Family Ties

Chapter Forty Five

Jonas
"Click." goes the front door lock, I open the door of my house before I take my black suitcase that I had to put down before, back in my hands and carry it inside. The house is silent and looks empty at first sight, the dining table is, as usual, filled with laptops and files, I wonder if I'm the only one who ever uses the office upstairs.

I stayed at my friend and business partner José and his wife's house for a couple of days because we had some business to discuss and I needed some time off.

It was so nice to be away for a couple of days, catch up with friends, to have a little time for myself, to relax, sleep in, go to dinner, we had the best time and I didn't want to leave, but business calls. I put my luggage at the foot of the stairs, ready to take up and immediately go to the back door and step outside on to the porch. I let my eyes roam over the beach, a few people are laying in the warm summer sun, some others are playing beach volleyball and there are a couple of people swimming in the sea. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, fill my lungs with the warm beach air. The smell of our home mixed with the smell of beach and sea overwhelms me and suddenly I'm glad to be back.

"Home." I whisper when I breathe out, "Exactly where I should be." I slowly turn around and walk back inside the house. I go to the fridge and take the juice, open the lid and drink straight from the carton before I take my luggage upstairs.

When I near my housemates bedroom doors, one on each side of the hallway, a heavy feeling creeps up my back, they are probably cosying up together again. There was a time, before Eve came, that Harry would be waiting for me downstairs when he knew I would be getting home from a trip, or he would prepare a nice meal and we would catch up while we ate together. Now he only has eyes for my sister, she has always been more important to him than our friendship.

When I pass the doors, the one on my right flies open, I turn my head and see Harry who stands frozen in his doorway, he clearly didn't expect me here. After a couple of seconds the corners of his mouth pull up into a big smile,

"Jonas, welcome home!" he says cheerfully. I want to roll my eyes and just keep walking but I still have to live and work with him, I better at least try to be friendly.

"H. Nice to see you." I smile back. Harry puts one arm around my shoulder and gives me a man hug but it's really quick like I could pass him some kind of transmitted disease when he hugs me if he holds on for a second too long. There is an awkward silence for a minute, Harry is looking at his feet, not knowing what to say.

"How was your trip? How is José?" he asks while he awkwardly rubs his neck as if he is nervous. Why would he be nervous?

"It was good. José is good too, he is going to be a father in six months." Harry's smile lights up and he opens his mouth before his face falls and closes it again. I wonder what he wanted to say.

"That's amazing, we should send a card to congratulate them from all of us at the bar." he says. Harry is always so thoughtful, I, as José's partner and manager of the bar, should think of these things, not Harry, I inwardly curse myself.

"I will make sure it happens." I nod my head. "I'm going to unpack." I say and start to walk away, Harry waves and goes back into his room but doesn't close the door. When I enter my bedroom I hear a door open and my sister starts to whisper to Harry in the hallway before she giggles. I don't want to deal with that women right now so I go back to my door and shut it.

It is a nice evening, I sit outside on the porch while I watch the sun set into the sea like a gigantic orange fireball that drops into a pile of water.

Tomorrow I start to work at the bar again, I trust my employees, I know they will have handled everything correct during my absence. They are all well trained people who know their job and the senior employees know parts of my job too so that if I am absent for a long time they know what to do. But this time, I told them to not bother with administration before I left so I'm sure there will be a pile of paperwork on my desk. That's why I haven't scheduled myself into work, I'm planning the first two days to just be where I can catch up with that, put out fires if it's needed and I always can help if it gets crazy busy, it's the holiday season so there are always more personnel at work but it still can get very hectic.