Chapter Sixteen – Remembering The Past

"You're incredible."

Ephram's voice broke Ryan from her rhythm. She looked up, and smiled. "I could get used to hearing things like that." He went in to kiss her, but she stopped him. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Anything."

"Bright called, when I got out of the shower. He said someone had called there, making Amy cry. What happened?"

Ephram sat down on the couch next to her. He sighed. "I told her about us. I expected her to have a happy reaction. She freaked out, saying how she didn't want me to get hurt."

"What happened between you two? In the past? And don't sit there and tell me nothing like the 10 million other times before. I'm not stupid. I can feel the tension whenever you two are near each other, like there's something unresolved."

"It's complicated."

Ryan put the guitar on the coffee table, and pointed to the still falling snow. "I have time."

"When I first moved here, she was the first person to be nice to me. I, being the idiot that I am--"

"You're not an idiot."

"Whatever. Anyway, I thought she was interested in me. Why I let myself think that, I don't know. Well, turns out, the original part of her plan was to use me to get to my father to perform a surgery on Colin. She never planned to become friends with me. Well, that happened and it was just so complicated. We kissed a couple times, but once Colin was back, my name might as well have been forgotten. It broke my heart, over and over again. But it doesn't matter; I think things have worked out now."

"Wow," Ryan said, quietly. "Not fun, is it?"

Ephram simply shook his head.

Ryan wrapped her arms around him, and he pulled her close. The two sat in silence, holding each other, remembering the past, but anticipating the future.