They arrived at Matthew's apartment in half an hour. In the underground car park, Mike helped them to the elevator. They both looked slightly better than when he had taken them away from the Evans.
“Jo, how're you doing? Are you able to take him to his bed?” He asked, truly concerned.
“Yes.” She said without much thinking. She had seen Matthew in a worse state and she had handled him then too, so why wouldn't she do that this time? This was her best friend; what is not done for friends?
“I'm officially at work. I have to be back in the clinic as soon as possible.” Mike said seriously.
“Go back to work, I'll be fine.”
“Where are you going, bro?” Matthew muttered leaning against the elevator wall.
“I have to go back to work for an hour. I terrorized my sister and her husband to stay there instead of me. We'll talk later.”
“Goooo, man!”
“Be g
“Yeah… Evans’ hospitality… Mike, my stomach hurts!” Jo complained.“What kind of pain is it? Can you explain?” He was truly concerned.“I am full, I ate too much.”“Haha… that’s no problem.” Mike felt relieved. “I will make mint tea for you.” As he said, he went to the kitchen.Jo thoughtfully watched her companion in suffering. He looked battered by excess alcohol, and his eyesight was blurry.‘You wanted it yourself! Did you think I would fall into your parents' trap?’ She thought. She wanted to ask him, but it was pointless in his state. She wondered what kind of argument they had used.Matthew was sitting on the sofa in front of her. It looked as though he was trying to muster his thoughts. He was watching her closely too.He had doubts as to whether what was passing through his mind had happened or if it was just a
The next morning, all her linen shirts and trousers were perfectly ironed and folded. Everything waited on the sofa in the living room, near her dark blue suitcases. As soon as her eyes fell on it, she was surprised. She just needed ten minutes to put all her stuff and she would be ready to leave. When she entered the kitchen, she saw two of her friends sitting at the table. They were in the middle of a conversation. The place smelled of freshly brewed coffee and burnt toasts. “Morning, guys!” “Good morning! We didn’t expect you to get up so early.” Mike welcomed her with a smile plastered to his face. He got up and pushed back a chair at the table for her. “Good morning, baby.” Matthew muttered. His face wasn’t shaved, he had wet hair combed back to his head. He looked grumpy. “Take a seat, I made a Russian earl grey for you and a few pancakes.” Mike started to put some food on the table. “Thank you.” “Yo
“True love! My poor brother in law… Your love is blind and deaf!” Mike turned to Chris.At that moment, everyone's eyes were on him. They were shocked by his statement, but he just smirked nonchalantly. He was right and was sure about it, so there was nothing wrong with his words.“Mike, shut up, please!” Jo was the first to react. She was fed up with all these verbal squabbles. She just needed a few peaceful minutes to relax before her flight and going back to work in the afternoon.“But I am right. Does the truth hurt?” Mike asked in an aggressive tone looking straight into Jo's eyes.‘Give it up man, I'm not the problem here. You know that and I know it too!’ She thought, but didn't feel like talking to a pissed-off friend. She was in a similar state right now.“It doesn’t hurt, but your attitude does.” She said, trying to redirect his thoughts and conversations in the righ
“What are you pretending to be, Matthew?” Jo asked unexpectedly.“We pretend that we know women.” Mike answered her question.“That’s interesting, my friends. So why are you still single?” She asked them both.Only silence answered her. They both stood and looked at her as if they didn't understand her interrogations. Was it a rhetorical question? She supposedly knew that very well so why did she scratch their wounds?Finally, Chris came to the conclusion that it would be appropriate to say something.“A good question, guys!”“Don't get smart here, we'll see how you survive this trip with my sister!” Mike immediately chided him.“Man, as you said yourself, every monster is an amateur in front of an experienced monster, so we'll wait for that day.” Chris summed it up briefly. Everyone reacted with laughter.Under the passport control sector, they had t
Somehow Jo was able to do some shopping, without being followed by Eve and Rose. She decided to hide in the duty free store until the last minute of boarding.She was glad that Matthew and Mike changed her reservation to business class, so she could jump on a plane just before the closure of the gate.She didn't like to spend unnecessarily hard-earned money, but in this case she could see it was a comfort. She had to consider that in the future.Jo entered the plane as the last passenger. Her seat was just in the second row.“Good morning! Sorry, I have the window seat.” Jo said looking at the two, already sitting gentlemen.‘It’s going to be an interesting journey!’ She thought, observing her companions more closely.The one sitting by the aisle had a problem with getting into the chair. He was a huge pile of muscles. She was even pleased that she didn’t sit next to him. The one in the middle, was a
“How was your flight, ladies?” Jo asked Rose and Eva, who was happily waving to her. She didn’t give a shit about it. She had to get rid of them as quickly as possible; she had to take her luggage home and go to work.She was sure that if she would engage herself in discussions with them, they wouldn't finish until the end of the day. ‘What a headache! Who else do I have to avoid, today?’ She wondered.“The trip was fine!” Eva said enthusiastically. “Jo, would like to join us for lunch?”“Thank you, ladies. I wish I could, but I still have to go to work today.”“What about having coffee with us?” Rose insisted. “My brother is waiting in the arrival hall, he will be happy to meet you.”‘Damn! What a day! She was quite close to her good-looking brother. Who else?’ Thoughts swirled in Jo’s head. ‘Is this not the end of all these coin
For the next two days, Jo successfully ignored all the phone calls from her sister, Rose and her brother, Peter. She also didn’t speak to any of her close friends.She wondered if her sister had discovered something about the bet. How far could the movie go? Why did she keep calling her every day? Lily was five years younger to her and they didn’t have the same friends, so it was rather questionable.Jo was sure that their parents didn’t attach much importance to social media. Even though their dad was a programmer, he was all the more against showing any personal photos or talking about their private life, or revealing any personal facts on the Internet.Their mother liked to show some of her work on some social networks. As an architect, she was used to presenting some of her achievements on the website of her company, but didn’t like to be involved in revealing any details of their family private life.Besides, their young
Jo was pissed. She could take a lot, but not the fact of publishing her photos, printed in shitty tabloids. She didn’t deserve such humiliation. It was below all her values, and moral and ethical standards.She knew Julian was a ruthless, unscrupulous bastard who could walk over the dead just to achieve his goal. As long as she had known and remembered him, that's how he has been. He could do absolutely anything to tease Mike. Besides, it was not only him that gave him a hard time, but also the whole group of them.She was glad that Julian wasn’t around, or else she would have surely given him a hard beating, blood would have spilled, because she had no mercy for such assholes. This time, Jo had to be sure that Julian would get a generous punishment; he deserved it.After careful re-examining all the published photos in the tabloid, she was sure that someone had chosen the frames very carefully, and knew exactly what he or she was doing. The point of