“Bit of a Chat” – Part 1

Colin hung up the phone and sighed. He was relieved to know Dom was coming back to work but now he had to have a little chat with Adam, let the lad know he was possibly going to be losing some of his hours down at the garage. Truthfully, he had no idea how his new brother-in-law would take the news. He and Adam hadn’t exactly had much face time lately, both being preoccupied with their own lives and all.

Then there was that little matter of Adam coming home late and drunk or high or whatever that had upset Colin’s little sister, Raine, a couple nights earlier. Colin had decided to just let it go, it was between Adam and his wife, but then he’d come home in nearly the same condition last night as well.

Colin grabbed his crutches and pulled himself to his feet, then headed down the hall to Adam’s bedroom. He paused, listening for any sound coming from inside, heard the radio on, so he knocked.

“Yeah?” Adam asked, pulling on his shirt, his hair still dripping wet from the shower he’d just gotten out of.

“Can I come in?” Colin asked.

“Your house, mate,” Adam replied, slipping on his work boots.

Colin slowly opened the door and stood in front of the bed where Adam was sitting. “Need to have a bit of a chat with you, mate,” he told Adam, his voice even.

“Yeah? ‘Bout what?” Adam asked, reaching over to turn down the radio.

“Couple matters, really,” Colin told him, shifting on his crutches. “Mind if I have a sit?”

“Like I said, it’s your house, do what you like, mate,” Adam replied.

Colin moved some clothes aside and sat down in a small wooden desk chair across from the bed. “Just got a call from Dom. You know - the bloke that was working for me down at the garage before I hired you on?”

“Yeah? And?”

“And he’s back in town, wanted to know if he can come back to work down at the garage.”

“So, what’d you tell him then?”

“Took a bit of the piss outta him first, but then I told him the job’s still his if he wants it.”

Adam clenched his jaw, cleared his throat. “So, I guess I should be lookin’ around for another job then, is that what you’re saying?”

“No, not at all,” Colin assured him, “The reason Dom took off in the first place was because he needed the time off from the workload he had to put up with on his own. Now that he’ll have you to give him a hand with it things should work out right as rain. I just wanted to give you a heads-up that you may be losing a bit of your hours now that there will be two of you working. ‘Course, Raine might like that, since you’ll be able to come home for meals once in a while now.”

Adam nodded, “She’s pretty upset with me now, I know.”

“Upset? Yeah, I’d say she is at that,” Colin agreed. “You wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“Raine told me you’d been coming home drunk, but last night, when you came stumbling in, you hadn’t been drinking, had you?”

Adam glared at him, “What’s it to you?”

“Look, it’s none of my business what you do in your personal life, mate, except for when it affects my sister and my household.”

“Has it?” Adam asked, tilting his head.

“Dangerously close, mate,” Colin told him, “Just do me the favor, talk to your wife. Get whatever it is going on sorted out. Alright?”

Adam looked him in the eye, nodded.

“Good,” Colin told him, slapping him on the back of the shoulder as he stood to leave the room, “Now that that’s settled I guess I’ll be needing to have a bit of a chat with Arthur.”

“Good luck with that one,” Adam snorted.

“Right,” Colin chuckled, shaking his head. “This should be... fun.”

TBC...