"Dave?" Sara ran down the stairs. She was home for the weekend to set up the final details for their mother's birthday that Sunday.
"Yeah?" It sounded from his childhood home. She opened the door and looked inside. The room had changed since David had first moved out: where a king-sized bed stood where a single bed used to be and the walls no longer showed posters of rock bands and models. It had all changed overtime when he met Jasmin. First, the models had disappeared, then the rock bands followed. When they had gotten married, the single bed doubled so they could stay weekends and sleep in one bed as well.
They were still very much in love. At least Sara's parents had taught the right way of living in marriage to one of their kids as Sara had turned out to be a huge disappointment in that aspect.
"Help." She stood in the doorframe with a pleading look in her eyes. "I just came off the phone with Ilona again." David deeply inhaled he had a feeling where it was going after the phone call he received about one and a half weeks back. "She is refusing not to throw a surprise party. It is going to be there and we both know how mum is going to react to that." David nodded.
"Let me handle it. I know you could do it if it weren't for your ex-husband's mother. Don't stress it. I'll be very strict. We are not having a surprise party." He kissed his sister's cheek and took his phone. "Just send me her number. I'll block her afterwards, or she might just start calling me all of the time." Sara chuckled and did as she was asked to. Anything to not have to talk to Ilona again.
"Can you pick up Leon from school? He asked whether you could do so this morning." Leon, Sara's little nephew loved his aunt. Mostly because she always spoiled him. Whenever she would pick him up, they would always go do things like getting ice cream or get a toy.
"I'd love to." Sara was about to walk away when David stopped her.
"But please, no ice cream, candy or toys this time, okay?" Sara nodded, but as they would do as a kid, she held her fingers crossed behind her back. She was going to get him something. She loved the kid with all of her heart and doing things like that was her way of showing how much she did. She walked away, a grin on her face. "And I know you had your fingers crossed! You are not going to spoil him to death!"
"I won't. I will spoil him just about enough to get him there, but not fully!"
"Sara Alice Dubois, you won't!" Before David could say anything else, Sara closed the front door behind her. She walked to her car and got in behind the wheel before David could follow her. The front door of the house did open but it wasn't David who walked out, it was Martin the second kid of the family in which Sara was the youngest.
"What are you up to?" He got into the car as well. Martin had never really grown up. He was twenty-six but behaved like a sixteen-year-old.
"I'm picking up Leon from school."
"So where else are we going? Because I want to join. I heard mum was bringing Ilona over, I am not going to be here for that." Sara scrunched up her nose. She was going to stay away until Ilona was gone. "Honestly, how did you live with her as your mother in law."
"I tried to avoid it as much as possible but I failed nine out of ten times." Sara put the car in reverse and got off the driveway. "But now I'm not family anymore, I have the perfect excuse to stay the hell away from her." Leon's school was just under an hour away from Malmedy where the Dubois' still lived in the house they raised their children in.
Jasmin, David's wife was still at work in the hospital half an hour away from the school, besides, she wouldn't be off for a couple more hours.
"I heard you got back together with Pierre and Anthoine." Martin looked at his little sister who immediately started to smile.
"Yes, I did. I went to Bahrein with them, it was incredible, just like we never lost touch the way we did." Martin smiled.
"Was Juliette there?" The smile dropped again.
"Of course not." She clenched her jaw and her grip on the steering wheel tightened. "I haven't seen her in years, let stand hear from her. For all I know she moved to India or died. I wouldn't know."
"I'm pretty sure Pierre or Anthoine would have told you?" Sara shrugged her shoulders harshly.
"I don't know whether they'd still talk to her. She's a banned subject, as she is here, so stop talking about her." For the next ten minutes, they sat in silence. Sara was fighting her own thoughts and Martin was cautious not to set his sister off. He knew that once she would get angry, she would explode.
Sara didn't want to think about Juliette. She had left the fight behind her for years. But still, her mind had started to wonder how she was. What was she doing? How was her life going?
Sara quickly banned the thoughts from her mind. She was not going to sit there reminiscing the times of the past that were harshly warped into hurtful memories.
"So, how is it going with the ladies?" Sara glanced at her brother. As of a year, he was single as well. He had been engaged but had waited with the wedding. He had been smart and got out of it before tying the nod. If only Sara had been that smart.
"It's going very well, I might just introduce you to someone in the near future." Sara smiled. "We have been dating for about two months now-"
"Two months?! Why do I need to keep reminding people to tell me those things! That's amazing!" Sara's phone rang.
"Can you see who it is?' She handed Martin her phone.
"I think I can turn the question around on you. Who is Carlos and why didn't you tell me about him!"
"Because he is just a friend." Martin mocked her and opened the text.
"Hey Sara, just wondering how you are doing, winky face." Martin raised an eyebrow. "Winky face? Really, he is just a friend?" Sara's eyes grew.
"Did he really?" Her cheeks flushed red. "Please tell me you are joking."
"Why? Don't you like him?"
"Now you are never going to stop, are you?" Martin grinned. "Thought so. I'll just text him back later." She took back her phone and placed it between her legs.
"But who is he? How did you meet? Carlos isn't really a French name." Sara rolled her eyes.
"You're not really as sweet as you look." She shot back, a chuckle slipping over her lips. "But I met him in England."
"So he is British?"
"No, he's Spanish."
"Then why did you meet him in England."
"Because his job's headquarters are located there."
"So he travels the world?" Sara nodded. "Then how did you meet?"
"I ran into him at said headquarters." Martin's frown grew even bigger.
"What on earth did you do in England? I thought you were going to interview-" Martin's shoulders dropped and he glared at Sara. "Are you trying to tell me he is a journalist for Vogue Britain and that he travels the world to interview people because if you do I am going to be so disappointed in you?"
"Why?!" Sara asked in surprise. "Why would you be disappointed if that were to be the case. If he's a good bloke, there shouldn't be a problem right?"
"You are going to steamroll over that guy. You need someone who can handle you. No offence." Sara took no offence. She had energy for ten and it was still a miracle how she was not diagnosed with ADHD as a kid when she took the test.
"Don't worry, he's not a journalist for Vogue."
"Then what is he?"
"He's a formula one driver." Martin sighed.
"I should have known. David owes me a hundred bucks." Sara shook her head. She was too afraid to even ask why. "I always knew you were going to-" He stopped. "He owes me two hundred bucks because I already paid up but you divorced him, so it doesn't count... Either way, I always knew you were going to eventually fall for a driver. I had just expected it to be either Anthoine or Pierre, not Carlos whoever he might be."
"Sainz. Carlos Sainz." Martin looked at his sister. She was so calm about it. It was the absolute opposite when she first fell in love with Noah or when he proposed. She had bounced up the walls with excitement. She was chill about Carlos Sainz. She smiled happily but she wasn't over the top. It was genuine, not exaggerated.