Talk To Me

21

And just as Stefani predicted, Chris brought his friends, the one who had introduced her earlier, Joe, and two others who always accompanied him, Max and Martin. The good thing about this is that they had the three-row van back.

—Hello girls —Chris gave Stefani a kiss and greeted Natali —the guys are helping us put the luggage away.

—Luggage? Isn't it just two days? —Natali asked worried.

—Not when Chris worries too much about the smallest thing and thinks that if he doesn't bring more than two soaps, he'll stink up the whole house —Chris' friends laughed and the group turned to see where the comment came from, and saw Bradley in sunglasses walking out of the building. A surprised Natali raised her eyebrows at his presence, Stefani was surprised too but frowning, whispering to her sister "What is he doing here?"

—I don't know but... —Natali whispered to Stefani —hi Bradley! —she waved her hand in greeting.

—Hi —he just mumbled with a closed smile.

—Oh, you're here —Chris hugged him from one side —thank you very much for your clarification, Bradley, we needed it —Bradley moved Chris's arm away and went to put his bagpack in the trunk. Chris snorted —here we go.

—I thought you told me he didn't want to go. Are you guys fighting? —Stefani pulled Chris aside.

—Yes, he didn't want to go. I may have convinced him a bit —Stefani raised her eyebrows —Oh, come on, the man's out of a job, he needs to relax a bit, this little journey will help him. And yes, we may have fought a bit, you know how he is, sometimes he's unbearable —Chris gave her another kiss —Does it bother you?

—What? Me? No no, not at all. I think it's a nice gesture on your part —she smiled with her mouth closed.

—Hey lovebirds! We're leaving now! —Natali called and Bradley watched them from afar with the group.

In the van, Natali sat in the third row with Bradley, since Stefani was with Chris in the front seats and the other friends in the second talking and laughing.

—From what little I've heard it will be a big exclusive party and in a big place, how did Chris have access to so many invitations? —she asked him while he just looked out the window as they left New York. After a few seconds he realized that she was talking to him.

—Huh? Oh yeah, I just...I just know that Chris has many friends, many of them do favors for each other, and it's possible that this is one of them. He likes to have fun — Bradley shrugged.

—Oh. And not you?

—Have fun? —she nodded —I guess, sometimes that has consequences, it depends on the type, I don't know.

—Do you think about them a lot?

—Not really, because I don't do it much... what many call fun. It's subjective.

—What are you having fun with? —he could get tired of the large number of questions, but with Natali not so much, she did seem very interested in his answers.

—I don't know... I guess...

—It's the activities that truly make you smile, that which you always want to do, just because it's...fun, it makes you happy. It's not that deep.

—Watching classic movies, football and listening to music would be the activities. But it's a different fun.

—Interesting. But how so different?

—Healthy fun? I don't how to explain it, but these are activities that have no consequences, bad ones, just quite —she just nodded, thinking —I think I owe you a question.