Brandon: The Wilde Brothers (Excerpt Only) - BWWM Billionaire Romance

Brandon: The Wilde Brothers (Chapter 4)

CHAPTER FOUR

"...So by the age of twenty-one, there we were, suddenly millionaires. Our brother, Alec, made his first million when he was in college, and when he dropped out, we figured we didn't need to go to college at all, and that we'd sort of follow in his footsteps—although personally, I'm not a techie like Alec—Connor is better at cooking stuff up so I just go along; he's a good imitator. Anyway, Alec had been fooling around with making apps since he was like twelve or so, and later, a couple of his apps went big. It just snowballed from there. He thinks he's not lucky like us, but this one gaming app started it all for him, and he did a couple of successful spin-offs. Then luck struck again when he tried something new with more practical purposes—some app for taking calls while driving or something. He also started this social network that quickly got bought out by one of the biggies—maybe to shut it down. Either way, he has a knack for making things other people want to buy off of him or invest in right away."

"So your brother works hard, but you and your twin hit the jackpot. Either way, one lucky family," Stanley said with a smile.

Erica could tell that Stanley was interested in the discussion, but she sensed that part of him was uncomfortable.

"I guess we are. Connor and me, definitely. But my brother and I had moderate success with our own app before the jackpot. Alec spent a day showing us part of his process, and once we got the gist of it, Connor and I bounced around ideas for a while, and then developed this one game. It did okay—nowhere near any of Alec's. Then yeah, bingo! Good thing Alec was successful before us, because we got some good contacts through him and got great advice. I guess we still got lucky with a few of those early investments too. We must have been tortured like hell in a previous life for the kind of ride we got in this one." Brandon smiled, pausing a moment. Then he said, "So what do you do again?"

"I'm a cinematographer."

"That's awesome, man. I had interests along those lines when I was younger—maybe not specifically a cinematographer; I mean, you just kind of point and shoot, right?"

Stanley kept a semblance of a smile while his brow crinkled. "Not exactly—definitely a bit more complicated than that. The cinematography can make or break a movie."

"Oh, I'm sure—like any other aspect, right? Cast the wrong actor or hire the wrong director and the movie doesn't stand a chance. Hey, did Erica tell you about this movie we shot together?" Erica's eyes snapped to Brandon. "So we were like, thirteen," he continued, "and my mom knew about my moviemaking aspirations, so she bought me this camcorder for my birthday. Anyway, one day, Erica and I plotted out this whole story, and I made her act out most of it." He suddenly looked at her questioningly. "I wonder if that's when you got the acting bug? Anyway, she'd probably die of embarrassment if she saw it now," he said, looking back at Stanley.

"You don't still have it, do you?" Erica asked him. "That thing should be burned."

But despite most of her agreeing with the sentiment, part of her hoped that it still existed, that this piece of their lives—that beautiful moment in time when they were mostly together, even if not exactly in the way she wanted—had been preserved. She had a glorious time shooting that movie, and considered that summer one of the best in her entire life.

"I definitely wouldn't add it to my résumé if I were you," Brandon said to her. "And I wouldn't add it to my reel. I mean, obviously, it was fun back then, but we were kids. We can probably still laugh at it, but I wouldn't put anyone through watching that. It's probably awful."

"Well? Do you still have it or not?"

Brandon shrugged. "It might actually be in my crap somewhere, I don't know. You're right—it's probably time to go through all my stuff again for some seasonal cleaning. Speaking of cleaning, did Erica tell you about this time we spilled..."