for her for a whole full week. Maybe she had decided to consult a lawyer after all, and was waiting until she had all the information she needed to lay it all out to him unexpected. That was something he wouldn't put past Amy on doing.
"Yeah, you're right George. Well thanks again for your time and again so sorry to bother you when you're already so busy" Ricky said, a little too formally. But he really did feel bad about bothering him.
"Why don't you just go over to her place and sort this whole thing out. That way you can also let me know if she's still alive" George said jokingly on the phone
Ricky found a notepad and pen in his glove compartment and wrote down the address George gave him to Amy's new place, and then thanked George one last time for his help; wincing as he did so as even he realized the amount of time's he has said sorry and thank you in their 5 minute conversation was probably overkill.
