Chapter 69 - Shoot me, please?

POV: 3rd Person

Aiden didn't want to go to work. Like REALLY didn't want to go to work. It might got to do with what went down last night. But he had to go to work. He couldn't afford to take any more days off.

That was why he was standing in front of the building, just staring at the front door. Employees and customers all gave him an odd glance at the human statue as they entered the building but the looks weren't registered in Aiden's head. He was too busy convincing himself to go in.

Look Aiden, it'll be fine. He's the CEO of a massive company. He doesn't have enough time on his hands to run into me. He's like a cool hearted robot with the same repetitive moves. It'll be like any other week where we'll barely see each other. And even if you run into him, the kiss probably wasn't even a big deal to him. He has sex all the time. In fact, he probably had sex last night after I left. He probably forgot about it. Just enter the building and go to your floor. In a fast pace manner. Just below sprinting. Then everything will become normal and we can all just move on with our days.

Pep talk done, Aiden determinedly nodded before he entered the building in a fast-paced manner. He was so eager to get to his floor, that he just eyed the elevators and nothing else. No looking left or right, no greeting the front desk or the people around him. Just get in the metal box and forget everything else.

Except there was one little flaw with that plan.

He couldn't focus on any incoming obstacles, especially moving ones. So it was no surprise that someone, who was occupied with their phone, crashed into him from the side. No, what was surprising was who crashed into him.

Both men fell onto the floor and Aiden automatically apologised repeatedly and then stopped when his eyes landed on who it was.

Aiden was having a staring competition with Mr. Fonzo, both participants' eyes wide as saucers.

Both men were frozen, as they ignored the people around them who were trying to help the two people up. Once they were both dragged up, the events from last night came to mind like a tsunami and Aiden's face exploded into a red hue whereas Erwin's face was dusted with a light tinge of pink, which was a lot more emotion than he usually showed at work.

Everyone else's jaws dropped, with some of them gossiping among themselves with absurd speculations. The two men were still staring at each other in shock, not knowing what to do.

I should apologise, Aiden thought to himself. I should explain what happened last night and make a joke out of it.

Instead, he relied on instinct once again and did the first thing that came to mind.

He ran.

Once he was in the elevator with the doors closed, his forehead was abused by the elevator walls (the action garnered a lot of weird looks from other occupants but were promptly ignored).

The gods were cursed.

Fuck you, god. I'm turning atheist, you unreliable service. I hope every prayer I sent you turns into cockroaches and climb up your legs, into your underpants.

♤♧♡♢

After that awkward morning interaction, Aiden assumed he was free for seeing any more Winny for the rest of the day. But then he realised he had a meeting in the afternoon with the guy and he nearly pulled all his hair out from the stress.

When it came time for the meeting, however, Erwin acted like the usual, professional but also picked small banters with the other man. He acted like nothing ever happened and Aiden took the escape card. Relief washed over him as well as disappointment because it told him that the kiss really meant nothing to him whereas Aiden couldn't stop thinking about it the entire night and day.

Little did he know that Erwin was heavily affected by the kiss and was only pretending it never happened to avoid another awkward running away situation. He wanted to keep the weird frenemy relationship they had and refused to let an unexplained, breathtaking kiss affect it. That being said, there was now an unsettling tension between them that couldn't be explained. Erwin was afraid that prying through the tension may cause some sort of permanent damage so he decided to ignore that as well.

Needless to say, there was a huge misunderstanding going on between them but they'd probably solve it. Eventually.

It was 8 pm, another overtime day and Aiden just finished up his work. The emotional rollercoaster took quite a heavy toll on his body, so he was a lot more drained than usual. That, and the fact that he was running on two hours of sleep and fourteen cups of coffee. His organs were failing in keeping him alive at this point.

He trudged out the front door and went to his car. As soon as he was seated, he closed his eyes and released an exhausted sigh.

Closing my eyes for a couple of minutes couldn't hurt, it's free parking after all.

He drifted off to sleep... only to be woken up five minutes later due to the shrill of his phone.

Grumbling a couple of profanities, he picked up the phone without looking at the screen and half-sleepily said, "Hello?"

"...Isn't it too early to be asleep?"

