<-I-L-A-<<<
I opened the door and we walked inside my apartment. Emmet, without my help, took his luggage into the guest room. As he did, I quickly tidied up the place. I fluffed up the sunken pillows and dusted off any visible surface, making it look like I haven't been away from my home.
"Hey, Ila?" My brother called me from the guest room.
"Yeah?" I answered, quickly sitting on the couch to look normal.
"What in the fridge?" He asked. Emmet appeared out of the hallway that led to the rooms. He had changed out of his suit into casual wear, shorts and shirt. "Let's eat before I unpacked."
I looked away from him and glanced at my fridge. I thought of all the food inside that sat untouched while I was away at the mafia house. Oh, the mold.
"Let's grab a bite to eat." I suggested.
"Fine by me." He said, walking to the exit of the apartment.
I followed behind him. Emmet opened the door and an unaware Marcella, who was looking at her phone, knocked on his chest.
She must have felt that's something was off and looked up.
"Woah," was all she said.
"Umm.. hi?" Emmet said, more like asked.
"Emmet, this is Marcella. She's my friend," I explained to my brother. Then I introduce him to Marcella. "Mar, this is Emmet, my brother."
"Ila told me she had a brother. I wonder why she failed to mention that you were hot."
"Ew." The mold in my fridge didn't seem so bad after all. I could see in Marcella's eyes that she was ready to play. Seeing that it was my brother, I found that disturbing. "Marcella, we decided that we are going to grab dinner."
"Is she coming with us?" My brother asked, sounding a little bit too hopeful.
"Unfortunately, she has to. She's my ride."
I walked down the stairs, occasionally looking behind my shoulder to see how the two were getting along. They stood side by side, walking down the steps in unison.
"Sweet ride," Emmet said as he hopped into the passenger seat. "I have a Porsche back home."
I rolled my eyes, sitting in the middle of the back seat.
"I also have one," Marcella said.
"Really?" Emmet was definitely intrigued. "What do you do?"
"I am a co-owner of a very powerful company."
"And how does a beautiful lady like you know my sister?"
I gagged. My brother was hitting on Marcella and Marcella was doing the same back to my brother.
"Ila..." Marcella's eyes met mine in the rearview mirror, "Works for me now since she got fired from her last one."
"As a doctor?"
"No, as my personal assistant," Marcella lied, "Don't worry it pays well."
"Personal assistant?" He asked and then laughed. "She could barely help herself."
Marcella giggled and I rolled my eyes. They continued to talk but I zoned them out, looking out of the window at passing cars.
Marcella drove us to one of her favorite burger places and parked right in front. Entering the place, the smell of meat being grilled and fries being fried filled my nose. We took our food to go and drove back to my apartment.
Emmet, Marcella, and I piled in the living room. All of us was sitting on the floor as we ate our food that sat on the coffee table. I was munching on fries while I ran through channels for anything interesting to watch.
"Let me see," Emmet said as he grabbed the remote out of my hands. He flipped through a few more channels and stopped once he saw the news.
"The news?" Marcella asked.
"He says that he likes to be updated, I think he's just nosey and wants to stick his nose into anyone's business," I explained to my brother to Marcella.
"Breaking news," The reporter announced, "We have a live footage of a police chase involving a suspected Il Bisbiglio member." The screen changed from the news reporter in the studio to a live stream shot on a helicopter. "As you can see, the suspected gang member is driving the Porsche on the right lane down the highway. The cops have noticed another car following the Porsche and believe that they to are involved in Il Bisbiglio and gang activity."
Marcella and I looked at each other with wide eyes. Neither of us continued to chew our burgers that sat in our mouth, afraid that our secrets would be exposed to my brother is we made any slightest movement. I knew that she knew that we knew those guys in the news were Giovanni and Aiden.
It wasn't until Emmet had something to say that we instantly turned to him.
"It's always Il Bisbiglio that's one the news. Don't you think that they pull these type of stunts to stay relevant?"
"No, those two are just stupid." Marcella sighed, "You can't leave them for 5 minutes and then they go out and -"
I threw a fry at her. She shut up and shoved the last piece of her burger, along with the fry that I threw at her, into her mouth. Marcella quickly chewed as she grabbed her bag and car keys.
"I have to go. It's getting late." She said after swallowing.
My brother got up, "I'll walk you out."
"Sit down," I said, ordering him to stay put. "I need to talk to Marcella before she leaves so I'll walk her out."
"Goodnight. Have a safe drive." Emmet said to Marcella.
"Thank you. It was nice meeting you." Marcella batted her eyelashes.
I walked Mar out of the apartment and we stood in the hall.
"Don't hit on my brother. It's already bad that one Archer is involved in the whole gang thing."
Marcella rolled her eyes.
"What am I going to do? Am I going to stay here?" I asked, on the brink of freaking out.
"You're going to have to. We can't take your brother to the mafia house."
"What about Il Bisbiglio?"
"I already told him that you're working under me as my assistant. You'll come to the mafia house during your 'work hours'."
"Mar, you're taking the car. There's no way for me to get to the house."
"Don't worry, I'll get someone to bring you a car."
"Okay, then." I said, "Bye."
I watched her disappear down the stairs before going back into the apartment. I walked back into the living room and found Emmet cleaning up. He was throwing away wrappers, used napkins, and empty ketchup and mustard packets into the garbage. I noticed that my unfinished burger was missing.
"Hey! Emmet, I didn't finish my burger!"
"It's fine, I finished it for you." Emmet lightly pounded his chest a couple times to release a burp.
"Ew." I frowned.
I grabbed the remote to the Tv and pressed the off button.
Emmet went to the bathroom to wash his hands, reappearing he said, "So, you never told me you had a hot friend."
"Emmet, go fool around with someone else."
"I'm a lawyer, I don't have time to fool around with anyone. However, for Mar, I'll make an exception." He said, sitting across from me on the couch.
"One, don't call her that. Two, you can't go after her because I never got to go after your friends in high school."
"That's because all of my friends were douches."
I looked at Emmet. He was a great guy, as well as a great brother. However, like him protecting me from his douche-friends in high school, I need to prevent him from doing anything with Marcella. I wouldn't want two Archers losing their careers and joining the mafia. I would also hate for them to date and then awkwardly break up and ruining my friendship with Marcella.
"Marcella, just like anyone else, has a few skeletons hidden in her closet."
Except for her, she has a few couple thousands of skeletons in the ocean.
<~>
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I'm sorry, guys. I just simply hate texting out my chapters this book. My computer is still not working and texting it out is taking a lot of time. Along with school work, my schedule is whack. I'm thinking of talking an official break but I don't know ....