The Players (TP4)

48 - Skip the crying

Ryan

By Friday, Ryan had seen all three contenders. One was not as good as the others, which left him with two. He called Lana who answered abruptly. "What?"

"Hello, I was looking for Lana. She's friendly and not whoever you are."

He was calling from his office phone, so she wouldn't have recognized the number, but he could have been a client. In fact, he was a client.

"Oh Rye! Sorry I was trying to read, and it is making absolutely no sense to me."

"What're you reading the fine print?"

"No, that would be easier. I started my class yesterday and I don't understand. How can there be so many costs... fixed, variable, incremental, direct...? It's greek to me."

"Lucky for you I speak Greek."

"Do you really?" She was distracted.

"No, but I know what all those costs mean and I'll explain them to you later, but first can you help me decide between two songs."

"Okay yeah, only two?"

"One was not up to par."

"Are you being nice?" She laughed.

"Very! So the first was a college guy who sang a song from some musical. It was good, but it made Terri cry. I can ask her what it was?"

"Okay, but I'm not sure the women will want their mascara to run, what was the other one?"

"A high school acappella group singing the song from Shrek."

"Hallelujah? Yes! That's it! Hands down! Skip the crying! Take that Isobel bitch!"

"You don't seem too sure."

"I'm positive. I'll be singing it for the rest of the day. 'Well I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played and it pleased the Lord. But you don't really care for music, do you?'"

Her voice amazed Ryan. If she wanted to stick it to Isobel, she should sing.

"Listen, we can talk all about cost over the weekend. I hwve to get back to work. I have two assistants staring at me."

"Okay bye."

"Bye Lan."

He hung up and called out. "Terri, I'm going with the acapella! You don't want your mascara to run. Allie, can you iron out the details with the music teacher over there?"

"Ryan, who were you consulting with?" Terri teased.

"No one, just a friend."

He overheard Terri. "Is friend the new term for it?"

Allie replied, "He's not wining and dining this one or if he is he's making his own reservations."

"I can hear you both and friend means friend. Look it up. Dictionary.com."

They both giggled and Ryan rolled his eyes. He'd have Heidi set them straight.

Ryan was almost asleep in front of the TV when his phone rang. He had switched from the game, because they were losing and was watching a show about Nazi's underground bunkers on the History Channel.

"Hey Man! We won again."

"Did you score?"

"Two touchdowns! It was amazing!"

"That's great! I knew you could."

"Man, I wish you were here. It was so dope!"

"I'm home. I'm glad you called. So was I right about the girls?"