Chương 95: Bonus story : More than just colleagues : Part 3 : No Obligation

The next morning, Aldric arrived in front of the depot at five fifty, as had now become his habit. The large metal door was still closed and the street almost empty. A few vehicles moved in the distance while the first rays of sunlight began to appear behind the buildings. Aldric checked the time on his phone before putting the device back in his pocket. The previous evening still regularly came back to mind. A car parked on the other side of the street. Patrick got out with his usual cup of coffee in hand.

He nodded to Aldric before crossing the road and searching for his keys in his jacket pocket. — Good morning. — Good morning. Patrick walked over to the door and began unlocking it. Aldric waited until he had finished before asking the question that had remained on his mind since the previous evening. — Is everything all right? Patrick pushed open the metal door. — Yes. Patrick switched on the lights in the depot before returning to his coffee. — We've got a busy day today. — Very well.

Aldric asked no further questions. If Patrick wanted to talk about what had happened, he would probably do so when he felt it was necessary. Insisting would only push him into a conversation he was not yet ready to have. A few minutes later, Lucas entered the depot with a coffee in one hand and a sports bag over his shoulder. — Morning, survivors. Patrick checked his watch. — Five fifty-six. Lucas raised his arms. — Four minutes early. — I'm impressed. — I'm improving.

Karim entered at almost the same moment and set his bag down near the changing room. — He ran from the corner of the street. Lucas immediately turned toward him. — Traitor. — You wanted him to think you were punctual. — I am punctual. — You were going to be late. — Technically, if he arrived before the scheduled time, he wasn't late, Aldric said. Lucas pointed a finger at him. — Thank you. Patrick shook his head before heading toward his office. — Don't encourage him. They began preparing the truck.

Karim checked the straps while Aldric counted the protective blankets. Lucas spent almost two minutes looking for his gloves before discovering that they were in his jacket pocket. Patrick, meanwhile, checked the schedule and reviewed the three addresses planned for the day. The first move involved a couple leaving an apartment in the twelfth arrondissement to move to the other side of Paris. The apartment was not particularly large, but boxes occupied almost the entire living room and part of the hallway.

While Patrick spoke with the owners to confirm how the loading would be organized, Lucas and Aldric began protecting the first pieces of furniture. Lucas placed a blanket over a dresser before looking at Aldric. — All right, important question. — I'm listening. — What do you do on weekends? — It depends on what needs to be accomplished. — I'm talking about what you do when nothing needs to be accomplished. — I sometimes read and do my grocery shopping. Lucas shook his head. — That's not a hobby.

— It is still an activity I do in my free time. — Are you doing this on purpose? — No... Karim walked past them carrying a box. — Give up. Lucas turned toward him. — What about you? What do you do on weekends? Karim set the box down near the entrance. — I spend time with my family. — I know that. What else? — We go out sometimes. We go to the park, the movies, or my parents' place. My son also has practice on Saturday mornings. — What kind of practice? Aldric asked. — Football. He's been playing for two years.

— See? That's a real answer to a weekend question, Lucas said. Karim looked at him. — What about you? — Sports. Patrick, who was coming back after finishing with the clients, burst out laughing. — You? Lucas looked offended. — Why that reaction? — What sport? — I go running. Karim raised an eyebrow. — Once every two months. — Frequency does not define the activity. Patrick picked up a blanket and began wrapping a table. — You mostly play football with your friends on Sundays. — There. So, sports.

Stolen story; please report. — And then you spend three hours at the café. Lucas waved a hand. — Recovery. — What is the purpose of this recovery? Aldric asked. — Talking, eating, and complaining about our performance. — Does it improve your performance the next time? — Absolutely not. Patrick shook his head with a smile before reminding them that there was still a large part of the apartment left to empty. They continued loading for almost an hour.

Once the truck was nearly full, Lucas returned to the subject during the drive to the new address. — What about you, Patrick? — What about me? — Weekends. — I do DIY. Aldric looked at Patrick in the rearview mirror. — What do you build? — A bit of everything. I repair furniture, repaint rooms, replace shelves, or do some work in the garden. — His house is a permanent construction site, Lucas said. — It's not a construction site... — You're always redoing something.

