Nerd Girl(11)

I was glad the room was dimly lit, because I felt the flush build on my face as I took in his compliment. I didn’t know how to respond to what he had just said. In an effort to divert the attention back to him, I asked, “So, I told you who stood me up tonight; what about you? Who stood you up?”

He paused before answering. “A good friend.”

I noticed he shifted in his seat. I decided not to pry further, seeing his obvious discomfort. “Do you have any siblings?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Yeah, I have a sister a couple years younger than me. She’s a Product Manager at Amazon on the Kindle product.” He sounded proud of her.

“Are you guys close?” It was the same question he had asked me.

He nodded. “My mom, my sister, and I are a pretty tight. My mom still lives in Magnolia, which is where I grew up.” Ryan paused and I thought I saw a hint of a frown. “My Dad died a while back from a heart attack. He was a healthy man, or so we thought; it was totally a fluke heart attack. He just collapsed one day when he was jogging down the street, completely unexpectedly. He died on his way to the hospital.” He paused and appeared to be examining my expression, checking whether or not to continue on with what was obviously a heavy topic. He must’ve seen encouragement on my face, as he continued. “Anyways, he was a partner from a local law firm. My mom stayed home with us while we were growing up. When my dad died, my mom was a total mess. She didn’t even know how to write a check, let alone handle any of the finances. She had always just let him take care of everything. I was twenty-five years old at the time. Lauren, my sister, was a senior in college, and I was working down in San Francisco for an investment firm. My mom was a wreck. My parents had been together for thirty years. I moved back to Seattle to help them out. I was lucky that my company let me transfer.”

I thought of a man a few years younger than me taking on the responsibility of the world and keeping his family sane around him. My heart went out to him. I wanted to reach out and touch him, to comfort him, but I opted to hold my glass of wine between both of my hands instead.

Shaking his head, he chuckled to himself. “I can’t believe I just told you all that.”

“I don’t mind,” I replied honestly. “But wow, I’m really sorry about your dad and how sudden it all was. It must have been so hard for all of you.”

“Yeah, you can’t ever prepare for anything like that to happen.” He shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”

“So you moved back home and became the man of the house, so to speak. That was really unselfish of you.” I was impressed with how much commitment he had to his family.

“My mom and my sister needed me. There was nothing more to it than that,” he said matter-of-factly. He didn’t need any kudos for his actions. I liked that. He did what he thought was right and didn’t expect anything in return. He was a selfless man, too. “What about you? Do you have family in the area, other than your sister?”

“I’m a local. Yet another thing we seem to have in common,” I said, smiling. “You already know about my sister. She’s also my best friend. We grew up in Bellevue. My parents are retired now. Growing up, my mom worked on and off as a real estate agent. She still does, actually. My father was a computer systems engineer at Boeing. We have a great relationship. It’s kind of boring, really.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that. You have what most people strive for in a family. Sounds like a pretty happy childhood to me. You seemed to have turned out okay,” he teased.

I smirked. “So did you,” I reminded him.

The food arrived and I immediately helped myself to some fries.

“Yeah, sure, help yourself to my fries,” he said with exaggerated annoyance.

I laughed and then sheepishly put a fry in my mouth. “Thank you.” I giggled and blushed at my own brazen move. I couldn’t believe I just shared his food without asking him. I would never normally do something like that unless I’ve known a friend for years.

As we ate our meals, he asked if I liked my roasted chicken. I told him it was my favorite, then cut off a bite and fed it to him with my fork. He took it without hesitation.

“Mmm … pretty good.”

I became very aware that we were acting like an old couple, rather than having met just an hour ago. “So tell me more about your time in San Francisco,” I encouraged him.

“It was great, while it lasted. I mean, I was young and single for most of that time. The world was my oyster. The whole dot com craze was taking off back then. Everyone was making money. If you were in investment banking, the market was out of control. People were getting rich off the craziest dot com fads and ideas. It was a total thrill to be in the middle of it all. I don’t know if we’ll ever see anything like that again.”