The Falling Man

Chapter 46

Ethel POV

The feeling of Tommy's hand over mine immediately accelerates my heart rate. I don't remove my hand right away, whether that's from the pure shock of the situation or from the deep yearning inside of me, I am not quite sure, but after a few moments I slowly remove it from his grasp as I look over at Andrew across the room and feel the guilt of the action seep into my heart. I see Robert walking away from the group and quickly go to join his side, "Hey, you know, I wanted to talk to you about Andrew. He thinks he might be ready for more responsibility, you know globally and.."

The beginning of this conversation is soon interuppted by my dear sister walking over, "Look, Brother, we should get this somewhere ambient. You want to?" She states referring to the gift bag in her hand, wanting him to open it. "Gertrude. How are you? How's the countryside?" Robert responds to her, barely giving the gift bag a second glance. Gertrude and Alfie had moved out of the busy streets and hustle bustle of London not too long ago. "Oh, perfect. The light pollution is practically zero, so, you know, that's nice. Hey." She responds handing him the bag, practically insisting.

"Oh, wonderful...What is it?" Robert asks as he looks inside the contents of the gift bag. Elmer approaches curiously and takes the gift out, inspecting it. "Well..." Gertrude starts only to be interrupted by our childhood friend, "Oh, yes, yes. It's a—It's a goo. It's a fucking goo?" Elmer asks biting back his laugh at my sister. "It's perfect." I state in a fake tone sending a smile to my sister. "It's sourdough starter." Gertrude states, almost proudly. "Amazing." Elmer says in a tone of sarcastic awe. "I thought that you might like to make something." My sister states with a shrug.

I turn to look at my older brother with a confused look, when the fuck would Robert Switzer ever find himself in the kitchen making bread. "Ah, great." The man responds unimpressed as Elmer snickers and opens the container taking a smell of the bread goo. "Yeah, ok, you shouldn't have opened it. Ok? Never mind, forget it. It was an idea. I thought you might like it." Gertrude says seemingly slightly embarrassed. Elmer holds a finger to his mouth to surpress his laughter as my older brother responds, "I do. I do. I just don't know what the fuck it is."

Fred comes over, back from his phone call, and has his mouth open in confusion, examining the gift as I turn to him with an amused smile. Elmer turns his back to the conversation, I imagine to release some laughs as Gertrude chuckles in her response back to Robert, "It's sourdough starter to make bread without yeast—the classic way." "Oh. Oh. Ok. Classic bread. Thank you." Robert tries his best to fake being happy with the gift as Marie joins his side now. "It's very kind. Thank you very much." She states to my sister. "No problem." Gertrude replies with a nod, turning to walk away.
"Be nice." Marie whispers to Robert who just shrugs, confused in reply.

I leave my brothers side, deciding to bring up the Andrew conversation I started later. Moving to conversate with the other guests. I feel Tommy's eyes on me the entire time, I try my best to avoid them.
"Everyone, lunch in ten." Robert's French wife announces to the room. "Listen, just two minutes before lunch in the sitting room. Family. Can you give me two minutes." I click my tongue and move to walk to the sitting room, "Got a speech." I whisper to myself. "So, Cousin Robert, can I..." I hear Will speak up. "Not now." My older brother interrupts him in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry, sir. Sir, sir, I just, I need your attention, please. About the—what I was talking about earlier, the management training program? I need to get back in with a referral." I hear Will nervously, urgently ask. "You're out?" Robert asks. "Yes. There was an issue, and I talked to my mother who talked to your father and said that I can come to you and—and iron it out." My long lost cousin states. "I'll do anything for my father." Robert tells him before turning to walk towards the room where his siblings and Elmer, who counts as family, sit waiting for him. "Oh, that's—that's wonderful. And I'm gonna work 100%..." Will says following after the retreating man.