*Extended chapter
~~~~~~~~~~
Ethan walked through the cafe door as he was meeting his sister for breakfast. Scanning the very busy restaurant, Ethan found his sister sitting by the window.
Quickly greeting Kristen, Ethan sat down opposite her and asked. "You ordered yet?"
Kristen put her menu down so that she could see her brother. She was all smiles as she told Ethan, with glee, "2 orders of pancakes, and freshly squeezed orange juice for us both."
Setting his jacket aside on the space besides himself, Ethan rubbed his hands together as he was excited to fill his stomach with something sweet and fluffy.
Because Kristen had already ordered before Ethan sat down, it didn't take long for their food to be served.
Ethan didn't miss how the waitress deliberately leaned over his shoulder to serve his food, and Ethan couldn't help but notice that more than food was being offered.
"Thank you!" Kristen deliberately shouted out loud, making the young waitress blush with embarrassment.
Ethan chuckled to himself as he then went to pour syrup onto his own pancakes. He then did the same for Kristen, as he also gave her his strawberries since she loved them so much.
"Okay, you're forgiven."
Ethan already had a mouthful of pancakes when he mumbled out loud, "For what?"
"For endangering my husband, sweet little brother." Kristen laughed as she mentioned Harrison. She then held her fork up to Ethan as she asked him, "What happened to not getting into trouble?"
"I never promised that," Ethan said in between his bites of pancakes. "People chase me all the time anyway."
"That's why you're meant to be staying out of trouble!" Kristen kicked her brother's shin as she got annoyed with her brother's carelessness.
Ethan banged his knee against the table as he flinched because of the pain. Kristen caught her glass of orange juice before it was knocked over, and several diners turned to the commotion that was the Shelton siblings.
Kristen ignored all of the other looks as she berated Ethan. "I can't believe you're being so stupid about all of this!"
Ethan rubbed his shins as he tried to soothe the pain. "I'm not!"
Kristen dropped her cutlery onto her plate as she huffed with disgruntled annoyance. She smacked the side of her brother's head as she wanted it to sink into Ethan's stubborn mind.
"Yes. You. Are." Kristen said with every smack to his head.
Ethan grabbed Kristen's hand that was attacking him with one hand, and used his other hand to force his forkful of pancakes into Kristen's mouth.
"I'm not going to stop living my life because of some random crooks," Ethan told her. "If I was given a million dollars for every person that threatened me, then my net worth would be greater than Elon Musk."
"Thank god you don't have Twitter..."
Ethan didn't want to worry his older sister about the potential dangers he was dodging, "It's been less than 2 days since the casino incident, and so far nothing has happened since."
"So now they might!" Kristen shrieked. "This is why Mom and Dad hired the bodyguard, so those same people won't come for you again, stupid!"
Ethan forced out an exasperated laugh because he completely disagreed with the purpose of Thomas. "The so called bodyguard couldn't even track me down. In fact he hasn't even done anything to protect me yet - not that I need it."
Kristen cocked her head to the side as she nodded a certain direction. "You mean the bodyguard that's been sitting over there since I got here?"
Ethan turned his head to the same direction Kristen was looking at. He saw Thomas sitting at the opposite end of the room, and his murderous look was the same as the last couple of days.
"Sweet Jesus this guy is so infuriating!" Ethan rolled his eyes at Thomas as he then turned his back to the bodyguard. "He's following me everywhere I go!"
"That's literally his job..." Kristen sipped her orange juice as she reasoned Thomas' behaviour. "Maybe he's been scaring the trouble away without you realising it."
"Bruce Banner over there looks all intimidating because he has cold eyes, and he's bursting out of his suit." Ethan snorted, "Tommy boy probably just annoyed them all away too."
Kristen hit her brother again for being overly mean. "Maybe we should invite him over? You have to get along with him eventually."
Ethan was shaking his head no because he didn't want to spend more time with someone he didn't like. "No way."