— Because there's always something that needs doing. — That's exactly what I just said. Aldric considered this information. — So you have the tools necessary to do all of this? Lucas burst out laughing. — Wrong question. — Why? Karim answered from the front of the vehicle. — Because he owns every tool. — Not every tool. — Almost every tool, Karim clarified. Lucas smiled. — You ask him for a drill, and he pulls out three. Patrick frowned. — They don't all serve the same purpose. Aldric immediately nodded.

— That logic seems perfectly reasonable to me. — Thank you, Aldric... Lucas sighed. — I lost again. The second move of the day proved more difficult. The building's elevator was out of order, and several pieces of furniture had to be carried down a particularly narrow staircase. Still, the conversation continued between trips.

Lucas talked about a match scheduled for the following Sunday, Karim explained that his son wanted to go to the zoo sometime in the next few weeks, and Patrick mentioned a fence he was trying to finish behind his house. — What about you? What are you doing on Sunday? Lucas asked as they headed back upstairs to get another dresser. — I don't know yet. — You could come watch my match. — I don't know the teams, and I don't have a sufficient understanding of the rules of football either.

— You know the basics, and it doesn't matter. — Not all the specific situations. — Are you seriously planning to study the rules before coming? — Naturally. Karim, who was climbing the stairs behind them, burst out laughing. — Don't invite him. He'll end up becoming the referee. — I have no qualifications for that role. Lucas had to lean against the railing to catch his breath. They finished the move before noon and found a small park near their third address to take their break.

Lucas had bought a sandwich, Patrick opened a salad, Karim took out a container of food prepared at home, and Aldric had brought pasta he had cooked the previous evening. Lucas took a bite of his sandwich. — I don't understand people who get up early on weekends. Patrick checked the time on his phone. — You consider ten o'clock early. — On Sundays, yes. Karim opened his bottle of water. — My son wakes up at seven. Lucas grimaced. — That's an excellent advertisement against having children.

— By seven thirty, he already wants to play. — Even worse. — You say that now. The day you have children, you'll change your mind. Lucas shook his head. — Or I'll teach them to sleep. — Good luck. — Aldric, have you thought about the match? — Every decision deserves at least some consideration. Patrick looked up from his salad. — Leave him alone. — I'm not putting any pressure on him. Karim looked at Lucas. — You've been asking him the same question since this morning. — It's progressive persuasion.

— I'll give you an answer before Sunday. — I accept that proposal. The last client had little furniture, and the entrance to the building was wide enough that it presented no particular difficulty. They brought the truck back to the depot shortly before six in the evening and began putting the equipment away. Lucas talked about his match for another few minutes, Karim reminded him that he had already asked the question several times, and Patrick eventually announced that the day was over.

They parted ways in front of the depot. Aldric headed toward the metro, intending to go straight home. However, a few minutes after leaving the station, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Emma had just sent him a message. Emma: Are you finished? Aldric: I just finished. I'm heading home. Emma: I'm in the neighborhood. Café des Trois Colombes? Aldric: I'm on my way. When he entered the café about ten minutes later, Emma was sitting near a window.

Her bag occupied the chair beside her, and she held a cup between her hands. She looked up as he approached. — Hi. — Good evening. Aldric sat down across from her. — Difficult day? — Normal. — With you, I never know whether "normal" means quiet or whether you carried a wardrobe down four flights of stairs. — No wardrobe presented any particular difficulty today. — I'll take that to mean it was quiet. Aldric ordered a coffee. When it arrived, Emma leaned toward him. — So? That drink with your coworkers?

— It was interesting. — Is "interesting" positive or negative? — Positive. — Tell me. Aldric told her about the bar Lucas had chosen, the moving stories, the cat hidden in a box, the couch that was impossible to get out, and the poorly measured elevator. Emma laughed several times, especially when he told her that Lucas had spent several years believing that Patrick had actually been talking to a couch. — I think I'd like to meet Lucas. — He talks a lot. — I gathered that. — Much more when he's not working.

