“Brenna wanted one more day in the city. That's why I'm calling. Are you around? Let's get dinner.”
Dinner? That sounded good. Technically the only meal I had had was breakfast this morning with Eddy. I wasn't necessarily hungry but the other activity I had in mind was sitting around in here and drinking alone. The suite was empty and the buzz from the alcohol always wore off. Charlie had his moments, but I ultimately liked spending time with him and I liked Brenna. It would be nice to see her again. The choice was clear.
“Where are you guys? Where should I meet you?”
Charlie told me to meet them at an exclusive French restaurant about twenty minutes from where I was in an hour. I went to have a shower and change once I got off the phone. The closer I got and the time we were supposed to meet, the more excited I was to see them. As far as my family members went, Charlie was the most tolerable. I actually liked Brenna. They were good together. I saw Charles in that kind of role; the husband and father role, way sooner than I ever saw myself in them, but I never thought he'd end up with a woman like Brenna. She was completely removed from the aristocracy and all its fakeness. She wasn't a socialite, a model, nothing like that. She was beautiful, sensible and unmoved by Charlie’s money. Inevitably, thinking of her made me think of Eddy, but I quickly shook the thoughts off. No use now. It was over.
I took a shower and I passed on shaving, keeping the stubble on. I kind of like the way that it made me look. It added a little something to my face, not that I needed it, but it looked good. I got changed and headed out the door. At the restaurant, I was shown to the table where Brenna and Charlie were waiting for me, chatting over an open bottle of wine. Charlie saw me first but then did a double-take.
“Niall, you're here.”
“Aren't you expecting me?”
“No, I mean you're actually on time.” I went over and hugged Brenna.
“Seeing as you’re ungrateful for my consideration, I won’t do it again.” I hugged my cousin. He held me at arm's length, looking at me.
“What?”
“No whiskey on the breath either. My God, who is this and what happened to my cousin?”
I laughed politely at his joke, sitting down.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
Well, if I really got into it, we would probably be here all night. I turned my attention to Brenna.
“How have you guys been?”
“Everything is great. This trip has been amazing.”
“I bet it’s amazing getting away from the kids a little while,” I said. They had gotten pregnant at the beginning of their relationship and then again immediately after. They made cute kids but I wouldn’t be able to take it. Hats off to them. At the moment, the kids were being doted on by their two very attentive grandmothers.
“You're not supposed to say that as a parent.”
“It doesn't mean it’s not true.”
“Your nieces are fine, thanks for asking,” she said, laughing. The kids were adorable, but I wasn’t rushing to make any offers to babysit.
“Tell me, is your husband still the nagging old woman that I know him to be, or have you managed to rehabilitate him?”
Brenna laughed. “I'm doing my best, but I don't know. I'm just his wife I'm not a miracle worker.”
Our table was in almost complete privacy, a little bit away from the other tables in the dining room; no doubt the best table in the house. Only the best for Charlie. After so many years of it, you tended not to notice the preferential treatment that you got because you were rich or well-connected. I was grateful for when it came in handy. Getting an exclusive table at a reservations-only restaurant was nice but it was better when you got to throw that weight around for a good cause.
“So why are you in London, Niall?” Charlie asked.
“Do I need an excuse to visit my hometown?”
“Normal people don't, but you do. What's up?”
The relationship between Charles and I was closer to being brothers than cousins. He knew all about the way I had grown up and the resentment that I had for my family because of it. I knew I could tell him anything and now that extended to his wife. Both of us had lost a parent while we were growing up, my mother from me and his father for him. While my parents, then father after my mother had died, had more or less let me exist independently, Charlie had had the opposite problem with his mother. She had helicopter-parented him well into his twenties, trying to micromanage his personal relationships. She had lined up a bevy of pre-approved women for him to marry, setting him up on date after date with various vapid airheads, each of which he ended up not calling after the first date. When his mother found out about Brenna, she threatened her to stay away from her. It had taken him nearly cutting her off from his life to get her to accept Brenna has his choice. Funny how now I was going through a similar situation.
“My father called me here.”
“What was the reason?” Charlie asked.
“It's time, he said. He found me a wife and he asked me to fly over here to meet her.”