A Sensitive Arrangement

Chapter 15

Tonight was Julian's last night at home. He was keeping his hands to himself today, much to my dismay. I was trying my best to fake a smile. I highly doubt anyone bought it, but they were all kind enough to pretend they did anyway.

We had a pleasant family day. If spending six hours playing Monopoly could be considered pleasant. Have you ever played that game with actual businessmen? Trust me, you don't want to. I swear Max must have earned his masters degree in bullshit, not business administration. And Julian was somehow even worse. Max and my father had literally created a monster. The most perfect monster that ever existed.

No one mentioned Max's mother. I think they were all having a hard time with the current situation and just wanted to forget about it for a bit. Unfortunately, now that night had fallen and we were all sitting around the dinner table, the topic of conversation had moved to Julian's imminent departure.

"Isn't Prague supposed to be cold this time of year?" Olivia was clearly not impressed with Julian's New Year's plans.

"No colder than New York." He shrugged, not rising to her bait.

"I'm just saying, you can literally go anywhere, why wouldn't you go somewhere warm?" She pressed, unable to let a good sibling argument go without a fight.

"Because the guys wanted to go to Prague." Julian kept his tone casual, which I'm sure he knew only irritated her further.

"Yes, and I'm sure those guys are the pinnacle of good decision makers." She rolled her eyes.

"They know how to have fun." He smirked. I didn't want to think about the kind of fun they liked to have.

"Surely Hawaii would be more fun." Olivia continued. I suddenly felt very grateful for Prague. I was pretty sure no one there would be in bikinis and board shorts at least.

"Maybe it would be. But we're going to Prague." It was nearly impossible to get a rise out of Julian. But that didn't stop Olivia from trying.

"I think Prague sounds nice." I finally interjected, not wanting to hear any more about all the 'fun' Julian would be having. I had been to Europe a few times, mostly when we were making a vacation out of Max's business trips. But mainly just the big cities: London, Paris, Berlin. Somewhere like Prague sounded lovely, romantic even. But I don't think that's why Julian was going. I hope not anyway.

"Thank you, at least someone in the family has taste." Julian winked at me.

"You two agree on everything." Olivia rolled her eyes again in frustration. Julian and I shared a sideways glance before we both burst into laughter. There was one thing at the moment that we were most definitely not in agreement on.

"I can assure you that's not true." Julian's matter of fact tone left no room for further questioning.

"So, Alice, how's Paws 'n' Claws?" Ella asked, changing the subject seamlessly. I had been volunteering at an animal shelter for the past year, mostly on the weekends.

"Good, although I expect there will be plenty of work tomorrow. I think most of the staff took some time off for Christmas, so there will probably be a lot of cleaning and grooming to do." I don't think I had ever been so grateful for a whole day of washing dogs and changing litter trays. It would provide a necessary distraction from the lack of Julian.

"Sounds like fun." Olivia laughed sarcastically. She had tried to volunteer with me at the start but it didn't take long for us to discover that she was really more of a people person. After the third cat peed on her, she decided she'd leave the whole 'animal lover' thing to me.

"It'll be a nice change of pace." I smiled. It wasn't true, I didn't want paces to change at all. I would gladly spend the whole year holed up here with Julian if I could. But if he had to leave, I'd be happy to have some busy work.