Chapter 2

Jordan’s POV

I had hooked up with my fiancé's younger brother... just how many levels of fucked up is that?

Derek glanced down at me when I kept on staring at his supposed brother shockingly and demanded confusingly, “You guys know each other?”

“No! We don’t!” I replied immediately, my stomach knotting and unknotting guiltily.

“We don’t.” Oliver added at the same time, his deep, familiar voice uprooting memories of a certain heated night I’d rather not think about at the moment even though I’ve been thinking about that particular night every night before going to bed.

“Oh? For a second, I thought y’all were already familiar with each other by your shocked reactions back there,” Derek said with a lighthearted laugh, and I shook my head immediately as I tried laughing along with him.

“He just seemed a little bit familiar at first, that’s all.” Oliver started to say, his facial expression losing all traces of shock and maintaining a blank one in its place.

“No, I didn’t, you’re definitely mistaken.” I replied with a forced laugh, guilt eating me with full force from the inside. Oliver nodded his head at me with a smile and stretched out his hand, “Nice to meet you, Jordan.”

I blinked once and accepted his outstretched hand immediately while trying to ignore the way my insides fluttered stupidity on hearing my name smoothly roll off his tongue for the first time.

“Nice to meet you as well, Oliver.” I replied quickly while glancing up at him to offer a forced smile, our eyes locked for a few seconds and I looked away immediately before swallowing emptily when it felt he was staring straight into my soul in just a few seconds.

“Oliver!”

Derek’s mum’s voice cut into the air, and I breathed out a quick sigh of relief when he dropped my hand and turned towards the direction where his mum’s voice had sounded from, a smile slowly spreading across his face as he walked the few steps before engulfing his mum into his arms.

I turned around and glanced up at Derek who at the same time had just glanced away from his mum and brother to stare down at me.

“What’s wrong babe?” Derek asked, his fingers coming to brush my hair away from the tip of my eyes, my front hair was really long and in desperate need of a trim, but I weirdly love the way the strands are mostly dangling over my eyes.

“Nothing’s wrong.” I answered while trying to smile reassuringly at him, but I knew my forced smile didn’t manage to convince him when he kept frowning down at me in concern.

“Oh my, have you all been standing right there all this while? Derek where are your manners? Offer our guest a drink and give him a tour around the house, will you?” His mum who just got out of her hug with her other son turned back towards Derek and I with a disapproving glance at Derek.

“I thought you asked us to wait on you to go get dad first?” Derek argued back defensively but I only smiled at the way rolled her eyes fondly at him before turning towards me and smiling brightly at me, “I’m so sorry for my bad hosting skills honey, Derek’s dad would be down in a few more minutes, he’s seeing to an important call right now. How about my sons give you a tour around the house?”

I shook my head immediately, wanting to tell her that there was nothing wrong with her hosting skills and that it was totally alright, but Derek agreed in my place before I could blink and the next second, I was being led with our hands entwined towards a different part of the house to probably go get drinks.

Derek was already used to making most of my decisions for me before I could begin to think on most occasions, which was why I didn’t bother objecting even though I wasn’t interested in a tour around the house at the moment, all I wanted to do was to sit down in a quiet spot and question most of my life decisions once again.

A lot of my life decisions didn’t turn out well. Take for example, of all people in the whole world, it had to be my fiancé’s younger brother than I had hooked up with.

Fuck my life.

Derek dug out a bottle of champagne from the bar in the room adjoining the sitting room and popped it open before filling up two tall glasses and handling one to me, I accepted it immediately and tipped the glass over my mouth to empty almost everything all at once until a few drops trailed out of the sides of my mouth.

“Whoa, slow down there, we don’t want you choking on that.” Derek said with a small chuckle while slowly sipping his drink.

I emptied the glass at the second go and handed the glass to Derek, “Another glassful?”

“Of course, just slow down to avoid getting drunk before we even get called to come eat.”

“It takes a lot more for me to get drunk and you know that,” I replied to Derek who was currently refilling my glass.

He chuckled quietly and handed me my drink, “Yeah, I do. How won’t I know that?”

I shrugged at him and took a mouthful of my drink before letting it slide down my throat slowly, savoring the richness of the drink and how the fruity tang soaked my tongue perfectly, making my taste bud crave for the taste of the drink desperately.

We were both standing beside the bar, and I glanced around the room. The chandelier dropping from the roof added a posh touch to the room. The designs of the walls and roof made it way more beautiful, and I poured another mouthful of my drink into my throat. I glanced towards the left side of the room and stupidly choked on my drink when my eyes locked with Oliver’s own.

I coughed loudly and pound my chest with my free hand while gasping for breath, Derek quickly took the glass out of my grip while I felt another pair of hand which obviously belonged to someone else that wasn’t Derek pound my back lightly.

God, I’m such a fool.

And how the heck did I not hear him come in here until I had to see him and go into a choking shock?

I dragged in a deep breath, glad that I wasn’t embarrassingly choking on my champagne anymore, I moved away from Oliver’s light pats, his warmth disappearing from my side immediately.

How embarrassing.

“Are you alright, Jordan? Want a glass of water?” Derek asked when I kept on gasping lightly for air. I nodded my head then shook my head immediately because I realized that I’d be left alone with Oliver, which would lead to an awkward moment I’d rather not think about right now.

“Don’t worry, hang on a second, I’ll go fetch you a glass.” Derek replied, thinking I declined his offer because I didn’t want to stress him, not knowing it was for a totally different reason.