Kristen casted a glance at Thomas who was sitting all alone, and then she turned back to her brother with soft eyes. "But he doesn't know anybody from around here. You might like him if you're weren't being such a jerk to him all the time."
Ethan glared at her sister as she began to rise from her seat. "Don't you do it..."
~~~~~~~~~~
Kristen deliberately bumped into Ethan's shoulder as she walked to the lonely bodyguard. Thomas put his phone down when he sensed another presence near him, and he smiled back at Kristen when she sat in front of him.
"Hi?" Thomas said with confusion.
"I'm not sure if we've been formally introduced, but I'm Ethan's sister." Kristen held her hand out to Thomas, and she was happy when Thomas immediately shook it. "I'm Kristen."
Thomas nodded his head as he already knew who she was to Ethan. "I'm sure your delightful brother has said a lot about me."
Kristen nervously laughed as she purposely ignored what Thomas just said. "My brother wanted to invite you to join us for breakfast."
"I thought you only had 1 sibling?"
"I do." Kristen confirmed, "What's that got to do with breakfast?"
"Because your brother just left."
Kristen was embarrassed when she just about caught Ethan leaving through the door. Her brother didn't even bother to say goodbye as he ditched them both, and Kristen was even more annoyed with Ethan's rude behaviour.
Kristen turned back to Thomas with an apologetic look, and a sincere apology. "My brother can be an ass sometimes."
"Sometimes?" Thomas snorted.
Even though he made Kristen laugh, Thomas quickly realised his lack of professionalism for insulting the person he's meant to be protecting. "I didn't mean it like that."
Thomas was quick to try and think of something nice to say about Ethan. "He's just very... colourful."
Thomas hoped that worked, because he had nothing nice to say about Ethan. He just needed to divert Kristen's attention after he had insulted his client's son - in front of the client's other child.
"Isn't that just a fancy way of calling him a jackass?"
When Thomas saw Kristen was joking around, he felt slightly relieved that she wasn't taking it to offence. He understood that the siblings had a close bond, so Thomas just assumed that this was a normal sibling interaction between the pair of them.
"I really appreciate you looking out for my brother though," Kristen mentioned seriously. "He's certainly a handful."
Thomas agreed with Kristen as he nodded his head. "Honestly, I wouldn't put it past him to have paid someone to slash my tires back in Detroit."
After he found out the Detroit meeting was fake, Thomas was on a rampage after seeing Ethan was still in Ohio. By the time he tried to leave the parking lot, Thomas found out that his car was damaged.
He had to get his car taken away for repairs, and Thomas was stranded in a large city where he knew nobody. Thomas had to reluctantly speak to Erica again, and he played along with her flirting so that he could just get help back to Ohio.
Thomas stopped reliving the events of 2 days ago as he motioned to his watch. "I think I should go find Ethan before he somehow ends up on a Yacht and travel across the ocean."
Thomas paid for his meal as he also left a generous tip for the waitress. He waved goodbye to Kristen, as he then paid for the Shelton siblings' meal too.
"You don't have to do that," Kristen laughed. "I'm more than capable of paying for me and my brother."
"I know." Thomas stopped Kristen from taking her purse out as he insisted that he wanted to pay. "It's just me being thankful that there's at least one nice Shelton sibling."
Kristen didn't understand the psychological warfare Ethan was commencing towards Thomas. The little interaction she had with Thomas made her almost positive that he was the opposite of what Ethan keeps on describing.
"In that case, thank you Thomas." Kristen said.
"I'll see you in the office." Thomas answered back as he smiled at Kristen before leaving the cafe first.
~~~~~~~~~~
Ethan and Thomas were in the office together as it was one of the rare times where Ethan wasn't continuously barraging Thomas with insults.
Thomas was watching Ethan sit behind his desk on the opposite side of the room. The younger man was signing some papers given to him by an attractive brunette woman.
Thomas overheard the pair of them giggling about something, as the younger woman then pushed her glasses back into position.
"I'll see you later then Betty."
There was a glimmer in Betty's eyes as she waved at Ethan. As she walked out of the room, she ducked her head when she saw Thomas looking between the pair of them. Her pace out of the room quickened because of the bodyguard in the room.
