Love, is not for us

#7 - So, this is a double date?

James

I've cleaned up whatever traces that might reveal that I spend high amount of time in her apartment. I've been kicked out from the kitchen after failing to assist her to fold the Japanese Gyoza she's making. And because, as she complains, I'm a big distraction for not being able to keep my hands off her.

It's almost 2, they should be here soon. She's in her bedroom to freshen up and she warns me to not open the door so I will look more like a guest, not someone who has spent many nights here.

But as usual, I never listen to others, I got up the moment I heard the door bells. I could hear her faint voice from the room, "I'll get it!!", I ignored her.

Once the door was open, Luke and I was simultaneously surprised,

"James! What are you doing here?"
"Who the fuck is this?"

—-

Tiara being a polite host even when it's just her best friend with his girlfriend and some stranger, quickly invited them in while ignoring Luke & my surprises.

"So, who are you?", I directed my question to this stranger who seems to be around Luke & Tiara's age. Which is about 3-5 years younger than me. Then I looked at Tiara to see if she knows him, she did not mention that anyone else would be here.

"God, sorry I forgot to introduce them. I was just surprised seeing James here. This is Alice, my girlfriend.", he was beaming when he introduced his girlfriend.

"Hi, I'm Tiara! You must be Alice, I've heard a lot about you, so thrilled to finally meet you!", she introduces herself cheerfully.

"Nice to finally meet you, Tiara! Hope you only heard good stories about me.", Luke's girlfriend said as she gave Tiara a friendly hug.

"And T, this is the guy that I've been telling you about, Rick.", Luke introduce the stranger.

I rolled my eyes. I still haven't gotten the answer, who is this guy, what is he doing here? The name is totally unimportant.

I faked a cough.

"Oh! Alice, Rick, this is my step brother, James.", he finally recalls my presence I guess.

"Bro, what are you doing here? This is the last place I would expect to see you", he frowns and looks bothered.

I ignored his question and instead I asked, "Why? So, is this a double date? Am I interrupting?."

"No, of course not!", Tiara intercepts.
"Luke, I bump into him earlier when I went to the store. I forgot some ingredients. A-and since you were so eager to get us close, I thought, why not invite him too. Even to my surprise, he agreed. He reached a little earlier, I guess he really didn't have anything to do today. I did good right, Luke.", she explains a bit too detailed and as though I am not here. If Luke is smart, he can totally see through her lies.

Luke nodded seriously and asked, "Are you guys like friends now? Do you meet regularly or something? Why no one update me anything?".

Before she speaks further and ruined everything, I jumped in, "Not really friends. The last time we met was when we painted her balcony. After you left, she thanked me gratefully for helping out and promised to treat me someday. So, I guess she's taking this chance to do it since we all know she might kill me if she's alone with me without any moderator."

Luke seems satisfied with my explanation and let out a relief sigh, "Great! For a moment there I thought you are having something. Sorry, I'm just being paranoid. We all know your reputation with girls and I gotta protect her you know."

—-

I'm still trying to understand who this Rick dude is and he had been flirty with Tiara. It was totally not unnoticable.

"Tiara, I'm glad to finally meet you. Been hearing so much about you. And you are definitely prettier than the pictures Luke had shown me. I really look forward to spend more time with you to see if you are just like what Luke has told me.", someone needs to teach this guy how to talk. My baby faked a smile and shifts uncomfortably. I wish I could just shove this dude away.

"Both of you have lots of similarities, I'm sure you guys will get along real well! I could start a list of similarities now but I let you both discover yourselves", Luke added excitedly.

I could really punch his face now, "Wow, didn't know apart from being a doctor you play matcmaker too. How many successful couples have you created so far?".

The next question is, does Tiara knows about this? Is that why she didn't inform me? Tried to convince me not to join? Seeing her so uncomfortable, it's highly possible she doesn't know and Luke has huge tendency to do such thing. And I thought this meet up is to introduce his girlfriend.

As though she reads my mind, I receive a message from her on my phone,

Baby, I had no idea. I swear. Blame Luke, not me, okay :(

She got me at baby.