Chapter 20

Pete was thinking, while he rotated the revolving chair he was sitting on. He had pushed the chair away from the table so that he could freely rotate the chair. Mostly, the rotation of the chair to his right or to his left stopped at about one-eighty degrees but sometimes, he let the chair rotate him back to his starting point.

He was wondering when Paul was going to decide to show up. He resisted the urge to pick up the phone to call his brother on so many occasions as he did not want to seem too concerned about the situation.

He wondered what he had to do to convince his dad that he could take charge of things. Aside from some of the questionable bad habits his dad claimed he had, he thought he was extremely good at his job. He had secured clients for the company on so many occasions, and at other times, he had prevented clients from leaving but what does he ever get from his dad? Nothing! Maybe a pat on the back sometimes.

He was so sure that it was his time to run things when his brother decided to leave the company, but here he was, after many months, expecting his brother to come back to the position he vacated, which was never filled all the time he was away.

Pete stood up from the chair and moved towards the wall. It was made of glass, transparent glass. It made him a bit uncomfortable when he began to work and when he asked his dad about it, his reply was, “When you know people can see what you’re doing at all times, you will be more productive.”

Pete knew that statement was only true to some extent. Of course, there were some things he would have done in the office that the nature of the walls would not permit, but he knew his ways when it came to doing other things.

He had both hands in his pocket and was watching people walking to and fro. They barely looked at his office as they were mostly in a hurry to do one thing or the other.

Pete wondered what could have been different if their mom was not dead and Paul didn’t come back to live with them. It was selfish thinking, and he knew it, but he did not care. He wondered what he could have done differently in life or what he could begin to do to change things.

“Maybe I should leave things the way they are, after all, he’s my elder brother and he’s arguably more intelligent,” he muttered to himself.

He began to think that maybe he should begin to behave like his brother and give less thought about what his dad might or might not think about him.

“Fuck him,” Pete said.

It was loud enough for people walking by to look in his direction, but they soon turned their faces away when they realized who it was.

Pete was about to turn away from the wall of glass when the elevator across him opened and someone familiar walked out of it.

"Speak of the fucking devil," he said to himself as Paul walked towards his office.

Pete did not move away from where he was standing. With his hands still in his pocket, he only turned in the direction Paul was going to enter from.

Paul entered Pete’s office, put both hands on his waist and said to his brother, “I see you have been expecting me.”

“The prodigal son returns,” Pete said. “It’s a shame Dad did not come out of his office to welcome you back though, that would have been a sight to behold.”

“Always good to see that you’re still you,” Paul said. “Never change bro.”

“Funny. I could say exactly the same about you,” Pete replied.

“If you have forgotten the location of your office space, I can show it to you,” Pete jested.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” Paul said.

“Are you sure? It’s been a while you know, and no one will blame you for something like that,” Pete said.

“You could easily just tell me to get out,” Paul said smiling.

“And why would I do such a thing?” Pete asked. “You’re always welcome here.”

“Right!” Paul said as he opened the door.

“See you around,” Pete said as Paul walked towards his office.

“That is something you can’t avoid,” Paul replied, without stopping.

A few minutes with him and I already want to kick his ass out of the window, Pete thought to himself as he watched Paul walk out of sight.

Pete wondered why he was this way with his brother. Pete decided that he didn’t hate Paul, but that Paul was just on his way to getting what he desired.

Paul never seemed to want any part of the family, he rarely came home during or after semesters in school, rarely called home and rarely ate at the dining table with the rest of the family. He always wanted to be alone, or he simply didn’t want to be anywhere near his family.

“The company could be yours one day,” his stepmother once told him. “All you have to do is learn from your father.”

That had not gone according to plan. He had done everything, well, almost everything to please his father but he never got the result he wanted out of it.

He thought about doing something else, maybe leaving the company like his brother did, but he wasn’t sure he knew how. He had been in a comfort zone all his life and he wasn’t sure what would be waiting for him outside of it.