Contains minor Evie/Karok and Ceara/Marrec.
╣ Chapter Two ╠
It was a crisp and cool night in downtown Rocheste, and Kai was spending his 6 PM waiting for someone in an open-patio café.
The same someone who was ten minutes late.
Kai shooed away an overly attached waitress with a curt, "No, thank you," as she tried several times to refill his coffee and unobtrusively slip him a piece of paper with her phone number on it at the same time. He caught her with every attempt she tried, and with each passing second his temper was rising.
Forcing himself to simmer down, Kai tugged at the high collar of his black turtleneck. Perhaps he shouldn't have worn this particular sweater today, but all of his dress shirts were in the wash, so…
A shrill shout from a young girl – actually, more like a young woman – from across the street barely caught his attention as he leaned back and watched some people meander by, their hands full of shopping, young children, or pets.
The sudden tackle-hug from the side, however, did surprise him.
Not to mention the large breasts that his face was currently smashed in-between.
"I haven't seen you in forever, Kai!"
"…"
"So, how are you! How's the bar? What's new in Rocheste?"
"…"
"Why aren't you saying something?"
"…"
"OH! Oh! Sorry! I forget, sometimes, how much I've grown… hehe…."
Kai refrained from wiping at his face with his sleeve – it would've been a terribly childish thing to do – and instead gestured for the young woman to take the empty seat next to him.
"Would you like something to eat or drink, Evie?"
Evie picked up the menu for a moment, reading quickly through the choices of coffees, teas, ice creams, and pastries, before setting it down with a shake of her head.
"I'll decline, since I'm going to be meeting another friend soon for dinner and a tour of her house."
Kai's lips twitched as he held back a smile. It wasn't everyday that Evie, the ultimate devourer of all things sweet and expensive, turned down a free sugary snack. But, as she said, she had other things to do during her very recent trip back into the city after several years abroad in Europe with her medical studies.
Evie leaned forward, happiness radiating from every pore in her body. "It's really, really nice to come home after so long. How are you doing, big brother?"
"Well enough. The bar, too. The nightlife has gotten richer." Kai busied himself with drinking his half-full mug of coffee to hide the small smile on his face that had escaped his control. "And yourself?"
"Well, I've got a boyfriend!" Evie lit up even more as she gestured wildly, "His name's Karok and he's tall, like taller than you, and has all these muscles! You should see his biceps – they're huge! Oh, oh, he's also a vet, since he's really good with animals…"
Evie went on and on about her boyfriend, and Kai contented himself with nodding at the appropriate times and making brotherly noises at certain points during her expositions about the summer trips to England, China, and Japan she had taken with the so-called giant of a man.
Kai didn't really mind his sister's ramblings, especially since he hadn't seen her for nearly five years until today, and despite his low tolerance for incredibly talkative people, his sister did, in fact, know when to stop talking. She just liked to have other people believe she talked too much and therefore was too cutesy to be of any harm, when in reality she had finished medical school before she had hit her twenties and was as smart as a whip and just as talented with surgical knives.
"… so, did you get a boyfriend while I was gone?"
Kai nearly spat out his coffee at a bundled-up family of four who were slowly inching their way down the sidewalk. He swallowed the mouthful of coffee and turned to glare at Evie, who played innocent.
"Well? Do you or not?"
Kai paused. "Why a boyfriend?"
Evie rolled her eyes. "Because you shook your head when I asked if you had a girlfriend!"
Well, he'd have to listen more carefully from now on. He must've been out of practice.
"No."
"Are you sure?" Evie's pout was legendary, but as her brother, Kai was immune.
"Yes."
"Then what's this?" With a cheeky grin on her face, Evie held up a white business card that had a telephone number scrawled on the back. That card.
"Give me that!" Kai snatched the card away from Evie and tucked it back into his wallet with a snarl. "I thought you've grown up and stopped pickpocketing my things by now."
"Party pooper." Evie childishly plunked her face into her hands and stuck out her tongue. She lifted her head back up when an expensive car slowly drove by, parked by the curb, and honked once.
