“You’re getting married?”
Ryan Norton, Amery’s best friend and roommate since she came back home to Fairen City, was staring at her with a look that wavered between elated surprise, suspicion and incredulity. “Sit down, to whom?” Ryan brought out two cups of ice cream and sat her down in the back room.
“Do you remember Jeriah Krovstoff from high school? Our year.”
“Krovstoff? Was he the loud one or the geeky one?”
“Uh, the geeky one I guess,” Amy replied, giggling.
“Did you guys even talk? Study together?”
Amy shrugged. “Not more than just passing comments. He helped me with Stats homework once. And I lent him my notes for the Psych exam.”
“You never told me you were seeing someone,” Ryan commented, brushing her hair back and pushing her glasses up seriously. “And why now? Didn’t you just start a new job? Wait. First. How was work?”
Amy laughed. “Work was great. Dr. Syis is really energetic and helpful, and all the grad students are just incredible. The campus at Fair Ridge is beautiful, and our lab is built into a hill in a lovely little glade.”
“You were interested in the psych program there, weren’t you?”
“Fair Ridge has a brilliant PsyD program,” she agreed. “But since I’m not on the clinical psych route anymore…I’m not sure. Dr. Syis mentioned a good Cognitive Science program as well. And I’m already connected to the lab.” She shrugged. “We’ll see.”
“You’ll be fine.”
Amy pushed her ice cream around nervously and Ryan conceded, turning the subject back to what Amy had wanted to talk about. “But before that, you’re apparently getting married. Explain.”
So Amy told her how Jeriah Krovstoff had also been working in the lab she joined. She recounted the deal that he had offered her, the conditions they talked through, and his offer for her to stay with him for the next week to get used to being around each other outside of work. She fell silent, realizing with every word how much everything had changed since this morning.
“And you said yes?”
Amy looked down at her ice cream, avoiding the suspicion and—was that irritation?— in Ryan’s gaze and just nodded.
“Did he blackmail you?” Ryan’s voice had dropped two octaves down and sounded almost like a growl.
“No!”
“Bribery?”
“No—well, not really. He did offer to cover all financial concerns basically.”
“That’s bribery, honey.” Ryan stood up. “I’m going with you to work tomorrow.”
“Wait, Ryan. I-I actually want to do this.”
“What? No. Just because one guy turned out to be an asshole—“
“This isn’t because of Cyril,” Amy said, staring at the empty cup in front of her. The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees around her and she felt a something heavy crawling around in the corner of her heart it had been banished to.
“Your parents? You can’t let them get to you like this!”
“Not really. But it’s not a bad idea.”
Ryan was silent, standing there, glowering down. Amy chanced a glance up and realized that her friend’s expression was suddenly more soft than severe.
“I’m meeting his grandmother in a week. She’ll be the final arbiter for this match.”
“You’re the final arbiter,” Ryan reminded, brushing everything aside. “What if he’s just using you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re staying at his apartment. What if he kidnaps you?”
“He could kidnap anyone then. Why me?”
“Why not you? He can do terrible things to you, incriminate you, ruin your reputation, kill you.”
Amy laughed at Ryan’s reaction. “I don’t think he’s that kind of person.”
“Don’t 80% of rapes happen with an acquaintance or something? You should be more careful.”
“I’ll be ok,” Amy said, looking out over the night skyline in a bit of a daze. “I was surprised too. Maybe not as suspicious, but it threw me off. But it seems more like a chance to start over. Like another shot …after Cyril. She flinched. She felt a little colder just putting the word “Cyril” near anything like what Ryan was saying could happen.
”If you’re thinking about it that way…then you said he’s doing this to get his grandmother to leave him the company. What if he calls it off then?”
Amy shrugged, oddly calm as she fidgeted with the engagement ring on her finger. “Then I sell the ring for tuition money and life goes on.”
Finally, Ryan tugged Amy to her feet. “Come on. If you’re really going to do this, then I want to meet your fiancé at least.”
Notes:
Ryan's character didn't originally exist. Amy was supposed to be alone the entire time. I decided to give Amy someone to bounce things off of and as Ryan appeared by comparing notes and whatever came to mind, I was just more and more intrigued by her.
In my inspiration idea I presented a close friend with a wedding invitation and they gave me Ryan's reaction and insisted on going to meet the guy with me. Ryan fulfills that role as well.
Functionally though, this scene is a bit of a transition, and also my lame nudge towards the suspension of belief that occurs in any otome game. (Of course this is based off my otome gaming experience; I have no other romance experience!) This is definitely an unbelievable situation and in any other world it would probably turn out very very wrong for Amy.
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