XVII

At 7.05 p.m. that evening, Richie and Frédérique were in each other’s arms, and lay naked on her sofa. The glow of sweat still covered their bodies and their hearts were just beginning to slow down when Richie’s cellphone started buzzing. From his place on the couch Richie could read “Jon”. Nice timing, as usual.

The cellphone was at an arm’s reach so he extended it and answered lazily:

“What’s up, bro?”

 “Hey Rich, ya know Teek’s in town and he’s coming over tonight. Dave and Hughie are up for it, too, you think you can make it?”. Jon was surprised when Richie didn’t answer right away, he was always up for a gathering.

“What ya mean? Like a guys’ night out at the Shoe Inn?”. Jon picked up that Richie was keeping his voice down.

“Naw...just a family thing, the girls are comin’, too”. Richie still didn’t answer.

There were only two reasons why Richie even hesitated when invited to such events, the first was his daughter and the other…

 “You sonofabitch”, said Jon after a few moments.

Richie smiled. That’s my brother. Jon always read him like an open book, even over the phone, and over silence.

He was already chuckling when Jon continued to speak:

“And you can bring HER, too, asshole”

…

After Richie had asked her to accompany him to the party, Frédérique had hesitated. You know what’s next, and this is moving really fast, it won’t be too long now.

Despite her resistance over the fact that she had to go to work the next morning, Richie had finally convinced her. She put on a pair of blue jeans, a long sleeve black and white horizontal striped shirt and a dark green velvet jacket. Around her neck she wrapped a light brown cotton scarf, the two ends falling over the waist of her jeans. She let her hair down and despite the fact that she didn’t enjoy wearing them much, put on a pair of hoop earrings because she thought went good with the overall look.

From the other side of the living room, Jon saw Richie enter and look for him with his eyes. After they made eye contact and nodded, Richie moved on to greet David and Hugh who were standing toe to toe, each with a glass of whisky in their hands and talking animatedly. Jon remained thoughtful as he pondered the overall state of his friend: after all the years and miles, he had only seen him look like this a couple of times – and both had meant trouble. As soon as Richie moved forward Jon saw his fingers were entangled with somebody else’s. Jon, however, couldn’t see who it was because Richie was blocking his vision.

These last few years, Jon had felt specially protective of his friend, but he knew he couldn’t control every decision Richie made, least of all regarding women. And he hated not being able to control that, he didn’t want Richie to break down like the previous time. Carrying his glass of white wine, Jon motioned to approach his friend.

OK, here we go: let’s see what he's gotten himself into this time.

As he approached the group, Jon heard Richie’s introduction. Fred?What the…And then he saw Frédérique moving forward, extending her neck to kiss David and then Hughie on the cheek, then sighed sharply.

Yup. Definitely trouble.