"What favor?" I asked Tyler, I couldn't keep the impatience out of my voice.

The air was getting thick in the room as the silence dragged on. His astonishing blue eyes glimmered like gems. If he was going to make some outrageous request, I planned to turn it down without so much as batting an eye.

"If this is you asking me to be your fake date or something equally shady, then my answer is going to be a big NO, just so we're clear on this."

"You? And a date with me?" He laughed in that boyish way and damn if my heart didn't do a series of continuous somersaults. It did so many, it fell off the stage.

The way he said 'You? and a date with me?' sounded more like I was suggesting that he date a cockroach, and if that wasn't making me mad. "Well, what is it then?"

"I don't think I'll ever get a date from you, Vicky." I may have seen a flicker of sadness in his eyes. Was Tyler even capable of feeling sadness? "I'll never dream of it."

I wasn't going to be guilt-tripped into doing what he wanted. Just when I was about to say no to whatever he was going to ask, he said. "Maya."

"Maya?"

What does this have anything to do with his sister?

"She's turning twenty-three in two weeks."

Time flew so fast. It seemed like just yesterday when she'd come home in that fancy car of hers and given me a birthday invitation card for her fifteenth birthday. The invite had come in a little basket that contained custom-made chocolates. I couldn't forget the lavish birthday party which was obviously the best party in town.

"I hadn't forgotten her birthday." I said.

"Right, I was wondering..." He hesitated.

"Spit it out."

"Have you noticed that our respective siblings are like a mirror version of us?"

"Don't change the subject, Ty."

"I'm not changing the subject, merely pointing out facts. The two live apart and yet they seem to find their way back to each other, almost like two bodies and one soul."

Our siblings were a mirror version of us, that wasn't entirely false. I'd give him that much. But Tyler was implying that he and I were two bodies and one soul.

What the hell? This boy was playing with my head.

He smirked as I folded my arms across my chest. I didn't want to say anything that might give him a reason to laugh at me again or say something suggestive. Without taking the bait, I asked, "What do you want from me?"

"If you're going to ask me that question, you have to be ready to listen to the answer." He said simply, cocking his brow.

"Geez! I didn't mean it that way." I was one second away from stomping out of the room, but somehow seemed to remain mesmerized by his alluring gaze. One minute I wanted to smack his pretty face, the next I couldn't wait to put my mouth over his. My own feelings were confusing the hell outta me. "I'm not playing this stupid game, I'm leaving."

"I need your help." He said quickly.

"Help or favor?"

"Both."

"Well, Mr. Lockhart, I'm giving you sixty seconds on the clock."

"I tried getting in touch with Archer, he wouldn't respond to any of my calls or messages"

"Um...Isn't it obvious? He's avoiding you." I stated putting my hands on my waist for effect.

"I know that. But I called him from a hundred different numbers. How is it possible that he would dodge them all?"

A hundred different numbers? Was I hearing this correctly?

Even if I called him out for exaggerating, I just knew at the back of my mind that Tyler could be telling the truth. If he became obsessed with getting something done, he didn't back down. I had proof of that.

"What do you want me to do about it?"

I did feel responsible for being the person who had spoilt the friendship between Tyler and Archer. I mean, I hadn't done anything on purpose, but what had happened ten years ago was the reason my brother and Tyler weren't exactly friends. They tried to stay friendly when they were in public, but it wasn't anything like before.

"It's Maya's birthday present." He announced.

Hold. The. Fuck. Up.

I gave out a laugh, "Archer is Maya's birthday present?"

When he didn't say a word, the absurdity of the situation hit me and I laughed some more.

Fucked up billionaires and their fucked up birthday present ideas. This couldn't get any more hilarious.

"So what you want me to do? Put Archer in a box, tie a nice big bow on top and give it to you?" I asked, "just a little tip, we probably will need a box that's about six feet three."

The full blown grin turned into laugher a few seconds later. It was infectious because I was laughing with him. The idea was so ridiculous, but I imaged Maya's face and I knew that would be like the biggest surprise she would ever receive.

"I love my sister." He admitted sincerely. "Plus, you already know that Archer and Maya aren't on talking terms either, and you have me to blame for it."

"Us." I corrected him. "You weren't the only one that pulled them apart."

We stared at each other in silence. All I could think of was how Tyler and I had destroyed the relationship of the two people we most loved.

"We were kids." I said.

Yes, we were seventeen year old kids who didn't really understand how to keep their emotions in check. We were wild. We were free.

"But we're not kids anymore, Victoria." The irony of that sentence hit me hard since I'd said that same to him just yesterday. "I'm not saying Archer turning up on her birthday is going to make everything okay between them, but I know it will make Maya really happy. It's the best birthday gift that I can give her."

For the first time since I met Tyler, I actually agreed with him on this idea. "But I can't bodily drag him here all the way from France. He was supposed to come here next month."

"Next month is too far. We need him here in two weeks." Tyler pointed out.

"Alright, fine! say I managed to bring him here on her birthday, what happens after that?" I asked.

"Nothing. I just want him to be there on her birthday. It would a lovely surprise for Maya. And also, I need to speak to him about something else."

I gave him a suspicious look, "What do you want to talk to him about?"

