~Ch. 4~
by: Aimee
~ "So how'd it go?" Ricki asked when he saw Dyre walk into the back office. Dyre sat down in a chair next to Ricki and sighed.
~ "Well, Rae was upset. I think she was more surprised than upset, but none-the-less," he paused and sighed again. "She didn't know about Ashley. She though that she was the only one I was seeing. Even when Ashley called I'd lie and say it was a friend or someone in my family. I would never let Desirae hear me say 'I love you.' I never let it on that there was anyone else. You know something' Ricki? I don't know if I'm more upset about lying to Desirae or having hurting her by telling her the truth." Ricki looked at Dyre for a minute with a puzzled look on his face before he said anything.
~ "Dyre, you're hurt because you cared about Desirae, but I don't think that's why you're upset."
~ "You're right. I don't know what's going to happen between me and Ashley." Dyre looked down at the table.
~ "What do you mean? She didn't catch you did she?" Ricki asked with a slight sound of alarm in his voice.
~ "No, otherwise she would have already had my ass. No, our fight this morning. Its the 3rd time this week. This is the most we've fought in a long time. Since high school actually. I'm afraid she's not gonna wanna make up this time."
~ "Dyre, you always make up. You've had fights that were 10 times worse than this one and you've made up each time. Don't worry so much. You'll give it away; that something's wrong. And honestly man, when directly confronted with something, you're not good at lying."
~ "I know." Dyre said nothing more. He reached into his pocket and took out the box containing the diamond ring. He opened it, admired it again, then held it out so that Ricki could look at it.
~ "Damn Dyre," Ricki said as he turned the box, looking at the ring at different angles. "What'd this cost you? It's beautiful. And the stone is a decent size."
~ "$3570. I've been saving up since I met her. Our anniversary is in a couple days. 2 years. I love her to death. Its a one carat diamond in a 14 kt white gold band. She had told me once that she wanted a diamond ring, but it was only a brief comment. I don't even think she'll remember having said anything about it," Dyre said as he watched Ricki turn the ring around, admiring its glistening beauty.
~ "Wow. That much? Where'd you get that much money in only two years?" Ricki asked as he closed the box and handed it back to Dyre.
~ "Why you think I've been working so much overtime? Besides I've been doing things on the side, like mowing lawns and I worked part time at another convention company for a while. Little things like that."
~ "Oh. That's cool. She's gonna love it. Hey, you better let me plan the bachelor party," Ricki said with a smirk on his face. Dyre laughed, nodded his head and sat back in his chair.
~ "I need to call Ash. See if she wants me to pick her up. I'll be right back." Dyre got up, stretched and went out back where it was quiet. He took out his cell phone, deleted everything that had anything to do with Desirae and then dialed his girlfriend's number.
~ Kris pulled back into the main parking lot, parked the car and shut it off. She looked over at Ashley, who was just sitting with a blank expression on her face. Kris opened the door, turned to Ashley and said, "You coming?"
~ Ashley jumped, as if coming back from a trance and said, "Yeah, yeah I'm coming." They both got out of the car and started walking towards the doors. All of a sudden Ashley's phone started ringing. She opened her phone and saw that it was Dyre.
~ "Shit, he's calling me. Should I answer?" Ashley said, looking over at Kris.
~ "Go ahead. You're the one who wants to pretend that nothing happened," Kris replied.
~ "True, and he knows I'm at lunch so if I don't answer he'll wonder. You go 'head back inside; I'll be in in a minute." Kris said okay and tured towards the double doors leading into the building. Ashley hit the talk button.
~ "Hello?"
~ "Hey baby. You busy?" came Dyre's voice.
~ "No just heading back up to the office after lunch. What's up?" Ashley rolled her eyes and shook her head.
~ "I'm sorry baby. I didn't mean to give you a hard time this morning. I'm going to get off early tonight so I'll be able to picl you up. Whether it's raining or not. Is that okay?"
~ "Yeah sure. You know what time I get off. I'll meet you in the front where you dropped me off at this morning," Ashley responded cautiously trying to not sound angry or upset.
~ "Okay. I love you so much Ashley. I really do. You mean the world to me."
~ Sure I do, she thought to herself, that's why you were in Olive Garden holding hands and hugging another woman. "I love you too Dyre," is what actually came out of her mouth. She hung up the phone, sighed and walked back into the office building.
~ A couple minutes later Ashley joined Kris back in their shared office and flopped down into her chair. She sighed again, rested her elbows on her desk and put her head in her hands.
~ "So ... what'd he have to say?" Kris asked the back of Ashley's head. She picked her head up and turned her chair to look at Kris.
