Fortunately, my mom arrived and once the introductions were made, during which Rhylan posed as a famous investor on his travels around the US and he made sure to flatter mine and my family’s hospitality and offer his gratitude, we headed to the dining table where several platters waited, releasing mouth-watering scents.
To my surprise and annoyance, neither of my parents even thought to question the fact that I had brought a man home and seemed pretty content to chat away and make small talk, ensuring to slide one or two interrogation questions from time to time. ‘How did we meet?’ Rhylan gave a long speech about his closeness to the Swedish royal family and Evigt Forest, how he happened to be strolling in the woods and found me in need of assistance and how we would meet and spend time together. Not entirely a lie but my version of the truth had a lot more to add.
‘How did we reconnect since I never mentioned him before?’ To this, Rhylan responded that since our initial meeting and several contacts did not particularly follow the rules imposed by my NDA agreement, he thought it best to maintain distance for a while and take care of some other projects while I settled back home. But that we had casually met during my last visit to Europe and since he had a bit of time on his hands, he was very excited to accept my insistent invitations and discover new investment opportunities overseas.
I watched him respond and remained filled with amazement. He looked gorgeous in the Boss suit he just happened to find for dinner, and talked with elegance and charm, responding to the questions just enough to avoid dominating the conversation but get his point across and prevent further questions on the same subject from surfacing. He maintained some things vague, as one should when meeting a possible business partner, but let slide important details that ‘accidentally’ gave away part of his intentions.
He ate slowly, chewed with his mouth closed, and listened to the conversation before stuffing his mouth with food in case he would have to provide an unexpected answer while found in the precarious situation of chewing. He was perfect, simply put.
Mom adored him and made several faces and pleased smiles towards me whenever she could, to let me know how happy she felt with our guest and dad became involved in conversation and acted towards Rhylan as he used to when Jonathan, my ex, received a dinner invitation. Basically, both of them showed readiness to welcome him to the family.
Fortunately, Cressi was the only one to keep some distance, even though I felt her attention on him for long periods of time, especially since he did not look at her or address her directly. From time to time, Rhylan — who just happened to be seated next to me, while mom and dad sat at each head of the table and Cressi remained parallel to us— made specific gestures towards me, like grab me an extra bun from the basket and place it on my small empty plate or refill my wine glass even after I had just taken two sips. All this theatre to showcase his closeness to me and display his honourable intentions.
I hated him.
“So how long are you planning to stay, Rhy?” Don’t mind Cressi already adopting his nickname and going with the flow. She smiled widely at him and her blue eyes shone brighter.
“Forty-four days,” I heard myself reply instead of giving Rhylan the chance. “I’ll book him a nice hotel soon,” I added, more to my parents’ benefit. I needed them to know that he would not be staying in our house for long and that I would get rid of him as soon as possible.
“That is very specific,” my dad said. “We must insist that you do not find a hotel though, you are more than welcome into our home and I am sure Anwen will love having you close.”
Before I opened my mouth to protest, it was Rhylan’s turn to respond. “That would be very much appreciated, Mr. Odstar. I generally would not like to trouble you, but I have no family of my own left, and staying in a place where the entire family meets for dinner and casually chats about their day is worth more to me than a stay at the best hotel in the world,” he nodded in gratitude and dad followed his gesture.
“It is settled then,” mom added and raised her hand to order the dessert.
While assorted plates of chocolate truffles, tiramisu, cakes, scones, and fruit tarts were arranged at the table, Rhylan turned to me and displayed a victorious smirk. He then served himself a cup of coffee from the French pot and did the same for me, even though I had already told him I didn’t want any.
“I presume you will have a lot to chat about with your friend tonight. And you didn’t have a chance to rest on the plane,” he pointed, serving me, then bringing the almond milk closer and dropping two cubes of sugar in the hot cup.
“Why is your stay so exact, Rhylan?” dad enquired.
“Autumn solstice is a very important celebration where I’m from and I invited Anwen to accompany me. This way she can see my origin and the way business is conducted in my lands. I hope it will offer her a fresh perspective,” he smiled to my dad’s delight. “If you don’t mind me asking, Mr Odstar, you have some European ties of your own, am I correct?”
“Please, call me Jason,” dad smiled, delighted to have a reason to tell the family story again. “Indeed, I do, and ever since they were kids, I made sure that Anwen and Erik both knew where they came from and how important their origin is.”
We all paused at the casual mention of my brother’s name and even my dad looked shocked at how easily it had escaped his mouth. Although almost two years had passed, sometimes we still forgot that he was no longer with us, and dad’s genuine reaction showcased this fact.
Realising the situation, Rhylan jumped in and for the first time since he reappeared in my life, I felt grateful to have him there.
“I am terribly sorry to hear about your son, he had a brilliant mind and I'm sure he would have had many wonderful plans for the future. I have met him a couple of times and each one proved to be memorable.”
Dad smiled and mom barely contained her tears, while Cressi looked at Rhylan with newly found interest.
Without a second push, dad started talking again. “It was my great-great-great-grandfather a few generations ago who decided to make his way to America before it became the promised land of all opportunities. No one knew his reasons, but he must have had a privileged life back in Sweden, since he established a very profitable soap business in New York, when the big city was only a pile of rubble instead of what can be seen now. Ludvig, his name was. Ludvig Odstar.
At the mention of the name of my relative, Rhylan drew a sharp breath, which made me turn to him, but he blatantly ignored my reaction and focused all his attention on my dad, who continued speaking.
“A brilliant young man with a lot of courage. Within years, he became so successful that he opened a second shop with one of his friends, and so, the family business came to be. My grandfather decided to make the change from the classicOdstar SoapstoOdstar Cosmeticssince they had started to produce many beauty products back in the thirties. But we always took pride in keeping the family name and our origin well known, I’m sure Anwen must have told you that I like to visit Sweden regularly and maintain a close connection with important figures back there, even some members of the royal family,” dad grinned proudly, just as he did every time he talked about Sweden and where he came from.
Unfortunately, I never knew my grandfather, but he must have instated very strong roots in the family because dad still insisted that we had Swedish princess cake at least once a month for dessert and hired a tutor for us to learn Norse mythology.He also tried to teach us Swedish but neither Erik or I were good with languages.
Rhylan kept an interest in the topic and asked my dad follow-up questions about Sweden, his connection to the royal family, and stuff about the older generations of the family that I hadn’t even considered in my twenty-six years of life. He looked very interested in Ludvig and even asked to see the portrait dad had mentioned he kept in the studio. I remained convinced it was all a ruse to strengthen his position in the family and find more connections, to help with whatever plans he had during his stay.
As for me, all I wanted to do was to escape back to my room with Cressida and tell her everything about Rhylan, though I did not exactly know how to do that considering I couldn’t really tell her the truth without sounding crazy or scaring my friend.
I resisted another half an hour through dessert chat, during which it came my mom’s turn to brag about all the wonderful events she had to organise during the year and tell him, not very subtly, about my involvement and showcase every single quality she thought I had. During that time, I rubbed my head and nursed a headache that took control over the right side of my head and pinched at the back of my eye. I was exhausted, and ever since I had seen Rhylan again, I couldn’t take a single moment to relax and settle. My brain must have been overcharged and I felt the veins inside my head pumping with a newly found anxiety at the thought of having to spend this much time alongside a dark magical person.
“Anwen and I will retire for the evening, if you’ll excuse us,” Cressi sensed my need and placed her dessert fork onto the tiny empty plate with enough noise to draw attention. “It was a wonderful surprise to meet you, Rhy,” she snickered in delight, “I can’t wait for breakfast.” With a wide smile, she stood and urged me to do the same.
