“We have to go!”
Amber wheels around on her heels, and nearly falls. “You scared the shit out of me!” She couldn’t have been in the bathroom more than two seconds before the door flung open behind her.
“Seriously, we have to go.”
Ricardo’s tone is different. His smile is gone and the air around him is no longer joyful, but Amber doesn’t care.
“What is it with men, and barging into the ladies’ room?” She turns back to the mirror, rips the wire from her chest, throws it in the sink, and runs the faucet. “Is there no common decency anymore? No respect for women?”
“Look, we can debate gender inequalities later, but right now, we need to leave.”
Amber finally stops and turns, her arms crossed, anger and sadness still smeared across her face.
“I’m not going anywhere with you guys. I’m done with Banks, professionally and personally. I’ll find my own way home.”
“Wait, what?”
“He fired me! Oh but not before he told me doesn’t love me and never did.”
“And you believed him? Wow, and I thought men were the idiots.”
“Are you calling me—”
“Look, we don’t have time. I don’t know what he said to you, but whatever it was, he was also signaling to us to leave, and more importantly, to get you out of here.”
“He was what?”
“He wanted you out. Wanted you safe. Away from whatever is going to happen. That’s our job tonight. Our only job in Banks’s whole plan, is to protect you.”
“So what he said—”
“Was probably just to convince the others he no longer cared for you, so you wouldn’t be in danger.”
“He told me to go back to San Francisco, even though he knows I’m from San Diego.”
Ricardo gives her a look of pure…duh!
“They could hear. He was protecting me, shielding me in case they came looking for me. So he does love me?”
Ricardo freezes, his mouth open.
“Uh…I didn’t say that. But I’m not, not saying it…that’s maybe between you two.”
The awkward moment hangs in the air. Both looking at each other, neither quite sure what to say.
“Should we go?” Ricardo finally asks.
“Yeah. No!”
“What?”
“I can’t leave.”
“Sure you can. We have an exit plan and both cars are waiting outside.”
Ricardo cracks the bathroom door and glances out.
“No…I can’t leave him.”
“Banks?” he says, whirling back to Amber, shock and disbelief smacked across his face. “He’s stalling them, to give us time to get you out of here.”
“He’s in trouble.”
“Yeah duh! He’s risking his life to save you. That’s the whole point.”
“I can’t let him do it.”
“Well I can,” he says, charging at Amber, wrapping an arm around her waist, and lifting her off the ground. “Banks’s one request was to make sure we got you somewhere safe, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
“No. Stop. Wait. Listen to me!”
Amber reaches up and grabs Ricardo’s head, twisting it to look at her.
“Banks wants me safe, right? Where in the world is safer than with him? He loves me. You can pretend he doesn’t or that you don’t know, but I do. He’ll do anything to protect me, so what kind of gender equality would I believe in, if I wouldn’t do the same.”
Ricardo seems to consider the gesture, consider the possibility that she’s right. Amber can see it in his eyes, he knows she’s right.
“For Banks,” she says, and it was two words too many. She knows it. She can see it. His jaw hardens.
“Banks would want me to save you. Not him. So yes, for Banks.”
He pushes the door open and steps out into the hallway of the large ornate building. Amber flails in his arms, but her size is just no match. He carries her like she’s nothing more than a bag of groceries. As they turn a corner, guests reemerge and Amber stops fighting. She doesn’t want to create a scene. More attention would only hurt her cause. Down the hallway they move, the few people who see giving confused looks, but otherwise, doing nothing.
“Okay. Okay. Don’t do it for Banks. Do it for love. Have you loved before? Been in love with anyone?”
Ricardo ignores the questions, as they duck into a stairwell, but Amber can see the answer on his face. She smiles, this is going to work. It has to.
“It’s powerful. Causes you to do stupid things, make stupid mistakes. But in the end, you never regret those mistakes, because you made them in love, and there’s no better reason.”
The man keeps moving down the stairs, but his resolve is dissolving, Amber can tell.
“Think about your love. Think about if she was in danger. Think about what you would do for her. You’d risk everything, wouldn’t you? You’d do anything, wouldn’t you?”
He opens the door at the bottom of the stairs and there stands Alfonso.
“Great! You got her. Let’s go,” he says, turning down the dimly lit basement hallway that fades into nothingness, but Ricardo doesn’t follow.
He only stands, unmoving, still holding Amber sideways in his arm. She looks up at him, seeing in his eyes the truth, knowing the love he has felt and still feels.
“No,” he says, firmly standing his ground.
Alfonso skids to a stop a few yards away and turns. His face, half-lit by the harsh light and half jet black, blends into the darkness beyond.
“What?”
“She loves him, and whether it’s a mistake or not to go back, it’s hers to make. You can’t control what stupid things love makes you do. Just as you can’t control who you love.”
The aggression and frustration in Alfonso seems to soften. He may not be happy, that’s still obvious, but he understands.
“Uh…can you put me down now?”
The question snaps Ricardo from his gaze and he places Amber back on her feet.
“Okay, so what’s the plan?” Alfonso asks.
Amber’s smile falls to its death as the realization of her decision hits her in the face.
“Oh god, we need a plan.”