Dedicated to WinifredEkwere

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Chapter 15 - * Do I really need to undergo this 'brother instinct' interrogation? *

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Taylor's POV

"I'm feeling hungry!" Eva exclaimed, whining dramatically.

"Come let's go and munch on a Mc burger or something. My treat." I smiled.

"No!" she pouted.

"Why not? I'll get you ice cream too." I winked.

"No." she sighed. She hesitated to continue, but did anyway.

"I'd gain weight. I don't want to look like a walking ball. Moreover I have to go on my evening jog." she whined like a kid.

We were at Stacy's. I was there because it was my temporary place of stay, but Eva was here because she and Stacy are inseparable. When Scarlet first told me, I did not believe it but now, I can assure it myself.

Eva went to the kitchen and juggled around for some time. She came out with a bowl of vegetables and a big spoon. There were a lot of leaves, lettuce, I presume. She came and sat next to me on the couch. Stacy was applying mascara, she was going out with Kenny.

"What do we learn from cows, buffaloes and elephants?" I asked Eva. She was chewing on a spoon of lettuce.

"Hmm...Is it that they move slowly because they are large in size." She said tapping her chin.

"Um...No!" I trailed. She stuffed another spoon of the salad into her mouth and raised an eyebrow.

"It is just impossible to reduce weight by eating green grassy salads and walking." I said in a serious tone purposefully. She nodded eating another spoonful. When the words kicked in, she stared at me with an open mouth, making me to laugh hard at her reaction.

Stacy heard me laughing and stepped in front of us. She glared at me playfully. "In our case, I'm sure you'd take your words back." She said and twirled around, showing her dress.

"Okay. How do I look? You think Kenny will like it?" She asked having a hand over her hip. I gave her a thumbs up.

"You look hot, sis!" I exclaimed. Eva gave her a wink and continued eating her salad after coming out of her dumbfounded state. I smiled at her and she smiled back, only her's was a cute and innocent one.

We heard the bell ring and Stacy went to check on it. Meanwhile I was talking with Eva.

"At least let me accompany you for the jog." I suggested.

"Okay. I would love that, Johnny Depp" She replied with a smile and she winked at the name.

"No. I would not love that. You are going nowhere with that guy!" Hissed a voice from behind.

Thus our exchanges were cut off by the devil, none other than Eva's brother, Mac.

"Why are you behind him? Trust me, he's cocky and all, but I can assure you that my brother's a really good guy." Stacy added which made Mac roll his eyes.

"Okay, forget all that. I have good news!" He said and then turned towards Eva. "You know about the family cum business meet I went to....." He trailed. Eva nodded her head.

"Yeah. My hard work finally paid off!" She raised an eyebrow at his words.

"Our Gramp, uncles and even dad agreed that I worked hard and thereby..." He gave a dramatic pause for a little longer, taking a look at the two girls.

"Just get to the point, will ya?" Stacy hissed, but it was only playfully.

"And thereby....I'm given the ownership and management of the New Zealand branch of Delaney group of hotels." He smiled triumphantly, and Eva placed the bowl on the coffee table with both her hands. She bubbled up and started jumping cheerfully.

If it was someone else behaving this way, it would have seemed very weird and extremely immature. But, no. This was Eva. Her jumping and clapping hands only showed her innocence. She was infantile, but that made her all the more adorable. Mac had a real soft spot for his sister. He picked her and twirled her around. Her giggles filling the air, her hair swayed and I couldn't help the involuntary smile on my face that bloomed on admiring her cuteness.

He put her down, then explained some more details about the hotels and stuff. He kept telling about the paperwork that was still needed to be done for the ownership. Till then, he had to do managing. I couldn't care less about his blather but I was happy to see that the mood had lifted in the room.

He then told something about Stan and that caught my attention. He said he had kept his celebration party at Stan's restaurant and invited Stacy to it. He turned to look at both the girls and finally at me.

"You can come too." He said in plain tone which we could easily compare to that of a robot. Eva cheered and came next to me. She held my mid arm.

"It would be really nice, John. You'll get to know our crew. Kenny and Stan would love to meet you.....And I think all the guys would be pleased with you after this party. I mean, you could get to know us friends better." Eva smiled sweetly at me. When she referred to 'the guys', her eyes drifted towards Mac. I knew she wanted me to bond over with her brother.

Mac always butts in when we are together and I never really talked with Eva since the time he came back from NYC, you know, after that embarrassing prank played by Scarlet. It was going to be difficult to connect with Mac, but I gotta try. Eva and I share a good friendship and I don't want her brother to ruin it for me at any cost. I've only had a few friends my whole life.

