13. Timeless Diner

Ryan and Sandy’s Apartment

	“Come on Ryan,” Sandy pleaded, “You know you like working 
there.”
	“That isn’t the point,” Ryan said.
	“Then what is the point?”
	Ryan went silent.  Raoul had called them and told them that 
business was booming now that he and Kate were married.  Instead 
of competing, they were sharing their business, and had twice the 
clients either one had had before.  Now they had to hire more 
employees, and Ryan was the first on Raoul’s list.
	Sandy was all for it, encouraging Ryan to take the job, but 
Ryan had had to tell Raoul that he would have to think about it.  
Sandy stared at him as if he had just told her he wanted to go 
spend the rest of his life on an ice floe.
	How could he tell Sandy that the reason he didn’t want to 
work there was her?  Their kiss a week ago had shaken him.  They 
were supposed to be enemies, but they had been acting like best 
friends.  And now this.  Sandy would never understand that he 
needed to stay away from her, that their relationship was 
dangerous to the kingdom he was supposed to be protecting.
	Ryan took another look at her and saw her intensely focused 
on the sphere at the apex of her staff.  “What are you doing?”
	“I thought that you would jump at the chance to take the 
job,” she told him with a cold distance in her voice.  “The Ryan 
I thought I knew would have.  I looked into your mind to see if 
there was anything wrong, anything I could help with.”
	She didn’t say any more.  She didn’t have to.  Ryan knew that 
she had seen everything.
	“Sandy, I...”
	“Don’t,” she said.  “I know what you want now.  As soon as I 
get home from work, I will begin packing.”
	“You don’t have to do that,” Ryan said.
	“Yes I do,” she said, cutting him off again.  “I know what is 
in your heart now.  I could not live with you, knowing you do not 
feel the same way about me as I do about you.”
	“You...” Ryan began, not able to form a sentence.  He had no 
idea her feelings for him were so intense.  Sandy made no comment 
about his mouth hanging open.  She merely turned and walked out 
the door to work.
	Ryan wanted to chase after her.  He wanted to take her in his 
arms and never let go, let their passion them away.  But he 
didn’t.  He couldn’t.  He had to think of what was best for his 
people, and being lovers with the enemy was simply not safe.
	He could do one thing for her though.  He went to his room 
and began packing.  Scott would help him out for a few days if 
Ryan asked, and Sandy could keep her apartment.  He finished 
packing and took out a piece of paper and pen.  A long letter 
with an explanation would probably hurt her more than she already 
was.  He had to make this short, but caring.  He decided to 
write: Sandy, I have already hurt you enough today.  I am not 
going to take your apartment from you too.  Love, Ryan.
	He put his coat on and left into the winter storms.

***

Scott’s apartment

	“What have I done?” Ryan asked.  “Why did I leave her?”  He 
had been asking that of himself nearly every fifteen minutes, by 
Scott’s count, since he arrived three days ago.
	“I can’t tell you,” Scott reminded him, “because you won’t 
tell me.  I don’t see why moving out of your sister’s place is 
such a big deal.”  He knew Ryan didn’t have a sister, but if Ryan 
wanted Scott to think that was the case, he could play along.
	“It’s a long story,” Ryan said quickly.  Scott decided not to 
press it.  Ryan had the tone of someone who knew they had done 
something wrong but wouldn’t admit it.
	“Maybe you’ll feel better with something in your stomach.  
You haven’t eaten since you came here.  I could take you to...”
	“No,” Ryan interrupted.  “I will go eat, but I would like 
some time to think.”
	“There is a restaurant three doors down that seems to always 
be empty,” Scott told him.  “The food is edible.”
	“Thanks,” Ryan said and walked out of the apartment.

