How Not to Fall in Love with Your Worst Enemy

Chapter 8

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Third Person POV

"Why are you back so soon?" Max asked his younger brother Mark. "You texted me earlier that you were leaving me at the mall and not to expect you back home until very late."

Mark ignored his older brother. He went straight to his room and closed the door, hoping that his nosy brother Max would not insist on knowing why his plans had changed.

Mark lay on his bed face down, his tears wetting his pillowcase.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" he scolded himself while banging his forehead into his pillow.

There had got to be a way that he could recover from this stupid lovesickness, Mark told himself, getting out of bed.

He went into the bathroom and washed his face hoping to wash away the traces of his tears on his cheeks.

He decided that he was going to make himself busy by helping his brother Max to prepare the special dinner that Max had planned for his boyfriend Tul and his other guest Gawin Caskey, whose pic Max had shown him earlier in the day.

After Mark had washed off his tears he went back to his room to change into his favorite mint green shirt and denim pants. He styled his hair into his favorite hairstyle as well.

"You ready to talk about it now?" Max asked Mark when Mark walked into the kitchen.

"No but I'm ready to help you fix your special dinner for your guests," Mark replied.

"I'll settle for that," Max said. "But anytime that you want to talk, remember that I will always be here for you. I'm a good listener, you know that."

"Thanks," Mark said. "Which ingredients do you want me to put together."

"Those red onions on the kitchen counter need chopping up," Max said.
"No! No way! I just finished washing up my face. I don't want tear stains all over my cheeks again," Mark protested.

"You've been crying?" Max raised his eyebrow at his younger brother.

Oops Mark didn't mean to let that slip out.

When Mark kept quiet, Max stopped stirring the pot of New England clam chowder, placed the lid on top of it and turned off the stove.

He walked over to Mark.

"Mark, you need to talk about it," Max said gently to his brother. "Get it off your chest."

"Stop it, Max!" Mark protested. "I came out to forget about it by getting busy in the kitchen. Now give me some other thing to do, just not the red onions please."

"Very well," said Max. "Take out the bunch of red radishes and rinse them. Then cut them up into coin shapes."

Mark did as his brother instructed him to do.

Between Max and Mark they were able to put together a special seafood dinner for Tul and the other guest, what was his name again, Gawin, yeah, Gawin Caskey. Maybe Mark would find him interesting enough to go on a date some time.

Max rushed over to the front door when he heard the buzzer.

Tul held out a bottle of cold white Chardonnay when the door opened. Max did not take it but placed his arms around Tul's waist and planted a deep kiss on him.

"Ehemm ..."

Tul and Max broke apart upon hearing Mark clear his throat.

"Don't close the door yet," the three men heard a voice when Mark was about to close the door.

Ooohhh, Mark couldn't help staring at the handsome stranger that appeared in the doorway.

"Come in, come in!" Max said, breaking loose from Tul's arms. "I'm so glad you could make it."

Then turning to Tul, Max said, "I told you about Gawin joining us this evening."

Tul moved forward and held out his hand to Gawin.

"A pleasure to meet you," Tul said.

"Same here," Gawin said, accepting Tul's offer of a handshake.

"This is my younger brother Mark," Max said when he noticed Gawin's eyes on Mark.

"Nice to meet you, Mark," Gawin said, extending his hand to Mark.

"Nice to meet you, too," Mark said shyly as he shook Gawin's hand.

"What is this?" Max asked when Gawin held out a box to him.

"Dessert," Gawin replied with a smile.

"You didn't have to but thanks," Max said accepting the box.

"Ooh, what do you call this special looking dish?" Tul asked.

"Moule a la portugaise," Max replied feeling proud of himself for successfully coming up with the special seafood dish. "I know that you like seafood so our dinner is seafood themed."

"Well thank you so much, I'm sure I will enjoy it," Tul said, beaming widely.

At dinner, because Tul and Max were engrossed in each other's conversation, Mark tried to entertain Gawin by asking him some questions about himself.

Gawin revealed that he was the head of the sales department of his company and that was how he had gotten to meet Max.

Gawin also revealed that he liked movies and music and partying.

Mark was itching to ask Gawin if he had a special someone but held his tongue.

Turned out there was no need to ask.

"There's a new mystery thriller that's coming to theaters this weekend," Gawin said to Mark. "You wanna watch it with me?"

"Your boyfriend not available?" Tul asked, butting into Mark's and Gawin's conversation.

"He doesn't have one," Max answered for Gawin.

Gawin's face reddened a bit.

"I just got out of a toxic relationship," Gawin volunteered the information. "My ex was playing around too much. I couldn't take it anymore."

"How long ago was this?" Mark couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Almost a month ago," Gawin replied.

Mark processed the information. Almost a month ago was too recent. He was sure that Gawin was not yet over the heartbreak.