Even now, Mac had me under his killing gaze since Eva was relatively close to me, her hands wrapped around my arm. It was a casual friendly gesture, but even that was odious to him. I don't know what was with him.

Maybe it was his protective side. The
inner me reasoned. You do know his sister was a little too childish and most importantly, innocent.

I turned down the offer saying I had some college paperwork to do. Eva looked a little disappointed and even gave a pouty frown, but Stacy knew me and she didn't need the reasoning that I refused the offer only because Mac wouldn't actually want me there.

I still was a little interested on meeting the Stan guy though, but I guess now wasn't the time. However, being with Scarlet, I was sure I'll be meeting him sooner than the fate's decision itself.

"Dressing should be formal...like suit and gowns kind of formal. That would seem nice and showing us....as if into responsibility." He continued.

"Yay! That would be great. I'll have to select a dress. Stacy. You gotta help me. " Eva said pointing to Stacy.

"Also for the date...." She trailed, realising that she gave out more information than required. She looked at Mac. She acted as though nothing really happened and started walking towards the door saying how she needed more time for her selection.

"Stop! In the name of Plot!" Mac raised his palm in front of her, before she could pass through him. Only now had I noticed this new side of Mac. He was quoting the lines from a cartoon. More specifically, Noddy. I guess with Eva, everyone does tend to become playful.

I am sure I had an amused expression looking at Mac, how I know you say....yup he glared at me. He had a laugh-at-me-if-you-want-your-teeth-broken kind of look. I just raised my hands in surrender, he turned his gaze at Eva.

"What did you say? Date?" Mac narrowed his eyes at her.

"I....I....Date? What date? You know I hate dates. I only like plums....Okay... now...I gotta go..........to get the dress." She smiled hesitantly showing her thumbs to their apartment door, which was seen directly in front of this open one.

"Eva...tell me." He spoke in a low voice.

"I...I...I have a date with Corey tomorrow morning." She hushed out all the words in coherence.

"Who's this Corey? When did you meet him? How long have you known him? Does he study in our college." He enquired her. Even I was a bit scared. Only if he knew of the way she calls him, The Sexy, hot, Architect guy.

"We met him at the theme park. He's an architect. I've been on two dates with him. Mac, I'll show him to you!" She whined at the last sentence. Mac was quiet for a few seconds.

"Okay. When?" He asked.

"When!?" She had an innocently confused expression.

"Oh that...I'll bring him to you after the date tomorrow. Please don't cancel this one. Please....I am really excited for this one. We're just going out for lunch.......and ice cream." She pouted at the word ice cream. Mac was standing stiff as if contemplating whether to give in to his sister or not.

"Mac, please, please, please, please, please, please, pretty pleeeeease!" she pouted with the puppy dog eyes. God! She looked so damn cute and innocent. Who could resist that look.

"You always fool me with that look!" He grunted.

"Pleaseee!" She blinked once still having that look.

"Fine! You can go!" He slumped his shoulders defeated. I mean who could resist that look, even he was only human.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She jumped once then move forward and kissed his cheek. She had her arms on his neck and hugged him.

"Its not fair, God! Why are younger sisters like this?" He looked towards the ceiling. He has this different child-like side when he's with Eva and that really amused me.

"Okay. But I will meet him later. Better invite him to the dinner party tomorrow." He spoke in a monotonic voice.

"I will. I will." She smiled. Mac turned his head towards me, more like caught me admiring them.

I couldn't do anything else. I got the hint and took my leave. I was pissed and I went to meet Scarlet to ease off, also I hadn't heard of her the entire day today .

Meeting Scarlet really was the best thing that happened, the whole day. I had a really good time with Scarlet, even with her brother, Ash. We spent sometime gaming on his PlayStation and then we watched a movie.

When I realised that the female lead in the movie had the same name, I started teasing her. Ash joined me as well. We were teamed up against her and she was annoyed, but not extremely as even she was a bit amused with our aspects of comparison.

Ash and I conversed, when Scarlet left to get some popcorn. We were talking about random topics. He told he wanted to become a doctor. He's even good at studies, from what I know of him. He asked about me and I told him that I'm joining his sister's college. He also asked whether I liked Scarlet. Let me give out how our conversation went.

"So John, you seem quite close to Scar" he stated.

"Um...we've been in the same apartment for a month, so, I guess, yeah." I didn't exactly know what to reply.

"So you guys are good friends?" He asked.

"If sharing embarrassing secrets, helping each other, reading minds and pranking is what your talking about...then yeah. We are relatively close friends."

"Reading each other's minds, I didn't know or expect that. Okay, so you went on a date with Scar?." He raised an eyebrow.

"She had lost a bet with me and I got to choose the penalty. Since I didn't know her back then, I suggested we'd go on a date." I replied.