"Ooh, that's my friend! Hey, Ceara!" Evie waved at the compact maroon BMW that idled.
A woman poked her head out and smiled at Evie. "Hey, Evie! Sorry I was late! I had a few things I forgot to do before I left the condo!"
"That's alright!" Evie gathered up her bag and turned to leave, but turned right back around to Kai with another beaming smile. "Come with us!"
"No. Go have fun." Kai put down $20 for the overpriced coffee and tip fee, and hoped that he would never have to come to this café ever again. Ever.
"Come on~!" Evie latched onto his arm and tried dragging him.
Kai frowned, but then allowed his sister to do as she pleased. Just this once.
"Fine."
"Woohoo!"
Kai then found himself being introduced to Ceara, a young woman with flaming red hair and a soft smile, and then shoved into the backseat of the BMW.
Fun.
"And since this is your five-years wedding anniversary, I've decided to bring you some cocktail service!" Evie's bubbly voice was a total mismatch to Kai's twitching eyebrow and the deepening frown on his face when the three finally arrived at the condominium that Ceara and her husband were staying at.
"So you did have an ulterior motive for meeting me today…" Kai barely kept the growl out of his voice. Today had been his day off! He'd specifically taken this day off so he could see his sister, who he hadn't heard from in five years!
Evie at least had the decently to look mildly apologetic before she kicked him in the shins, standing in complete balance and poise despite wearing four-inch heels.
The living area was of a modern design, entirely sensible and minimalistic. The kitchen was clean and full of shiny equipment, and the bedrooms (there were two, the master and the guest) that were tastefully decorated.
Kai caught on right away that the place didn't feel like a married couple's home. It was too… barren.
Evie carried on, looking oblivious as always, but Kai suspected that she had arrived to the same conclusion about her friend as he did.
"And for dinner, we'll have stir-fry beef and vegetables, and rice. I hope you can eat that, uhm, Kai." Ceara seemed unsure on how to treat his sudden presence, since she had clearly planned for only herself and Evie, but Kai shrugged slightly and smiled lightly at the harried woman.
"It's fine."
Evie chose that moment to butt in. "My brother can eat anything! Did I tell you about that one time–"
Kai took the opportunity to stomp on Evie's foot, now that they weren't wearing shoes.
Dinner was a strained affair that was broken only by Evie's insistence in talking between every other bite of food and catching up on every miniscule detail that she missed during her absence. Kai responded whenever he was directly asked something, but beyond that he remained silent and let his younger sister decided the flow of the conversation. With Evie clearly in charge, however, Ceara seemed to finally relax and lost some of the tension in her expression and was even warming up to Kai.
Just as dinner plates were cleared from the table and Evie was inching towards the alcohol cabinet that was in the dining room, the front door to the condo opened.
"Sorry I'm late! Ceara? Are you home?"
"In the dining room, Marrec!"
A vaguely red-headed man in a fitted suit walked into the dining room and kissed Ceara on the cheek. Then, he addressed Evie and Kai.
"Oh, hello! You two are Ceara's friends, right?"
"Yes! I'm Evie," Evie accepted the handshake enthusiastically. "And this is my brother, Kai."
Kai purposely squeezed a little harder than normal during the handshake and inwardly reveled in the slight wince on the redheaded man's face. Now that Kai knew of the reason behind the sad looks that Ceara and Evie had shared during their conversations, he spared no expense in torturing the poor man.
"Kai's making us a drink for our wedding anniversary."
"That's great! Since I've eaten already, and it looks like you did too, we can get started!"
As Kai drew out some expensive and old bottles of alcohol from the cabinet, Ceara handed a long envelope to Marrec with a sad smile on her face as she told him to open it later. The man was completely oblivious to the sad look and accepted the gift with a smile.
"The drink I will make is called a Bijou, which is French for jewel." Kai brought three bottles of alcohol and pointed to each one as he poured the appropriate amounts into two long flute glasses. "Gin for a diamond, Vermouth for ruby, and a Chartreuse for emerald."
Ceara startled at the mention of the jewels and looked at Kai in surprise, before the sad look came back and she turned her gaze down to her hands. Marrec didn't notice the movements of his wife, his attention entirely taken up by the pouring of the liquor.
