Sisters

13.

MAXIMILLIAN

"Mr. Maximilian, are you still awake?"

"I am Samantha. Why are you up so late."

"I went for water. Do you need anything?"

"No need, thank you."

"All right. Good night, sir."

"Goodnight."

"Sir?"

"Yes Samantha?"

"Is everything OK?"

"Yes. Why?"

"You look kind of sullen."

"I am all right, it just seems to you."

"Sure?"

"I'm just tired from work, everything's fine. Go to sleep, Samantha."

"All right, sir, good night."

I nod and she leaves.

Samantha is my housekeeper, an older Latin American who was left without a husband and children as a very young woman. After that she did not marry, she worked for my mother, and now she works and lives with me. I grew up with her and I respected her very much, for me she was always something like a second mother.

I look at the pile of papers on the table, I have finished and checked everything, some even more than three times. There is no more work for me to run away from my thoughts.

I sigh painfully and stand up to a table by the wall where I stop pouring myself another glass of whiskey. I raise my glass, take a sip, and head for my room.

I look out the window at the lights of the big city, trying not to think about her. But it doesn't work for me. I see her smiling face in the shadow of the glass as I clearly hear her laughter in my ears as if she is there with me.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Come on Max, come on!!

I tell myself, drain my glass and throw it off the wall watching the pieces of glass scatter around the room.

Nicole...

Who is this woman in general and why the fuck can't I get her out of my head from the moment I met her? She is always there, she is always present in my thoughts. Work doesn't help me anymore!

I saw her again today, this time she was different than ever before. And she was not alone, she was in the company of no less and no more than a handsome and successful doctor.

I came half an hour earlier to a restaurant where I was supposed to have dinner with business partners to make sure everything was okay. In fact, nothing happened.

I spotted them as soon as I stepped behind the bar. They looked like a happy young married couple. I barely recognized her with a wide smile on her face. I had never seen her like that, that smile was sincere from the heart, her eyes shone as she caressed it with her gaze. She was somehow different.

He sat across from her, telling her something obviously very funny and watching her closely enjoying every moment.

I watched them like that for almost twenty minutes, and the scene almost didn't change. They talked, laughed as if everything in the world was perfect. He touched... every time he had a chance to touch her he did it. For the arm, for the shoulder, for the cheek, for the chin, for the lips and for that beautiful long hair in curls.

Anger grew in me like an oncoming volcanic lava with each of his touches and that enchanting smile on her face that caused it. She didn't look like herself. She didn't look like a serious doctor from the office who tortured me with her look. This Nicole was much prettier and I think I fell in love, but in vain because she was with another man at heart.