"I'm surprised you actually manage to get work done around here." Thomas casually said to Ethan without looking at him.
"I can't help it if I'm surrounded by beautiful women." Ethan answered back monotonously.
Thomas kept his face like stone as he didn't want his face to react to Ethan's promiscuous libido. "I didn't mean it like that..."
Thomas finally met Ethan's eyes, and the bodyguard saw the smug expression on the face that he easily grew to dislike. Ethan was too cocky and confident for his own good, and because he knew it, Ethan excelled at showing it off.
Back to his task in hand, Thomas was looking over Ethan's bank statement for any unusual activities. Javier was worried that it wasn't just physical violence that was being used against his son, so he encouraged Ethan to check over his finances.
However because he was so resistant to do so, Javier convinced his son to let the bodyguard do the detailed check instead. A second pair of eyes was always better, and Thomas felt like he was actively being useful.
So that was why Thomas was going through Ethan's months of card statements - whilst also silently judging what he spent his excess money on.
"You really do get paid a lot of money for the little work I see you do." Thomas joked as he went back and forth between flipping the sheets of paper and scanning them.
"What's that suppose to mean?"
The glare Ethan sent Thomas was acknowledged by the amused bodyguard. "Touched a nerve?"
Scoffing at him in return, Ethan rolled his eyes as he continued to ignore Thomas' presence.
Ethan went back to making several phone calls with Thomas still in the room, and Thomas waited for Ethan to finish so that he could ask about something strange.
"Why'd you spend over $500 a week at this place?" Thomas asked.
Looking at the statement Thomas was pointing at, Ethan leaned over to read it for himself. "That's a part of my beauty regimen that I get shipped here from Asia."
Ethan was completely serious as one of his eyebrows shot up at Thomas' bewilderment. He had a daily routine to take care of his appearance, and he wasn't ashamed to spend some cash on it.
"That's... Something..." Thomas wasn't sure what to say. There was nothing that needed to be said about a young man spending thousands of pounds a month on importing beauty products for self-usage.
"I thought you diet and exercise and stuff?" Thomas asked genuinely.
Wrinkles were becoming permanent on Ethan's forehead at all the times he furrowed his brows at Thomas. "I'm sorry we all don't have great skin like you."
Stopping his mind in his tracks, Thomas realised a miracle just happened. "Did you just compliment me?"
Ethan refused to feed the beast as he went back to talking about the products he spent his money on. "I see lots of important people whilst I'm working, so I want to present myself as the best."
"That and so you can confidently flirt with half the people you see."
"Look at me..." A narcissistic Ethan gestured towards his body with a smooth gusto manner. He enjoyed looking at himself in the desk mirror, as he eventually stopped and turned back to Thomas. "I can be confident wearing a bin bag."
Thomas continued to blink rapidly as he witnessed Ethan's inflated ego. With the way the younger man continued to confidently present himself, Thomas couldn't stand to be around it anymore.
"I'm going to the bathroom so I can throw up."
~~~~~~~~~~
It was nearing the end of the day and everyone began to swipe their cards out to go home. Ethan was no exception to this as he had plans once the day was over.
Thomas had promised to glue himself to Ethan because of all the hassle he has been causing lately. So Thomas didn't want to let the COO out of his sight.
Right after Ethan finished signing out, Thomas blocked his exit as he didn't want Ethan to slip away without him knowing. "So where are we going then?"
As if on cue, Betty stepped out from a nearby room and moved to stand next to Ethan. Ethan then wrapped his arm around Betty's waist as he pointed between themselves. "We are going on a date." He then directed his attention back to Thomas with a fed up look. "You are going home."
Betty told Ethan that she was going to wait for him downstairs. She managed to slip in a quick kiss to Ethan before disappearing behind the elevator doors.
After watching her leave, Ethan dragged Thomas back to his office to give them a little privacy since some people were doing overtime.