	It seemed colder than usual to Ryan.  He stepped onto and 
went three doors down, as Scott had said, but there was no 
restaurant.  He decided to keep going anyway, despite the cold.  
On the corner sat a small diner, with the word Timeless in large 
block letters across the ledge.  Ryan entered for the heat as 
much as for the food.  He sat down at the counter next to a man 
in a tan trench coat who looked as preoccupied as Ryan.
	“What’ll it be?” asked a woman of about fifty years.
	“What is good?” Ryan asked.
	“I all is,” the woman said with a bit of jovial spirit in her 
voice.  “But I like the reuben best.”
	“Sounds good,” Ryan said, managing a smile for the woman’s 
hospitality.
	“You and that guy there are both pretty down,” the woman said 
before she went into the back.  “I find that talking with someone 
as bad off as I am tends to cheer me up.  Who knows, you two 
might just have the answers to each other’s problems.”
	The door closed and the man looked at Ryan.  His eyes were 
bloodshot and we wore the expression of a man who has given up.  
Other than that, he would be a very attractive older man, perhaps 
as old as the waitress.  The man gave Ryan a once over, laughed 
to himself, and resumed staring at the counter.
	“What is so funny?” Ryan asked.
	“Nothing,” the man said, then added, “Your Highness.”
	Ryan croaked in his attempt to speak.  He tried to think of 
something to say, but his mind worked as well as his voice.  “It 
matters not,” he said, accepting defeat.  The man obviously 
recognized him.  “I might as well go back to the palace now.  
There’s nothing left for me out here.”
	“What happened?” the man asked, turning to Ryan.
	“I fell in love,” Ryan said.
	“She doesn’t love you in return?”
	“She does,” Ryan told him, “but she is dangerous.”
	“A femme fatale, eh?”
	“In a sense.”
	“My wife was one of those,” the man said.
	“Was?”
	“She’s changed over the years.”
	“How did you get her to change?” Ryan asked.
	“I didn’t force her to change,” the man answered.  “In fact, 
I never could force her to do anything.  I felt like you did 
once, though.  I was afraid that if I let her into my life, she 
would turn around and hurt me.”
	“How did you assure that she wouldn’t hurt you?”
	“I didn’t.  I couldn’t assure anything.  I finally overcame 
my fear enough to trust her.  I trusted that she would stay with 
me, and she did.  Hope was all I had to keep me from running 
away.”
	“That’s all?  Hope and trust?”
	“Yes.  As long as you think she’s a danger, you aren’t 
placing any trust in her.  You have to trust her if you want to 
have her.”
	“You are right,” Ryan said.  “As much as I love her, I do not 
trust her.  She has done nothing to make me lose any trust in 
her.  I do not trust her because she is who she is, and she does 
not deserve that.  I have to make up with her, before it is too 
late.”
	“If she is anything like my wife,” the man said, “she isn’t 
going to accept just any apology.  You’ll have to make it special 
to her somehow.”
	The waitress walked out with a pair of reubens and handed one 
to each of the men.  “On the house,” she said.  “Compliments of 
Stella.”  She grinned and pointed to the tag on her apron with 
STELLA printed on it.
	Both men smiled back with their eyes atwinkle and thanked 
Stella.  Then they took their first bite.
	“Oh my,” Ryan said.
	“This is phenomenal,” the man said.
	“What’s in it?”
	“Could I have the recipe?”
	“Now now,” Stella said, “a good magician never reveals her 
secrets.  I couldn’t help overhearing back there.  I hear you’re 
in need of a way to make up with a special young lady.  May I 
make a suggestion?”

	Ryan smiled and gave a final wave to Stella and the man at 
the counter as he walked out into the cold, sprinting back to 
Scott’s, where he had left his coat when he went out.  The man 
turned and looked down at his beeper.
	“Oh,” he said, “it is my son.  I promised him I would help 
him run his lines for a play he was in.  Pardon me.”
	Stella nodded and went back into the kitchen and the man 
pulled a cellular phone out of his pocket.  “Hi, Ayre,” he said.  
“I’m sorry I’m late.  I’ll be home right away.  I love you too, 
son.”
	The man placed a substantial tip on the counter, along with 
some money Ryan had slipped to him under the table as he was 
preparing to leave.  They both understood that the food was free, 
but Stella deserved a major bonus for helping them both out.
	“Bye Stella,” the man called as he stood.
	“Bye sweets,” she called back.  “Glad you found who you were 
looking for.”
	The man walked out the door in high spirits.