"I heard you both kissed." Now both his eyebrows were raised.

"Yeah we did. Do I really need to undergo this brother instinct interrogation?!"

"I just have a few doubts." He stated.

"Okay. Go on. It's nice to see Scarlet has a caring brother." I smiled and he did the same.

"You are not interested in my sister, are you?" He asked seriously.

"To be frank, I was but don't you worry cause she has already friend zoned me." I sighed.

"Okay. That's good." He smiled.

"Good? Why? You think I'm a bad guy or do I not deserve her?" I enquired about his opinion.

"No. That's not what I meant. From what I've observed, you seem quite nice. And for the deserving thing, I'd say you deserve someone more. A girl to be precise." He smiled then looked at Scarlet. She was exercising with a hand grip while waiting for the popcorn to get done, clearly proving that she is not just any girl. It was only amusing. We turned back to look at each other.

"Whatever, I know that's not the real reason." I prodded.

"Actually, I like someone for her." He scratched the scruff of his neck.

"Let me guess, this someone happens to be the Stan guy." I asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes. That's him." He smiled smugly.

"Arrgh! What's with you siblings liking this Stan guy so much." I huffed playfully.

"Its just that I've always shipped her with Stan....Wait!....Scar accepted that she likes him?!?" He was perplexed.

"Nope!" I said popping the 'p'. He narrowed his eyebrows, not understanding what I just said.

"Its more like, she admitted to me that she loves him." I added. I turned to take a look at Scarlet, she had a jar of Nuttela in her left hand and her right hand held an inverted spoon in her mouth. She gave me a smug smile once she saw me looking at her, I couldn't help but smile back. I then turned back to Ash.

"Thank God! At least she conceded. I thought those two would never ever realise. Now the work has to be done only on one side." He relieved. He acted as though he's a mother worried for her children's grades. I just laughed at his expression.

"I told Scarlet that I'll help her get Stan." I revealed. He was amused.

"Thanks bro. That really means a lot." He did a fist bump. We saw Scarlet returning with a tray.

"Don't let her know about this talk or that I know about her feelings for Stan." He whispered. I gestured him a zipping of my mouth and he grinned in return.

"They are my favourite OTP." He raised his palm as soon as he uttered those words.

"Okay! I agree that was unbecoming....but being with Eva really rubs off on you, I guess." At that, l laughed. Scarlet looked at me with a suspicious grin, I responded with a simple shrug.

Once the movie was over, we had dinner together. Ash was leaving to his room.

"I'm going to sleep now as I have to go to the library in the morning. I hope you guys don't do anything while I'm off." He wriggled his eyebrows. He was really good at posing his point with the eyebrow wriggles.

Scarlet threw a cushion at him which he dodged. He smirked and I started laughing, he winked at me and then left for bed.

I really liked Ash, he was like a brother I never had. I was sure that he was having a few things planned to bring about Scarlet and Stan together and I was looking forward to help him in it.

After he left, Scarlet prodded me to speak of my Ex. Though she was serious, I knew it would eventually land me up as her laughing stock. But she had revealed to me her vulnerable side, and now, it was my turn to open up to her.

When I told her everything about Emily, she laughed at me. Though it was expected, she laughed more than I had imagined. When I thought about how was going to say the rest of the story, she gave me the look.

"Wait! There's more!" Though she tried to be serious, I could see the amusement and teasing gleam in her eyes.

"Unfortunately, yes!" And just like that, I continued with the rest of the details. She was shocked. Totally jaw dropping to the floor kind of shocked. When I finished, she laughed. Not just any laugh, she literally fell off the couch and the ends of her eyes had tears coming out.

I felt a bit bad. She hugged me having her arms on my neck and just like that the topic changed as I teased her. I left after a few minutes. I was quite tired and just wanted to hug my bed. I knocked on Stacy's door and she opened. She smiled at me and let me in. Kenny was staying with her today. I asked her about the date and she told it went well. Kenny left the hall to Stacy's room to rest. I couldn't let my sister be without teasing, and so, I did.

"I hope you two are not that loud." I said as she walked to her room.

"Hmm?" She asked, not quite understanding.

"As you already know, my room's a bit close to yours. I hope you guys keep it low. You know, of whatever you are to do tonight." I wriggled my eyebrows at her. She flushed.

"Shut up, JT!" She hit my arm.

"What? I'm just taking precautionary measures to have a good, undisturbed sleep." I winked, she rolled her eyes.

Getting in, she closed the door to her room after giving me a smug smile. I winked again and retired to my own room. I jumped on the bed, made myself comfortable, and let sleep takeover me.

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Okay people...how was it?

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Chocolove707🍫