Playing for Rya

16. Precipice

Song: Back to black, cover by Beyonce.

'It appears I was unclear when I explained my position on the number of sexual...consorts I have.' Derek said.

They had just finished having lunch and were seated at a semi-large round table across from each other, on his terrace.

He picked up a bottle of white wine, from where it sat in a bucket of crushed ice, and refilled her wine glass. 'I should have been more precise in the information I provided you, by letting you know, when I spoke of my recent sexual history with other women, that I was referring to one other, besides you.'

Rya nodded, this had to be the girl Elsa had told her about. The one person in Derek's life she'd been curious about but hadn't yet been able to bring herself to ask questions about.

She saw an opportunity, now, to sate that curiosity 'How did you meet her?' she asked quietly, tentatively, unsure what his response would be or whether she really even wanted to hear him talk about this other woman.

He stared speculatively across the table at her, looking lost in thought, before he spoke, 'I met her four years ago at the New York Medical College.' He finally said.

'That's...' Rya's brows creased in a small frown, '...where I went to medical school.'

'I'm aware,' he responded.

Her eyes narrowed, 'I don't recall telling you anything about medical school.' She said, even as she mentally acknowledged to herself that he must've gotten that information from her staff file.

Derek sighed, 'several months ago, when we first...reconnected, I told you I'd had you investigated after your sudden disappearance seven years ago.'

She nodded.

'I didn't stop there,' he said, his gaze unwavering as he continued, 'I continued to keep an eye on you, even after I knew that you were home and safe.'

She stared at him, 'what do you mean by an eye?'

He had come looking for her?

'I came here, to New York, to see you for myself, he said, 'at first, because I couldn't believe you were who my investigators said you were, a high school student living a normal life. However, once I'd confirmed it was really you, I kept coming back.'

Rya couldn't believe what she was hearing, 'You're saying you stalked me?' she asked incredulously, 'for how long?'

He visibly winced, the first indication she'd seen so far in his expression, that he was uncomfortable with his disclosure.

'Years,' he responded hesitantly.

She squeezed her eyes shut, how could this be? He'd been close by during her final year in high school.

She remembered how she'd spent the first few months after she'd left him, yearning for him and what they'd shared over the summer, and how difficult it had been to continue to tamp down the urge to just pick up the phone and dial his number, if only to hear his voice.

She remembered the nights she'd fallen asleep with her fingers curled around the business card he'd given her, the only connection to him she'd had left.

And all the while she was struggling with the decision she'd made to walk away from him, he'd been right there in her city.

She blinked back the tears that filled her eyes.

If only she'd known he was here, if only he'd known how much she'd wanted to see him, how difficult it had been for her to leave him and how she'd wrestled with herself and her decision for months, even years after she'd supposedly moved on.