Trying to impress Matt

chapter 28

“I’m supposed to be with Linda tonight.” Joe muttered from behind me. From the tone of his voice, I could tell that he was a little angry at the moment.

“We have to do this for dad so just suck it up.” I advised, not bothering to turn my head to face him. I knew I would see an eye roll, or worse, him poking his tongue out at me.

“First chance of a clearing, I’m out of here.” He spoke with conviction, causing me to shake my head. He really hates these gala events, I thought as we waited for our dad to introduce us to his work colleagues.

An hour and a half later, Joe was still standing behind me, trying to look as inconspicuous as one could be, while trying to make a run for it. Knowing how he felt about these events, I was about to help him escape when my dad came past and introduced us to a woman. First glance told me she was in her mid 30s, early 40s, evident by the soft wrinkles and lines forming around her eyes and lips. Her dark brown hair was styled upwards in an elegant bun and her dark brown eyes were hidden under the intensity of her dark eye makeup.

“Rain, Joe, this here is Helen Romani. She and I work cases together during the evening every second night.” At that introduction, she took mine and Joe’s hands and shook it rather enthusiastically.

“It’s so great to finally meet you two.” She smiled brilliantly, stepping back a little so that she was adjacent to my father.

“Uh it’s great to meet you too.” I responded, feeling a little overwhelmed by her high spirit. Usually, when Joe and I are introduced to one of my father’ colleagues, they’re a little bleak and uptight.

“Yeah same ‘ere.” Joe countered soon after, followed by a tight smile from my father. “Err, I mean, the pleasure was all mine.” He took her hand in his and kissed the back of her palm. I desperately tried to not roll my eyes, knowing that he was over playing the role of a gentleman. My father noticed this too, apparent by a little shake of his head. Obviously, Joe wasn’t paying attention to my father, so I took the imitative to fake a cough, resulting in Joe breaking contact with Helen.

“Well it was nice to meet you but my brother and I are needed elsewhere.” I finalised, giving my father a knowing look and then dragging my brother away from the woman.

As soon as we managed to make our way outside, away from the ‘party,’ I began to scold my brother for how ‘inappropriate’ he was behaving. “...and did you not notice how she was sweating nervously from...” and it went on and on until he smiled cheekily.

“Bloody hell woman. Calm down.” He shook his head, looking anywhere but at me.

“Calm down. You want me to calm down? You little...” Mind you, I was doing this all for my father. I knew he would be expecting me to try to put some sense into Joe’s head. I knew how much his job meant to him, and I also knew the importance of reputation. If that meant I had to act like a good little brat by spoiling Joe’s fun, then so be it.

**

“Tell me again why we’re doing this?” I asked Lia, bewildered by the fact that she got me to be her ‘partner in crime’ once again.  

She let out a small giggle, tears glistening in her eyes as she attempted to not laugh like a crazy person, followed by a loud snort. WHAT THE HELL?

“Seriously Lia, why the hell are we doing this again?” Okay, sue me, but I needed a lot of reassurance before I do something crazy, say like, breaking into my brother’s room and stealing his phone.

“Because when he walks into his room looking for his phone, see’s that his phone is missing...” She sighed deeply, almost contently before continuing “...his facial expression is going to be priceless.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes but my heart was pounding rapidly. What if he doesn’t take this lightly? We have been getting along just fine over the past few weeks. I didn’t want, nor need, anything to interfere.