A knock on the door broke her train of thoughts. She felt sick inside as her head would explode any moment. Her stomach hurt badly. She still wanted to throw up, but she had nothing left in her stomach to do so. She mentally promised herself that she would never drink alcohol again. Not that she drank it, but occasionally she had a glass of white or red wine with dinner, sometimes a glass of excellent cognac. In fact, she also couldn't think of her favourite pancakes, macarons, or any food in general. She loved good food so much. This was not her at all... It was supposed to be a reset from her perfectionism, but it turned out to be a dud.
"Jo, are you ok? You've been in there half an hour now." She heard Matthews' upset voice call out to her from outside.
"Yeah… I'm fine…"
"It doesn't sound like that. Can I come in?" He asked, but came in without waiting for an answer. He was afraid that something bad might have happened to her again.
She was sitting on the floor leaning against the toilet bowl, looking pathetic. Her face was pale. It was extremely rare to see her like this. In this state, she was the exact opposite of the ‘Miss Perfect’ whom everyone knew. He leaned down and touched her forehead.
"Babe, you have a fever!" He said lifting her off the floor.
"Hm… Leave me alone, please. I will puke…" She muttered.
"No problem!" He took her to the living room and put her on the armchair. "Just hold on for a minute…"
Matthew was soon back with a couple things in his hands. He laid out a flat white sheet on the sofa and, then placed a few pillows on it. He lifted her up again and set her down on the sofa, covering her with a grey blanket as he passed on a pink bucket to her.
"Here, you go... puke as much as you want!"
Jo didn't know how to react upon seeing the pink bucket on her lap. She was tired, very tired and she didn't feel like talking to him. She leaned her back against the pile of pillows and closed her eyes clutching it tightly in her hands. A moment later she heard his footsteps fading away...
She thought about the trip home in a few hours. How was she going to survive the three hour long flight? She had to go to work the next morning. There were a few deadlines coming up for her and she still had a few piles of documents to finish.
Should she take the bucket with her on the plane or just a few empty plastic bags? How was she going to get to the airport? How to return the rented car? She had a training scheduled for the afternoon and then a meeting followed it in the evening for which she didn’t have everything ready yet. She still had to prepare a multimedia presentation too... Many such thoughts swirled in her head.
A familiar voice woke her up. He was talking to someone... He was talking to… eh… Was she back again at the party? She was thinking of some kind of escape. She couldn’t take it anymore. Finally, she opened her heavy eyelids.
"Hi, Mike!" She muttered... "What are you doing here?"
"You look pitiful, Miss Perfect!" Mike laughed as he slowly covered the bruises on her legs with some icy-cold cream.
"Yeah... It's really funny. I feel even worse…" She groaned. Another Mr. Perfect. Do I really need to see that face again? She thought. She saw him yesterday and it was too much to see him again. She would have to listen to his lecture.
"What have you done? You look like a victim of… domestic violence. Who should I beat up?” He was laughing looking at her bruises. "Did you forget your self-defence lessons you received from us?"
"Very funny Mike!"
"What happened? Did you lose a battle against the wall?”
"That's not my fault!" She gritted through clenched teeth. "It's not my fault that Matt has more damn cosmetic products than any woman."
"What are you talking about?" Matthew came in with two cups in his hand.
Matthew looked at Mike, then at Jo. He was busy in the kitchen and didn't hear their conversation. He didn't know what they were debating so fiercely about but judging by the expressions on their faces, they must have raised some very serious topics because they both looked very serious.
"I had a collision with a shelf and tried to save Matt's stuff, at least a few cans of shaving foam, tons of aftershave balms and over a dozen bottles of perfumes."
"Collision with the shelves? An interesting accident." Mike couldn't stop laughing imagining her completely drunk, grabbing the bottles of cosmetics. However, she wasn’t one to care about any material things so it sounded fishy.
"If you came here to laugh at me, you can leave. I'm not in the mood to talk to you."
"You should have a husband and a bunch of children by now. Don't talk nonsense." Mike was still laughing.
"Why don't you have it yourself?" She tried to defend herself.
Mike hesitated for a moment. ‘Why did all his relationships fail?’ He often asked himself this question and he had multiple theories for it. He wanted to shout in her face that it was all because of her, but at the last second, he got a hold of his emotions.
"I am a busy man and I chose to save the world!" He said with a poker face.
She knew that Mike just came back from a field hospital located in a refugee camp in the middle of ‘nowhere’. He worked there for a few months so she didn't want to continue the topic.
"Because we are a bunch of losers, babe!" Matthew added honestly. "You are the only one! One of a kind! We cannot have you, we cannot clone you… Is there a point to look for a poor fake replacement?"
Mike was truly speechless because Matthew put it very aptly; the confession was right to the point. There was a long silence in the living room. Everyone had their own theory, but nobody wanted to argue anymore. Digging up old scarred wounds could be too painful for each of them.
Jo was shocked. She didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. Mike was her ex and her first love, but it didn't work out long ago when they tried for the first time around. On the other hand, Matthew was her best friend since she remembered.
"Don't tell me that I am the cause of your personal failures. Mike, you are a fucking freak!"
He was a freak and he knew that, so he did not even try to defend himself. "After you, nobody is good enough!" With a poker face, he stated emphatically. "Don't move that fucking hand, or you'll pop out another vein!"
He held her hand tightly until she felt pain. At that moment, Jo realised that she had a drip attached to her right hand. Slowly she took a look at it and she was shocked. There was a huge, dark-blue bruise on her left one.
