Knight in Shining Suit (30 page)

“
If you ever marry a man,
Astrid, just make sure he’ll always have time for you… and that you
know where he is all the time,” my mother said. She sounded like
she was talking to a five-year-old child. Her eyes drifted off to
my finger. “Geena was telling us that you got engaged. When were
you planning to tell us? And where’s the ring?”

Shit! Shit!
Shit!

I took a deep breath.
“Mom, relax. Ryder and I are not really planning to get married too
soon! He… did ask me to marry him. I did… say yes, but with
conditions. You know… it’s more like a promise to marry each other…
if the right time comes. Which is not
today
!”

“
What are you waiting
for?” Aunt Betty asked.

I shrugged. “Well… if the
time is right, we’ll both know it.”

“
I think he’s a good man.
He can provide you with the best things in life,” Uncle Reynolds
said. “And he looks genuinely in love with you.”

I laughed nervously.
“Well, I am… genuinely in love with him too.”

“
So?” my mother asked
me.

“
So what?” I asked her
back. I honestly didn’t know what she was demanding of
me.

“
So where are we staying?
And will Ryder have time to meet up with us?”

I smiled at my mother.
“Mom, you took me by surprise. I didn’t know you were coming. He
doesn’t know I’m off to New York with you. It could be a long shot.
When we get to Manhattan, I’ll try to ask him to see us… but if he
can’t, we really cannot blame him.”

“
Well, call him now so
you’ll know,” Aunt Betty insisted.

Damn!
I tried to think of other ways to get out of this. But as I
stared at three pairs of eyes looking at me expectantly, I knew
that my only way was to give Ryder a call. So I dialed his
number.

Please be in Greece or
Paris!
I silently prayed.

One ring.

“
That’s a number I didn’t
expect to show up on my phone,” he greeted me cheerily.

“
Hey…” I trailed off as
the three pairs of eyes are still staring back at me, studying me.
I took a deep breath. “Hey,
honey
,” I said with an emphasis on
the ‘
honey
’.
“Guess where I am?”

It took a moment for Ryder
to answer. “Hmmm… New York? Or on your way to me?”

Now I was the one
surprised. “How… how did you know that?”

“
Intelligent guess,
judging by your voice and your unusually sweet greeting.” He
chuckled.

“
Yeah… I’ll be on board a
plane to New York in thirty minutes. With my mother and Uncle
Reynolds and Aunt Betty.”

“
Let me guess,” he said.
“I’m Ryder, the fiancé again?”

“
Uh-huh,” I replied
curtly. “But… aren’t you out of town or out of the country?” I
asked him. Ryder could just say he was and the worse thing I could
ask him to do was to give me a call every two hours to check up on
me so we could still make a bit of a show. He didn’t need to make
an appearance.

“
Nope,” he replied
quickly.

I took a deep breath. I
refused to be discouraged by Ryder’s attempt to be…
funny!
“I know this is
so last minute of us! Perhaps, honey, you can just tell me which
places we need to visit.”

“
Not a problem. I’ll take
you on a tour, myself,” he said.

I was getting irritated. I
tried to smile sweetly in front of my family. “We should have told
you earlier so you were able to tweak your schedule.”

“
Astrid…” he said on the
other line. “If I make an appearance, I’m expected to deliver an
outstanding performance as your devoted fiancé, right?”

“
Uh-huh,” I replied curtly
then proceeded with my alibi. “It sucks! I was really hoping to see
you! But I know… we should have scheduled this at least a day
before!” I gave a pout, which I hope looked really genuine. “I’ll
pretend you’re with me, though.”

Ryder didn’t say anything.
“Hey are you still there?” I asked.

“
Yes,” he replied quietly.
I felt really stupid for calling him like this. I know I sounded
like an idiot.

I took a deep breath.
“I’ll call you later… you know… for a chat,” I said. I hope he
realizes that I mean it this time. When he didn’t answer, I said
quietly. “I miss you.” It was a whisper. I didn’t know if he heard
it. But I meant it. One week had passed since the last time we saw
each other. I made no effort to call him or text him. That didn’t
mean I didn’t want to. For days, I had been staring at his phone
number on my cell, but I was too scared to make the call. Besides,
he didn't call me either.

I heard his sharp intake
of breath. “Do you mean that?” he asked.

My heart pounded inside my
ribcage. I was scared to answer, but I still decided to answer with
the truth. “Well… yes. Of course,” I said very, very quietly, I was
not even sure he heard me. My aunt smiled at me. I guess, I was
blushing like hell!

Ryder didn’t say anything
on the other line, much to my disappointment. I took a deep breath.
“We need to go. We’re boarding in like… fifteen minutes,” I said.
“I’ll give you a call… if I get lost… you can be my personal GPS.”
I giggled nervously. Still there was silence so I decided to hang
up.

I was irritated,
embarrassed, and angry at myself. When I raised my chin up, I found
the three pairs of eyes still eyeing me curiously.

I sighed. “He’s… on a
business trip. He would love to see you, but he said… if only we
told him two hours ago, he could have canceled his…
trip.”

“
We’ll just stay in
Astoria when we get there,” my uncle said.

I was still scolding
myself all throughout the flight. I was being silly! What was I
thinking phoning Ryder in front of my family? I could have just
told them straight that he was in Paris! I could have texted him
later to tell him that I told my family that he was in Paris
because they expected to see him in Manhattan.

When we landed in New York
and left the airport, all ready to get into the next available cab,
I was shocked to find a familiar figure approaching us.

“
Oh my God!” I breathed as
I watch Ryder walking towards me.

He had a twinkle in his
eye and then he pulled me to him and bent down to give me a kiss on
the lips. It was a soft, undemanding kiss... almost yearning,
almost begging, and it left me almost begging for more.

