WE SHOULD STOP NOW

PART 23 - SAMUEL

CALEB

I'm sitting on the hood of my car waiting for my little brother to arrive with my arms crossed and my body tense. I'm still pissed with him. Two days ago, he confessed to me that he'd cheated on his wife, Phoebe.

Little Phoebe Collins of all fucking people to cheat on!

I am not Ethan, I'm not levelled headed, I'm a hot head. So, I'm guessing it surprised no one that my little brother is now sporting a huge fat lip where I punched him. I'm not proud of it, but I saw red. I've yet to properly hear him out because I stormed off straight after the altercation and it's taken me this long to cool down.

However, Samuel is my brother and there's only so many people close to me, so I've pulled on my big boy pants to be the bigger person and texted him to arrange this meet up. I chose somewhere on neutral ground that I know will relax us both. This place is perfect for us to sort our shit out and properly talk.

I hear my brother's motorbike before I see him. I take one last look at my swollen knuckle and take a deep breath. I promised Joanie, I'd not hit him again and hear him out. She really is amazing, she's more pissed with him than me and yet she manages to keep a cool head about things, saying there must be two sides to every story and to reign in my temper.

I look up just as I see my brother pull up on his large motorcycle a few meters away. He purposely revs his engine really loud making some snooty couple who are clad in badminton gear jump and scowl at him and admittedly I fight hard to suppress a grin at his antics.

I don't make a move and wait for him to come to me as he pulls off his helmet, straps it to his bike and strides over to me and I get a good look at the damage I've done. Fuck, I bruised his cheek too, it doesn't make me feel proud, I cast my eyes down for a moment with guilt before I look back up at him so we're now face to face with each other.

"You're gonna kick my ass again?" Sammy grits out.

I run a hand over my face and shake my head, "What the fuck were you fucking thinking? You've let everyone down with this shit. She's your wife for fuck sake Sammy...It's Phoebe!" I start to rant.

"Look, if I wanted parenting advice I'd go to Ethan OK? Can you just be my brother for today? That's what I fucking need from you Cal...Can you just be my fucking brother? I'm a fucking mess man." Sammy sighs and I hear a real break and vulnerability in his voice. I look at him closely and he looks even worse that he did the last time I saw him. He's not sleeping. I know how that fucking feels. So, I kick some gravel with my trainers before nodding.

"OK, let's go play some golf and talk." I concede and he gives me a small smile in relief as we head on into our dad's favourite place in the world, The Bellway Club.

Several years ago, when our mum divorced our dad and left him penniless his one and only request was that he could keep his membership at The Bellway Club. The Club is a notorious hive for where the rich and elite in our area spend their free time and he needs this membership to keep his reputation intact as he wines and dines a lot of his clients here. Even though our dad is an evil bastard, he's a shrewd and ruthless businessman who didn't take long to bounce back financially to a certain degree from his lucrative job as a lawyer. However it's a mere portion to the vast wealth he no longer had access to. My mum's money.

To my surprise our mum agreed to my dad's request, it was only after the divorce was finalised that she told us that she'd become a patron to the club and had let him know in no certain terms that she'd revoke his membership in a blink of an eye if he ever contacted me or my brothers again. Thus losing a large portion of his clients in the process if he lost his membership, something he just couldn't afford to do.