The Anniversary

“Oh, my God. Are you okay?”

Despite the situation Carl let out a dry chuckle.

“I think that’s a slightly redundant question, isn’t it?”

“Sorry.”

Carl moved slowly as he sat up, Louise helping him. She settled him against the lockers and knelt in front of him. Her eyes widened.

“You’re bleeding.”

She reached out to his head but Carl gently batted her hand away.

“I’ll live.” He lied.

“Who did this to you?”

“Have a guess.”

Carl could see when Louise realized who had attacked him. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

“I can’t believe he would do that. He’s always intimidating guys around me but he’s never beaten them up.”

“Yeah, well, none of them were me, were they?” Carl grunted.

“Don’t be like that.” Louise touched her fingers to his jaw and looked closer at his injury. Carl tried not to breathe in the sweet smell of her perfume. “Sh*t, that’s actually quite bad.”

She sat back and pulled out her cell phone.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m calling an ambulance.”

“Don’t!”

Panic gripping him, Carl grabbed at her wrist, making her drop her phone. He saw Louise wince and loosened his grip but he didn’t let go. If his parents heard what had happened there would be hell to pay. Jason would make things hell for him. While he wanted the bas*ard to be dealt with properly, he had to live with the consequences if nothing happened and it would be Carl who got the grief.

“Carl, you’re bleeding and you look woozy. I think you’ve got a concussion.” Louise gently unfurled his fingers from her wrist. “You need to be seen by a doctor.”

“But my parents can’t find out about this.” Carl protested. “And I don’t want the police involved.”

“Don’t worry about them right now. Just focus on yourself.” Louise touched his thigh. Carl felt his muscle instinctively tense at the heat of her fingers through his jeans. “I’ll come with you if you want.”

Carl didn’t want anyone to know about this. He didn’t want his parents to find out he had been beaten up; they would only assume he had been in a fight instead of a surprise attack. He didn’t want the police involved; that would only make things worse if Jason wasn’t arrested immediately or was released. But Louise was right. He needed to get seen to.

Closing his eyes as the pain intensified, he nodded.

*****

“Sorry I had to reschedule this, Toby.” Mike Reynolds stabbed at his steak with his fork and shoveled it into his mouth. “Got a bit stuck at work.”

“That’s not a problem.”

Toby cut off a chunk of chicken, loaded with melted cheese and bacon. It had been a while since he had had this meal. Whenever he had lunch or dinner with his brother they always went to the same place, the place they had enjoyed as children. The atmosphere was calming and friendly and the food was delicious. Toby had taken Simone here a few times and she had agreed it was a lovely place. The children enjoyed it and couldn’t get enough of the food.

Toby chewed his mouthful and swallowed, tasting the barbecue underneath the cheese and bacon.

“The food is still to die for.” He declared.

“It certainly is.” Mike munched on a chip. “I cannot believe they have barely changed anything since we were kids.”

“Sometimes the old is a lot better than the new.”

The only thing Toby had been looking forward to with this meal was the food. He wasn’t enjoying the company, although Mike was behaving himself for once. His older brother thought he was completely off his rocker to have considered getting together with Simone, let alone marrying her and having children. But Mike and their sister were the only two in his family who would speak to him and even then it was because of his money and they wanted to make sure he left them something. Toby had flat-out refused to give them any money at all, even after all the guilt trips from the two of them. No way was his family getting the money he had worked hard for and put towards his children.

Looking at the two of them, no one would think Mike and Toby were anything but brothers. Both were over six feet, dark haired and slim. Mike wore his hair longer so it had to be tied back and he had an earring in his left ear. As a music producer he had a lot of his own money but Mike had never given up an opportunity to attempt to scrounge off his younger brother, who had a lot more in his account.

Despite hating the things Mike said about his marriage, Toby tried to keep things civil between them. It was uncomfortable but at least someone was speaking to him. Toby had hoped that keeping in contact with Mike, his family might come back slowly and accept Simone and the children.

It had been over twenty-five years and it hadn’t happened yet.

Mike picked up his wine glass and looked at Toby over the rim with a sardonic grin.

“Speaking of which, how’s Simone?”

Toby stiffened. They had managed to get forty-five minutes without talking about Simone or the children. That had to be a record. Normally it was ten minutes after Toby sat down but Mike put in a sly swipe at his wife. He focused on cutting up his chicken. He would not let Mike ruin his food.

“She’s fine.” He said curtly.

“It’s your 20th coming up soon, isn’t it?”

Toby couldn’t resist a slight smile. Their twentieth anniversary. Twenty years married to the best woman he could hope for.

“Next month.”

“Damn.” Mike lowered his glass and shook his head in slight amazement. “How the hell have you been with her that long?”

“Because I happen to love her, Mike. Strange as it may seem to you.”

“But I still don’t understand how you can be married to a ni**er wh*re for that long.” Mike raised an eyebrow at his brother. “Are you sure she hasn’t drained you dry? Have you checked your accounts, still have money in them?”

Toby sighed. Suddenly he didn’t feel hungry anymore. He put his knife and fork down and prepared for the attack. Simone passed off the slurs aimed at her but the minute they were behind closed doors she burst into tears. Toby hated hearing it and he wasn’t going to let Mike get off talking about her like that.