Fading With Time

Chapter 3

Distance Grows Annoyance

                Elizabeth was drug from the depths of sleep the next morning by the peeling of her cellphone.  She had fallen asleep right after sending off her text and unfortunately that meant the device was in bed with her instead of the nightstand.  Searching the covers frantically she finally came across it near the foot of the bed.  Sighing in relief she hit answer before checking who it was or what type of call it was.  Ryan’s face came on screen as she covered her mouth to yawn.

                “Bad time?”  He asked startling her fully awake.  She stared wild-eyed at his freshly shaven face and well styled hair.  She glanced up to the mini picture showing the feed of herself and nearly had a heart attack.  Her night shirt was rumpled from sleep, there was crusts in the corners of both her eyes, and her curly locks of red hair were standing on end due to the static she picked up from rummaging under the bedding.

                “How is it you always seem to catch me looking like the complete disaster that I am?”  She growled at him trying to use her hand to pat the static away.  Ryan chuckled watching her try to make herself more presentable.  Giving up on her hair she grabbed an elastic from the nightstand tying it back into a messy bun before bringing her attention back to him.

                “So, you met my mom?”  Ryan asked her a little reluctant to bring it up.  Knowing his mother as he did anything could have happened.  Since she told him in a text it was too hard for him to gauge how it had gone.  Of course, he had planned to introduce them at some point.  He always imagined it would be a little further down the road and with him in attendance.  Elizabeth watched him squirm in his seat for a minute enjoying how uncomfortable he was by the thought.

                “I really did enjoy it. Your mom is lovely.”  Elizabeth gushed bringing a blush to Ryan’s cheeks.  She smiled brightly at him as she told him all about her visit and the many adorable pictures Pamela had shared with her.  Ryan chuckled but turned redder by the minute. 

                “Oh, by the way your mother warned me about the family charm last night.”

                “She did?”  Ryan asked a little reluctantly trying to think of all the things his mom could have said.

                “She did.  She said if you’re anything like your father then she wished me good luck.”  Elizabeth laughed.  Ryan sat on the other end completely stunned speechless.  The bad thing was is he could see her saying something like that as well.  She tended to ramble on and drop these bomb shells out of no where right in the middle of her conversation.  Ryan groaned as he took his glasses off to rub at his eyes.  It was a habit he had when he tended to get frustrated.  There was no one who frustrated him more than his mother.  As much as he loved her, she tended to do whatever she wanted. 

                “Come on Ryan it’s not that bad.”  Elizabeth chided earning a glare in return.  She snickered in response knowing exactly who she was going to use against him in any future arguments they had.  It definitely leveled the playing field a bit.

                “You don’t know her like I do.”  He groaned feeling tired all of a sudden.

                “Not yet but I will.”  She snickered as she teased him making him huff out a breath in resignation.  Truth was, if the two of them wanted to become best friends nothing was going to stop them from doing so. 

                “Other than the surprise visit and the embarrassing pictures did it go well?”

                “Amazingly so.  I am in love with your mom’s lasagna by the way.”

                “Believe me I know what you mean.”  Ryan laughed thinking about all the home cooked meals his family had together when he was growing up.  Half the time Mikey found some reason or another to be over right around dinner time just so he could eat over.  Not that he blamed him.  Mikey’s mom tended towards instant meals that came in a box.  He could remember the one time his aunt had tried her hand at making anything from scratch.  She nearly gave them all food poisoning.  It hadn’t been pretty.

                “I envy you.  I wish I had that growing up.” 

                “You didn’t?”  He asked shocked that it hadn’t occurred to him before that their upbringings could have been different.

                “David and I ate what ever the cook made but it never tasted like what I had last night.”

                “Cook?”  Ryan asked surprised by what she said.  Elizabeth nodded her head completely oblivious to his reaction.

                “We had a full staff of people around to help us out.  What we didn’t have was our parents.”

                “Why not?”  He asked genuinely curious to hear her answer.