With the door closed, Ethan kept the conversation civil because he didn't have time for a meddlesome fight. "Can you just leave me alone for tonight, Tommy boy?"
"No way," Thomas crossed his arms as he stood straight, determined for his posture to show his seriousness to the defiant Ethan. "You're like a magnet for bad things to happen."
This was the most self-restraint Ethan has had for Thomas in a while as he didn't want to fight with him again. He needed to sweeten the deal so that he could get the bodyguard to leave him alone for just one night.
But that lasted only a couple of seconds since Thomas always had this special way of crawling under his skin. "Don't you need to go to the gym or something?! Why don't you go sightseeing, or some other shit like star gazing and leave me alone?!"
Thomas was smirking as he waited for Ethan to eventually calm down from his temper tantrum. "You done now?"
Ethan gestured for the chairs besides them. After he sat down, Ethan joined Thomas as he explained his need for privacy tonight. "What exactly do you think older people do after a date?"
Thomas found that the gesture Ethan did with his hands was extremely unnecessary. He received the message loud and clear, but Ethan chose to say it anyway.
"Sex. I'm not exactly going to be on my A game with you following us around."
As quick as a bullet, Thomas vocalised his thoughts that were swimming around in his mind after every encounter Ethan had with a woman. "You ever keep it in your pants?"
"It's just a healthy part of life that 2 consenting adults can do - and have lots of fun of course." Ethan explained rationally.
Sex was just sex for Ethan, and he was proud to say he enjoys it - a lot. "I can guarantee that I'll seal the deal with Betty, and that we'll be having full on, amazing, super horny se-"
Thomas interrupted Ethan mid speech as he had heard enough. Thomas covered his ears and began to make random noises like a child. "Lalalilala-"
Ethan smacked the bodyguard's hands away as he used a different approach to explain why Thomas shouldn't follow him tonight.
"Do you want to watch us have sex?"
Thomas would have spat any water he was drinking if he had any. Ethan came out way too blunt with his side of the argument, and that was enough for Thomas to leave him alone for the night.
Thomas told Ethan that he would leave him alone if he followed several conditions. "No drugs. No prostitution. No freakish cults. And for the love of god, don't record anything..."
"What are you, a priest?"
~~~~~~~~~~
It was getting to around midnight as Ethan left the Uber, with Betty right behind him. As Ethan opened the door for her, he kept his date close as his sides became inseparable from Betty.
With several giggles and suggestive ideas whispered into his ear, Ethan became eager like a wild animal as he rushed to get the front door open.
Swinging the door wide open, Betty's heels tapped against the floor as she walked into Ethan's home. "Nice place you've got here."
Betty's eyes continued to roam around the house. She became interested in all the little things that were displayed around his house, showcasing his personality and lifestyle through the very few items.
Ethan began to join Betty in the living room when he accidentally kicked something on his way. He bent down on the floor to pick it up, and he was lost when he picked up his expensive watch.
'Why is this on my floor?' Ethan asked himself.
As Ethan continued to discover more random objects in his floor, Betty's voice was drowned out by his own thoughts.
'I'm pretty sure I didn't leave my remote control there.'
'Wasn't this framed photo hanging in the corridor?'
'I would never leave my face cream on the floor like this.'
There were only a small amount of things that were moved in Ethan's home, and at this point, Ethan was certain that it wasn't him.
"What's in this room?" Betty asked as she pointed towards a closed door.
Ethan rushed forward to stop her from opening the closed door. Ethan usually had the mindset that everybody around him was overreacting with the targeted attacks ordeal. But at the moment, there was the tiniest part of him that made him worry that it could potentially be true.
Ethan's mind began to wander as he didn't rule out that somebody could have been in his home whilst he was away.
Not being one to stick around to find out, Ethan gestured for Betty to leave as he escorted them both out of the house.
"Let's go somewhere special." Ethan suggested as they both left the door.
Ethan managed to grab a random taxi that was passing by his street. He took a carefree Betty with him as he intended to finish the whole date, and ignore the potential threat of someone else being in his home.
==========