"Woah, they really do look like jewels!" Marrec marveled at the colors that stacked perfectly on top of each other.
"Thank you for this, but he won't understand." Ceara's hands were clasped together on top of the table, now, and her drink stood untouched. On Evie's face dawned an understanding after she looked at Ceara's hands, and then at her brother with an incredulous look on her face.
"What?" Marrec looked at his wife and then at Kai. "Understand what?"
Ceara turned to look at Marrec, that sad smile still on her face as she unlaced her fingers and spread them flat against the glass tabletop of the dinner table. "Evie and her brother noticed, but you haven't."
"Notice?" Marrec was looking, finally looking at Ceara, and then his confused expression turned to one of horror. He took the envelope that she had given him and opened it, which revealed a packet of divorce papers.
Ceara seemed to be on the verge of crying. "My best friend noticed, and someone I just met today noticed, but you didn't notice that I haven't worn my ring for almost four months, now."
Kai hoped that the man wouldn't lash out. He'd seen many post-divorcees drinking their sorrows away in his bar, and the end result usually wasn't very nice to look at.
Marrec's expression darkened, but then sobered into one of sadness as he stared into his untouched drink. After a moment, he spoke quietly, as if he had run out of energy, "…Did you know that your parents objected to our relationship?"
"What?" Ceara's eyes went wide. "I – No, they didn't. My parents wouldn't…"
Marrec turned to look at his wife. "I worked hard every single day, every night at the company, to prove them wrong! Do you understand? I didn't have time to come home! I couldn't… if I couldn't prove them wrong, that I was capable of taking care of you every day…"
"The Bijou actually has another name." Feeling that enough was enough, Kai took the moment to intervene and took back the two flute glasses. To everyone else's consternation, he poured the contents of the glasses into a mixing pitcher filled with ice and began stirring slowly.
"The Amber Dream."
Within no time, the colors blended together into a beautiful, gold-colored hue. Half of the newly mixed liquid was then poured into a single cocktail glass, and Kai pushed the glass forward gently with an unreadable expression on his face.
"Ambers, although not particularly expensive or pretty, take thousands of years to form into a different kind of beauty – one that is made through the lasting memories of coexistence even when time seems to slow to a crawl. It is the same for relationships; despite the differences, don't we all just want to share our lives together with someone who is willing to come along?"
Marrec and Ceara sat, with tears in their eyes, as they looked at the amber liquid as if it was the answer to all of their problems. Evie stared at her brother, as if truly seeing him for the first time.
Suddenly, the shrill tone of a cellphone blaring from Marrec's jacket pocket startled everyone. Ceara turned away, knowing exactly what the call would mean.
Marrec picked up the phone and listened for a brief moment. Then, he said, "I understand… but, please, let me have this moment with my wife! This moment is more important than any contract!"
After a moment, he hung up the phone with a determined look on his face. Ceara had a mixture of awe and unbelievable happiness on her face.
Kai poured the remainder of the liquid from the mixing pitcher into another cocktail glass and set it down next to its partner. "Enjoy."
Marrec and Ceara each took one glass, clinked the rims together, and downed the deliciously smooth drinks in a single gulp.
Marrec was the first to finish, and he set the glass down on the table with a strange gentleness. "I'm sorry for making you feel so bad, for so long."
"I'm sorry, too." Ceara took the divorce papers and ripped them in half with a tearful smile. "We won't need these anymore."
"We're leaving." Kai spared only a single look over his shoulder at the preoccupied couple as he steered his gaping sister out the front door and into the elevator.
Evie said nothing and stared at her feet with an indecipherable look on her face all the way to the nearest light rail station. For several minutes in complete silence, they sat down at the benches waiting for the last tram to rumble over.
"Thank you. For helping Ceara." Evie sniffed into the sleeve of her coat.
Kai said nothing as he let his younger sister lean against his arm.
"I should've told you, before we left the cafe, I mean, I didn't think it would've gotten that bad… but then you helped them. Helped her."
Kai still said nothing.
He didn't need to.