Part one
The two brothers James and Jonathon had been on floating on air all week. It was the first anniversary of the opening of their restaurant and the financial review with the backers had gone incredibly well. They were already two years ahead of their business plan, debt free and able to think about spending more freely. It had been such a tough year, but suddenly it all seemed worthwhile.
As brothers, they were very close, sharing a bedsit and able to live in each other pockets during the most intense year of their lives and yet their personalities were so different. James was the charming, handsome, outgoing one who could sell ice cubes to Eskimos and always seemed to come out of scrapes smelling of roses. Jonathon was the reserved methodical thinker with the passion and gift for cooking. He had kept the restaurant on an even keel, stopped James's excesses and kept them on budget, whilst James charmed the punters and made diners want to come back again and again.
This difference of character was already on show. Parked outside the restaurant was a shiny nearly new Aston Martin. Ordered by James the same day as their financial review, within an hour of coming out in fact. Meanwhile Jonathon looked through financial magazines for safe places to invest the money that was now flowing his way.
Wednesday's they always sat in a quiet corner and had lunch together, often sampling new dishes which Jonathon was considering adding to the menu. Today though they planned to saviour the past year, let the staff run the restaurant on what was always their quietest lunchtime.
The conversation flowed through the meal as they reminisced about childhood and their teens. This mainly revolved around the stunts James had pulled and how Jonathon had rescued him. The time he had borrowed their parent's car and crashed it, the time he had gone off with the local heavies girlfriend. Each story was funnier than the last, and no worse for the exaggerations that time had bestowed upon the tale or that it had been told a million times.
James then suddenly asked. "How are you getting on with Harriet?" Harriet was Jonathon's girlfriend of three or so years. James made no secret of the fact he was not exactly a fan of Harriet's, often telling Jonathon he should be out there having fun, not tied to one woman, but it was no use. Jonathon would always laugh and tell James that a serious relationship was beyond his understanding, and always would be.
However, despite this James was not prepared for the next piece of news.
Jonathon suddenly announcing, "Actually I have been meaning to say to you, I plan to ask her to marry me, now the restaurant is running well."
"What?" said James, amazed at what he heard. "You are joking right?"
The argument that followed got quite heated, as James made it clear that he thought Jonathon was completely mad, and it would never work. Jonathon for the first time realised how opinionated James was, about relationships, and the fact in his eyes they were never successful.
"You either split up," he said, "or spend the rest of your life miserable. So why trap yourself?"
This reignited the argument, as Jonathon made a spirited defence of marriage and his relationship with Harriet, pointing out how he was madly in love with her.
"And I always will be and she with me," he said pompously.
"I don't doubt that," said James, "all I am saying is sometime soon both of you will wish for a change, something fresh. You know the excitement of meeting someone different, getting to know her, the thrill of the first time you make love to someone new. All that exciting freshness that is no longer there in your current stale and boring relationship."
"You may think like that James, but most people don't," said Jonathon wearily. "What about friendship and the deep understanding from really knowing someone?" At that moment, Sandra one of the waitresses, brought coffee for them, and they paused their conversation, so as not to be overheard in front of the staff. When she had gone, they carried on.
"Take Sandra for instance," said Jonathon, " she is happily married, what is it two years now with that ...erm Brian?"
"Not that happily," said James smugly, watching his brothers face change as his words sunk in.
"What do you mean?" said Jonathon aghast. "Oh god, you haven't?"
James told his brother about the brief affair that Sandra and he had had. "It was last year, she was feeling a bit ignored, I had the stress of fitting out the restaurant. Sandra ended up being the one helping me, so we spent a lot of time together, and so one night we ended up kissing, and then one thing led to another."
"You are impossible," said Jonathon shaking his head.
"No, just normal," said James, smiling at his brother's indignation. "You should try playing around sometime, its awesome."
"Oh my god," said Jonathon suddenly, "That's why she went off sick for three weeks just when we had opened. You moaned about that just as much as me and it was all your doing."
"Er yes, I had meant to explain that to you sometime," said James sheepishly.
"Anyway my point is, you can't just go around expecting every married woman to jump into bed with you when you click your fingers," said Jonathon. "It doesn't work like that."
So once more the row started again, as they argued back and forth about James talent's as a lover, and the fact in Jonathon's opinion it was one thing bedding a string of young naïve "airheads" as he put it, it was quite another seducing an intelligent married woman.
"I bet I could pick a woman now, at random, and given a few weeks, have got her to sleep with me," said James.
