“Hello?” I ask, guilt filling me up already.
“Hey, nice of you to finally answer! I’m outside the gate, can you let us in? My key doesn’t work anymore.”
My brain doesn’t comprehend the words at first. “You’re outside where?”
“My house, idiot. Can you let me in or what? Elise isn’t answering. You are at the party, right?”
The room we’re in is quiet enough that Elise can hear the conversation, and she blanches, mouthing,He’s here?
I nod to her while telling Andries. “Uh… sure! I’ll be right down.”
I hang up, and Elise’s first words are, “What the fuck!?”
“Enough,” I tell her, readjusting my clothes for the second time tonight, “We have to let him in, let’s go. He must have been waiting for your parents to go to bed too.”
“Dad is going to freak out if he’s still awake and catches Andries here!” she exclaims as we rush down the stairs and out to the front gate, trying our best to appear that we didn’t just have our tongues down each other's throats. “Why couldn’t he just wait until I got back to campus?”
“You made an effort to go to his party when you weren’t invited. He’s just returning the favor. It’s a show of how much you mean to him, so don’t be prissy about it,” I warn her. “You’re already driving me crazy tonight.”
She sputters, but by now we’ve made it to the gate. Lo and behold, there is Andries’s car, his driver at the wheel, and both Andries and Roxanne exiting out of the back. Andries is clutching an enormous horse plush, a red ribbon tied around the brown neck. Roxanne has a wrapped gift.
While he looks excited to be here, Roxanne looks much more nervous, her gaze flickering around to make sure that they aren’t about to be interrogated by Sebastian or Julia, more than likely. Elise presses the code to open the gate, her antagonistic attitude gone now that she’s seeing her brother in person, here at the home they’ve grown up in together.
She rushes out, running to hug Andries, the show of affection only hindered by the giant stuffed animal he’s holding. Andries laughs, bowing his head and handing her the toy like he’s presenting her with something much more lavish. He knows his sister well, though, because she clutches the horse to her chest happily.
“I can’t believe you guys risked coming here,” she says in awe.
“I had to convince him, but once he was on board, we swapped places,” Roxanne admits, laughing nervously. “I’ve been scared to death, but he insisted that it would be alright. So far so good, I guess.”
“Mom and Dad are in bed,” Elise confirms.
“Good to know you both are still up, though,” Andries observes humorously, letting out a quick chuckle.
This sets off alarm bells in my head. I’ve been wondering if he suspects she and I have been messing around, and now I’m almost sure a big part of the reason he showed up tonight is to keep an eye on Elise and me. I’m glad to see him, of course, and proud that he would risk an altercation with his father just to wish his sister a happy birthday, but him being here also sours my mood greatly. It is just a slap in the face to remind me how far out of control I’ve let my relationship with his sister get.
There is something I’ve been planning to give Elise, something more personal than anything I’ve ever gifted before, but now that Andries is here I just can’t. It’s too personal.
Elise invites them inside, and after a brief moment of consideration, Andries and Roxanne both agree. We lead them to the terrace, where the crowd has thinned out significantly, but the two of them can’t go unnoticed. The prodigal Van den Bosch son and his ex-escort fiancée; all eyes are on them.
People whisper behind their hands to one another, but Andries and Roxanne just ignore it. I’m sure it’s something they’re unfortunately used to by now. Elise, on the other hand, sends withering glances around to anyone gossiping to make them fall silent.
She offers her brother and his fiancée cake and some of the signature champagne drinks, and we meander to an empty table a little ways away from the main portion of people still here.
Roxanne is on edge, and Andries must sense it because he grabs her hand in his and squeezes. “Thanks for inviting us in,Elise, but I don't want to push our luck. The last thing we need is some nosy housekeeper to go and wake Mom and Dad up and tattle on us, so we can’t stay long.”
“That’s okay,” she tells them, beaming. “The party is starting to wind down anyway. You guys coming out is a wonderful gift all on its own. Thank you.”
“Are you guys driving all the way back to Amsterdam tonight?” I ask, surprised that they would drive this far just to hang out for five minutes and then bolt.
“Yeah, that’s why I had the driver bring us instead of driving myself,” Andries says, cutting off a forkful of cake and popping it into his mouth, “What about you, Dan? How does that old Jaguar handle in the dark?”
I glance over at Elise, who is looking at me expectantly, and I know that what I’m about to say is going to break her heart. Or piss her off. Or both.
“It handles fine, thank you very much. Which is why I’m also headed back to the city tonight.”
Shocked, Elise opens her mouth but doesn’t say anything at first. “Now wait a second, before Dad went to bed he said you should sleep in the guest room since you’ve been drinking so much and you’re clearly tired.”
“He can ride with us,” Andries offers, patting me on the shoulder as he does so. “Just send one of our drivers here to bring his car back tomorrow.”