Cyanide Sun

The warm aroma of baked goods wafted from the kitchen, and Ville resisted making his way there, stopping first to greet Aina, who was setting a table with refreshments when he entered the home. He took the small jewelry box, tied shut with a thin blue ribbon, from his coat pocket and snuck it in front of her.

“Congratulations, dear.”

She turned, with a big smile, and gave him a hug. “Thank you.”

“We are happy to have you join the family.” Ville beamed.

“Oh, you didn’t have to--”

“Please. It’s nothing.”

“Small presents are the best presents. Thank you, Ville.” She took the box and pulled the tail of the bow to unravel it. “It’s beautiful!”

“What is?” came a voice as a brunette wandered from the kitchen. She dried her hands on a rag before she took the box that Aina extended to her to marvel at the bracelet. “Wow, that is stunning.”

“Ville, this is my best friend, Isabel. This is Jesse’s brother.” Aina introduced.

“Good to meet you,” she said as she shook his hand.

“Oh, the pleasure is mine.”

“I’m gonna put this away upstairs.” Aina excused herself.

“Are you some stellar athlete too?” Isabel asked as she took off the apron.

“No, Ville doesn’t have an athletic bone in his body! His asthma will have him wheezing just from walking in the locker room.” Jesse jumped in as he returned from the backyard with extra chairs.

“I take offense to that, actually.” Ville retorted.

“Tell me what part of that was a lie.” Jesse deadpanned.

“Fair enough.”

“So what do you do?” Isabel refocused.

“I have four kids, and I make them travel and play funny instruments.”

Her brows knit together. “What?”

“He’s in a band.” Jesse, thoroughly bored by his brother’s old joke, explained.

“What about you?”

"I work in production, mainly set design. Films, music videos. Things like that.”

“Here? We must have run into each other by now.”

“No, no. England mostly, sometimes Germany and some other places. That’s where Aina and I met--uni in England.”

“Oh, let’s not tell those stories.” Aina warned as she returned down the staircase.

“That’s simply asking for trouble.” Isabel laughed and Aina joined in.

“So you’re from England originally, then?” Ville asked.

“No, no. It’s home now. I was born here in Helsinki, but I don’t know much about it. My mum and I moved to Italy to live with my grandparents after my father passed away. I haven’t been to the area, proper, since I was about four years old.”

“You’re here for at least a few days now, so I’ll be sure to give you the grand tour.” Aina assured.

Ville could see the gears turning in his brother’s head, as if in slow motion. Don’t do it. Don’t do it, he tried to tell his brother telepathically.

“Why don’t Ville and I join you?” Motherfucker. I’m gonna kill him. “It’ll give us a chance to get to know each other better.”

Ville smiled. “I think I know you well enough, Jesse.”

“We will be perfect gentlemen,” Jesse glared at his brother as he said the word and looked back at Aina, “without making smartass comments, I promise.”

“Somehow, I doubt it, but sure, you can come with us.”

“Do you need help setting things up here, Aina?” Ville offered, distracting from the topic.

She looked around as she answered, “No, no, I think it’s done. We’re not expecting many people. Maybe, Jess, do you want to set some lights up along the wall?”

“Sure, where--”

“In the shed.”

“I’ll join you, then.” Ville said, and the brothers made their way to the backyard again. Once they were out of earshot from the girls, he chastised, “Thank you so much for dragging me into that.”

“What? Come on! I’ve known her a bit, and I’m sure you’ll hit it off.” he said as he pulled open the door for the shed.

“Do I have a choice in the matter?”

Jesse tossed some things on a shelf as he looked for the lights that his fiancee had sent them off to find. “Well, if nothing else, think of it as bonding time with the maid of honor.” He took a box of string lights and handed it to Ville, rather forcefully, as he warned, “And don’t make up some excuse to get out of this. You’re not up to much of anything else lately.”

Ville slumped and followed his brother back into the house. “Harsh.”

“What is?” Mige, who had arrived in the meantime, asked.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head to wave his concerns. “Nothing, just people meddling in my life, as per usual.”

“Would you quit moping and help me hang it up?” Jesse called out.

Ville went to his aid at the wall next to the table of refreshments and held the lights up as Jesse placed the pins. The string of lights encircled the room, and Jesse dimmed the ceiling lights to set the ambience.

“Anything else, Aina?” he called out.

“Nope, that should be it.”

The boys then gravitated toward the beers to keep themselves preoccupied while guests arrived. Ville had briefly stopped drinking alcohol once his memory of that unfortunate accident returned, but it wasn’t long before he returned to the bottle. He kept it under control now; at least that’s what he told himself, especially since he wasn’t drinking at the rate he had been before entering rehab.

Slowly but surely, guests started to pour in. Jesse was right: it was a small gathering of no more than twenty people. His parents, Aina’s parents, some extended family members that lived in the area, and a few close friends. As Ville talked to his mother about the latest development in the passive-aggressive drama between his parents and their neighbors, his eyes wandered around the room and stopped at Isabel. She had taken her hair down from the ponytail it had been in while she baked pastries, and her olive skintone was glowing under the warm light. But what caught Ville’s attention was her smile, constant but engaging in the conversation, encouraging the other person to continue. She was beautiful. And he knew that Jesse was right, that it was time for him to move on.

But he couldn’t even bear the thought. For one thing, Isabel was at least ten years younger than him if she went to college with Aina. For another . . . Ville was as much in love with Avery as the day they had married, and he wasn’t ready to let her go quite yet.

“Um, excuse me, everyone.” Aina’s voice broke him from the reverie. “I just want to thank everyone for joining us to celebrate this moment. Jesse is…” she looked at him and beamed. “He is the love of my life. And I can’t wait for everything ahead and for us to spend the rest of our lives together. If the past eight months have been any indication, I know it’s going to be amazing.”

Jesse pulled her in for a kiss and whispered ‘I love you.’

His mother must have felt his heart ache because she took Ville’s hand in hers and gave a gentle squeeze of assurance.

“I’m fine, Ma. I’m fine.” he said before downing the rest of his beer.