Shadows of doubt

“What do you mean by ‘this changes things’?” Alex asks Ryan confused, as he starts walking towards his mom’s office because he would rather have that conversation in person than on the phone.

“That is because it changes a lot of things” Ryan emphasizes with his eyes darting back and forth in his mom's office, but he doesn't necessarily explain himself.

“Can you explain and stop confusing me?” Alex snaps at Ryan because he has had enough of his dribbling.

“You never mentioned your fiancée’s name to me and now I started crushing on your fiancée…both of us are even like best friends now,” Ryan confesses to Alex.

“What do you mean that you are crushing on my fiancée?” Alex asks him visibly offended as he practically sprints toward Karen’s office

“Before you called me and explained the situation in an obvious way, I didn’t know that she was your fiancée and that is because you never showed me any pictures of her nor told me her name even though I asked you for it on countless occasions. ” Ryan explains to Alex.

“Stop crushing on her” Alex orders as he opens the door to Karen’s office.

“What do you mean?” Ryan asks him as he sets his eyes on his ex-schoolmate and friend that he hasn’t seen in years.

“We have known each other for years Ryan and even though my father changed my school and location from Orion to Pearl Coat, I still kept in touch with you and I was always filling you in about the important details in my life which is enough to prove that I care so much about our friendship and we can’t allow Meelah come in between us okay?” Alex implores but Ryan doesn’t say anything because the look on his face is enough to prove that he is fighting his inner demons.

“Let's not allow one person to ruin the years of trust, laughter, and memories we've shared." He emphasizes.

“Scrap out what I said earlier, I don’t have a crush on Melanie, I am in love with her even though she has friend-zoned me, and my feelings are not something that I can turn on and off like a fucking switch” He looks Alex in the eye, admits his love for Melanie and Alex goes wide-eyed.

“Even if I can, I don’t want to turn my feelings for Mel off, because spending two weeks with her and getting to her has proven that she is worth every bit of love that I extend in her direction” Ryan keeps pointing his finger in Alex’s direction to emphasize his point.

“But she is mine, she can never accept your so-called true feelings Ryan” Alex tries to discourage Ryan.

“She is not yours Alex…” Ryan looks his friend in the eye as he pronounces, which catches him off guard.

“She didn’t mention your name, but she told me that the reason why she came here is because she broke up with her fiancé and she will tell me the full story later but man, that is enough to prove that she is not yours” Ryan expatiates.

“I don’t know what she told you, but our relationship was just going through a rough patch…you know that couples fight and we had our fight like we always did and she ran away, but that is not anything out of the ordinary because she always does that but, she will eventually come back to me like she always does” Alex feeds his delusion while Ryan sends him a skeptical look because something just tells him that if what Alex is saying is the truth, Mel would have mentioned it since she told him about her Ex without him asking so why did she now withhold a piece of information as important as that from him.

“Why are you looking at me like you don’t believe what I am saying” Alex calls Ryan out immediately.

“I wasn’t going to say anything to you until I spoke to Mel and asked her about what happened myself but my face gave you the subtitles of what was going on in my mind” Ryan admits without really telling Alex that he doesn’t believe him.

“I am not telling you to turn off your feelings, I am just trying to let you know that there are boundaries that you can’t cross with Meelah because, in less than six months, she will be Mrs. Melanie Sinclair” Alex marks his territory and Ryan almost burst into laughter but he controls himself, making a mental note to ask Mel to clarify everything that is going on once he picks her up.

“ You mentioned earlier that we can’t allow a girl to come in between everything that we have shared, so come and gist me about what has been going on with you recently…you only told me that you were coming to my base, but you didn’t go into details” Ryan completely shifts the focus of the conversation from Mel.

Alex welcomes the shift in the conversation and starts filling Ryan in on the main reason why he is in Orion, how long he is supposed to stay, and how long he plans to stay as they have a drink at the mini bar inside Karen’s office.

The vibe of their conversation doesn’t change or hint that they had a scuffle earlier, both of them are just having a nice time in each other’s company.

Alex gets tired and says that he wants to go get Caleb to drop him off at his hotel, but Ryan offers to drop him off instead so that he can know where he stays.

They drive for a while before stopping in front of a building that has a sleek, silver-grey granite ,with expansive glass windows and sliding doors to allow natural light in.

Ryan gets out of his car to escort Alex to his room and a majestic porte-cochère (covered entrance) welcomes him, supported by slender pillars and adorned with subtle LED lighting.

The main entrance doors are made of polished glass and bronze, sliding open to reveal a spacious lobby buy Ryan doesn’t get far into the hotel when he suddenly remembers that Mel is not mobile and he has to drop her at his house so that she can go back home in her sister's car, so he apologizes to Alex and rushes back to his mom's restaurant.

As Ryan drives back to Bistro Bliss, he plays soft music in his car, but his thoughts drift back to the conversation that he had with Alex and he can’t help but notice that Alex is not just in a state of Denial about the true status of his relationship with Mel, he is also being disrespectful about whatever issue caused their break up, manipulative and entitled that he can’t wait to see Mel and just ask her for the full story.

On getting to his mom's restaurant, he asks one of the waiters to check Mel in the private oasis, giving her a description of what Mel looks like, but the waiter comes back and tells him that Melanie is not in the private oasis, which confuses him because if she is not there, where is she?

He takes out his phone to make a call through to her but her number is switched off so he rushes to Kalinin’s house without going back to his mom’s office.