Chapter 26

The table fell into more giggles, a few of the other tables looking over, getting a little curious as to what the amusing topic was. They had all kept their eyes open seeing the two families together, wanting to see a more real interaction, however they had not expected something this real. They really did just seem like a family enjoying brunch. A few of the spectators could not help but feel the Lore and Reyes presidents had severely downplayed how good a relation there was between the two families.

While people had not once questioned the announced engagement, that was not the same for the merger itself. While the majority of the public had been bought by the press conference, there was still chatter and gossip whether the families really got along. No parent would publicly announce their distaste towards their child's partner, especially in high society. And it was no doubt that the merger was good for both business and publicity. However, that did not mean the two families really got along – the only people who would know that were those lucky reporters to have seen the childish interaction between the famous couple after the press conference.

It would be an understatement to say there were a few people waiting to see if the families would slip up, ready to grab onto any sort of tension between the two successful businesses; this was both for gossip and business purposes. Unfortunately for those hoping to profit off such things, this brunch only highlighted how tight knit the two families had become. It would have been absurd for anyone to believe the truth, that they had only become friend a couple weeks ago. Of course it could have been an act, the entire thing, but people had enough trust in both the Reyes' and Lore's integrity.

People were so full of thoughts regarding the entire two-family unit, they had all failed to see the ugly faces that both second sons were making, both shaken at the mere mention of homosexual intercourse in relation to them.

Thing had calmed down dramatically since the initial marriage meeting a week ago, and Joshua was only just realising it. They had been talking about fake relationships the whole time, it had slowly slipped his mind how traumatised he had been upon realising his parents think he is gay. Since then, the prospect of the two being interested in each other outside of the fake relationship had only been brought up once when Caroline had been making sure they were alright marrying. That had been the stem of the lie.

Joshua had been conscious of the fact that he was pretending he was gay, pretending he was in a relationship with the Reyes' second son. But it had all been just that, pretending. This was the first time he had been aware that, while he was pretending, to everyone else it was a real relationship. A real couple.

The man suddenly felt a little betrayed by all the novels he had read, while he had been so jaded as to not think of the BL novels he had read, he was aware that he had thrown himself into another insane trope: pretending to be gay – the main reason he did not think of them was the 100% success rate of all those fictional couples, now finding himself in that situation he felt almost taunted by it. But that was not the problem at hand, not one of those novels had every expressed how horribly hard it was to have to live with this lie, or how hard it would hit one's pride.

Meanwhile, Henry's initial reaction had been exclaiming 'I was not a virgin to start with!'. Of course that was all in his head, as much as it had hurt his ego, he was not destroying the whole plan to save some face.

That being said, he really did wish he could.

The next thing to enter his mind was the fact that their families had insinuated that the Joshua and he had… together – it was too hard on Henry to even think of having sex with a man. It made his blood run cold. Why did they think that a straight man would do that with another man!

In reality, while Henry would like to think it had been the gay sex that was bothering him the most, it was not. He was pretending to be interested in Joshua, essentially proving his parents' insane conclusion on his sexuality; he was not ignorant, he knew that. The real problem was that his family, after thinking he was a closeted gay virgin, happily believed that he went and slept with the first man he had been introduced to. What sort of desperate person did they think he was? It was a little insulting. Henry and Joshua had known each other a week, were their minds no moving a little too fast?

What had actually gone through the head of both families was in fact wishful thinking. They were so happy to see the two get along so well and become more expressive, they did not care about the fact that they had only met last week. Also, the parents saw both men as the adults they were, even if they did think it was fast, they did not think they would have the right to interfere unless it seemed harmful.

Suddenly, Henry's train of thought halted. 'Did he say hickeys?' he suddenly thought to himself. And what had been the 'other marks'?

It was only then the trail of kiss marks that trailed down into the neck of Joshua Lore's white t-shirt hit him. Henry had no idea how he hadn't seen it before, but they were not remotely subtle. His eyes went wide in horror, jaw slightly slack. Not knowing what else to do, Henry sent Joshua an urgent look, slowly pointing to his neck.

The other man had slowly realised what his elder brother had said, looking to see Henry stuck in shock. He immediately looked down at his chest tugging the neck of his top a little, face paling further. Then suddenly he felt a tug at his mind, had he seen wrong? Snapping his eyes up, he looked at the base of Henry's neck, mouth falling agape at the clear hand mark. The man choked on his own breath.

Their family could only continue to laugh, none of them quite believing the two men had such an adorable side to them.

Joshua stood up quite suddenly, in a bit of a panic. "I-I… uh, t-toilet." The man could barely get his words out as he stumbled and tripped on them. Henry looked up at Joshua for a second before nodding, also standing up. "Yeah, bathroom."

Their families could only laugh harder, everyone already paying attention with how abruptly the second Lore son had stood up. All eyes were on them now. But neither Joshua nor Henry were aware of it, too much had just happened.

Slowly, they walked towards the restaurant's washroom, meeting at the tail of the table and walking side by side. However, they did not make it particularly far.

A server, who at first had been mesmerised by the two's superior looks, had looked again at their profiles in passing, catching a glimpse of the trail of hickeys on Joshua's neck; he stumbled in shock. The empty table he had just cleared away was what he bumped into, the table moving enough to knock his colleague off balance. At that exact moment, her heel snapped, the young part-timer falling. Of course, she grabbed the first thing she could, which happened to be a couple of chairs. In one of them, there was a customer who ended up knocking the table, a glass bottle of water breaking on the floor. The other chair was empty, not having the weight to stop the waitress's descent, falling along with her. It was the leg of the said chair that brought the real problem; with a surprising amount of force, the chair leg swung, hitting Joshua's ankle, the distracted man toppling to the side.

On a normal occasion, there would not have been a problem even if he had managed to be knocked over. Joshua's memory and amazing thinking speed would have allowed the man to quickly stop himself from falling, or at least getting hurt. But this time he was ailed with a severe hangover, topped off by the insane situation he had found himself in a matter of seconds ago. The most he could work out was that he was falling and that he was not capable of stopping himself. In the end he braced for the impact with the floor.

The impact, however, was not what he expected.