The Harrington Series Book #4: Chasing Naila

Chapter 2: The Friends

Marc Anthony's POV
"This feels wrong." I remarked to end the silence that has paralyzed everyone since we came from the Harringtons. We are all still trying to take it in. Cole coming back feels different and we aren't as excited as I had thought we would all be. It's not that we aren't  happy to see him but there is something terribly off about him. It is almost as though it is someone else altogether but with the same face.

"Wrong? It's odd. We're having a meeting in Cole's absence. The guy is twenty minutes away from here. We should include him in this." Ferrer seems to see things my way. He tends to be closer to me than the others. Nick and Bruce have a different opinion from the two of us.

"He doesn't even know who he is. What's the point of having him here?" Bruce reasoned. "Did you see the look in his eyes when we spoke to him? He doesn't know us!"

"It's called amnesia." Ferrer pointed out. "What he needs right now is to be surrounded by people who were once close to him so that he can regain his memory. I volunteer Marc Anthony and I." The two men who "coincidentally" sat together on one end of the room looked at Ferrer like he is out of his mind. "What? Nick, Cole doesn't like you. Even in amnesia is it obvious!"

"Watch it blondi." Nick told him sternly.

"You're one to speak." Ferrer shot back. "You banged his girl and his sister.  Bruce, as long as you're Nick's friend, Cole won't be comfortable with you either."

"Can you behave yourself? This once, think before you speak!" Nick reprimanded him.

"Everyone calm down!" I urged them. Nick and Ferr fight like siblings. Another moment of awkward silence went by. Usually if it was anyone else, Ferrer wouldn't have stopped there. I agree with him but I keep my thoughts to myself. Nick is rolling on a lot of rage especially after Gio's death.

"It's all just too easy." Nick remarked. "He's been hiding for five years then he just happens to be living next door to Kei? Conveniently without a memory of who he is?"

"He's has amnesia. That is not hiding. He just didn't know his way home." Ferrer argued.

"Whatever he is suffering from, it's all too easy almost rehearsed." Bruce seems to agree with Nick.

The paranoid duo isn't letting go of their 'Cole-is-hiding-something-notion' and they broke into a conversation of their own, leaving Ferrer and I out of it. We stared at each other and shook our heads in dismay.

"Dude, tell your brother to back off." Ferrer pleaded with me. "It is not going to play out well when the two of them pick a fight with Cole."

It makes sense that Ferr is fighting for Cole. Cole us the whole reason we met Ferrer. He brought him to us.

"Amnesia or not mate, they are not wrong. The aura coming from him felt off."

"But on account of all the years of friendship you three have with him, don't you owe him some sympathy for what he's been through?

*
"Is it me or are you in a bad mood?" Bea asked me later on.

We are walking down the street on our way to our Hamptons home.

I draped my arm over Bea's shoulders. It is a warm night and I stopped to press a kiss on her lips.

"Yes. I'm in a horrid mood."

"What's wrong?"

We stood under a street light in front of the house.

"It's the guys. They don't seem to be happy about Cole coming back. I mean it's surprising but still-"

"Disappointing that you guys can't just pick up where you left off." Bea finished my sentence for me.

"Quite right love."