Chapter Text
Friday nights at Hanoi were something.
Hanoi was a fairly small but well-known bar. It was located between two shops, away from the center of Madrid. Hanoi's reputation was unprecedented: friendly owners, good atmosphere, good food and drinks, and good songs on weekend nights. People from around would come by and have a drink or two with their friends, their date and even their colleagues, dancing, singing, simply enjoying their lives.
It was the case for the group of forty-year-old women and men closed to the bar. They were seated on stools, chairs, or leaning on the jukebox. They were playing with the flechette game from time to time. They were all laughing, talking loud ... they were living the moment and everyone could tell that. They were known here, as they spent most of their Friday evenings there and sometimes they were here during the day for a drink or even eating for lunch. And the owner's son was part of the group.
Daniel was working with his father, as a co-owner and also waiter, but on Friday nights, he was spending his time with his friends and his soon-to-be wife. Daniel and Monica immediately fell in love with each other as soon as she walked through the door of Hanoi one morning. She had asked for a coffee and she walked out with her cup but also his number. And at the end of the day, she had a date with him. She was living in Barcelona, but, long years ago, she had a job opportunity and decided to move to Madrid. She was now a psychologist on her own and was living the life she had always dreamt with a great job, a handsome and sweet boyfriend, with her closest friends, even though she had left a few members of the family behind her.
With these two lovebirds dancing and singing at each other, Anibal was looking at them envious with a beer in his hand. Daniel and Anibal went to high school together and they quickly became best friends. They stayed close, and now, more than a decade later, nothing changed between them. Anibal was working as a scientific computer, doing digital stuff in a big company and he was very good at it.
Why was he looking at them enviously? Simply because he missed his girlfriend who could not be with them tonight. Silene was away on a trip for almost one month and he missed her badly. She was a businesswoman and two or three times a year, she would go on business trips for contracts with other companies. And even though she loved her job and her boyfriend, she did not have the choice. But it was not the case five years ago when they have started to see each other.
At the beginning of their relationship, it was very difficult for Anibal and Silene; Anibal was very gentle, his baby's face showed his temperament in the sense that he would never hurt a fly, and he did not have a strong temper, which is not the case for Silene. She was very stubborn and wouldn't take no for an answer... and so, even though they loved each other, it was current for them to take a break from time to time.
As Anibal sighed, a strong arm gently wrapped around his neck. Andres was the older of the group just for five years. Andres was an architect. He worked hard to be where he is now and he was proud of what he had become. A famous architect from Spain.
Andres, like Silene, was very stubborn and had a very strong character too. After family problems, Andres and his younger brother, respectively at the age of 14 and 9, ended up in an orphanage. And it was there that they met Silene, who had always lived in that place. While Andres' brother and Silene had gotten along immediately, Andres was having a little more trouble with Silene. With their two tempers, they used to fight a lot. But with time and a lot of persuasions, they grew up together and learned to appreciate each other. But that didn't mean that every once in a while the two did not fight... He enjoyed annoyed her like making sexist remarks to Silene because he knew she did not like it. And Andres liked to tease her.
And now, Andres was teasing Anibal, to make him change his mind, and especially not to let him mope in his corner.
Andres was accompanied by his husband, Martin, who was laughing at Anibal too. He was his husband's associate. They met at a conference about their work six years ago in Florence. And since that day, Martin moved in to join Andres in Madrid and they get married. And these two made the pair. They were in love with each other; Andres was one hundred percent heterosexual before meeting Martin and Martin was also one hundred percent heterosexual before meeting Andres too. As they loved to say, they were soulmates who finally found each other. Martin learned through the years how to handle Andres's temper, even sometimes, Martin had called Andres' brother for advice. They were really cute together and acted as if they were the parents of the group as everyone would take pieces of advice from them. That's why they were teasing Anibal; if anyone here had helped Anibal win Silene's heart back a lot, it was those two.
"We've got your beers!" yelled a tall and black-haired woman through the bar.
She made her way through the crowd and arrived at their table accompanied by a woman with long red hair. Agata, the first woman, was Silene's best friend. As Agata worked in the art industry, they met a long time ago at Agata's gallery. Silene had made a crude remark to Agata's dress as she knows how to do so well. After a huge fight, these two women discovered that as they began to love to hate each other. Agata loved to stand up to Silene, and Silene finally appreciated her stubbornness in her way.
The red-haired woman was Alicia, an artist in Agata's gallery. With Agata, they had a weird relationship in the sense that their friends and even themselves did not know if what they had was called relationship. They loved to spend time with each other, but they loved their freedom, they also liked to say that they belonged to no one. They cared about the other so much, they felt like they are together, but they had not officialized it either.
"Finally!" cried Andres as they all took from their hands. Everyone settled down. Naturally, the men of the group started to talk to each other as the women group too.
"When your friend is supposed to be there, Mon'?" asked Agata.
"In a little while now I think. She said that she had a few things to take care at home and she will meet me there"
"What happened to her ... I couldn't have experienced it myself. I hate men so much" said Alicia as she was taking a sip of her beer.
"Do you think that she would come and meet us? She does not know us after all"
"I don't know... But I hope she will. She's a great person, very funny and adorable. You'll love her"
Agata and Alicia smiled at their friend. A silence settled down between them as they were thinking about Monica's friend.
A month ago, Monica gets a call from her old friend, Raquel Murillo.
They were at college, studying psychology, and they worked together in a hospital for a few years after getting their degree before Monica decided to move to Madrid. Even though they did not see each other, they tried to keep in contact. But unfortunately that day, Raquel called Monica and she learned that Alberto, Raquel's husband, abused her physically and mentally for a long time. Monica suspected that kind of behavior from him since the first time she met him at college when Raquel started to date him, and she advised Raquel about it. But she was blind in love and she just asked Monica to accept her relationship with him. Monica let it be and now, one month ago when she learned about her friend's situation, that she was miserable, she proposed to Raquel to come and work with her in Madrid: she would have a job in a new city far away from that shithead, from all the comments at her work and their friends and families and she would have a new beginning. Monica wanted to help her friend as she felt like she abandoned her while she knew that Alberto was that kind of man.
So earlier today, freshly divorced, Raquel was at Monica's office signing papers and arranging her new office for starting her now job sharply Monday morning.
Monica had asked her to come to Hanoi that evening to meet her friends and her future husband. Raquel, a little reluctant, did not promise her to come as she still had boxes unpacked and just wanted to be at her new home. Monica accepted that but insisted on the fact that she will meet Daniel, her love of her life, and her friends that she considered as her family.
Monica told what happened to Raquel to her friends: their group had a great dynamic between each member, always caring, supporting, and loving everyone. As Raquel was Monica's friend, they wanted to help her in every way. That is what friends were supposed to do, and their group was really into that kind of friendship.