As I take a cigarette from the discarded white box on top of the wooden dining table, I think about how ridiculous this whole scheme is. I barely know Joshua — now the three pieces of information that I’ll fixate on are: his full name is Joshua Hadi, his father is Andreas Hadi (notoriously known for getting married 4 times and having kids around the globe) and that he’s an Ivy League graduate. I turn my lighter on, put the other end of the cigarette near the flame and ignite it. The smoke enters my lungs when I try to make more sense of Joshua and his life. It’s hard to get to know someone who’s seemingly very closed off — even in our first encounter he didn’t speak a lot — so the best possible way to try to get to know him is through everyone else. He doesn’t seem like the person who likes to talk about himself.

Before I can pull up his Instagram account to try and stalk his best-friends, the empty wicker chair in front of me is being pulled backwards as the presence of a man finally takes up the space. I look up from my phone, pinch my cigarette with my index and middle finger before standing up in response to his arrival. He lets out a hearty chuckle before shaking his head and motioning for me to sit back down.

“Engga usah sampe berdiri juga kali, Thal.” He says as he sits down and adjusts the position of his chair. This time he’s dressed in a white button-up shirt and a pair of short khaki pants — insinuating that he probably doesn’t have work today — as well as sandals. He literally dresses like every other Ivy graduates out there but the look fits him well. “Udah lama?”

I shake my head as I throw some of the ashes from my cigarettes into the ashtray in the middle of the table, “Nope, baru sampe juga.”

“Sorry, I got held back at home, Dad wanted to do a video conference of some kind.” Though I never asked for an explanation — and I don’t need one — he still insisted on giving a clarification.

“Video conference? Not video call?”

One of the ways that prove effective when trying to detach yourself from people is to avoid asking them personal questions. This is challenging, given the fact that I’m a Human Resource Manager and my job revolves around understanding all the employees — both professionally and personally — but it’s never hard to find a line between work and recreation. I don’t befriend the employees at my work place and the only 2 friends I have are Mardan and Julian — who are both pretty detached people too — who have known me since kindergarten. So when the question about video conferencing his dad subconsciously slips out of my mouth, I’ve forgotten the first rule for myself.

Joshua grabs the menu and shakes his head, “I don’t have a good relationship with my father.”

Okay, maybe I lied. I’ve googled him before I drove here — curiosity really did kill the cat.

Joshua Hadi is Andreas Hadi’s first son from his first marriage with Olivia Michaelson — a retired socialite in Los Angeles’ most influential circle, a look at her Instagram will tell you that she probably has tea time with Kris Jenner once in a while. When Joshua was 3 they divorced and not long after, Andreas remarried. This time with the daughter of a petroleum and gas tycoon from Qatar; a lot of people assumed that they did it to strengthen the business relations between these 2 families but it wasn’t a loveless one. Out of this marriage, Andreas has 2 kids: Qamila Hadi and Ziad Hadi. Both of which are seen with Joshua sometimes.

He divorced again and married an Indonesian where it resulted in 3 kids — 2 twins and a son. They’re barely talked about even though their mom resides in Semarang where she’s vocally active about Child Cancer Awareness. She seems kind (from the pictures on Wikipedia). And finally, lastly, Andreas married a retired model from Morocco where he has his last kid: Sahara Hadi. All of the news about the family came from speculations, ‘close sources’ and never from the family themselves. They’re pretty reserved and lowkey, to say the least. If I were them, I think I would be too.

The sound of Joshua turning the pages of the menu snap me out of the daydream that I’m having, I’m reminded that I haven’t responded to his statement about his father, “Who in the 21st century has a good relationship with their father?”

He smiles a little, “No one.”

“Exactly.”

After putting in our order to the waiter, he turns to look at me, “Thalia, gue minta maaf banget kalo misalnya gue naro lo di posisi yang engga enak sama sekali. It was never my intention to. I was scared I’d look like the sulky ex-boyfriend and decided that the best way to do it was to pretend that I had a girlfriend. Should’ve just stayed looking pathetic rather than dragging you down to Hell with me.”

I stub out my cigarette before discarding it inside the ashtray, “I don’t mind, Joshua, I really don’t. It’s bound to make my life more interesting.”

He nods before he grabs a pile of paper from inside his laptop bag, “Gue udah bikin perjanjian buat kita berdua.”

“Do we really need it though?” There isn’t the need to make it all seem so... official. I genuinely want to help him out of the goodness of my own heart and it doesn’t have to feel like a business partnership. Truthfully, I know I’m not getting anything out of the whole ordeal and that’s fine by me. Have I grown soft towards humans? Mardan will be so disappointed once he finds out.

Joshua stares at me like I’ve put a curse on his whole family, “Biar ada deal aja di antara kita berdua.”

“Read me what you’ve written.” I tell him