After the table was set they went and sat in the other room with their glass of wine. Moments later there was a knock at the door and Ryan was not pleased to see it was Robbie.
"Robbie, what brings you here?"
He looked over Ryan's shoulder and saw Ria sitting on the sofa. Sidestepping he walked passed his brother over towards her. "Ria, I'm glad you're here."
"Why is that?" Ryan snapped, going over to Robbie.
"I wanted to apologize to you for the things I said at my parent's place. I was drunk and way out of line. I hope you will forgive me."
She looked at Ryan, he didn't look happy. "Well Robbie, thanks for apologizing. I do appreciate it and I'm sure your brother does too. Right, Ryan?"
"Yeah, whatever," he said snarkily.
"Something smells good," Robbie said, looking at her.
"Don't look at me, Ryan is making his famous spaghetti sauce."
He turns to Ryan. "I am so impressed brother, I didn't know you could cook. I'd love to sample some of it."
"Maybe another time. I've only made enough for the two of us. Now that you have apologized to Ria you'll be wanting to get on your way."
"Actually, I have something to ask you," he said, sitting down across from Ria.
"Make it quick," Ryan said and sat down next to her, putting his hand on her leg.
"I was hoping you could give me a job."
"You already work for father."
"Not anymore, I quit."
Ryan shook his head before asking why he had quit.
"We weren't getting along and I got fed up with being called stupid so I told him to shove his job up his ass."
Ryan had to smile, he could picture Robbie saying that to the old man and how red his father's face must have turned. "I don't know Robbie."
"Come on man, you know I'm good with the electronic stuff. I could be an asset to your company and I'm not asking to be made boss or anything. I'm more than happy to start at the bottom and prove myself to you."
Ryan let out a loud sigh. "Alright, come by my office Monday morning and I'll see where we can use you." He stood up. "Now if you'll excuse us we have to get back to our dinner."
Robbie stood too and looked over at Ria. "It was nice seeing you again. I hope we can all have dinner together another time."
"Bye Robbie," she said, getting up to shake his hand.
They sat down to eat after Robbie left.
"You could have invited your brother to stay for dinner, there's plenty of food."
"I know, but I didn't want him to spoil our evening."
"So you're going to give him a job in your company?"
"He is good with software and we could use his expertise. I'll give him a shot if he's serious about working for me. Enough about him, let's talk about you."
"Me, what about me?"
"Are you feeling better about Richard and what happened?"
"Yes, thanks to you. He's going away for a while and I hope he stays away from me. I know he has family somewhere in Florida so maybe he'll go there. But whatever he does I'm not going to let him get to me, I'm not going to live in fear that he might come after me."
"I'll never let him anywhere near you," he said, taking a hold of her hand.
She didn't know what he meant or how to answer him so she just smiled. "Dinner was delicious and since you cooked I'll do the washing up."
"You sure you don't mind? I do have some calls to make in my office. I shouldn't be long and then we can make some popcorn and watch a movie."
"Sounds good to me," she said, getting up started collecting the plates.
He goes into his office and made a call to a man who had done work for him before. Telling him to keep an eye on Richard once he gets out of jail and if he were to go near Ria he was to do whatever needed doing to keep him far from her. But he hoped it wouldn't come to that, he himself would go visit Richard first in jail and convince him to move away. Though it was the weekend he checked with one of his workers to see if they could use Robbie's help. Turns out one of the employees was leaving the firm.
When he was done he went into the other room and could smell the popcorn and Ria was sitting on the sofa going through the movies that were playing. He sat down and they picked out an action movie, one with violence and blood, she was the one who picked it. She never ceased to amaze him, he thought.