An Immortal's Favour

Jack- Tie Up the Loose Ends

*

"What about you, Jacob?" Karlton's gaze was steady, unreadable. He wore a patterned polo, along with some red, fitted trousers, the outfit as bright as his expression was empty.

I blinked, studying his face before I answered. "I'm alright."

The bartender nodded and closed a hand around the bills Karlton passed on to him.

"Hey, you." Karlton quirked his lips into a smile of some sort, looking uncertainly at Gale. He then placed himself carefully on top of a barstool, resting an arm across the bar. Gale stretched forward and wrapped herself around him in a warm embrace. Hesitating, he lifted a hand and patted her back, his 'smile' wavering.

"I'm so happy you're here." Gale's face fell as she remembered the circumstances of how they'd met. "How is everything?"

"Peachy," Karlton murmured. He tapped his fingers against the bar's wooden surface, stray hairs falling over his face as he leaned back. He pushed them aside with a faint sigh.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'm here on business."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not in particular."

I glanced at Gale. She shrugged.

"So erm-" I interrupted myself with a slight cough "-How is...you know? I doubt the papers are telling the whole story. And the girl?"

"Your drinks." The bartender placed them down in front of us, leaving after we'd thanked him to attend to a woman just arriving.

Karlton pursed his lips, fiddling absently with the umbrella inside his drink as though thinking on how much to reveal. "Claudia didn't know what she was talkin' about. Ignore her." He sipped at his cocktail, turning his face towards the shiny surface of the bar.

"Karl-" Gale began before being cut off.

"You gonna ask how long before Pa's company goes bust? Soon, I say."

"Actually, I was about to ask how long you think it'll be before everything calms down a little." Gale frowned, her shoulders drooping. Karlton smirked to himself.

"Pa can say whatever the hell he wants. It's over for him, for me. Trust him to try and smooth things over with Abal."

"He visited Mother?"

Karlton focused on me again, his gaze softening as he took in my expression. "Yeah, about the food supplier ordeal? Your old man was there, too."

"When was this?"

"Three days ago. Pa said the poor guy looked miserable."

That explained Mother's nerves, then.

"Miserable?"

A flash of sympathy broke through the man's stony façade. "You heard me."

I needed to go back home straight away. If something was being kept from me, the chance of Mother even allowing me to talk Father over the phone may as well have been nonexistent.