Page 11 of Buried Treasure
"I did, mom."
He could imagine Ryan's eye roll that would've been followed by relief that his mom was here to pester him.
Andy would've kept walking back to elevator if it wasn't for that stupid fish. He paused in front of Sydney's door, staring at it. Should he check on her to make sure she's doing better than the last time he saw her? Was she still in mourning over the goldfish? Would it be intrusive to talk to her knowing now what he didn't know before about her extremely bad day?
He didn't know why he did what he did next. He hadn't answered any of those questions. He just knew that he had already started knocking on her door and it was too late to take it back now. Maybe she wouldn't be home. Maybe she was ignoring people. Maybe…
The door opened and Sydney stood there with her brown hair pulled up in a ponytail that accentuated her cheekbones and pink lips. She was wearing all black — a black tank top with those really thin straps and some black yoga pants that Andy only quickly glanced at. He knew that if he didn't stop himself, he would easily be staring and make both of them feel very uncomfortable. Instead, he looked back up into her green eyes and couldn't help but smile at her.
"Hi."
She gave him a bit of an uncomfortable smile back. "Hi," she said quietly as she stared at him. "I'm sorry, this is really embarrassing, but I can't remember your name."
"Andy."
"Andy. Right," she replied, nodding her head. "I wasn't really myself the last time we met."
"Yeah, I heard about what happened."
Sydney ducked her head, averting her eyes from his. He could tell she was still emotional over the entire situation, but he couldn't really nail down which emotions. Her cheeks were flushed now, but was that out of embarrassment? Because there was nothing for her to be embarrassed about. As far as he could tell from some of the media coverage he had seen, it wasn't her fault.
She also seemed like she had no one to help her. Unlike Ryan's apartment with his bustling mother, Sydney's place still seemed quiet and subdued. No one else was there. The blinds over her living room windows were pulled shut.
"So I know I'm probably bothering you, again, but I just wanted to see if you were doing OK."
She gave him a small sad smile. "Not really."
"I'm sorry," he said quietly.
And he truly meant it even if it did sound completely inadequate for what she was going through. Andy could feel his heart breaking for her as he looked at her, and the fact that he was standing there without anything else to say was probably making it worse. She cleared her throat and showed some mercy on the floundering idiot at her front door by changing the subject.
"So do you need me to let you into Andy's place for something else?" she asked.
"Oh no. Actually, I just brought him home."
Sydney gave him the first genuine smile he had ever seen on her face. "Good. So he's going to be alright now? Wait." She held up her hand between them. "Don't tell me. I'm not supposed to know stuff like that."
"He's going to be fine," Andy said reassuringly. "He just needs to rest for awhile, and his mom is here to help. But he's got some healing to do so no pastries of any kind for awhile."
She scoffed. "Do you mean 'pastries' like donuts or do you mean 'pastries' like the random women he brings home?"
Andy's eyebrows raised in mock surprise. "Well, I meant like donuts, but both of those actually," he said. "So I guess don't offer him either of those things."
Sydney laughed, and he could see a warmth in her eyes that he hadn't seen from her. "Oh, believe me. That is no problem!" she said cheerfully, a small smile staying on her face. "But thank you for the laugh. I haven't had many of those lately."
"Anytime," he said. "So listen, I'm going to be here everyday to check on him, but it would be nice if you stopped by, especially if I'm there. I mean, his mom is already here, but you know Ryan. He likes having people around."
She nodded. "I know Ryan. I'll have to think about it though."
"Right, yeah, sure, totally," he stuttered out.
"Who's this?"
Andy and Sydney turned to a petite woman with long black hair dressed in a business suit staring at the two from the hallway outside Sydney's place. His eyes immediately fell to the box in her hand, sealed tightly with bright yellow tape.
"Lucy, this is Andy. He's the trainer for the Pirates. Andy, Lucy is my lawyer."
Apparently Sydney wasn't kidding when she told him a few nights ago that she couldn't talk to him without her lawyer present.