"Mike, stop it. Take it out! I have to go. I have a flight to catch!" She said, trying to get up.
"Shut up! Don't move!" He had already started to lose his patience with her. When she slept for over an hour, he held onto her hand and the drip so that she would not damage her delicate vein. "I have no patience with such patients."
She really wanted to show him the middle finger, if only she could move.
“We already had dinner; Martin took care of our meals today.” Jack informed them.“Good guy! He also brought food for us.” Patrick realized that they had such a good time that he didn't even call and thank them for the catering. “I should call and at least say thank you.”“I already did that. We will have the catering all week.”“Sounds good, but I wish I could make use of the kitchen here too.” Patrick had some plans.“Why don't you spend your holidays far away from the kitchen? There are so many beautiful places to visit around. Besides, I'll take care of Mike.” Jack really wished that they would have a good time.“We cannot burden you with caring for him. We have to get a nurse tomorrow. And you should travel with us.”Jack was glad to hear that he wouldn't have to babysit Mike even though that one didn’t cause him any problems throughout the day. He had a great time with the bunch of big kids, and he wanted to spend some time traveling around too.Besides, his boss had clearly mar
Jo was extremely happy to see the hammock outside in the beautiful surroundings. She immediately started walking towards it.Behind her were Patrick and Matthew. When they made sure that she was comfortable, they started to unpack and unfold the garden furniture.In the next half an hour, they had dealt with most of the setting up. The patio immediately changed its face to an elegant and, above all, a comfortable place to relax. A few wooden deck chairs with a low table and umbrellas were placed near the swimming pool.The guys also put a long wooden table with eight chairs under an electric marquise, parallel to the glass wall of the villa and of course near the kitchen and dining room doors.“The table looks so good!” Jo commented from the hammock.“I feel like I am on a boat.” Matthew joked.“The owner loves sailing, so you are right. Only the wooden steering wheel is missing.” Jo laughed. She also noticed so many things related to marine life.“A wooden steering wheel sounds good.
”Are you worrying about Mike?” Patrick asked, seeing consternation and some kind of sadness on Jo’s face.“No, I am not worried about that asshole. He deserved it.”“Nobody deserves anything like this, badass.”“That’s not what I meant.”Patrick looked at her expecting some more explanations.“He shouldn't have gone out with you the previous day. He knew it perfectly well, so it was one hundred percent his fault. So, in that sense, he deserves it.”“I agree, but still, he is a man. You don’t understand male pride, badass.”“I understand him more than you can imagine. It’s just his fucking character.”“All of us, we have ‘interesting’ personalities, badass. For most of the people around us, we are assholes.”“I am not questioning it, Pat.” She hesitated for a moment. “But this fucking macho is one of his kind...”Patrick was speechless. He couldn’t argue with that. While he had a lot of understanding of the people around him, Mike was still a special case to him. But still he tolerated
Right after breakfast, Jack took Mike to the clinic. The atmosphere instantly relaxed inside the villa. They were still sitting at the kitchen table with tea and French pastries and discussing how to teach their dear friend a lesson.“You are a poor teacher, Matt.” Jo said, very disappointed with her friend. “These pancakes are awful.” She winced as she ate, wondering where Mike went wrong with that very simple task.“Am I really a poor teacher?” Matthew mocked in a slurping voice. “Or maybe our friend is a bad student? Did you consider that?”“Could we leave aside his cooking skills, guys?” Patrick exclaimed. “The main thing is that the guy can cook, so he will not die of hunger. That’s what matters!”“Really? Did you try that?” Jo pointed at the pancake.“No, and I'm not going to. I watched the anguish when Jack was consuming it. In general, he is not very picky about food so it must be eatable.”“Well, you have to try it.” Jo wanted to force him and put a piece of pancake on a fork
Mike was the first to get up. He was not able to accept ‘the doing nothing’ state and being attached to one place, to his bed, any longer.Slowly, without making any noise, he trodded downstairs. It wasn't too complicated with the help of crutches.He found the perfect order and plenty of food in the kitchen.‘These stocks were made, probably with me in mind. They want to leave me again." He assumed looking at the refrigerator full to the brim.He decided to prepare something for everyone. His skills were far from Matthew's, but after all, he could prepare something nonetheless.He made pancakes, and a typical continental breakfast: fried bacon, sausages, black pudding, some stewed mushrooms and tomatoes. He also made a smoothie out of whatever greens he could find in the refrigerator.“Good morning!” Patrick’s voice disrupted his work on the fruit salad.“Good morning.” He wasn’t happy to see him. “Did you sleep well, man?” Mike asked ironically. He really wanted to ask if he had goo
Mike felt much better after a nutritious lunch. There was no sign of a hangover; the only thing that bothered him, even after strong painkillers, was the ache in his ankle.He was changing the ice packs, and putting on more anti-inflammatory creams, but it didn’t help much. As soon as he was trying to put his foot flat on the floor, he saw ‘all the stars in the sky’ from pain.He didn't know if he would trigger the alarm again by opening the bedroom door, and he didn't feel like testing it.He went out onto the terrace a few times, but it was too hot to stay there.‘Why do I have to sit alone, in a deserted place like that?’ He thought. ‘I didn't have to travel so many kilometers to be accompanied only by empty walls. Did I?’ He wondered looking around the empty room.‘It is no different from my everyday life. Should holidays be like that? Do I deserve it?’ Hundreds of thoughts swirled in his head.Despite his exhaustion, he couldn’t sleep. There was no TV in the room, and watching mo