Page 34 of Julia.
Alex stands now, pacing the length of my room while raking his hand through his hair. “Julia, you barely know him. How can you possibly know he’s the right man for you? That’s crazy.”
“Don’t you believe in true love, Alex? Iknowhe’s the one. I know it in my heart and soul. Please help me,” I beg, clasping my hands together. Alex stops, looks at me for a long moment, and curses under his breath.
“Fine. I still think you’re going about this the wrong way, and that you should just stop worrying what Mom thinks, but if you’re serious I will see what I can do. I’m not making any promises, though. Mom isn’t exactly an easy person to convince about anything these days.”
I leap from the bed and wrap my arms around my brother’s neck. “Thank you, Alex!”
“I hope we’re both right about Sebastian being a good man,” he huffs. “Otherwise, we’re both going to look like idiots.”
10
Sebastian
Hey,I’ve got a few hours free tomorrow. Shall we meet at the Amsterdamse Golf Club. Say, 9:30 am?
Nothing else. No phone call, no follow-up message once I confirmed, nothing. Just that single text, and I’m expected to just show up and play nine fucking holes with Alexander van Dieren, Margaret’s oldest? Sure, Julia is nothing like her mother, but there is no way for me to say the same about the other siblings. The young man isn’t totally foreign to me, of course, given how close he is to a common friend—Jan DeVries—but it’s not like Alex and I are confidants either. He’s an acquittance at best.
Now I have this cryptic message from him and I’m supposed to…what exactly? Just hang out?
I guess so. Which is why I’m here, despite my better judgment, at Amsterdamse Golf Club on a Thursday morning with my father’s clubs on my back since I don’t even own my own set. Inside, the teenager behind the counter tells me that Mr. Van Dieren has rented out the entire course for the morning, but once I give him my name he tells me that Alex is waiting at the first hole for me.
The day is clear and crystal blue, not a single cloud in the sky, which is quite unusual for mid-October, and I pull my aviator sunglasses over my eyes before stalking out onto the garishly green grass to find Alex. It’s not hard, since he’s the only one out here, leaning against a rented golf cart and holding a metal water bottle, looking bored.
Alex is a hair taller than I am, with the same piercing sapphire eyes that his mother has, which are somehow muted to a sweet cornflower blue in Julia. He watches me approach, dressed in white golf shorts and a salmon polo, but somehow still looking as intimidating as hell. I know I’m much older than he is, but that doesn’t make me any less uneasy. It isn’t that Alex frightens me–-far from it–-but I’ve not exactly made a good impression with the rest of Julia’s family thus far, and making a good impression with her oldest brother is becoming more important to me by the minute.
“Sebastian,” he says in greeting, standing up straight and offering me his hand. I take it and we shake, Alex’s grip firm. “Nice to see you again. It’s been a while.”
“Good to see you too,” I respond when we drop hands and I lug my clubs to the golf cart and throw them inside. “Before we get started, I should warn you I’ve only played twice in my entire life.”
“I’m not an expert either,” Alex admits, giving me a comforting smile. “I just thought it’d be a crime not to go out and enjoy such a sunny morning.”
I relax a little, knowing that this golf game isn’t going to be a real competition. “Good to hear.”
We both take drivers from our bag and Alex sets his ball, hitting it and making it fly. He shades his eyes with his hand and watches it go, stepping aside for me next.
“I assume you know why you’re here,” he states while I get my ball set up.
“Not just for a friendly game between men, I’d hope,” I quip, and Alex snorts.
“Julia has dragged me into this thing the two of you have going on, and asked me to talk to Mom about the two of you and try to get her to change her mind,” Alex tells me as I square up to hit the golf ball. “I know of you, but I don’tknowyou, so I figured we should meet.”
I hit the ball, and it flies far, if a bit crooked. “Trying to get an idea of who your sister is dating, maybe intimidate me a little bit?”
Alex shakes his head while he climbs into the golf cart. I take the other seat and he drives us to our balls. “Not exactly. Man to man, I think I need to give you some hard truths that my sister both won’t accept and wouldn’t tell you even if she did; our mother is never going to approve of this union. Ever. So you both either need to let it go or come to terms with the fact that if you want to continue, you’re going to be doing so against Mom’s wishes and then… well… may God help you.”
I cringe, watching and following Alex’s lead as we continue to play while we talk. “I know she doesn’t like me, maybe because of the age thing, maybe because she doesn’t know me, but I haven’t let that stand in my way so far.”
The other man levels me with a serious look. “Yes, but imagine how much harder it is for Julia to just brush whatever Mom says aside. She’s her mother, probably the closest person to Julia in the world. It’s killing her inside that she doesn’t approve. Is that what you want?”
I hit my ball once more and shake my head at Alex. “No, man, it’s not, but I’m also not going to be the type of person to break up with Julia ‘for her own good’. I respect your sister enough to let her make her own decisions, and so far she’s decided to stick with me.”
He asks me a few more surface level questions as we move across the course, and I can feel my blood pressure rising with each one. There’s something he’s not saying and I wish he would just hurry up and drop whatever bomb he’s holding so we can all move on with our day.
“Alex,” I snap finally, “I’m going to continue to see your sister until she doesn’t want to see me anymore, or until we get married. That’s it. Did you have anything to add, besides telling me that your mom hates me? Because I already knew that part.”
He drags a frustrated hand through his hair, shoving his club back into his bag harder than necessary. “Fine, let’s just get on with it, then. I assume, like everyone else, you know that my parents are divorced?”
It had been a scandal so large, when Lord Hendrik and Margaret had split, that everyone in our social circles knew about it. It’s not as if I keep up with gossip like that, but it was such prevalent information that I found out without even trying to.