My granddad was the last person I expected to see on the other side of the door. He mostly kept to himself unless we were having a heart to heart, which meant my grandmother had sent him.
“Avô, come in.” I opened the door to let him in and noticed he was holding a carrier bag.
“Hey, son, your grandmother was worried. She hasn’t seen you all day and sent me with some food.”
“You mean sent you to snoop.” I laughed.
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “She thought you were coming over for breakfast this morning, but you didn’t show up. Then she stopped by the café, and Teresa said David wasn’t there because he’s sick. So, I’m here with food.”
“Thanks, Granddad, but David isn’t here.” I wasn’t sure how much to tell him, so I said nothing.
“What’s going on, Joel?”
“Nothing’s going on, Granddad. I haven’t seen David since last night. Max and I are going away for a few days.”
“David isn’t going with you?”
“No.”
My granddad seemed to understand I wasn’t going to say much more. He probably thought we’d had a falling out and would be back to being friends again soon.
“Okay, I’ll tell your grandmother you’ll be by tomorrow for breakfast before you go.” The way he looked at me told me there wasn’t a question or request in his words. I’d better go to breakfast, or I’d never hear the end of it. God, I loved my grandparents so much.
We didn’t dare miss breakfast the next morning, and quite strangely, there were no questions about where David was or if we’d had a falling out. Maybe we’d been such great actors that it hadn’t occurred to my grandparents that David and I had been more than friends.
My great-grandmother asked us about where we were going and what we were planning on doing.
“We’ve only just got a new head nurse at the hospital to replace Sílvia, so between picking up extra shifts and additional responsibility, it’s been quite stressful. Rest and recuperation by the beach are just what we need,” Max said.
“But you have the beach here,” my grandmother said.
“We’re just taking the opportunity to show Max a bit more of the country,Avó.”
They seemed to accept what we said, but in the back of my mind, there was a feeling that maybe there was something behind their too easy acceptance of our reasons for going away.
As Max had predicted, we spent all the time we were away on the beach or by the pool. Max said he could explore the country another time, and I was thankful for it because I didn’t remember a time when I’d felt as exhausted as I did right now.
I would wake up much later than usual for me, and despite doing very little all day, I was in bed by ten o’clock each night. I’d also lost my appetite, something that Max had noticed because he kept trying to feed me using the excuse that he needed to try all the amazing Portuguese food.
We’d also not talked about David or Isaac. Not a single word. Part of me was glad we hadn’t, but another part of me wanted to talk about it. The way we’d both got through hard times in the past had always been by talking about it.
Max seemed like he was back to normal, and I wasn’t sure if the situation with Isaac hadn’t been that big of a deal or if he was just too good at hiding it, even from me.
Whatever it was, he wasn’t talking about it, and neither was I.
On our drive back to Caparica, my phone buzzed with a text from my cousin, and I made a decision.
I just needed to see my grandparents first.
