April 6 - The Brother in These Foolish Things

Finally saw my friend C. last night. He’d been MIA for a while. I know he leaves town frequently and goes to California to see his girlfriend and do work (what does that guy even DO?!), but it wasn’t like him to not be in contact for weeks.

Plus, he’s going to be keeping Martini when I go on a long weekend trip to see some girlfriends in Nashville in a couple of weeks, and I needed to make sure he could still do that.

He finally answered me yesterday and asked if I wanted to go to dinner. He said his brother was in town and he’d be joining us. Great!

It was a lovely evening and we met on a patio in his neighborhood. The brother wasn’t there, but there was a place setting and a drink there. C. said he was on the phone with someone and he’d be right back.

When the dude finally came to the table, the energy shifted. The first thing he did was come around to my back side and give me a little “hug” from the back when he said hello. WEIRD way to greet someone you’d never met before?

And he’s one of those super fast talkers. Yes, the guys are originally from NYC, but the whole family moved to the West Coast when the brothers were little. Clearly neither one of the brothers lost their East Coast high vibration. I was amused most of the night, but also a bit…unsure about the brother.

The brother, let’s call him A., was immediately enthralled with Martini (exactly like C. was when he first met her) and wanted her in his lap. Which, fine. Martini knows who the dog lovers are and I could tell she enjoyed the pets and cuddles.

But at one point, while we were waiting for our food, A. said he could tell she wanted to go for a walk and he’d be right back by the time the food came and could he take her for a walk? Sure, I thought that’d be fine because any chance to walk around a pee, ya know?

Well, it became pretty clear she didn’t want to leave me because she pulled on her leash as he was trying to drag her away, so he came back and I put her back in my own lap while we ate our meals.

Our dinner conversation went on, but I had my eye on A. He’s super sweet, but I was asking him how long he was planning to stay with C. he said he wasn’t sure (even though he has a wife and pets back in California - this seems like he’s not planning on returning for a long while). And apparently, C. has hired him at his company temporarily.

After our meal was finished, A. decided he wanted to go to the Apple store, which is on the same block as the restaurant where we were, so he could just walk over. And we were like, yeah, okay, fine. And boom. He was gone!

So, I turned to C. and asked what his deal was. Such an odd thing… I’d never really heard C. talk about his brother before and all of a sudden, boom. Brother!

So C. told me that he’s been suicidal and needs some help, so he’s letting his brother stay with him and has given him a job for a while. What an angel, that C. is. It seems like A. just wants/needs to be away from his life in Los Angeles and C. is determined to get him past whatever his distressing him.

I hope it turns out okay. I hope he gets whatever he needs to get back in a good place.

I know these two brothers absolutely adore animals, so I feel good leaving Martini with the two of them for a long weekend. As a matter of fact, she’ll probably get more loving attention than ever!

But I just have this kind of eerie feeling about A.

More to come, I’m sure.
GS