One Man's Trash by Yolanda Allen Page A

girl. I thought you had hung up.”

“You did not call my name no fifty times.” She laughed. Ryan always made her
laugh no matter what BS she was going through.

“Okay it was more like five but still.”

“Anyway, Mr. Exaggerator, I need one of the hugest favors ever from you.”

“You name it.”

“I need you to ask Ryder if he still has that CD that I gave him a few days
before he went to jail. Tell him that my life depends on it. Well more like my
potential career. But you get the point. This is extra serious.”

“Wait, you gave Ryder a CD before he went to jail? What was on the CD?”

She paused. Shit. This was supposed to be a secret that she took to her grave.
She hadn’t told anyone about the CD. Not even Kimmy. Apparently Ryder never
mentioned anything to Ryan either. Stupid JT. Now she had to tell her best-friend
that she’d been secretly in love with his brother since she was old enough to
spell the word love.

She sighed and covered her eyes with her hand. “I wrote a song for Ryder,
recorded it on a CD, and gave it to him a few days before he went to jail. I sang
the song for JT when we first met. He put me on the spot to sing something and
that was the song that came to my head instantly. He recorded the song but
promised that he would delete it. He didn’t. He stole it. I have to prove that
it’s mine and I can’t do that unless I get that CD.”

“Wow. This sounds like a scene from Young and the Restless. More like Young and
the Songless.” Ryan laughed at his bad joke.

“Somebody got jokes!”

“I’m sorry. I’m such a bad friend. I shouldn’t laugh but I’m trying to
comprehend the fact that you didn’t tell me that you wrote a love song for my
brother. I didn’t know you liked him like that. I mean, I knew you thought he
was cute but, wow.”

It was more love than like. But she wouldn’t dare tell Ryan that. He would
probably just laugh at her.

“I will definitely ask Ryder for you. I’m supposed to go by there today.”

“Oh, Ryan, thank you so much.” Her spirits lifted.

 “Diamond?”

“Yeah?”

“What will you do if he doesn’t have the CD anymore?”

Now that was the million dollar question. If she was on the game show, Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire , that would be the question to send her home.
There was no other way to prove that it was her song without the CD.

“Ryan, I honestly have no idea.” Final answer.

ELEVEN Diamond got permission from her boss to take a few days off from work to sort
out the issue with the song. She flew back home to Atlanta. Her mom greeted her
at the airport. She had briefly explained what happened to her parents, but she
planned to go into more detail after she took care of this music business. Her
mom pulled up in front of the mailbox of Ryder’s house that he rented from an
old high school friend of his.

Diamond checked her reflection in the visor’s mirror. The last time Ryder had
seen her she was overweight, wearing glasses, and extremely shy. She applied
more lip gloss to her already glossy lips. She pulled her hair to tighten the
ponytail holder and snapped the visor shut.

“You look beautiful dear. He’ll be impressed.”

Diamond brows furrowed. “Who’ll be impressed?”

“Ryder.” Her eyes crinkled in the corners.

“Mom, I’m not trying to impress Ryder.”

“Okay, if you say so dear.”

Diamond kissed her mom goodbye and got out the car. She slowly walked up the
driveway. Her tummy knotted. She had pictured the day that she would see Ryder
again so many times in her mind. Not once had she pictured it being this soon
or under these circumstances.

She pressed the doorbell. It chimed throughout the house. She studied her
reflection in the mirror. She had chosen a white tank top, denim shorts and
white flip flops. Casual yet sexy. Sexy? Did she just refer to herself as being
sexy? Diamond smiled at her reflection. There was a first time for everything.

About a minute later, footsteps moved