Waking Up with a Ring on My Finger and a Bad Boy at My Side [15]

Evelyn barged into the apartment early in the morning and clicked her tongue at the absolute mess. Brandon groaned and tried to shut the door but she stopped it with her foot. She pushed the door open and shook her head.

"Come on Evelyn," he said. "I don't have time for this."

She ignored him and told him, "Gosh what's with all this mess? Seriously can't the lady clean?" she said, referring to Samantha. Brandon started to brush his thumb against his knuckle with irritation. "What if you'll have babies and they eat those pair of scissors?"

"We won't," Brandon blurted out without thinking. Samantha and him had talked about this before and they've decided that after they were married, they would at least wait for a couple of months...before having the talk again.

So it was really a 50-50 situation.

"Aw, what's wrong? Is Sam...infertile?"

"Get out."

"You can tell me--"

"Get the fucking hell out."

"You're late for your work!" she said hurriedly. Brandon instinctively glanced at the clock and cursed profusely. "But you're the boss and all--"

"What do you want?" he said, already making his way back to his room. "I need to talk to Samantha about the bridal shower. If she wants it or not."

"Don't waste your energy," Brandon said as Evelyn followed him. "Could you please get out now?"

"Not until I've meet her--"

Brandon stopped in his tracks and sighed. "She's probably in the guest room or something."

A little glint of mischief in her eyes made Brandon thought that she was expecting it for some reason. "Oh," she finally said, nodding her head. "B-but she's probably asleep," Brandon added when Evelyn turned on her heels. "Please...just don't bother her."

"This is really important."

For one moment Brandon thought she was going to add, "It's a matter of national security."

Pulling an annoyed face, she finally said, "Fine. I'll just tidy up things around here--"

Brandon pushed her out of his bedroom before slamming the door shut. His fingers ran through his messy hair, slowly untangling it. The day started off very badly. For one thing, the bitchy devil came to their apartment.

He slammed the door to his bathroom shut as Evelyn started to sigh and threw around things outside. Pizza boxes, crumpled papers, useless notes. She wanted to show how much of a mistake Brandon would be making if he went up that altar...or whatever.

Absent-mindedly, she took the note on the table that was left by Samantha after the fight and threw it in the rubbish bin.

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Brandon discreetly leaned over to the 25-year-old business associate and a cousin, Jake Compton. His dark brown eyes portrayed something...almost like a surge of frustration. "Hey," he whispered, pointing his pen towards the man who was talking animatedly.

Jake jumped and looked at him with a cocked eyebrow. "Who the hell are these people?"

"Are you...are you being serious?" was Jake's reply. Jake was more of a consultant more than anything else actually and sometimes Brandon was grateful for that. Over the past years, they became...good friends. You could say that.

So it wasn't surprising if Jake cleared his throat loudly and stood up, sensing something was a bit off with the company's director that day. "Gentlemen," he started, looking around the room. His gaze fell on four high executives on his right who made it to the meeting that day. "Ladies...and err..."

Brandon looked up in curiosity as to why Jake felt the need to address someone something else. The chances that he would start babbling on, saying, "Gentlemen...ladies, and err drag queens" were less than likely.

For one thing there was absolutely no drag queens in the office.

"Dog."

"It's actually a chihuahua," one of the woman said, nodding towards a puppy inside her purse. "Er, okay, chihuahua. I think this concludes our meeting for the day, we'll get people from finance to review the reports for our KPI this month."

"What the hell does the accountants have to do with the performance? Are we having money troubles again?" Brandon hissed as discreet as he could but Jake ignored him. "You're all dismissed. No questions asked, please."

When the last of the executives exited the room, Jake turned towards Brandon with menacing eyes. "We weren't able to reach our goals this month. But talk about that later."

"What? But the goal--"

"What the hell is up with you?!" he hissed. "What?! I really don't know who those people are!"

Brandon pushed his chair back and slid out of it. As he made his way to the double doors, Jake - who was sitting on the table - stretched out his leg the moment that Brandon was coming near. He stumbled and tripped.

"I don't want to get into...things or anything," he said. "But call her. You're a mess."

Brandon let out a snort of laughter but Jake wasn't anywhere amused about this. "Sheesh, Brandon. I want you to call her, make up or something and run this company correctly. Surely you can overcome whatever problem you are in right now like always. She's got a point, Brandon.

She's made a mistake? So what? People make mistakes every time. But she offers to fix her own mistake instead of clinging to someone and begging for their help. You should listen to your conscience. I'm your conscience. I'm asking you to go call her."

"Dear conscience," Brandon started, every word emphasized with sarcasm. "You were asking. I don't have to do anything you say. And I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you right now," he added. "Fine. Attend tonight's function looking like crap and feeling like shit. I'll be extremely amused to see a walking half-human half-feces walking up the stage to give a speech."

Grudgingly, he walked out of the room with an air of arrogance...even though he knew Jake was right. Jake, on the other hand, was sauntering behind him like some kind of an immature brat who needed proof that his mother was going to buy him cookie.

In Brandon's case, Jake was trying to see if he was going to call Samantha after all. Of course he was, a little voice in his heart chimed. They had a fight. Couples had a fight, but they still love each other anyway after that...on most cases.

And Brandon loves Samantha very deeply. He couldn't afford to let a fight stand in their way of matrimony.

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"CALL HER!" Jake finally screamed when Brandon plopped down on the couch lazily after saying that he was not in the mood to give a goddamn speech. Heather Wings, a fellow friend of their sighed as she said the same thing Jake did. Brandon got up and snatched his phone. With a sarcastic smile, he waved the phone around before calling Samantha.

Silence.

The three of their heads' turned around, searching for the source of the sound. It was Sam's ringtone. "Err..." he started, calling her other mobile phone but that was left in the house too. Reluctantly, Brandon called Evelyn asking where Sam was.

"How should I know? I didn't see her in the apartment this morning either. Why'd you think I left early?"

Suddenly, Brandon felt a gut-wrenching feeling that was triggered by the idea that Samantha might've run away or something. Jake groaned in frustration.

"Don't tell me you lost her AGAIN!" he said, reminiscing the time when Brandon ditched Samantha for Evelyn when they were 17. Brandon called a few more people before dashing out of the apartment, ignoring Jake's wails and Heather's calls.

He needed to find her.

If anything happened to Samantha, Brandon won't ever forgive himself.