His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 262: Playing the Part

** Harper **

After a few rounds of careful selections, Harper decided on a family-style Italian restaurant for the weekend. It looked like a nice place with quality food and drinks, classy enough for a pseudo double date yet not too formal to immediately scream "I’m setting up my brother and my bestie tonight". The choice of cuisine should also help to make Eli feel a bit more at home, which was a plus for this gathering that was potentially going to turn out disastrous on too many levels.

The two of them made the reservation, and when weekend finally came, they got behind the wheels of Eli’s little Honda and arrived at the airport with slightly complicated expectations.

"I’m surprised that he actually asked us to pick him up again," Harper commented as the car pulled into the passenger pickup zone, "considering how he left last time and how he turned down the offer to stay in my apartment for the week."

Eli shrugged. "He’s going to dinner with us after all. As much as he might want to avoid seeing us together so lovingly— Ah, there he is."

The sight of Tyler dragging a large suitcase toward the parking space made the two go quiet, and they got out of the car in a hurry.

"Welcome to Davenshire for reals!" Harper hopped over and gave her brother a big hug, hoping that he was still as glad to see them this time as he was three weeks ago. "You don’t have much luggage for someone moving long distance. One suitcase? That’s it?"

"The rest is with the moving company." Tyler gave her a firm squeeze in his arms. Good, at least he was still glad to see her. "Besides, it doesn’t look like more suitcases would fit anyway," he glanced at the small trunk popped open at the tail of the Honda. "What happened to the Mercedes? I seem to be getting a downgrade on the car service this time."

Harper roller her eyes with a snort. "What, did you expect any better after beating someone up and threatening to defriend them?" She nodded in Eli’s direction. "Come over here and say hi. Nicely, so that we might consider moving you up one class in the reception hierarchy next time."

Tyler stared at her, while Eli looked equally surprised by the protective speech that she hadn’t informed him about ahead of time. Then the two men exchanged a somewhat awkward handshake with an even more awkward pat on the back.

Good enough. At least that didn’t involve anyone getting pushed against the wall or drinking a whole bottle of whiskey.

"You know you’ll have to get used to seeing us together like this all the time very quickly," Harper pointed out, chuckling at the grudging look on Tyler’s face. "You’ll age too fast if you keep up with that expression every day from now on."

Her brother let out a groan, and his expression darkened further at her words. "I suppose I’ve already resigned myself to that fate when I accepted this job offer," he admitted grumpily. "But don’t you rub it in. I don’t need to see any lovey dovey stuff that has any remote chance of making it into a scene in your web novel."

With that, he plopped the suitcase into the trunk with a bit too much force, then rounded to the other side of the car and let himself in the back seat.

Harper chuckled again. "I think he’s coming to terms with it already." She squeezed Eli’s hand. "That’s definitely the ’I hate you guys ganging up together on me’ look that he used to wear all the time when we played games. He’s just pissed that we won again and didn’t let him play his heroic role of a protective big brother."

Eli opened his mouth, possibly to argue with her overly optimistic point of view. But then he paused, and the argument turned into an indulging smile. "I certainly wouldn’t mind ganging up on him some more," he said. "He’s all moved in to our territory, after all. Shall we start right away at dinner?"

Harper smirked, climbed into her seat, and they were quickly on their peaceful way to the restaurant.

~ ~

The Italian place was a newly opened eatery that none of them had been to yet. At a first glance, Harper was glad that she had made a decent choice. The space looked cozy and elegant at the same time, with warm market lights and light ambient music that set the mood just between laid-back and romantic. Perfect for this one-and-a-half date night as Eli had named.

"Oh, looks like Chelsea is already here." When they stepped into the entrance, Harper spotted her friend immediately, sitting at a reserved table by the window overlooking the restaurant’s small back garden. "Here, Tyler. This is my best friend Chelsea that I wanted you to meet. She’s my roommate from college and works in finance just like you and Eli."

Chelsea got up from her seat, smiling brightly at the three of them walking toward her. Harper was going to continue the introduction and mention a few other relative anecdotes, such as Chelsea being the person who originally brought her to La Cantina, the Mexican restaurant where they all went to three weeks ago when Tyler first arrived in town. But then Harper paused when she noticed that her brother had gone strangely silent behind her.

She turned back, only to be met with a dumbfounded look on Tyler’s face.

"You said this is your ... best friend?" He asked, sounding absolutely stunned.

"I would certainly hope the superlative in the statement is accurate," Chelsea chimed in. Unlike Tyler, there was no shock at all on her face, only a slight hint of mischievous glee. "Hi, I’m Chelsea. Quite nice to meet you, handsome."

Eh? What’s with that title Chelsea was using? The double date setup hadn’t even started yet ... and the girl was already playing the part and starting to flirt?