                “My mom passed away when I was four from cancer and my dad was so busy running the company, we hardly saw him.”  Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders as if it were so normal an answer for her, she couldn’t imagine it any other way.

                “I take it your family was well off?”  He broached not knowing how she would react to his inquiry.  Elizabeth just nodded like it was an everyday thing to talk about.

                “David and I grew up knowing we had trust funds set up for us.  We had nannies, personal chefs, tutors, gardeners, chauffeurs.  There were so many people around I probably couldn’t even name them all.  It was just how life was.”  Ryan stared at her for a moment.  Most of the people he knew had a similar background as him.  Upper middle class.  Not rich exactly but not living paycheck to paycheck.  Though he knew quite a few families like that too.  Elizabeth was the first ridiculously rich person he had ever met.

                “I honestly would have never guessed.  You don’t act like the rich people on t.v.”  Elizabeth burst out laughing at his reaction.  She had been wanting to tell him for a while now but didn’t know how to bring it up.  She didn’t want to make him feel inferior in anyway and unfortunately when others found out about her wealth it tended to happen.

                “My friends are under strict orders to slap me upside the head if I ever start acting entitled.”  They both laughed at that for a bit before calming back down.

                “We need to sit down and have a talk about a few things from our lives I think.”

                “I agree.  I think we skipped past that part and jumped right into the teasing.”  Elizabeth pointed out.  While she did want to have that in depth talk with him there were a lot of things she still hadn’t worked through yet too.

                “We’re going to have to put it off for a little while longer I’m afraid.”  Ryan stated bringing Elizabeth’s attention back to him.

                “Are you going to be there longer then you thought?”  She asked feeling relieved and yet disappointed all at the same time.

                “We found paperwork on the Bennett’s boat.  According to our research the boat was reported lost at sea.”

                “Seriously?  How tragic for the family.”  Elizabeth gasped thinking about how hard it must have been raising three children on her own as a widow.

                “Jessica has gotten in contact with a treasure hunting group who has agreed to take us out on the water.  We’ve poured over maps and manifests to find his trajectory so we’re going to follow the same route he took.  We’re hoping we can find the wreckage.”  Elizabeth sat shell shocked for a moment processing the information.  Excitement stirred inside her at the prospect of finding the boat.

                “How long will that take?”

                “Not sure.  Depends on how far out they were when they went down, or if they strayed from the course, the currents dragging it along after it went down, if it has disintegrated by now, or if it went down at all.”

                “What do you mean if it went down at all.”  She asked feeling a little offended that Mr. Bennett would run off and leave his young family behind.

                “Don’t get mad at me.  I’m not insinuating he abandoned his family.  Anything could happen out there including pirates.”

                “Pirates?”

                “They do exist Lizzy.  Not in the swashbuckling way but pirates have been around for a long time.”

                “Let me know what you find out.”

                “I will but it won’t be right away.  There aren’t cells towers out there, so I’ll be out of contact for a while.  Could be up to a month maybe.”

                “When do you leave?”  She asked feeling down that it would be so long before they would talk again.

                “As soon as I’m done talking to you.”

                “That soon?”  Ryan nodded his head looking just as forlorn as Elizabeth did.

                “We want to get out there before the rain season starts picking up.”  Elizabeth could understand that, but she already missed him terribly.  What was she going to do now that they’ll be out of touch for a month?

                “Keep yourself safe.”  She told him hoping nothing bad happened to the crew out on the water.

                “I will, don’t worry.  If you need anything you can always call my mom.”  He teased her but was glad that the two had met so that Elizabeth didn’t have to go through their separation all alone.  She giggled as she wiped away a stray tear missing him already.

                “I have to get going now.  I’ll call as soon as I’m back.”

                “You better no matter what time.”  He promised he would.  They said their goodbyes before ending the call.  Elizabeth sat there staring at the blank screen of her cell phone hoping like hell nothing happened to another person she cared about.