Chapter 45: More Visitors

On Wednesday afternoon, Julia and Jose arrived from the airport in their hire car. Anna and Dylan were excited to see them again and they both hugged and kissed Julia. Anna kissed Jose and whispered “So pleased you took our hint!”.

“So am I” he whispered back “Thank you both so much.”

“Hey!” Interrupted Julia “Stop whispering sweet nothings to my boyfriend.” But she was laughing.

“We were just talking about how they gave me the little push I needed to ask you out” Jose explained.

“I didn’t know!” squealed Julia “Thank you so much for encouraging him.”

Anna took them up to the guest room and when Jose went to use the ensuite bathroom, Julia said quietly “Anna, would you and Dylan mind if we cooled things down a bit between the three of us? Jose is a bit conservative and I would hate to embarrass him.”

“Of course, and we can wear swimmers in the pool if you like” Anna replied.

“Thank you. I really like him and I don’t want to put him off” Julia explained “Maybe we can broaden his horizons when he gets to know you two better.”

“You may be seeing a lot more of us in a couple of years” said Anna “We are both thinking of applying to the uni in Barcelona.”

“That would be really cool” enthused Julia.

When Jose came out of the bathroom, Anna said “You both must be hot after your journey. Do you want to get changed and join us for a swim?”

“That would be great Anna” Jose replied.

Anna was already in her bikini so went down to the kitchen to pour iced water and lemon for everyone. She told Dylan about her conversation with Julia as she took the drinks to the outside dining table.

After their guests came down and had their drinks, they all jumped into the pool to cool off and swam around for a while. They eventually got out, towelled off most of the water and sat talking.

“So, what’s the news you said you had?” Anna asked Julia.

“Well, my Dad had a car accident and passed away. Jose took me to London last week for the funeral.” Julia replied, as Jose squeezed her hand “My Mother didn’t go.”

“I’m so sorry!” exclaimed Anna “You never mentioned him before and I didn’t like to ask.”

“Well, I hardly ever saw him since he and my Mother split up when I was quite young” Julia explained “I thought he wasn’t interested in me, but it turns our my Mother did everything she could to keep us apart. Because I only heard her side of the story, I guess I just went along with it.”

“That’s really sad and now you will never hear his side of the story” Dylan said.

Julia sniffled for a few minutes, then continued “I know, but he had written a letter for me with his will. He divorced her on the grounds of her adultery and she didn’t get a lot of money from him in the divorce settlement. He let her stay in the apartment in Barcelona and gave her a generous allowance to look after me. It turns out he was quite wealthy and even owned the whole of our apartment block.”

“Wow! So what will happen now?” asked Anna.

“I can hardly believe it, but he left most of his assets to me” Julia explained “It’s all tied up in a trust until I am 18 but the trustee is a lawyer friend of his from Barcelona and the will states that I can have as much money as I want, providing the trustee doesn’t think it’s excessive or I am being manipulated.”

“Wow Julia!” Dylan exclaimed “But how does your Mum fit into all this?”

“You won’t believe this” Julia laughed. “She still gets her allowance to supposedly look after me until I am 18 but I get to decide how much! I spoke to my Mother after we returned from London and she had already got Dad’s lawyer to email her a copy of the will. She was furious and started ranting at me until I mentioned her allowance.”

“So you get to live every teens dream of controlling their parents?” Anna grinned “I must be one of the few who doesn’t want to. Sorry Julia, that was very insensitive.”

“Well, I’m not going to overdo it, but Jose is moving in with me permanently and my Mother has agreed to turn up for all parent/teacher meetings and any others I think she should as a parent to give the impression that she is looking after me. In return, I agreed to keep her allowance at the same, very generous level. Basically, she is going to move out of the apartment, but I will keep her bedroom for her with some of her stuff in it until I am at least 16 so that I can claim she lives there. It still leaves us one spare bedroom for guests and you are welcome anytime.”