All the drowsiness disappeared from his body in an instant and he shot upright. Aiden checked his phone to confirm that it was indeed a no caller ID calling but he could recognise that voice from anywhere.

"How did you get my number, Marcel?" Aiden coated each and every word in ice.

"Answer my question first little brother." Marcel's voice indicated he was humoured by Aiden's anger.

"I stopped being your brother the day I changed my name," Aiden snarled out. "or was it the day you guys beat the shit out of me to prove that I will never be one of you guys?"

"Tch, we were young and just playing around Aiden. Of course I consider you my brother. You'll always be our brother." The entire comment screamed insincerity.

"Oh drop the act, Marcel. You're not in front of anyone you need to impress or you would've never called. I'll ask once again, hur fick du mitt nummer och varför ringde du mig? (how did you get my number and why did you call me?)"

Marcel chuckled into the mic. "Is it hard to believe that I just want to check up on you as the oldest sibling?"

"Yes, especially considering you haven't called since I left the house."

There was silence for a bit, then Marcel broke it. "Smart pojke... you've grown. Yes indeed, I did call for you for a specific reason."

"Okay, and that reason is...?"

"You asked before where I had gotten your number. It was no easy feat, you're very good at hiding away. I asked grandpa for your number and he gladly gave it to me. He seems very happy that I'm interacting with you. It seems he wants us to get along."

"This is not any new information. You're not calling to patronise me, are you?"

"Of course not. There's a very specific reason why I called."

"And I've been waiting ever since you called for said reason. So would you kindly give it to me before I end the call and block your number?"

Marcel's tone turned serious. "... you've been invited to the annual Troph–"

"No."

"You know, it's extremely disrespectful to interrupt someone while they're talking?"

"Well, aren't I lucky I stopped giving a shit about your opinion and approval a couple of years back or I'd be bawling my eyes out in remorse."

"You will let me finish what I am trying to say and you will listen in silence till I'm finished." He said it in his usual demanding and cold voice that Aiden grew up with. It was quite nostalgic, bringing back a lot of unwanted memories.

"There's the brother I know and hate. Sure, I'll let you finish." Although Aiden's tone was lax, his hands were trembling and perspiration was beginning to soak his shirt. Screw PTSD. He took a couple of deep breaths to keep himself calm and prevented the nasty memories from taking over his mind.

"As I was saying, you've been invited to the annual Troph family party held this following Saturday, where only the well-established can attend. It's an extreme honour to get an invite and should be treated on the same level of gold,"

Aiden eye-rolled at the monotonous invite. How many times do you think he had to say the same line over and over again? Also how pretentious can they be?

"Furthermore," Marcel continued, "your attendance is compulsory, so you cannot decline the invite. The dress code is formal and the party begins at 7 pm. Most people arrive by 8 pm. Any questions?"

If this was a few years back, Aiden would've remained silent due to the fear taking over his ability to talk back at his oldest brother. But now that he has met Nero and grown up for himself, he managed to ask the important questions with little shakiness in his voice.

"Why am I invited now after this long and why do I have to attend? Last time I checked, you guys wanted nothing to do with me."

"Oh yes, I forgot to mention (Bullshit you did, you calculative asshole) that it's also going to be joint with a birthday party. We decided to celebrate grandpa's eightieth birthday and the condition for allowing us to do so is you attended."

Oh, that explained it. "I see. Looks like I don't have an option then do I, or else your little scheme will be flushed down the drain. Don't worry, I like the peace treaty we have right now and I'd like to avoid ruining it. I'll be at your little gathering at seven-thirty so if that's all, feel free to end the call." Aiden had no idea where he was getting these guts from without the aid of alcohol but he was going to blame the fact that they were not facing to face.

There was silence on the other end of the line for a long time, so Aiden assumed the call had ended but the next couple of ominous words notified him that Marcel was still there.

"Du har blivit mycket modigare, pojke men jag skulle vara mycket mer försiktig med din tunga (You have become much braver, little boy but I would be a lot more careful with that tongue of yours)."

With that, the call ended and Aiden released the breath he had been holding in. The trembling wouldn't stop and he groaned out, "Now I want to get drunk. Why does this keep happening to me? Why does sleep hate me so much?"

And how am I meant to meet the Troph unwritten criteria by Saturday?