The soft clink of a spoon against the glass broke the quiet, producing the familiar little chime of metal against glass.
Amanda gave her tea one final stir, watching the tiny whirlpool settle before lifting the glass with a satisfied smile.
She headed back toward the balcony, where she'd left her brother a few minutes earlier, the warm scent of mint following her.
She'd only gone inside to add sugar to her tea. Somehow, though, that brief absence had been enough for Adam to find yet another reason to argue with her.
“What’s so wrong with you coming to work with me, anyway?” he asked, leaning back in his chair.
“Especially when you just told me they practically rejected you.”
Amanda stopped beside the little mint plant growing along the balcony railing. Without bothering to answer him immediately, she reached down and plucked a few small green leaves from their stems.
She dropped some into their tea glasses, then popped the remaining leaves into her mouth and began chewing them slowly.
Adam stared at her.
His nose wrinkled in open disgust.
“Do you have to do that every single time?”
Amanda merely raised her eyebrows at him, as if his opinion had been duly noted and promptly dismissed.
Then she settled into her chair, cradling her glass between both hands.
“Do I seriously have to justify every decision I make in my life a thousand times?” she asked, giving him a pointed look.
“My problem is that I've barely started feeling settled. I've finished paying off the apartment installments, the cats have gotten used to the place, and I finally know my way around the neighborhood. I can run my errands in peace without having to ask someone for anything.”
She took a small sip of tea, looking entirely pleased with the life she'd managed to build for herself.
“Okay, and what's stopping you from moving in with me?” Adam countered, spreading his hands as though the solution were painfully obvious.
“You could live at my place, and we could go to work together every morning. That sounds like stability to me, too.”
Amanda slowly lowered her glass.
For a moment, she simply stared at him. Then she let out a long, disbelieving sigh.
“Move in with you? Into your apartment?”
She repeated the words as though saying them twice might somehow make the suggestion less ridiculous.
“Have you actually lost your mind?”
Adam opened his mouth to respond, but she was already shaking her head.
“Who would give up all this peace and quiet to live in the middle of endless arguments and chaos? Then there's Mom calling every single day, and you, of course, would make sure she gets a full report on everything I do.”
She pointed her spoon at him accusingly.
“No, thank you. I'll pass.”
Adam leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, wearing the smug expression of someone who'd decided to be offended on principle.
“You know, you're really determined to go off the rails, aren't you?”
“Mind your own business.” Amanda waved a dismissive hand at him before returning her attention to her tea.
“I'm perfectly happy this way. When I decide I'm ready to move, and if I decide I want to work for you, I'll call you and let you know. But it'll be my decision, on my terms.”
She paused, then turned toward him again, narrowing her eyes.
“And I'd really appreciate it if you stopped trying to recruit the entire family for your little campaign. Stop getting Mom, Dad, and Mazen on your side just so they can gang up on me and convince me to change my mind.”
She gave him a stern look, tapping one finger against the arm of her chair.
“I'm done with that. I'll decide what I want my life to look like.”
Adam stared at her for a beat before muttering, “You little animal.”
“And you're like a donkey.”
His jaw dropped.
“Excuse me?”
But Amanda had already taken another leisurely sip of tea, looking as though she hadn't said anything remotely offensive.
That was the last straw.
Adam shot to his feet so abruptly that his chair scraped against the floor. He gripped his glass, staring at her with the barely restrained frustration of a man seriously contemplating throwing his piping-hot tea straight into his sister's face.
Or perhaps finding a way to cut off that ridiculously long tongue of hers.
Honestly, the thing seemed long enough to drag along the floor.
“Would you just shut up already?” he burst out. “Please! Just shut up!”
Amanda blinked at him innocently.
“All this over a cup of mint tea?” he complained, throwing his free hand into the air. “God help me. You're absolutely impossible!”
She pressed her lips together, desperately trying to maintain a straight face.
The effort lasted approximately two seconds before the corners of her mouth began to twitch.
“I hate you,” Adam declared, pointing at her as though issuing a formal warning.
“And I absolutely adore you, darling.”
Amanda rested her chin in her palm, gazing up at him with exaggerated affection.
“How many Adams do you think I have in my life? Just the one.”
Adam's eyebrows shot up.
He looked at her for another moment, then turned his head away with an irritated huff, apparently deciding that even looking at her was a waste of his remaining patience.
He was just about to fire back another insult when Amanda's phone rang.
The sudden sound cut through their argument.
She glanced at the screen, her expression shifting from amusement to mild curiosity before she answered.
“Hello?”
“Good evening, Miss Amanda. You attended an interview for a position at Ironzone today, correct? We'd like to invite you back tomorrow at nine in the morning for an interview with our Finance Director.”
Amanda went still.
Her fingers tightened slightly around the phone as she listened, making sure she'd heard correctly.
For one brief second, she seemed to forget how to respond.
Then her eyes widened, and a smile began to spread across her face.
“Of course! Thank you so much. I'll be there on time.”
She ended the call and lowered the phone slowly, still staring at its screen as though the news might disappear if she moved too quickly.
Then she looked up at Adam.
Her smile widened.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“What?”
Amanda drew in a breath, barely managing to contain herself.
“IN YOUR FACE, YOU MUTT! I GOT THE JOB!”
She sprang out of her chair and launched into a series of wildly uncoordinated dance moves, waving her arms and bouncing around the balcony with absolutely no regard for rhythm, dignity, or the possibility of knocking something over.
For a woman who'd spent the better part of the afternoon worrying about her interview, she was now behaving as though she'd just been crowned queen of the world.
Adam, meanwhile, slowly lowered himself back into his chair.
