After Her Love

9. A Series of Unfortunate Events

"Sorry... Someone here had a little difficult morning.." Robyn yawned and pointed to the smiling girl on the cardle. Those big blue eyes were staring me back and I could not be mad at Sophia. Ever. Not even if she would pour water on my laptop. Miryam started to take out some stuff from the shopping bags and Pauline got the plates and cutlery. We had decided to have brunch or something like that while talking about the Iiris situation. Niko, Joel and Joonas joined Olli around the table and soon Tommi and Yasmine also joined us. Again, I felt like a kid who was having breakfast with his parents and older siblings, and being teased about my love life that was straight out of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. That's how it felt. Things just seemed to suck and I, for some reason, managed to get myself into those situations.

"Yeah, no problem.. Guess those things tag along with kids." I tried to smile a little. I was dying to know how the evening went but I did not want to show it out. Robyn gave me a small smile back and went to make some coffee.

Ten minutes later the table was all set, the coffee was ready and Joonas was already scooping some stuff on his plate. Joel was feeding Sophia so Robyn could eat without constantly dealing with the kid, but she was also eyeing the other girls like trying to figure out who would open her mouth about last night and what they saw. In the end they silently came to the conclusion that Ro should be the one to talk, like almost every time.

"Well.. Okay then.. " Robyn put her coffee down and sighed deeply. Looks like her attempt to eat in peace failed again and we all laughed a little over it. She was used to it though, but I could see that she wanted to enjoy her breakfast peacefully even for once.

"She seems to be very friendly.. " She started and handed Joel a tissue with what he could clean Sophia's face. There seemed to be more porridge on her tiny face than in her mouth no matter how Joel tried to trick her to eat. It was kind of cute to see him dealing with her, pretending that the spoon was a plane that needed to land in Sophia's mouth.

"And.. Well... We tried to engage with her as much as we could but.. We didn't really see that anything was off with her and then sometime around half past eleven, a guy came to pick her up and they seemed to be pretty much in love.." Robyn spoke and lifted her cup back on her lips. At least she could still enjoy her black coffee while it was warm. I bet that was something she missed.

"Blonde hair and beard?" I needed to know it was the same man that I saw and Robyn nodded. I didn't know if I should be relieved or worried. What could have caused that sudden outburst on Monday and what had changed since that? Maybe I really just overreacted?

"He wasn't aggressive at all?" I asked and smeared some cream cheese on the bread. Robyn shook her head and I tried to decide what else I wanted to put on my sandwich like it was really the most important thing to think right now. Obviously it was not and I was a little shocked about the news. I don't know what I hoped they would see. A bruise on her face? Black eye? Scars? Another weird situation with that man?

"Nope.. He came there, she walked to him, they hugged and kissed and he had his hand around her as they walked out.. Nothing suspicious in my opinion but that's just based on what we saw.. We don't know what is going on behind the closed doors and we can't really get closer to her as she lets us.. Of course we can try to befriend with her somehow like Niko suggested but.. I have no idea how.. We can't exactly keep on going to the bar every night.. That would just creep her out..." Robyn had a good point there and visiting the bar every night would be weird. Maybe I should still give it a try and talk to her? Try to somehow build up a conversation based on what we talked about last time and hope that maybe she opens up about her worries, if there even are any.

"I'm not sure if this is all good news or bad news, but for us it seemed like... Whatever they had that night was kind of.. Buried and forgotten.. We all argue with each other sometimes.. Maybe not in public tho and we're not violent towards each other, but.. " Pauline opened her yogurt and asked if Joonas could pass her the spoon. She was also right. We all do argue.. Me and Robyn got into an argument the day she told me about her and Joel.. And that caused some other arguments also. Maybe I was overreacting with this? I should just back out from this before I get involved into something that I don't need to know about. Just because I am who I am does not give me any more rights to intrude into other people's lives.

"Maybe it is good news.. " I sighed and finished my sandwich with a few bites.

"But it doesn't mean that we're gonna stop here.. We can try to-"

"No.. Don't.. You don't need to become some detectives because of this.. I left her my number so if she ever needs it, she has it.. " I stopped Robyn before she could say anything else. Suddenly it all started to feel stupid for me and totally worthless. I can't ask my friends to spy on some girl endlessly or force them to befriend her just because I had a bad feeling.

Maybe I just thought that she was a broken girl who needed help and with that I could distract myself from being broken. It all sounded so dumb in my mind now.

"What are you going to do, then? What if she needs help? We can't just ignore it.." Robyn said and took Sophia into her lap so Joel could get something to eat.

"Just.. Forget it.. It won't get us anywhere anyway.. " I stood up and went to put my plate into the sink. I should have kept my mouth shut in the first place and handle this alone because now this was much bigger than I wanted and I felt like they were doing this more because they felt pity over me. That was the last thing I needed from anyone.

"I always wanted to be a detective.." I heard Pauline say but before I could hear what the other answered to her, I took my jacket and got out of the studio. The only thing that seemed to be okay today was the weather, so I decided to take a walk before getting into my car and driving home where I'd just pretend to do something in order to forget everything. Or even better, just do nothing so I would not need to pretend.

And that's exactly what I did. I threw myself on my bed and stared at the ceilings while cursing my bad life choices. Why did I even think that sending girls to the bar would help Iiris somehow? She probably recognized them anyway and even if she was not okay, why would she tell them that she is in trouble?If she needs help, she will ask it from the people she knows and trusts, not from some strangers she has seen once or twice. What the hell I was thinking about? This all made me feel like I was some stalker so maybe I should just forget her and try to find myself something else to think about. Something that could actually help me to move on.

A/N: Sooo sorry that it took so long to continue... But yeah.. Aleksi is feeling a little conflicted about the situation... And just like always, thank you for the support!