***

Sandy’s apartment

	Sandy glanced around the apartment, tears in her eyes.  It 
seemed so empty with Ryan gone.  She seemed so empty with Ryan 
gone.  She had tried to convince herself that she would just move 
on, that she didn’t need him, but her heart told her otherwise.  
Ryan was the first man who had a chance of spending eternity with 
her.  From what she knew about the Senshi, they were ageless.  
All of her other lovers became old and died, while she remained 
young and healthy.
	Ryan was everything she could want in a lover, but he was 
afraid of her.  “Ryan,” she said to herself.  “I would break my 
staff, cleanse my spirit, even give up all the worlds I own, if 
it would keep you here with me.  Don’t fear me, my love. 
don’t...” her voice trailed off into violent sobs and she could 
speak no more.  She kept crying after the tears were gone, after 
her whole body began to ache from it, only stopping when she 
hadn’t the strength to stay awake.

	Sandy stood at the top of a hill, overlooking a vast green 
meadow, dotted with splashes of color from wildflowers.  There 
was a small, peaceful cottage off in the distance.  From it, a 
black-haired man walked toward her, dressed in a stylish tuxedo.  
As he approached, she could see it was Ryan, prince Ryan.
	He stopped before her and lowered himself to one knee, bowing 
to her.  He looked up, his blue eyes twinkling in the warm 
sunlight.  “Sandy,” he began, his voice soft and beautiful, “I 
love you.  I have from nearly the beginning, when I awoke for the 
first time in your apartment, only I didn’t know it then.  You 
have cared for me and been with me through what have been the 
strangest and most wonderful months of my life, and I do not want 
them to end.  You have shown me nothing but kindness, and I 
repaid you by denying you what you and I both wanted, all because 
I wouldn’t let myself trust you.  I realize that now, and that I 
have been a fool.  I know I am not worthy of your love after what 
I have done, but, please, I ask you for one more chance to give 
you my heart.”
	Sandy could feel her throat tightening, and her eyes began to 
well up, but this time there was no sorrow in her.  She opened 
her mouth and croaked, her emotions constricting her voice.  

	Ryan looked crestfallen, having taken her silence as a 
rejection.  He stood up and turned around, preparing to walk back 
to the house, where he had entered the Astral Plane.  Sandy 
grabbed his arm, and before he knew it, she had pulled herself to 
him, her lips pressed to his.  His mind reeled with delight.  Her 
arms locked themselves around his chest and she began to sob with 
joy on his shoulder.  Ryan rested his head against hers and 
closed his eyes, not thinking of anything but the feeling of 
having her in his arms.
	There was a beeping sound and Sandy jumped.  “Don’t worry,” 
he said.  “I set my watch to tell me if and when I’ve had us in 
the astral plane for six hours.  I set a mental guard before we 
came so we wouldn’t stay much longer.  In a minute, this meadow 
will dissolve and you will be lying with your head on my lap, on 
your apartment floor where I found you.”
	True to his word, just after he finished speaking, the grass 
and flowers began to blur and fade, becoming a dark blue.  As the 
scene refocused, the dark blue was the color of the room lit only 
by the moonlight.  
	Sandy smiled up at Ryan, who picked her up and carried her to 
her bed.  “I will get my thing’s from Scott’s tomorrow morning,” 
he said, “after I call Raoul and take the job.”
	Sandy fell asleep again, only this time she wasn’t on a cold, 
hard floor, she was wrapped in a cloud of bliss and Ryan’s arms.

***

The street near Scott’s apartment

	“I tell you, it was right there on the corner,” the man said.
	“Sure dad,” Ayre said.  The corner his dad was pointing to 
was completely barren.  A layer of untouched snow covered the 
lot.  “Maybe it was a different corner.”  Ayre turned and walked 
back toward their house.
	“But it was right here, Timeless,” his father muttered.

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