He watched her in silence, his expression settling into the quiet resignation of a man who'd finally accepted that peace was never going to be an option.
He dragged a hand down his face.
“There is no power nor strength except through God.”
“I’m ordering a pizza and some huge meal!” Amanda announced, spinning around to face him. “We need to celebrate properly!”
She took another few steps, then stopped abruptly and looked him over.
“Actually, maybe I should order you some yogurt instead.”
She tilted her head, pretending to consider the matter seriously.
“You look like you could use something to cool that fire burning inside you.”
Adam gave her a flat stare. Amanda threw both arms into the air.
“I GOT THE JOB! I GOT THE JOB!”
“Yeah, yeah, we heard you the first seventeen times,” Adam muttered, rubbing his temples.
But the moment she caught the faintest hint of a smile threatening to betray him, she pointed at him triumphantly.
“See? You're happy for me!”
“Don't push your luck.”
She laughed and finally dropped back into her chair, still grinning so broadly that her cheeks had begun to ache.
Adam watched her for a moment before something seemed to occur to him.
He straightened in his seat, his earlier irritation giving way to genuine curiosity.
“Wait a minute. You still haven't told me what exactly you'll be doing there. Isn't Ironzone a steel company?”
Amanda's excitement softened into something more thoughtful.
She reached for her phone again, remembering the strange gaps she'd noticed while researching the company earlier that day.
She unlocked it and began scrolling through the information she'd collected, her thumb moving quickly across the screen.
“It's a pretty big company,” she explained, turning the phone toward him.
“It was originally founded by Smith Alberta and his friend, Mariene Tony brad. They went into several other business ventures together, too.”
Adam leaned forward slightly, his attention finally captured.
“But eventually, Mariene moved abroad to start a new life with her children, and Mr. Smith bought out his share of this particular company. Ironzone now belongs to Adrian Smith Alberta, who currently runs it.”
Adam nodded thoughtfully, taking another sip of tea.
“Their partnership lasted thirty years.”
“Exactly.”
Amanda shifted in her seat, tucking one leg beneath her as she continued.
“And from what I've heard, they're still in touch. Apparently, when Mr. Smith bought Mariene's share, it was actually Mariene herself who asked him to do it.”
She scrolled down to another section of the article, then turned the screen toward Adam again.
“In exchange, they arranged a deal involving another company Mr. Smith owned in the country he'd moved to. Mr. Smith traded that company for his share in Ironzone and paid her some extra money on top of that.”
Adam's gaze moved across the screen while Amanda watched him, waiting to see whether he'd notice what had caught her attention.
“There aren't many articles about them,” she continued after a moment, “but the ones I found were published in major business magazines. Not obscure websites or anything like that. The information is limited, but it's all from fairly reputable sources.”
Adam scrolled through the articles and photographs himself, occasionally pausing to read a line more carefully.
When he was done, he handed the phone back to her.
“And what about this Adrian guy?”
Amanda scratched her head, looking up toward the ceiling as she tried to organize her thoughts.
“Honestly? I have no idea.”
She took the phone from him and glanced at the screen again.
“I searched for a picture of him and tried to find more detailed information, but all I got was a brief profile. He's a prominent businessman, has a pretty solid amount of experience, and has been involved in plenty of partnerships and collaborations with well-known people in the industry.”
She frowned slightly.
“That's practically all there is.”
Adam tilted his head.
“And that's strange because...?”
“Because you'd expect to find more about someone running a company this big.”
Amanda tapped her finger against the side of her phone, thinking aloud.
“I mean, there are articles about the company's history, its founders, and its business dealings. But when it comes to Adrian himself, there's barely anything beyond the basics.”
She glanced at her brother.
“I can't quite put my finger on it, but the information feels incomplete. Like there's something missing. Something they aren't telling us.”
For a moment, Adam seemed to consider that. Then he shrugged, apparently unwilling to spend any more time investigating a man neither of them had met.
“Well, you'll find out tomorrow.”
He lifted his glass toward her in a mock toast.
“Just make sure you come back with enough gossip to make our next tea session interesting.”
Amanda laughed, finally putting her phone aside.
“Trust me, if there's anything worth gossiping about, you'll be the first to know.”
“Lucky me.”
She smiled at him, recognizing the familiar mixture of sarcasm and reluctant affection in his voice.
Adam had never been particularly good at expressing concern without disguising it as an argument.
He worried about her, wanted her to succeed, and genuinely believed he knew what was best for her, even if his attempts to help sometimes involved recruiting the entire family to interfere in her life.
And as much as she enjoyed driving him up the wall, she knew how lucky she was to have him.
To have all of them, really.
Her family might be loud, meddlesome, and occasionally unbearable, but they were hers. Beneath the arguments, the ridiculous insults, and the constant attempts to manage one another's lives, there was a kind of love she never had to question.
It was a comforting thought, one she carried with her even when she wanted nothing more than to escape them all for a little while.
As the evening wore on, however, her attention gradually drifted back to the following morning.
The excitement of getting the interview had barely settled before her mind began racing ahead.
She imagined herself walking into the company, rehearsed possible answers in her head, and considered every question the Finance Director might ask.
Then she started preparing for questions he probably wouldn't ask at all.
She thought about what she would wear, how she would introduce herself, and what she might say if the interview took an unexpected turn.
By the time she finished, she'd practically conducted the entire interview in her imagination.
Because if there was one thing Amanda knew how to do, it was prepare for the future.
She liked plans. She liked knowing what came next. And she liked believing that, with enough thought and preparation, she could keep her life moving in the direction she'd chosen.
What she didn't know was that, for once, the future had absolutely no intention of following her plans.