Immortal Obsession Read Online Free

deep, familiar voice that evoked so much sadness for her.
    “Ryan?”
    “The one and only.”
    “How are you? Where are you?” She grabbed a pen and reached for one of several yellow legal pads buried underneath the catalogs and photographs that littered her desk and began doodling, an old habit from childhood.
    “I’m in the park, over by the Boathouse.”
    “Ryan, it’s been six months. Where have you been?”
    Amanda flashed back to the first time she had walked into the Great Hall of the museum with her mother and brother, Ryan. She was ten. He was fourteen. Her mother had taken them to see a Seurat exhibition one hot summer day. Ryan complained the entire time they were there, but Amanda marveled at the architecture, the bustling crowds, and most of all, the art. She and her mother shared a love of art that transcended their volatile relationship. Ryan, on the other hand, hated the entire experience and refused to ever return.
    Amanda had fallen in love with the Met and swore to work there one day. It had been two years since she had taken a job there, yet she still felt like that little girl, anticipating wandering through the European paintings gallery on the second floor, standing before the statues of Roman Gods on the first floor, or marveling at African masks in the Rockefeller Wing. It was her home, her most favorite place in the world.
    “Hey listen, I was wondering …”
    That’s how it always began. She wouldn’t hear from him for months, and then he would call, strung out and desperate. She could only imagine where he crashed and how he survived day to day, but somehow he always managed to find her.
    With the phone against one ear, she began to straighten up her desk. As she slid aside the latest Eighteenth Century European Decorative Arts catalog, she exposed a photograph of the two of them with their father that she kept on her desk. Taken the Christmas before her thirteenth birthday, she and Ryan stood next to their artificial Christmas tree while her mom snapped away. Amanda was smiling, her arms wrapped around her dad’s thin waist. Ryan was seventeen, sullen and already using drugs. Their mother had tried to keep their father’s illness from them, but they knew the truth. Their mother only confided in them that he was terminally ill when he became noticeably thinner and weaker. One month later, he was dead.
    Ryan locked himself in his bedroom, angry and withdrawn, while Amanda continued to be the straight-A student. Ryan had left home right after high school, and now Amanda rarely spoke with him unless he needed money or a place to crash for a few days.
    “Let me guess, Ry?” She picked up a strand of her wavy hair and twirled it around her finger.
    “Amanda, I … I need a couple bucks … I promise …”
    “Spare me your promises, Ryan.”
    “Man, I’m grateful for whatever you could lend me.” She scribbled a smiley face with a frown next to his name.
    “Look, I have to take care of some things before I leave tonight. The best I can do is fifteen minutes, if you can wait that long.” She checked her watch. It was ten PM .
    “Sounds good,” he slurred. “I’ll be in front of the Boathouse.” The receiver clicked.
    Great, one of the most romantic places in New York and I’m meeting my drug-addicted brother who needs desperately to score. Framing the Lake in Central Park, the Loeb Boathouse, commonly known to New Yorkers as the Boathouse, consisted of an indoor restaurant with windows that looked out onto the lake. An outdoor patio and dock with rowboat rentals completed the scene. One could even rent a gondola. When Amanda fantasized about a dream date, the Boathouse figured in there somewhere, along with Bethesda Fountain, situated on the southern tip of the Lake.
    The focal point of Central Park, Bethesda Fountain and Terrace was a meeting place all year long for tourists, couples, and families. On nice days, Amanda tried to get out of the museum to take her lunch break