"That's between him and me. That's got nothing to do with you." He smiled politely the type that should distract me from my thoughts. I'd learned over the years not to trust about ninety percent of the things that came out of that mouth.

"Alright. Don't tell me. I'll find out anyway."

"What are your plans for lunch tomorrow?" He asked me casually.

"No, Tyler."

He grinned, "seriously? I just asked you what were your plans. I never asked you out for lunch."

"I know the question that you were going to ask so I just said no to you in advance. And as of right now I'm going to say no in advance for any other questions you're going to ask me in future."

"You can't blame a man for trying."

"I guess we are done he....yeeeekkkkkk..." I screeched when I felt something slimy brush against my skin. I was completely frozen on the spot there, scared to even look down, and practically shaking when I dared a look below only to find a thick long green snake slithering over my feet and making its way inside the bedroom.

"Medusa, there you are, love." Tyler cooed at the reptile, picking it up gingerly like it was a harmless Chihuahua. The snake tried to get away but Tyler maintained a firm grip. "She got out of her bath tub early today afternoon and I suspected she'd gotten off the property. It would have killed me if she'd gotten lost or worse, gotten hurt." He turned his loving gaze to Medusa and said in a baby voice, "You wanna give your daddy a bit of a cardiac arrest, huh, baby?"

I could name a dozen women who would have loved to be Medusa right now.

Well, Medusa was surely no cutesy three year old kid, and definitely not cute in any way. She was a very thick and an extremely dangerous fifteen feet long Anaconda.

I stepped back towards the bedroom threshold. Didn't want anything to do with reptiles.

Nuh-uh.

Tyler sensed my retreat and looked at me with a gaze laced with amusement. Medusa remained draped around his neck. "Wanna pet it?"

"Keep that thing away from me!"

I had nothing against reptiles, but I wasn't a huge fan of snakes. I could sit through an Anaconda movie with popcorn and drinks and everything, but draping it around my neck and keeping it as a pet in my house was taking it to another level.

"You and Medusa used to be best friends." He said sarcastically, "what happened?"

"Well for starters, she unfollowed me on Instagram, said she never liked me to begin with."

"I don't think that's true." Tyler argued.

"How old is she now?"

"Fifteen."

Green Anacondas were one of the deadliest species in snakes and only experienced handlers were allowed to keep them as pets, provided that they had the exotic animal license which Tyler had easily acquired years ago.

He used to possess hundreds of exotic animals before, I didn't even know how many he had as of now. Well, when you had money, (lots and lots of it) you could afford to buy an entire forest with the wildlife animals in it. And Tyler had that type of money. And not to mention, the patience for animals that normal people wouldn't dare go near.

"I have to put Medusa back in the case, and also Basilisk who's still in my office. Would you like to accompany me downstairs?"

The idea of going into the reptile zoo outside and watching him work with all those exotic animals with his shirt sleeves all rolled up and his muscles flexing, well it was a scene I would have paid to watch, but right now, I didn't trust myself around him. If Tyler made any more passes at me with his innuendos, I wasn't sure I wouldn't cave in entirely.

My feelings for Tyler ran bone deep, and while I had a resolve to never get involved with him again, seeing him like this in flesh and blood, standing a few feet away and staring bashfully at me with those azure eyes, I felt the resolve slipping away slowly.

"I'm going home, Tyler." I declared.

He smiled knowingly, "you're scared to be around me."

Scared, I was but for an entirely different reason. I didn't trust myself with him. There was one time in my life, that I literally loved this man more than I loved myself. And that girl was knocking, no scratch that, banging on the door repeatedly right now.

I needed to get away.

"Why the hell would I be scared of you?" I asked in my bravest voice, like I'd just pulled on my brave girl pants.

"I don't know. Maybe because...you're afraid I'd make a move on you and you wouldn't be able to say no?"

Bullseye. How was he still able to read my mind like a goddamn psychic?

"Bye Ty." I walked out of the room but I could still hear his soft chuckle behind me.

The alarm went off at five a.m sharp the next morning. I woke up and continued with my morning rituals. When I walked downstairs, I saw Hazel staring at me in a sleepy state, her bed hair spiked up.

"Look at this, Vicky." She said yawning. "Your boyfriend just came back from London and he's still a fucking lunatic, huh, who would have guessed?"

Hazel said it with such casual demeanor, you would think things like this happened every day in our house.

Which was beside the case. We were looking at a room filled with bundles of large roses in different colors. Red, yellow, white, and pink.

"If only my ex-boyfriends were half as romantic as Tyler."

"I think you actually mean insane, not romantic." I corrected her.

"Whatever helps you sleep better at night." She said picking up a gorgeous bouquet of pink roses. "I'm taking these to my room upstairs. Hope you don't mind. You have about five or six dozen of them to yourselves."

She looked at the red bouquet strangely, "Oh there's a note."

I followed her gaze and found it. I opened the folded card. It had something written inside in beautiful cursive in black ink.

I heaved a sigh.

"Ohhh...there's another one." Hazel pointed at one that was wedged between the couch and the coffee table.

I picked it up. Four simple words on it.

I looked at Hazel who was pretending to not look over my shoulder but was failing miserably. She saw that I caught her staring, "What?"

I folded the paper back. "We need to change the locks again. All of them."

❤️