It was his brother, but I couldn’t figure out what had happened and why it was nearly a fist fight. Erik didn’t strike me as the kind of man who would fight with his family, but then again, I barely knew anything about them and only a little more about Erik. He had been so closed about his story. I was listening to the argument and trying to figure out what the heck was going on.
“Heath, it’s not charity if it’s family. I just wanted to make life easier for you two. I don’t own the company. I don’t own your house. I don’t own Dad’s house. I just sent them the money so you don’t have to pay anymore.”
“No, I saw the paper. It says Erik Levy.”
Erik seemed exasperated as he tried to explain what was going on. He grabbed a piece of paper off of the table and slowly walked over to his brother who still had his fists up. Erik was calm and looked his brother right in the eyes as he started to talk.
“Heath, this is just a receipt of payment. That’s all. You will get the deed in the mail in a few weeks. Look, see right here, it says ‘the deed will arrive in two to three weeks,’” Erik said.
“It doesn’t say the deed with be in our names. The only name on that paper is yours.”
“Heath, I didn’t buy your house. What would I do with your house? You’re such a baby.”
“I am not.”
“You are, too,” Erik said as the two men sounded exactly like two brothers in an argument. “Now, go get Dad from outside and let’s figure this out.”
“Anything I can help with here?” Jarrod asked as he walked in on the scene.
“Yes!” Erik exclaimed. “I paid off my father’s business and both of their homes. But they both seem to be angry at me and think that I actually bought their homes.”
“Erik has never done a single nice thing for us. It’s not weird that we would think he tried to buy the business,” Heath defended his opinion.
“How about we get everyone together and head to my office? I’m sure we can work things out,” Jarrod said calmly.
Jarrod was bigger than both the men and stood between them as he made his suggestion, clearly more of an actual direction for them to do as he said. He had an intimidating presence, although he was really one of the best counselors I knew. He was much better than the therapists I had dealt with at my treatment center. In fact, most of the therapists I had spent our sessions talking about their own sobriety and hardly working with me at all. It was a wonder I was ever abl
e to make it out of treatment and succeed at all.
I have learned that treatment is as much about your state of mind as it is about the people you surround yourself with. Sure, I might not have had the best treatment center in the world, but I didn’t use that as an excuse. When I returned home, I knew I had to build a support network of people who I could really count on, and I did it.
My heart actually grew as I heard what had happened with Erik and his family. They didn’t get along, and Erik still paid off their debts. I knew there must have been more to the story, but I had to commend the guy for making an effort at rebuilding those old relationships. If his family decided not to forgive him or not to have him in their life, that would be their decision, but it was clear that Erik was making an effort.
The rest of the morning went off pretty uneventfully as I continued to work and anxiously waited for Erik to return to the unit. He had been gone for hours, and I seriously couldn’t imagine any family meeting taking that long. There was no way Jarrod had the time in his schedule to sit with them and work out every problem the group of three men had, but since Erik wasn’t returning to the unit, I had to wonder if Jarrod was making time for them after all.
It was well after lunch when Erik, his father, and his brother all walked onto the unit. They looked happy with smiles that spread across their faces. His brother even reached out and patted Erik on the back as they stood near the exit and seemed to be saying their goodbyes. Whatever Jarrod had done seemed to have worked wonders because the men had made up and even hugged each other just before they walked out the door.
Every bone in my body wanted to walk over to Erik and meet his family before they left. I hardly knew anything about his past, except what he had told me, and that was very little. He was a private guy and I understood that, but the more I got to know him the more I wanted to learn about him. I wanted to know what made him tick. Why he had started drinking and partying as much as he had. Hell, I wanted to know everything – although I would have settled for just a little more.
“So, that was my brother and father,” Erik said with a huge grin as he walked straight down the hallway toward me.
His walk had changed since he had arrived at the treatment center. What had once been a cocky walk that had him looking anywhere but at the person in front of him now had him looking me directly in the eyes as he stood only inches away from me.
He was too close, though. I looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to us, and my gaze caught the eye of Brianna. She just smiled big and turned away, but it was enough to get me to take a step away from Erik.
“It looks like things went well.”
“Yes. Once Jarrod agreed with me and explained that I was actually trying to do something nice for no reason at all, they both started to calm down. I swear the hardest thing was admitting that I had been terrible to them the last few years so they had a right to be suspicious of my intentions.”
“You guys hugged it out, though. So, you’re good?”
“I think so. Only time will really tell, but I’m optimistic,” he said as he took a step toward me again. “Come to my room.”
“No,” I said in shock. “It’s the middle of the day.”
“That’s the perfect time. No one will notice you’re missing.”
“Erik!”