Playing for Rya

7. Revelations II

Song: Losing my Religion by Jacqui Naylor

Rya stood looking out at the view of the empire state building, from her vantage point on the 45th floor of the Langham, New York, Fifth Avenue, hotel.

She'd had no trouble locating the imposing fifty-nine floor, luxury hotel situated in midtown Manhattan, after her brief call with Elsa that morning.

It was Saturday, and as planned, both ladies had decided to meet at Elsa's hotel suite, she was in New York on a modeling gig and at Gio's insistence had lodged at the hotel he usually stayed at when he was in the city.

'It's beautiful right?' she said coming to stand beside Rya at the floor to ceiling windows which boasted a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline from where they stood.

She handed Rya a half filled glass of white wine and took a sip from her own glass filled with a clear liquid that could only have been water flavored with a single slice of lemon swimming within.

'Amazing,' Rya said, giving the view one final admiring glance before turning to her friend. Barefoot and dressed in baggy sweats and slacks, her hair swept out of the way and piled on top of her head in a messy bun, she looked a picture of calm and happiness.

'You're glowing,' she observed casually, wary about overstepping their newly rekindled relationship and blurting out her suspicions.

Suspicions which were confirmed a moment later as Elsa's smile grew and she too turned away from the window to beam at Rya, 'Gio and I are expecting,' she said.

Rya grinned and hugged her, 'Well it's about time, considering you and Gio have been together for, what, seven years now?'

'On and off,' Elsa responded as they both made their way into the elegantly decorated living room and got comfortable on matching white leather couches, 'we had our challenges, the first few years, but we pulled it together eventually.'

Rya nodded and glanced down at her drink as she pondered over the questions she really wanted answers to, 'and Derek,' she asked, 'how is he really, I didn't get the chance to ask him, it...didn't feel right at the time.'

Elsa visibly sobered and released a small sigh, 'he's...Derek, it's difficult to tell now, he masks everything. Although it was a little obvious early on that he was affected by your disappearance, he doubled down on work and didn't really get involved in the entertainment part of the meetings that were held, if you know what I mean. Gio said he'd never seen him like that before...he missed you Bella, and then his mother died...'

'What?' Rya whispered, she felt her heart constrict even as tears pricked at her eyes, 'what happened?' she asked softly. Before she'd left, she'd seen how affected he'd been by his mothers accident, she didn't want to imagine what he'd gone through dealing with her disappearance and his mother's death at the same time, 'he said she was on the mend...'

Elsa nodded solemnly, 'the doctors thought so, but then, she took a turn for the worse and didn't recover.'

'Oh,' Rya lowered her eyes, lost for words, her heart thrummed painfully in her chest for the man shes loved and the pain he must've gone through.

'Hey,' Elsa's soft words pulled her out of her thoughts, 'it was a long time ago, he's dealt with it, I think he's moved on.'

Rya nodded, 'I kept up with news of him after I returned to New York,' she admitted, 'but I never read or heard anything about his mother, it was mostly information about his women...'

'Yes,' Elsa nodded, 'he hid the news well, as he has most of the goings on in his life, he likes his privacy, as Gio does, it's much harder to deal with issues when they're being dragged through the press, I can't even begin to put a number to the stories they've killed before they became full blown news, which is why all you see are the women...' she glanced surreptitiously at Rya, 'speaking of which, you should probably know now that there is one woman in particular that he's been seing, seems to me that he's more drawn to her than the rest,' her eyes searched Rya's, 'they've been dating on and off for years and I think she's the most serious he's been with a woman, since you.'