— I gathered that too. He then told her about Karim, who joked more than he did at the depot, and then about Patrick, who almost seemed to become a different person when he no longer had to keep track of schedules or equipment. Emma took a sip. — That's normal. At work, part of everyone's attention stays focused on what they have to do. Once the workday is over, you can relax more. Aldric nodded. That explanation matched what he had observed. He then told her that they had talked about what they did on weekends.

Lucas played sports, although Patrick and Karim seemed to question exactly how often he actually did so. Patrick spent much of his free time doing DIY projects. Karim organized much of his time around his family and his son. — What about you? — I didn't really answer. I didn't know what to say. — You do plenty of things. — I do my grocery shopping. I read. I walk around Paris. I learn new things. — There you go. — Lucas says grocery shopping doesn't count as a hobby. — For once, I mostly agree with him.

Aldric took a sip of coffee. — He also invited me to watch his match on Sunday. — And are you going to go? — I don't know yet. — Why are you hesitating? — I don't know his friends. I don't know the rules of football well enough, and I don't see what my role would be there. — You don't need to have a role. — Then why is he inviting me? — Because he wants you to be there. — For no other reason? — That happens a lot with coworkers. At first, you see each other because you work together.

You have lunch together because you have the same break, you talk because you're in the same truck, and you help each other because it's your job. Then one day, someone suggests going for a drink after work. After that, someone invites the others to a match, a meal, or an outing. — So they stop being just coworkers and become friends? — Sometimes. — How do you know when that transition has happened? — I knew you were going to ask that. — There must be some kind of sign. — Not really. — That lacks precision.

— I know. You love criteria. — They make evaluation easier. — Human relationships don't really work like that. You don't wake up one morning with a notification telling you, "Congratulations, this person is now your friend." Most of the time, you realize it afterward. Maybe it simply starts when you want to see someone even though nothing requires you to, she continued. — Like Lucas inviting me to his match? — For example. — Or like them suggesting we go for a drink after work. — Exactly.

— I think that's a good thing. You're starting to have other people around you. — Your presence is not a problem. — That's not what I meant. When you arrived here, you didn't know anyone. You depended on me for almost everything. Now you have your apartment, your job, your habits, and people you can see without me necessarily being there. That's a good thing. — I don't think I can use the term "friends" with certainty yet. — Then don't use it yet. They stayed at the café for a while longer before parting ways.

Emma walked with him to the corner of the street, then headed in another direction to go home. Aldric continued toward his apartment, his hands in his pockets and his mind still occupied by their conversation. In his world, companions rarely came from simple conversations. The men Aldric had been closest to had become his companions over the course of military campaigns. They had traveled together for months, slept in the same camps, shared the same rations, and faced the same dangers. Trust was built gradually.

A man proved that he could hold his position when the enemy charged, remain calm when a plan failed, or share his last provisions when an expedition went wrong. Companions were forged through hardship, danger, and necessity. Here, nothing was comparable. Patrick, Lucas, Karim, and he did not fight together. They moved furniture, protected boxes, shared sandwiches on a low wall, and spent their days in a truck. Yet some of the feelings seemed familiar to him. He knew some of their habits.

Lucas regularly forgot his gloves and recounted events with far more detail than they had actually involved. Karim spoke little in the mornings and always checked the straps twice. Patrick always finished his first coffee before the day truly began. None of this information was of any major professional importance. Yet Aldric remembered it. He had once known his companions' habits in the same way.

He knew which soldier checked his equipment three times before a battle, which one always ate too quickly, and which one needed a few minutes of silence before a difficult march. Those details had never been recorded in any report. They had simply settled into his memory after spending so much time alongside the same people. Aldric finally arrived in front of his building. As he searched for his keys, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and checked the screen. A message from Lucas had just appeared.

Lucas: I created a group. Before he had time to reply, a second one immediately appeared. Lucas added you to a group. The name appeared at the top of the screen: The Extreme Movers.