Chapter 23

Gin was not having a good morning.

It started off with him waking up incredibly hungover in the alleyway of a relatively popular pick up area two towns over from where he had started his night. A night that he remembered very little of after they moved on from their second bar.

Neither of these were good signs.

What he woke up to was his phone ringing loudly with a familiar ringtone, a specific tone that he would usually love to hear, but on this occasion had filled him with dread. His first 10 waking minutes had been spent on the receiving end of a very angry phone call from his very angry girlfriend. It was safe to say she was not amused once it had reached well past 9am and she had yet to hear from Gin.

From there, one would think that a morning would not get much worse, however they would be unfortunately wrong in Gin's case. The eccentric redhead, once having appeased his girlfriend, came to a realisation he had no idea where his two friends had ended up. This led to his small adventure that involved him locating his friends to a hotel a half an hour walk away from where he had woken up, finding an internet café to hack into said hotel's system and find what room they had booked – which had turned out to be a penthouse suite, right in line with drunk Henry's, expensive taste.

Finally, once he had made his way to the hotel, by foot since he is the type to live from paycheque to paycheque, he spent 10 minutes trying to convince a rather bothersome receptionist that he needed the key to the booked penthouse. He pulled out every card he had to get the spare key card.

This now placed the young hacker exiting the elevator and walking to the right penthouse suite, now a thorough believer in bad karma. For sure, next time he considered getting either of his two, rich friends drunk, he would falter. It was unlikely to stop him, but would definitely make him think twice.

He used the card to open the door, immediately getting a bad feeling. He had just let his guard down, but the mess of the hotel room did not indicate anything good. There were four doors that led to different rooms from the living area, but only two of those doors were closed, making it obvious where the two probably were.

With no restraint, Gin slammed the closest door open, only to quickly grab it before it hit the wall and made a sound. The sight of Henry asleep next to some random girl immediately hurt Gin's head. Before letting the image delve too deep into his mind, the man silently ran to the other door, opening it far more carefully, revealing a similar scene with Joshua.

As amusing as his friends were, they really did make each other stupid. The two were engaged, publicly engaged. And it had been years since Joshua had even slept with anyone.

All Gin could do was sigh quietly and run his fingers through his sticky hair. This made his job a whole lot more difficult.

Deciding that was enough wallowing for a morning, the man set to work, quickly finding the two girls' ID cards, taking pictures, before waking both men individually but in exactly the same way, threatening them if they made a sound and pushing them into the two bathrooms with their clothes. Thankfully the one room they hadn't used was the master bedroom with the en suite, and the two incredibly hungover, sleep deprived young masters were so out of it that all they could do was quickly follow the harsh voice.

By some miracle, Gin had them all out of the hotel, hailing a taxi within 20 minutes. He had also managed to erase most traces of both Henry and Joshua as well as find out a few more details about the two 'lucky' girls. By this point, both men were wide awake, not that they had much of a choice after seeing the uncharacteristic, livid look on their mutual friend's face as he pressed the button for the sound-proof privacy screen.

As soon as things were secure, the man let rip.

"Are you two fucking out of your minds! You literally got engaged on Monday! Publicly engaged! You two are literally wearing the rings right now! Fake or not, how the fuck are you meant to keep this under wrap long enough to even get a dent in the Q Group! You're risking everything to convince everyone you two are gay! Could you not have kept it in your fucking pants? Jesus Christ! I know I was getting you two drunk but have some fucking self-restraint! I was far gone but you two were just fucking drunk! I know you two get dumber around each other, but this is a risk to everything, for fuck's sake! Do neither of you have shit to say?"

Henry could only look away awkwardly, he was too embarrassed to face anyone.

Joshua shook his head, eyes cast down, avoiding Gin's alternating glares.

"A single apology would suffice!" The malice in Gin's voice made both grown men flinch, neither used to this kind of behaviour from the man sat between them. They both mumbled a quiet "sorry", getting no response.

Gin was tired. He had a fun night, but the morning had been too much. All the young man wanted now was to go home and lay with his girlfriend, most probably rant to death and then sleep for a few decades.

It was safe to say the young man had had enough.

For the rest of the duration of the short trip back to Henry's apartment, the taxi was filled with a sinister, uncomfortable silence, the atmosphere so thick even the oblivious driver could feel it.

Henry rested his forehead on the window to his left, watching the city whizz past. Gin might have been right; he really might have lost his mind.

The entire night, it was like the ring had been taunting him, he wasn't sure why he had kept the stupid thing on for the night, but it was there, in his face. As much as he would like to say that his little escapade had been down to the alcohol, he knew that wasn't exactly true. Normally, even if he didn't, he was capable of abstaining from a one night stand. But somehow the engagement and whole fake marriage business had made the entire thing seem more appealing than before.

The worst thing about the situation, however, was that it was not a desire he had just given into. Henry had thought about it through the night, he had considered how it could affect everything he had worked for if anyone found out, or even if they girl recognised him and spilled the beans to everyone. He knew it was not just his own family he had put at risk but also the Lore's. He knew what he was doing was insane. But in that moment, a sense of insecurity from an unknown source washed over him, making him decided that it was worth the risk.

In hindsight, it really was not worth even the thought.

Joshua was in a similar position the night before. He was aware that he was drunk, he was also aware that of all times to suddenly decide to sleep with a woman, now was not it.

With each passing day, he started to find himself regretting the whole lying-to-his-family thing, pretending to be gay of all things. The stress from that had been weighing on him more than he had realised, the man only really becoming aware of it once enough alcohol had entered his system.

Honestly, he was not entirely sure why he had slept with the woman last night, or even how he met her – the details were a little too fuzzy. But there was one thing he was sure of, he knew what the repercussions could have been, he was more than aware that this little stunt could ruin not just his and Henry's plans, but also the merger itself.

He just didn't seem to care.

Of course now, he regretted it more than the fake relationship itself.

Joshua and Henry had gotten along extremely well during the last night, enough to realise the two were thinking similar thoughts. Enough for them to drunkenly plot to ditch Gin on purpose and pick up a couple girls. Enough for them to find a sense of security in the fact they were both willing to ruin everything with this one decision.

Neither of them had yet clocked that the other person was the root of the insecurities that had pushed them into thinking it had been an acceptable idea, unfortunately. However, they did both regret the whole thing now, and they knew the other man was feeling the same sentiment.

The taxi neared the apartment complex, Gin bringing down the privacy screen and informing the driver that the other two would get off at the apartment complex. After that he would drive Gin to his own flat.

Joshua was subjected to the taxi bill. He was still a little out of sorts, leaving him just agreeing, hoping that his friend's anger would not last too long. The man just nodded, knowing that he would be sent the payment QR code.

Normally the taxi driver would never allow this, it left them with no guarantee that he would be paid for this trip. However, this was a special occasion. Even with the dark aura that seeped through the privacy screen during the drive that had prevented him from relaxing in mind, he had still just drove the most famed couple in the country, perhaps more. He would have been a fool to not recognise them. Even if the payment was confirmed, being able to see the two outrageously beautiful men with his own eyes was enough of an honour. He would have been happy enough without any payment, the view was enough.

He thought to himself about how his teenage daughter would never believe him when he got home in the evening.