“No, sorry. Now you’re just going to have to tell me what the hell is going on here.”
By his tone, I can tell that he’s already anxious.
“He’s getting worse. He doesn’t recognise me, Nick. Not most of the time.”
“I don’t understand – you told me it was all under control, that there was still time.”
“That time is up.”
“Christ…” I hear him panting on the other end and I realise I may have been too harsh.
It’s true that Nick’s an idiot, but that doesn’t mean he has no feelings, especially when it comes to his family.
“How serious is it?” he asks after a few seconds of silence.
“He’s getting worse quickly.”
He sighs. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’ll expect you here by this weekend. No later.”
I hang up feeling a little bit lighter. That was progress, wasn’t it? Trying to reason with a big stubborn ox, nothing to it.
“Hey Ian. What are you doing here?” John joins me outside. “You better get in there.”
“What’s happening?”
“Two girls were putting on a little show and they’ve attracted a bit of a crowd…I don’t know if I’ve explained that very well.”
“A little show?”
“In the middle of the dance floor.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“Two women, you know. It looked like they were about to get to it right in front of everyone.”
“What are you, thirteen?”
Jesus, who am I talking to?
“You don’t want to miss it.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I respond sarcastically, opening the door and leading him inside.
I head down the stairs and glance around. There’s a group of people on the dance floor and everything seems to be fine, but then my eye lands on a corner of the floor aside from the main area, where a man is trying to get with a girl.
“Don’t you think they’re making a big deal out of it?” I say, observing the scene, which isn’t a big deal per se, but I just hate these kinds of things.
“Should we go break it up?” Scott says, joining our group.
Someone has to.
Dodging around a table, I approach the couple with determined steps, hoping that a talk and a drink might help calm things down without any spilled blood. We’ve already had too many fights this month and it’d be better to keep it out of the press.
I get to the guy’s shoulders with the intention of politely asking him to knock it off, but then my eyes fall on her.
And my heart explodes in my chest.
