Page 18 of Buried Treasure
Crap.Sydney knew the woman was well intentioned. At least she was encouraging her to get a boyfriend. Sydney's own mom was encouraging her to move home because Sydney had been a failure. But instead of dumping all those emotions right there on Ryan's dark hardwood floors, she plastered on a sweet smile.
"I don't think there are enough men in Detroit who could take my mind off of all my worry," Sydney said gently. "But thanks for thinking of me."
"You're going to get out of this funk sometime, dear. And when you do, you better hope that trainer is still available." Amelia got up and gave Sydney a friendly wink. "You two want anything else from the kitchen?"
"Painkillers," Ryan requested.
"Oh, right. Andy said you need to have another one soon. Let me get you some water so you can take it and go to sleep."
Ryan nodded and waited for his mom to get far enough away before leaning over to Sydney.
"If you don't get out of here in the next five minutes, she's going to start picking out china patterns for you and Andy."
"Yikes," she replied quietly. She got up and gently squeezed Ryan's shoulder. "I'm glad you're OK, McCloud. Call me if you need anything."
"I will," he replied. "And really, I know I'm just the dumb jock who lives next door, but my mom is going to be here for a few more days so we can be helpful if you need anything."
"Don't sell yourself short, rookie. Every girl needs a dumb jock sometimes."
"You let me know where I can find those girls."
"No way," Sydney said as she headed for the door. "You're all mine for now. We're only on season two ofThe X-Files."
Ryan moaned in pain from his spot on the sofa. "I don't have an appendix. I don't have girls. It really sucks."
Sydney couldn't help but smile as she opened the door. "Don't give your mom too much crap."
She said another passing goodbye to Amelia and walked the few feet down the hall back to her apartment. Her front door opened with ease and then clicked close behind her. The place was quiet, eerily so. It wasn't like Ryan's place. There was no one there to tease her about dating one of Ryan's trainers. No one to give her oatmeal cookies. No one to joke around with about their pathetic dating lives — or lack thereof. It was all just quiet.
Sydney dropped on her sofa with a thud. Home alone again with only her dirty yoga pants and messed up hair. Now that she was going to be alone all day for the foreseeable future, maybe she should get a cat. You know, so at least she had someone to get cleaned up for or someone who could wallow in her filth with her or something like that.
The box of books Lucy had left her was still sitting open on her coffee table. She remembered what those books looked like as they sat on her desk at her office. She could see them in her memory all lined up.
"Hey, can I check a book out of your finance library?" John had asked her a few months ago at the office.
"Sure. Anything in particular?" she replied.
"I need to know if pork belly is one word or two."
Sydney grabbed her well-worn finance dictionary off her desk and handed it to John.
"You know, if you want bacon, they have that in stores now," she said. "You don't have to buy pork bellies on the futures market anymore."
He smiled and grabbed the book from her, taking a seat in her office and flipping through until he found the right entry.
"It's actually for a client," he had explained.
"A client?"
Sydney tried to hide her surprise. They almost always dealt with stocks and mutual funds so it was very rare to have any sort of futures in their clients' portfolios. John must have noticed her change in tone, but he simply waved it off.
"I know. It's just a new potential client who thinks he's smarter than me. You know how those guys are," he said. "But he's got a good chunk of change he's bringing over, so the client is always right!" John slammed the book closed with a bit of dramatic flair and handed it back to her. "Thanks for the loan."
"No problem. Just remember your library card next time."
Sydney smiled bitterly at the memory. There wasn't going to be a next time since her now former boss had stolen money from their clients. Looking back at that moment in her office, Sydney wondered what happened to the client who wanted the pork bellies. Hell, she wondered if that client even existed or was just some fabrication that John had created to try and cover up more of his mess. She would probably find out eventually, but it was going to take awhile for the S.E.C. to unwind this case.
Sydney groaned loudly and rubbed her hands over her face. She was lucky she had friends like Lucy and Ryan to help her get through this. Even though she prided herself on being independent and self-assured, it was a time like this that she wished she had a man in her life to pull her close and tell her it was going to be alright.
It was just too bad there weren't any men for her to trust.