~ "He told me that he was able to get off work early so he'll be picking me up when I get off work. He appologized for the fight this morning and he told me that he loved me and that I meant the world to him. The strange thing was that he sounded kind of upset. Like not upset upset, but you know how when something happens that you don't want to, but you know it has to be done anyway? Yeah like that kind of upset. Otherwise he sounded like normal."
~ "Okay. I guess I won't be giving you a ride, but I'm cool with that. Dyre does love you and you know it. Hey, listen. Your two year anniversary is in what? A couple days? See what he does for that. Guys can be assholes sometimes, but if he truly loves you, then he'll be sure to make it up to you. True?"
~ "Yeah you're right," Ashley smiled, "I do love him and our anniversary is on Monday. I'll see what happens in the next few days. Lets get to work before Marc has a cow." The two girls laughed, then turned to their desks and started working.
~ The rest of the afternoon went by very slowly for both Dyre and Ashley. Dyre paced around the arena, stopping here and there to check out some of the work brought in by the company holding the convention. Every-so-often he'd go in the back to be alone, away from the noise, just to think about nothing in particular. Ashley and Kris both sat typing up documents, forms and just reular essay-like papers. Ashley would stop once in a while to work out the kinks in her fingers from typing so much.
~ Finally, six o'clock came and it was time for Dyre to leave to go pick up Ashley. He said goodbye to Ricki on his way out. He got in his car and headed over to Ashley's office building. When he got there, Ashley was already waiting on the steps. She got into the car when he pulled up and they headed home, both quiet and unsure of what to say to the other one or how to start out a conversation. About halfway home Ashley finally broke the silence.
~ "Dyre, I don't feel like cooking tonight. Can we go out somewhere to eat?"
~ "Sure baby. Where do you want to go?"
~ "Red Lobster. I'm in the mood for crab legs," she smiled at her boyfriend. He turned his head to lok at her, smiled and said, "okay." The rest of the ride was spent in silence, again, neither of them knowing exactly what to say. It remained quiet all the way up until after they had each ordered their meals. That's when the conversation started.
~ "So," Ashley started, looking across the table at Dyre, "how'd your convention thing go today?"
~ "Fine. We got done early. That's why I was able to get off early. Ricki said that he'd finish up the last little bit for me," Dyre said.
~ "Why'd he do that?" Ashley asked.
~ "'Cuz I told him about our fight this morning and he wanted to make sure I was able to mae up with you. I'm sorry Ashley. I really am. Can you forgive me?" Dyre said looking at his girlfriend with big puppy-dog eyes. Ashley smiled at the cute look on her boyfriend's face and thought to herself, 'why do you have to be so damn cute? And what do you want me to forgive you for? The fight or the fact that you're cheating on me?'
~ "With that face, how could I stay annoyed at you?" Ashley responded. Dyre smiled, reached across the table and took his girlfriend's hands in his.
~ "Thank you baby. I love you," he smiled at her again.
~ "Love you too Dyre." They sat at the table looking into each other's eyes and holding hands for a few minutes until their food finally came. They both thanked the waiter and began eating their meals. They ate in silence; the food was too good to stop eating to talk. After a half an hour, Ashley put down her last crab leg and sighed.
~ "That was good baby. Thanks for bringing me here."
~ Dyre finished up the last of his shrimp and replied, "No problem. That was good huh?" Ashley nodded her head in agreement. She then stretched and got up from the table. Dyre got up just after her.
~ "You go ahead out to the car. I'm gonna pay for dinner and I'll be right there."
~ "Alright Dyre," Ashley said. She kissed him on the cheek and turned to go out to the car. Once she was in the car, she sighed.
~ "What the fuck am I going to do?" she said to no one in particular. She leaned back in the seat and put her hands over har face. She had suddenly gotten an extrememly bad headache. When the car door opened, it startled her, because she had had her eyes closed and her hands over her face.
~ Dyre smiled, "Sorry Ash. Didn't mean to scare you. You okay?"
~ "Yeah I'm fine. I just have a headache," Ashley said looking over at Dyre as he got into the car.
~ "There's some Tylenol in the glove compartment if you want."
~ "No thanks. I'll be okay." Ashley put her seatbelt on as Dyre started the car to head home. They talked very little on the way back to their small house. The next day was Sunday and neither of them had to work. When they got home, they didn't bother to take showers; they went straight to bed. As Ashley drifted off to sleep, she thought about what she had witnessed and how she was going to handle it. Dyre thought about his day as well and he also thought about how he was going to propose to Ashley on Monday. After a few minutes, Dyre leaned over, kissed Ashley goodnight and they both fell asleep, not knowing what was going to happen the next day.
