His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 200: The Bro Who Has His Back

** Eli **

Between feasting, cooking, and more feasting, Sunday passed by in the blink of an eye. Eli had never known that he could feel so satiated and still so starving at the same time, but as always, Harper had just the magical talent to show him new scopes of life that he could never imagine before.

The same schedule repeated itself on Monday and Tuesday nights, so blissfully that he didn’t want to leave her place ever again. Like their evenings in Hawaii, it felt as if they were on an extended honeymoon, living in luxurious abandon and oblivious to the rest of the world. And he would totally do that — move in to live in this abandon with her and ignore everything else going on around them — if not for the arrival of Wednesday that screamed "Tyler".

Which also meant that he had to go back to his own apartment and sleep alone in a cold, empty bed again.

Eli sighed as he parked the company Mercedes in the airport pickup lane. Oh well. To be honest though, a temporary interruption to their new routine should be the last of his concerns at this point. Depending on how the next few hours of explain-how-you-got-your-ass-into-my-sister’s-bed goes, the consequences could turn out much, much more dire than sleeping alone in a cold empty bed for half a week.

The clock started ticking when he spotted Tyler emerging from the crowd.

The guy stopped by the Mercedes, looked around in a bit of puzzlement, and checked his phone again before finally bending over to look through the open window. "Damn, that’s really you?" he called out. "You didn’t specify it’s this type of top class Maybach when you said you’re here in a Mercedes! Trying to impress with your new career advances?"

Eli unlocked the door with a snort. "Tell that to my chauffeur. He’ll be thoroughly entertained to hear that driving a Maybach for someone else leaves a good impression of career advances."

Tyler chuckled and climbed in. "I see. Glad the job isn’t bad enough to kill that snark of yours yet. So I take it as you’re enjoying the comeback to Davenshire and Sterling Trust?"

Unlike Harper, Tyler knew a bit of the backstory about Sterling Trust. During their last year in college, the two friends had chatted about their future career plans, having both studied business and shared a similar interest in the industry. Eli had briefly mentioned at the time why he turned down an interview invitation from Sterling Trust, one of the most coveted opportunities for new grads in the city. Needless to say that four years later, when he ended up right back on the same path he had chosen to turn away from before, Tyler would naturally be full of curious speculations.

As to the answer to his question though ...

Had it been a mere month ago, Eli would’ve snorted again and said with full honesty that he hated this new job’s guts. But now, he had more reasons to pause and reconsider that assessment. As much as he despised working for his manipulative father, he wouldn’t have had the chance to meet up with Harper again if not for this. He wouldn’t have had the chance to help her project grow and give her the best resources in the industry either. So in the end ... maybe he was thankful for this originally unwanted turn in life, after all.

"Work has its ups and downs," he admitted upon that thought, "but good things do come out of it. Surprisingly, I think it was a good change."

Tyler gave him a look and whistled. "That’s rare, coming from you. Though I suppose it’s expected with bonuses like this?" He tapped his finger on the car dash with a meaningful grin. "And I bet lots of ladies would be attracted to the shiny package as well."

"..."

Shit. He didn’t sound serious, but ... that was still not the right direction for the conversation to go at all.

"Ugh, that’s not what I mean." Eli groaned internally. How was he supposed to mention this news with Harper, if her brother’s mind was already on the default scandalous image of him? "Things are ... not like that these days, Ty. I’ve been trying to change it."

"Change what, your father’s company?" Tyler asked, a bit absentmindedly as he watched the street view outside the window starting to retreat. Then it seemed to have finally hit him when silence started filling the car. "Oh, you mean about ladies?" He did a double take. "No way, are you saying you’ve finally decided to play the status game and cook up a reputable image for yourself now?"

"Erm—"

"Ah. I get the point, bro. No need to explain." Tyler waved a hand knowingly. "And no need to bother playing pretend in front of me either. I’ll make sure the secrets of your real self are safe. If we ever run into your new girl — or girls, whichever way it is — I won’t say a word."

"..."

In a bit of a daze, Eli wondered how Tyler’s regard for his decency had dropped to this point in the past years. It was even worse than what he had expected! For God’s sake, he had never tried to date multiple girls at one time, even in his worst days. Just what kind of bastard did his friend really think he was?

Oblivious to his horror, his friend patted encouragingly on his shoulder, confirming that he’d always have his bro’s back. "My only two cents though," he added, "just be careful, alright? Try not to catch something weird or get someone going after you with a surprise ultrasound report."

"..."

Fuck.

Eli had an urge to throw himself out of the car. Along with his reputation, which was already more than dead anyway. With an opening conversation like that ... it seemed like a delirious dream to hope he’d still somehow keep all his legs attached once the secret relationship news was out.