-how is your business going, Rein?...

cutting a small piece from a beef steak, the woman, looking sideways at the man with brown hair, muttered under her breath.

-everything is stable, Mrs. Drith.

he answered without even looking up, pouring wine into a glass next to his plate, and then to the man on his left.

Mrs. and Mr. Drith sat at one side of a rectangular table, looking at their sons on either side of them. to the right of his father sat Halman, the youngest son, a couple of years ago graduated from college and married a beautiful woman. next to his wife sat a little boy. their child. to the left of his mother sat Hiklan, the eldest son, doing his own business with a ‘friend’. well...for the Drith family - Reindot was Hiklan’s friend from college. ‘common interests, the desire to achieve heights in work and goals for the future’ and ‘blah blah blah’. Only little Rudy, Halman’s son, would believe this nonsense. The whole family understood who these two were to each other, but they simply did not say it out loud, believing that in their family they did not talk about ‘such’ people. And Hiklan was only reassured by the fact that his parents were afraid to start talking about it, pretending that Reindot was really ‘just a friend’.

-I see…Halman said last time that he would like to fix some parts in his car at your place. Have you already discussed this with him?

The elderly woman’s eyes darted from Hiklan and Reindot to her youngest son, recalling the topic of conversation from the previous dinner.