His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 202: Shared Interests

** Harper **

Harper had a moment of panic when Tyler threw that question out of nowhere. Was this why he had called both of them on the phone one after another that day? Had he been suspecting things this whole time ever since he learned they were in Hawaii together?

To break the news to him was one thing. To defend herself and Eli against whatever presumptions he had already made about them, however ... was another and potentially a lot more complicated.

Her mind was whirling to come up with a smart excuse to dodge the question when Chelsea’s voice came through the earbud, "Hey, don’t jump to conclusions and freak out yet. His tone doesn’t sound right for suspecting what you think he’s suspecting. And I kind of doubt his head is even going there at all, since he looks like the thickheaded overprotective type of brother who keeps forgetting that his sister is already an adult."

Erm ... Thanks, Chelsea. Not entirely sure if that observation was supposed to be reassuring, though.

"Anyway, maybe he’s worried that you guys aren’t getting along," Chelsea continued. "Try pretend that’s what you think he means."

Harper was skeptical. Surely Tyler couldn’t be so far off that he was assuming the complete opposite scenario to what was actually happening. But instinctively, she trusted her relationship guru’s judgment, so she gave it a shot. "Oh come on," she faked an enlightened smile and said, "you’re not thinking that Eli was bullying me at work by sending me to all the meetings he didn’t like?"

Tyler gave Eli a look. "Nah, we have at least that much faith in our old friend, right Eli?" He smiled trustingly, though the barely hidden downturn of the corner of his mouth betrayed a different thought. "I was just— well, curious about how much shared interest you guys still have nowadays. Since you know, it’s been a while since you last talked before this sudden reunion through work."

Oh, shit. He actually remembered that she had soft-banned Eli from her life during college. Maybe Chelsea’s interpretation was indeed correct, and Tyler was assuming that Eli had taken the opportunity to get back at the person giving him a cold shoulder for years ...

"That’s it then," Chelsea gloated in the earpiece. "Though by the way, I’m sure you guys still have shared interests just fine. No need for too many anyway, one is enough as long as it keeps you both easily occupied for hours."

"..." Harper barely resisted the urge to turn back and deliver a deadly glare to her friend.

Fortunately, Eli came timely to rescue the conversation. "It’s hard not to share interest in Harper’s project, actually." He pulled out his phone from his pocket. "This is the phase one demo for it. Take a look. Everyone on the executive board was swept away by it. I was curious enough to have scheduled myself in as many of her meetings as I could when we were at the summit, but you know how investment groups work — in the end, I had to spend most of the day burning my ears off with budget proposals and market analyses. Couldn’t indulge in cool technical presentations as much as I liked to."

The demo video seemed to have done the trick. Tyler took the phone and watched it with intent interest, while Harper and Eli exchanged a "phew" glance with each other.

Armed with renewed knowledge of where Tyler’s train of thoughts was at, the two of them managed to steer the conversation in a safer direction. The next hour or so passed in easy discussions of the joint venture project, the trip to Hawaii, and Tyler’s interview. Harper carefully disclosed a few more of her "shared interests" with Eli, just to prove that they were indeed getting along well — playing video games, watching dolphins, cooking — the last of which earned a wide eye from Tyler as expected.

"Cooking?" her brother asked, obviously with a much improved impression of his old friend. "That’s probably the last hobby I would expect of you, Eli. You’ve got to show me those master skills at some point. How about when we go camping this weekend?"

Remembering Eli’s reluctance when she made similar suggestions before in Hawaii, Harper hastily interjected, "Um, camp cooking requires a whole different type of skills, doesn’t it? Not sure if that’s what Eli—"

"Say yes," Chelsea urged in the earbud.

"— if that’s what Eli has ever considered giving a try, so I bet it’ll be extra fun!" Harper was impressed with how smoothly she managed to flip what she wanted to say a complete 180 degrees, and she gave Eli a quick "trust me" glance before he could argue. Apparently that was how much faith she had in Chelsea’s professional advice.

"You need to convince your brother that you guys at least like each other," Chelsea explained patiently. "Think about it, he still looks skeptical that you guys can even be friends, so how is he going to accept your relationship once you drop the big bomb? Take baby steps. Show him how well you two can spend a weekend together — without getting in the same bed — and then maybe he’ll understand better how things happened."

She did have a point there.

"Sounds like an awesome plan then," Tyler exclaimed, satisfied with Eli’s silent agreement. "I can take care of the ingredients on Friday. How about we make skewers? Aim for something like this." He nodded at what was left of the carne asada in his plate. "This one is pretty good as it is, but I’m sure you can make it better in your version. Just a little more tender on the inside and more charred on the outside. A little less salt, and a little more spices. Maybe marinated a little longer and sliced a little thinner too ..."

Harper: "..."

Eli: "..."

Chelsea: "... Good luck guys."

Right. The weekend trip was starting to look like a challenge ... in more ways than they thought.