“
How’s my girl?” he asked
me.

I looked up at him, I
whispered, “Wonderful.” I couldn’t find my voice. Too many
questions were racing in my head. He smiled at me, and then gave me
a kiss on the forehead before he turned to my family.

“
Good afternoon, Ma’am,”
he nodded at both my mother and my aunt. Then he turned to Uncle
Reynolds. “Good afternoon, Sir.”

“
Lovely to see you again,
Ryder!” Aunt Betty said. “Astrid said you were out of
town!”

Ryder nodded. “I was just
about to go to Chicago for a meeting when she called me. It’s not
every day I get a call from her telling me that she’s on her way to
me. So… I canceled everything else.”

My mother and Aunt Betty
looked like they were about to cry after hearing that. “It’s good
to know that she’s on your priority list,” my mother
said.

“
She’s number one, Ma’am,”
Ryder said smiling. Then he motioned to the parking lot. “Let me
take you to your hotel.” Ryder led us to a black Porsche Cayenne.
He drove us to Waldorf-Astoria.

“
I hope you don’t mind,
when Astrid said you were going to visit, I took the liberty of
booking a suite for you,” he told Uncle Reynolds at the front
desk.

“
Lovely,” my uncle said
and he took out his credit card.

Ryder held his hand up.
“No worries, Sir. My city, my treat.” He smiled at them.

“
That’s very generous of
you,” my mother said beaming.

The bellman took our bags.
“This way, Mr. Van Woodsen.”

As we made our way to the
elevator doors, employees of the hotel were smiling at us, greeting
Ryder all the way. The room that Ryder booked for us was massive.
It was probably the most expensive suite in the hotel.

We took the room with a
very good view of Manhattan. “Mom and I will take this one,” I
said.

My aunt stared at me.
“Aren’t you going to stay with Ryder, dear? I mean, you don’t see
each other every day. You may have a lot of catching up to
do.”

I shook my head, “No…” I
started.

“
Actually, if it’s okay
with you, Ma’am, I would rather Astrid stays with me in my
apartment. It’s only a few blocks away and you’re welcome to visit
anytime,” he asked my mother without looking at me.

“
Not a problem. I’m sure
you two lovebirds missed each other over the week.”

“
Very much,” Ryder
said.

Damn it! Why is he doing
this?
I asked myself
helplessly.

“
I’ll give you time to
settle in,” Ryder said. “Freshen up. Do you have any particular
agenda for the day?”

My uncle shook his head.
“We just want to go around the city. Have dinner. Hey, maybe I can
finally eat in one of your restaurants. It was very hard to get a
booking.”

Ryder smiled. “Certainly.
Where do you prefer?”

“
Hmmm… I’ve always tried
to reserve at Sugu, but they’re always fully booked.”

Ryder chuckled. “Yes.
Business is good. Japanese food is a seller. I will make the
necessary arrangements. Meanwhile, Astrid and I will go to my place
first. We will see you after two hours? We can probably have some
snack and then I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

I stared at Ryder. He was
not even looking at me. It was as if he wasn’t giving me a chance
to say no to his plans. I looked at my mother and my aunt and they
were quite excited.
Damn! I think they’re
in love with the guy!
He was such a
charmer. Even my uncle seemed to approve of him very much. Now, how
can my next real boyfriend compete with my current fake
fiancé?

As we set out to go, Aunt
Betty called to me, “Astrid, I heard your ring was huge! When will
we get to see it?”

I stared at Ryder
nervously. He chuckled. “Today. I took it from her last week to
have it polished. I was planning to give it back to her when I saw
her this weekend. It’s wonderful that you decided to go to New York
and drag her along with you. It’s been a miserable few days for
me.”

“
Wow! You’re so sweet,
aren’t you?” my mother sighed and she looked like she was on the
brink of crying again.

“
Now, off you go,
lovebirds! We’ll see you after two hours,” my aunt said, shooing us
away, as if she was afraid my mother would say something that I
wouldn’t like or would embarrass me in front of Ryder.

I didn’t talk to Ryder on
the way to his apartment. I was mad at him. He ruined my alibi! He
was playing his part
too
well… It was not just a job well done—it was
overkill! It was almost as if he was really trying to gain my
family’s approval! And he was not afraid to use his charms and his…
privileges to achieve that!

He took me to a penthouse
apartment. All throughout the ride, he also didn’t attempt to talk
to me. He swiped his access card and the elevator opened up to a
huge apartment, much bigger than the suite that he rented for my
family. It had a huge fireplace, a billiards table, and a huge
plasma television and entertainment system. He had a sofa set and a
massive rug in front of the fireplace. Towards the center, beside
the door leading to the balcony that had a wonderful view of the
Empire State Building, was a huge king-sized bed. The apartment was
one massive space, no separate bedroom.

I turned to him. He put my
bags down on the floor. He raised a brow at me and asked, “Do you
think you can talk to me now?”

I remembered that I was
mad at him. I was so irritated, I didn’t want to speak, and so I
just started hitting him mildly on his arms.

“
Wait! Wait!” He caught my
wrists to prevent me from hitting him again. I glared at
him.

He laughed. Then he leaned
forward and kissed my forehead. He pulled me to him and
wrapped him arms around my waist.

“
Boy, am I glad you’re
here!” he whispered against my hair.

Suddenly he was hugging me
and I knew he meant what he said… He was glad that I was here with
him.

I stared up at him and I
could see the circles under his eyes.

“
What’s wrong?” I
asked.

He shook his head. “I’m
just tired. It’s been a long week.” Ryder pulled me to him again
and rested his chin against my head.

“
Ryder… you didn’t have to
do this!” I said. “You could’ve just stayed away. Even my mother
would understand why you wouldn’t be able to see us. You didn’t
have to… go against my plan!”