I watch him go down the hallway, a feeling of dread seeping into my stomach. I glanced towards my half-filled glass which Derek has placed on the table beside the bar and reached for it, doing my best to avoid looking at Oliver who was only standing a few feet away from me. His phone started ringing in the silent room and he murmured a quiet “Excuse me.” before crossing to the other part of the room to see to whoever it was that was calling him, which finally gave me room to drag in a deep breath and allow it to flow through my lungs without me nervously tensing up nervously and killing the flow.

Derek finally came back into the room and handed me a glass of water which I accepted gratefully, relaxing more since I was no longer alone with Oliver who was no longer on the phone.

“Thank you.” I croaked out, handling the now empty glass back to Derek.

“You alright?” He asked and I nodded my head reassuringly.

Derek started to say something, but his mum’s loud voice cut into what he was planning on saying as she sauntered into the room, “Your dad’s in the sitting room now.”

I watched as Oliver slid past her towards the sitting room right before Derek’s mum started talking once again. “How was the tour, honey?”

“Oh, um we haven’t gotten to it yet because of something, how about I get the tour after dinner?” I replied slowly, glancing up at Derek before returning my gaze to hers.

“Of course, honey. Come meet your father-in-law!” She gushed out right before she wrapped her fingers around my wrist led me towards the sitting room, like I was planning on telling her I wasn’t interested in meeting him or something.

Derek’s father was exactly the way I had imagined him to be after seeing his pictures on the net, and a few times on tv. His father was the successful owner of one of the biggest shareholding company in the whole of America, which made me imagine him as someone brisk.

He welcomed me and offered me a handshake which I accepted immediately, his cold palm gripped my warm, sweaty one for a few seconds before he dropped my hand and turned towards Derek who was standing behind me. I wasn’t surprised when they didn’t hug but shook hands almost the same way I’d done with him. The only difference was the back pat he gave to a relaxed looking Derek.

Derek’s mum announced that dinner was ready, and I breathed out a sigh of relief, I couldn’t wait to get the fuck out of here and if possible, to never step foot into here ever again because the guilt eating me from the inside ever since I found out that I had mistakenly fucked my brother-in-law hasn’t decreased one bit. But then I remembered the fact that’s I’m definitely still going to come back here at a certain point since I was marrying into their family.

Fuck my life.

In my own opinion, the food arranged on the wild table was way too much for just a few of us that were gathered around the table, but I didn’t make a comment on that to avoid coming off as rude and instead filled up my plate moderately as everyone did the same thing. Everyone dug into their food quietly and I ate as quietly as I could, trying my possible best not to make too much noise with my cutleries hitting my plate as I tried cutting into the large chicken thigh on my plate.

Derek placed a hand on my thigh when I kept fighting with the chicken on my plate and I stopped everything I was currently doing while trying to figure out why he touched my thigh. He stretched his hand out and drag my plate towards him before cutting into the chicken on my plate into small slices for a few minutes before sliding it back to me, barely making any unnecessary noise like I’ve been doing. I squeezed the top of his thigh underneath the table in gratitude before slowly digging into my food. I finally glanced up once a piece of chicken was in my mouth and flushed embarrassingly before quickly ducking my head on seeing everyone’s eyes on Derek and me. For some weird reason, everyone’s face was blank except Derek’s mum who had a smile on her face... was she finding me embarrassing myself and Derek coming to my rescue cute?

God, can today get any more embarrassing?

Once we were done eating and the table has been cleared, conversation started to flow around the table, which made me wonder if I could slip into the restroom and give my best friend a quick call without anyone noticing.

“How’s the work life been treating you so far, Oliver?” His father asked and I watched as he shrugged slowly before glancing at his father, “it’s been good so far, really stressful, but still good.” He replied, his deep voice echoing a little.

“You adapted into the harder life way more faster than your elder brother did, look at you, a fresh graduate who’s already working a post which should be for someone with at least seven years’ work experience, unlike your brother who first of all spent half a year at home doing nothing but playing video games, partying and other unnecessary things because apparently college stressed him way too much for him to not take a well-deserved break.”

“Aw, c’mon dad, it wasn’t as bad as you’re making it sound right now. And besides, Oliver is cut out for things like this even before he got into college. I wasn’t really surprised when he started working immediately after he graduated,” Derek added, and I blinked a few times while racking my brain earnestly.

Wait... just why the heck were they mentioning college and Oliver in the same sentence again?

“No, Derek, it was actually really bad. I had to force you to come work for me, remember?” Derek’s father reminded him, and he didn’t bother arguing and instead chuckled while rolling his eyes.

“Anyways I’m so proud of my little brother, he’s just twenty-one and already making millions,” Derek announced and everyone around the table laughed fondly except for Oliver and me.

I blinked continuously as if something had gotten into my eyes while staring at Oliver from beneath my eyelashes.

Oliver is four years younger than I am?

Dear God! I thought he was a few years older than I am for fuck’s sake!

“Don’t call me ‘little,’ do I look little to you?” Oliver demanded while scowling at his big brother.

He sure doesn’t look little, never looked little from the very start.

“You don’t look little, heck you’re one inch taller than I am as we speak, but we both know you’d forever be my little bro, you punk.” Derek answered Oliver fondly, the smile in his voice clear as his voice, which made my heart start to ache with guilt all over again.

Oliver only rolled his eyes with a small smile tugging the sides of his mouth without saying a thing, our eyes suddenly locked, and his tiny smile widened in the next breath, hitting me unexpectedly. I ducked my head immediately while trying to still my fast-beating heart.

Christ, this is bad.

Really bad.

Why does the universe prefer to make life more confusing for me each passing day?

Just why the fuck does his smile have to look so perfect?

And why did my stupid heart have to react that way?

I couldn’t wait for the day to be over at this point, because at this rate, my brain is about to burst due to overthinking.